MN Chat Thread

Namakan

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Location
Minnetrista, MN
TDI
2002 Golf, 2011 JSW (gone), 2004 Jetta (gone)
I'm also on the all diesel program except for the wife Excape and my snowmobiles.

The Deere for $1500 seems like a good deal. I have an older 112l that is getting tired and may need replacing. Hmmmmmm

Mike
I was ready to call on this until I read further and realized that is the asking price for the snowthrower assembly only.
 

TurboM700

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Location
Moundsview MN
TDI
2000 VW Golf
I was ready to call on this until I read further and realized that is the asking price for the snowthrower assembly only.
Good catch. I was thinking about buying this thing all day today and was going to call him after work as it just seemed to cheap for a diesel deere.

1500 for just a blower seems a little high for that small of tractor.
 

Namakan

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Location
Minnetrista, MN
TDI
2002 Golf, 2011 JSW (gone), 2004 Jetta (gone)
Good catch. I was thinking about buying this thing all day today and was going to call him after work as it just seemed to cheap for a diesel deere.

1500 for just a blower seems a little high for that small of tractor.
I'm not sure how old this one is but it looks like the same 46" setup I have on a 1991 Deere 318. Can't remember what I paid for it back then but I would agree it seems a bit steep.
 

rsewill

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 17, 2008
Location
St. Cloud, MN
TDI
'03 Jetta automatic '04 Passat wagon
I confess, I'm too lazy to do the research; do the Deeres have shaft driven snow blowers? If these don't, which do? I think I'm about to be in the market for one.

I have a 48" Z425 (zero turn) rider I bought used which works well for mowing on my small lot. A bit of overkill for my lawn but my wife is very understanding, especially if I take my time and slowly build up to getting something I want but don't really require. But the zero turn is obviously not of use for snow blowing.

My Sears 8.5 HP blower doesn't like to run and its warranty is up this spring. Sears has been out about four times to fix it but can't find the problem, i.e., why it stalls out. Once I left about six inches of snow in the driveway until the technician could come out and watch me blow. When it stalled he replaced the carb (which has no air cleaner.) No change. It probably is the electronics but the techs don't think so. I try to keep the snow I blow from blowing on the blower but that doesn't seem to matter. Fortunately it is electric start or my shoulder would about fall off from trying to start it. One of those intermittent things that is hard to diagnose.

My previous blower was mounted on an old Coast to Coast rider. It was belt driven which didn't work all that well. Way, way too many belt problems. But I really like the rider for snow removal. I would prefer an older (i.e., cheaper) model because I won't use it for anything but blowing snow. My brother has a Bobcat skid steer with a snow blower which he uses on his couple hundred yard long drive. $35k. He has a small horse farm so the snow blower was just another attachment. I would like to get by spending, oh, about $2k.
 

greengeeker

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
I confess, I'm too lazy to do the research; do the Deeres have shaft driven snow blowers? If these don't, which do? I think I'm about to be in the market for one.
I'm too lazy to get all the info ;) but generally, the smaller ones are belt drive and the bigger ones are shaft drive. It probably is tied to whether or not the tractor has a PTO. Either way, I'd say a shaft drive isn't going to happen for <$2k.
 

rsewill

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 17, 2008
Location
St. Cloud, MN
TDI
'03 Jetta automatic '04 Passat wagon
After getting over my laziness I did do the research. Or began to. I can see my question on which Deere with a snowblower was like asking which Diesel car would work best for driving down the highway. Way too many variables with way too many answers and not for this forum. Lots of time for study given that I won't buy until the summer or fall.
 

darkhorse

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2009
Location
Wisconsin
TDI
'06 Golf GLS, '01 Dodge/Cummins
I sure could have used your brothers Bobcat tonight. The rapidly drifting snow on my farm lane got to much for my low slung Golf even with the Blizzaks & LSD. The 6 & * inch drifts were no problem but that foot deep one 30 feet wide was to much. I hit it at 20 in 2nd & got 1/2 way through. I must have spent an hour with a garden spade digging compacted snow from under the car.
 

sirpuddingfoot

Veteran Member
Joined
May 14, 2010
Location
Seattle, WA
TDI
05 Passat, 05 Jetta
I finally got around to getting some winter capable tires on the Passat, and to make things easier in the future, I got General Altimax Arctic snow tires mounted on some of the cheaper alloy wheels (Elbrus I05) from tirerack.com. I'm actually very pleased with the results, especially because the entire wheel+tire is ~40lbs (16.8lbs wheel), much lighter than the 17" OE Bistars, and they look pretty good. The entire package was $730 shipped and included all hardware (centering rings and 20 cone seat lug bolts). The $100 in shipping was still cheaper than anything we could find locally, and I know from experience that these tires are very capable (jfettig's Hankooks have identical tread, and a friend with an S4 runs these). They are very quiet for snow tires, not significantly louder then the Michelin MXM4 / bald Michelin Energy combo on the Bistars.

15" Elbrus I05 wheels with General Altimax Arctic tires in 195/65/15.
I'll replace this crappy picture when I get a chance to snap a better one.
 

