TORO propass wireless remote issue

They are ten + years old.

Zip tie to hold batter cover together.  

The MH400 is the same type and condition.

Over the years we managed to strip the screws, and weld nuts out of them and drove or dropped them many times by the looks of them.

I've been soldering the wires back in place when they corrode off and sealing with silicon to keep them watertight.

Yuck is the best saying on this pic.

So, I asked if we could replace one this year and maybe do the other one another time.

They are not cheap.

I called the dealer and was sent this upgraded one, since the old style is not available anymore.

Did not come with the magnetized holder, it's a separate item that was ordered later.

 Tried to link it to our machine with no luck. 

Contacted the dealer tech and gave him all the information to later find out they are not compatible.

No one new till it was brought up.

After it was said and done, I was told you need to upgrade the base units for the (low) price of $4500.00 Canadian. 

Of course, minus the price of the remote we purchased. 

needless to say, I sent the remote back for credit.

Now I had to contact the company that makes them and they said they discontinued that product but to send them down for repair.

So will wait and see when they come back.

Just some of the daily struggles a turf tech can go through.  

2015 propass 200 wireless belt replacement

10 + years in and it's time to change the conveyor belt.

Not as bad a job as I had anticipated.

I'll rate it as 6 out of 10 for difficulty for golf equipment repairs done in the past. 

Top dresser was used for by weekly greens top dressing (weather pending)

and tees a couple of times in season.

Then work hard in the fall after core aeration followed by a heavy closing the greens/tees/approaches up for the winter. 

Around 2000 hours. 

Working from the left side only on this unite.

Removed all bearing covers and check for bad bearings.

Side shield removed and, in my case, I had to remove the catwalk.

Next back the tension off the belt till it's very loose.

Only the front adjustments, do not move left rear. 

Remove the Allen key set screw on bearing collars on both left side bearings.

Raise dump bed up after removing spinner attachment.

On the underside remove the large shield that protects the engine bay.

My shield attachment points had lots of cracking, so I did make up angle sheet steel brackets and drilled holes in them for repair.

You can push up on the belt from underside to access the mid side frame nuts.

 Basically, remove every bolt in the red section of the hopper after bearing bolts are removed.

Note .... mark left rear back bearings location before removing those bolts. It will save you a lot of time setting up the new belt. 

Front valves cover off next and unbolted the block. 

Make note or tag the wire going to button and the other power wire. they are similar. 

Disconnect the brains.

Remove the clean out screen.

Yeah, cleaning needs to be addressed.

Or the lack off.

Techs pet peeve is not cleaning after use.

Sometimes jobs don't get completed on the same day when things come up, postponing clean, sometimes for days or weeks.

End result is sometimes sands dried and turn to basically concrete on the underside. 

You can see the shield in this pic.  

Finally removed this manual tube, so annoying.

Next remove flow adjuster and belt scrapper.

Note all the bolts are one of two size stainless steel Allen head type.

If you have long arms, you can get all of them yourself on the hopper.

Or use a helper and crack the nut side loose first.

Remove adjustment bolts washers nuts etc. Take a picture first so it gets reassembled the same.

NOTE, this front bearing you will have to slide in place before assembly.

Rear bearing mark as per picture below.

Even though adjusting front bearings will make the belt track left or right a bit, this one's really important to get it back where it goes. It will really make the track move left or right quickly.

NOTE, on assembly tighten the bolts on side frame up first before installing adjusters.

I used a sharpy marker and measured the end treads. 

After the last two side rail bolts are out and rear bearings off remove side plate along with front bearing.

In my case the nylon blocks all looked great, bearings were all good and rubbers on hopper are still in good condition.

Only needed a belt and belt scraper.  

Plus, lots of cleaning, prepping, painting worn areas while waiting on parts (about 2.5 weeks)

I wedged a piece of angle under lift frame and another to hold the rollers steady till parts arrived. 

Reassemble in reverse order. 

Adjust the front roller evenly take measurements if you like.

Before putting spinners on, run the belt and adjust so it's not tracking left or right with good tension on belt. 

Final adjustment will be made this spring with a load of heavy wet sand.

Adjust till belt starts to move.  

Done. 

NOTE, when reassembling large areas and panels I used and alignment tool to wedge holes for bolts in place and also install all the bolts loosely before tightening up a section.

 You shouldn't need it for this one but good luck and have a great season.  

Toro wireless 200 spinner adjustment Modification

We have the wireless 200 for the past ten plus years. 

I had to make a rear bumper to protect the spinners from getting hit by equipment, which worked out very well for us.

The only big complaint is the slide adjustments are really hard to work to slide spinners in and out.

Here is what I came up with for the first try. 

 

Just gearing up some scrap materials to figure out the best option. 

 Decided to go with a single center adjustment.

I drilled a good size hole through the section above and also the next plated section inside. 

Next time I wouldn't do this because I figured out it could have been attached to a larger Angle bracket. 

Angle bracket I would go with 2" next time. And weld the nut or sleeve to it. has to be a little larger than threaded rod (1/2" stainless was used)  

Pass treaded rod through angle iron hole and weld a nut on rod. Weld another nut on the front side leaving a little wiggle room so rod can still turn. That will anchor the spinner slid end.

Weld the bracket in place here. 

Using a piece of 1" angle to stiffen that pull rod frame section.

Weld a sturdy anchor section and also drill a large hole and weld nut on bracket when it lined up.

Check for any binding and weld brackets in place.

Don't cut the adjustment rod till you try it in and out to see how much to cut off.  

 This was my first attempt where this nut needed to be drilled out bigger than rod.

Before welding a T on add another nut so it can act as a lock nut after adjustments are made. 

Works pretty well, will see how it does this up coming season. 

 

JD 7500 verticutters to process cores

As most of you know on the East coast of Canada "if you want fall rain just pull out the aerators "

Having an issue after coring fairways taking way too long to bust them up with just dragging steel mat.

Sand capped fairways with bent grass.

Recycling some material back into the holes.

It's seldom if ever ideal conditions being so late in the season for this process.

This season we reversed the front roller mounts to get more room before the blades, so it doesn't jam them up as often.

Set the groomers to zero. (just touching the shop floor)

Cores were wet and did a pretty good job.

But we can do better, I think.

I know there are rollers out there for this situation but at a great cost.

A little winter project.

Ordered these front deck rollers from Vickers to try.   

A little to big so cut them in half.

Beveled the edges on grinder to match other side.

A little heat from the torch to smooth them out.

Decided to go with 5/8' cold rolled steel for a roller shaft.

cut at 25"

Drill the pilot hole first for the 1/4-28 zerk going in later. 

Using a smaller drill bit to drill in end shaft as far as I could get it. 

and another hole were the end of first hole wound up.

Tapping threads for zerk.

Blew out and installed zerk and passed some grease through.

Drill a 1/8" hole for a roll pin fora stopper.

Using 1/2 washer and holing them out in pairs for ends of rollers.

Turned out great and not as bad as I thought it would be.

Got 2 made today and installed on to see if it will adjust down more. 

Turned out great and will open up the area in front of blades for more direct chopping instead of front rollers flattening the whole space.

I'm thinking of doing the rear rollers to and using this set up just for aeration. 

 Will be a quick flip over to get the back on the regular rollers and set into the turf for our regular in season set up.

                                          I'll update next fall and see how it went either way.