The Links at Brunello 3rd season

Another great season here at the Links at Brunello .

Course just gets better and better ...maturing well .

Great team effort to produce a fine golfing experience .

#9 from the back tee

#16 green 

 The beast will soon be getting her tracks for ski grooming season . Won't be long now .  

My home made wings got a good work out this year . 

Throwing a few of my favorite Twitter Pics . You techs out there if your not on twitter or golftechs your missing out . Lots of reel time help vie Private messaging or open forum .The choice is up to you .  I've asked about grinder issue in the wee hours AM and received help an resolve from another part of the world ! CRAZY!!

This season I committed to grinding units  verses backlapping and front facing bedknives .Light and quick touch up grinds .  With the exception of being in a pinch I'd use the onboard backlap on our 7500s and 2500 units occasionally .

 Yep I made that . Came in very handy . Did you know that there can be up to .010" difference from bench set verses mow position as in picture above . No kidding ! even readjust cut this way to .Once the weights on the bearings it can go from no contact to slight contact . All colors and makes .

Ah yes !!! mister stripy . This guy was leaving a weird line on the tees . Checking for square and found that the drum bearings had let go .  

Had a little boo boo with a major front end rebuild . Came out good as new . Lol my alignment machine . Works great for me so far . 

Vacuum testing the bottom end of a few trimmers to see if they were worth the rebuild . My rule of thumbover 50% of worth it becomes a parts machine .  

 Haven't had a chance to try it but would defiantly work out in a pinch.

Near end of season . fuel treat what ever not going back out and finding nooks and crannies for them . 

I keep my low HOC mowers close and warm . The 5800 will make a home on the heated side of shop for the off season soon . 

 Sneaking a few spring jobs in while waiting for equipment to be done for season . 

No such thing as down time keep thinking of what can get you ahead in this season or next . 

Night cart barn . All disconnected and shut down .See you in the spring . Will have to make notes for better care to the batteries . Carts looked fantastic while getting them ready . Nice job !

Getting a few more customer grinds in . I like Buddies 1600 it has the Kawasaki engine . Nice ! 

 Joel hammered out the coring on the fairways 

It takes the entire team to get it done . These are the cream of the crop voted by their peers for 2017.

 Life is short be kind and understanding to your staff .
Explain and or teach them a better way . Most have no idea about when where why or how when their new to the business . 

Leave the thinning of the heard to your superintendent lol.
 Which I am blessed to know he has my back .
I've been very fortunate to have work at great clubs .

Hope every one winters well 

Will be gearing up and getting ready for our winter wonderland season . 

CHEERS !!

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Shop made mulching deck for JD 7400

We currently are running JD 8800 and 7400's . Very pleased with the 8800 but the 7400 cuts good put leaves a lot of clumping grass behind . Oh  "A NOTE OF CAUTION ON THIS UNIT IF YOU HAVE YOUR FOOT ON THE TRACTION AND YOU HIT THE PTO THE MACHINE WILL LAUNCH AT MACH 1 A GOOD 50 FEET .Only GOD CAN HELP YOU IF SOMEONES IN THE WAY OR YOU FACING A POND !!!!! "

I did price up the actual deck mulch kit but found the price a bit steep $$$.$$ for what it was . So I made some from a few old bedknives .

Took a toro bedknife and basically snapped the harden steel off about an 1.5" on both ends . The right side was pretty much a 90 degree angle the other side has a steeper angle . They welded up nicely . 

zip tied the top 

and used the original bedknife bolt hole for the side 

Pretty much the same after cut appearance as our 8800 . 90% improvement around out Tee decks . Tends to drop the clippings on cart path but the pro force Toro blowers will make quick work on the clean up .

Its amazing what you can make from scrapped bedknives !!!!

Cost of material = a little mig wire and an hours time to do all 3 . 

Its a keeper . 

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Toro greensmaster 1600 squaring drum to reel and belt adjustment

Some don't see it .But cuts like this can drive me nuts . 

A while back while doing a morning drive around checking cuts I noticed a 4 " area on outside of drum not getting cut ?I did Square the reel to drum to find out later that a drum bearing had let go . 

Bearing replacement was easy and straight forward .

  

Invest in a bench plate . get the biggest one you can afford . Not used a lot but in this situation is the perfect tool for an accurate job . 

26" mower just fits . I strap the front down to hold reel on 1/4 gauge bar .

Front face of bedknive should contact front of bar as in picture above . We are squaring the actual reel to the rear drum drives .

In this case the adjustments are made on the right hand drum belt side . Remove cover.

Loosen 4 bolts through gear openings . You may need a pry bar to have drum fully seat on bench plate before and during tightening bolts back up . There is a 10 mm spec tolerance  for drum gap . Double check afterwards before reassembling . 

While your already here you might as well check the drum belts . Mine are checked every oil change . Guys that tend to snap them on and off will usually snap the left drum belt . 

   

Drum belt

   

Loosen back side of idler gear . By turning the front nut the camber in bolt will adjust the belt . 

Belt should deflect 1/4" at 4 to 5 pounds pressure .

JD TX Park brake adjustment

Park brake adjustment .

if your lever is all the way up and you can't get it to hold you may have to adjust on the caliper.

Back cable adjuster till it's completely loose .

 Go to the rear caliper (also check pads are in spec before proceeding )

remove nut and helper spring.

Turn the actuator in the direction that brakes are applied till it stops . Reinstall arm back to the closet position towards rear of machine . Reinstall nut and spring 

Go back to brake lever adjuster and adjust till it just contacts on first click . Wheels should lock up good by the 3rd click .

Back up ball picker

Part of our job is problem solving . Last season we had an issue with the ball picker (primary old fairway unit ) of course its during the time I'm off for a my 4 day long week end vacation with my kids and grandkids .
So
The cart staff have an MDX to transport range balls . Last winter during ball picker service I ordered extra mounts to install on machine . This way if I'm not round they can drop the wings on the 5 gang picker and use the MDX .

It was an older machine and came with a push bar already so install was quick and easy . We wanted it to be safe for the staff to use on the range so was asked to build a cage for it too . 

This way the range didn't have to close for picking .

Welding up some sturdy mounts to build on .  

Fair amount of work to get it to this point .

Now with a solid level base it was easy to weld the rest in place . 

Lots of pics at different stages . My answer to the tailgate falling open (bumpy ride) dumping a load of range ball issue .

Filling in with 3/4 mesh .

Left a large window opening .

Built a flip up cage for when its not needed . It makes your eye go pretty buggy if you don't .

Heavy duty straps hold it in easily

Made a bracket for front screen to flip onto to keep it from bouncing around .
Save a few dollars with a plywood roof and also keeps the sun off them .

Shown here almost done . Only a removable door left and filling in a few gaps . Turned out great . Staff really like it