Losha

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2005
Location
Sioux Falls, SD
TDI
06 Jetta TDI DSG, 2001 Golf TDI, Audi S6, A8, Toureg
Those are pretty good winter tires I heard, actually I might have installed them last winter on one customers cars, cant remember for sure. I run on my TDI front Nokian Hakapellita RSI (love them) on back Continental Extreme Winter Contact (also very good tires, less agressive for snow more for ice & highway speed). First I had Continentals on front and back all season ones and they performed very good on packed snow and ice, very quite and handling is pretty good not sloppy. Then I got Nokians on front and they are little bit more agressive on snow and slush, would say handle about the same as Conti. I tell you I will never want to drive a car with all season tires in winter. With these winter tires I feel like driving in rainy weather on very good all season tires, stable responsive steering, good braking, acceleration is good (not so well for my torque TDI with 230+ tq.lb), but now 6 inches of snow dont scare me driving thru.
 

isonic

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2009
Location
St. Paul, MN
TDI
2003 Golf 4door 5spd
I am on my second winter with the General Altimax Artics. Tires work great and for $63 a tire they are hard to beat.
 

Losha

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2005
Location
Sioux Falls, SD
TDI
06 Jetta TDI DSG, 2001 Golf TDI, Audi S6, A8, Toureg
I got my Nokian RSI tires for $50 per tire on sale, and my own installation. Cant beat that deal. :)
 

Curious Chris

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 11, 2001
Location
Pineview GA
TDI
Jetta Wagon 2003 RIP Rockford IL
Crap lots of snow in Lima OH and the weather report says it is going to snow all the way from Lima OH to Wisconsin and I am pumped to try out my Wavetrac. But sigh it did not snow at all.

I did test it in the snow in Lima and it is cool when you intentional break the tires loose! :)
 

JFettig

Vendor
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Location
Blaine, MN
TDI
B5 Passat, 2010 Jetta
I wish I had a LSD.

Chris, call me when you want you are in town and want your brake bleeder back.
 

JFettig

Vendor
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Location
Blaine, MN
TDI
B5 Passat, 2010 Jetta
I've got a fun project ahead of me. I towed a 2002 Jetta TDI with a toast belt last night(the one listed on the classifieds). I think I got a pretty decent deal on it too. Now to collect some timing belt tools. I got the tripple square bits ordered to pull the head and send it out. Does anyone locally do these heads or is my only good option Frank06?

Jon
 

TornadoRed

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2003
Location
West Des Moines (formerly St Paul)
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI wagon, silver; 2003 Jetta TDI wagon, indigo blue; 2003 Golf GL 5-spd, red (PARTED); 2003 Golf GLS 5-spd, indigo blue (SOLD); 2003 Jetta TDI wagon, Candy White (SOLD)
I've got a fun project ahead of me. I towed a 2002 Jetta TDI with a toast belt last night(the one listed on the classifieds). I think I got a pretty decent deal on it too. Now to collect some timing belt tools. I got the tripple square bits ordered to pull the head and send it out. Does anyone locally do these heads or is my only good option Frank06?
I have been to Frank's shop down by Joplin, MO, and was greatly impressed by the quality of the equipment he uses and the care that he takes with each and every cylinder head. If there is even the slightest possibility that valves have kissed pistons, or only the slightest sign of a flawed cam lobe, then he replaces them with only the highest quality replacement parts.

I am not saying other people cannot perform work to the same high standard -- only that not everyone else does. Frank has carved out a niche for himself, by doing one thing extremely well. His rates are very reasonable, and I do not recall ever hearing of one of his rebuilt heads being returned to him because a problem with the parts or workmanship.

BTW, that is Franko6.
http://forums.tdiclub.com/member.php?u=31923
 

JFettig

Vendor
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Location
Blaine, MN
TDI
B5 Passat, 2010 Jetta
I have been to Frank's shop down by Joplin, MO, and was greatly impressed by the quality of the equipment he uses and the care that he takes with each and every cylinder head. If there is even the slightest possibility that valves have kissed pistons, or only the slightest sign of a flawed cam lobe, then he replaces them with only the highest quality replacement parts.

I am not saying other people cannot perform work to the same high standard -- only that not everyone else does. Frank has carved out a niche for himself, by doing one thing extremely well. His rates are very reasonable, and I do not recall ever hearing of one of his rebuilt heads being returned to him because a problem with the parts or workmanship.

BTW, that is Franko6.
http://forums.tdiclub.com/member.php?u=31923
I am well aware of all this(spelling aside), I bought my T4 nozzles(balanced) from him. A friend is getting me the name of a local shop that he has a friend who works for and is confident in, I'll see if Nick or anyone else has heard of the shop and knows anything about them before going that direction. Right now I'm leaning toward Frank.

Jon
 

TDICADDGUY

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 4, 2007
Location
Blaine, MN
TDI
2012 BMW X5 35D
I am well aware of all this(spelling aside), I bought my T4 nozzles(balanced) from him. A friend is getting me the name of a local shop that he has a friend who works for and is confident in, I'll see if Nick or anyone else has heard of the shop and knows anything about them before going that direction. Right now I'm leaning toward Frank.

Jon
I don't know of anyone locally, and I can definitely tell you where NOT to go. I had a very bad experience with Import Engine Parts, they are west of downtown Minneapolis. They rebuilt a head for me 3 years ago, it lasted about 40 miles before the cam snapped into 2 pieces because of their shoddy work. They are also very overpriced. Even though they have admitted fault, I have yet to get one red cent out of them. I would never recommend them to anybody.

I ended up going with Frank, couldn't be happier with his work and the service that he provides after the sale.

BTW, do you mind if I ask what you ended up paying for the car? I was looking at it, but was only interested if I could get it for $500 considering its apparent lack of maintenance and automatic trans.
 
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isonic

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2009
Location
St. Paul, MN
TDI
2003 Golf 4door 5spd
Jon, I forbid you to send the head to Frank. He is already too busy and I have been waiting too long for my injectors :D. Unless of course you can get my injectors done at the same time, then it is cool!

Also, what is the operating psi of the oil? I am looking to get a oil pressure gauge for my car and they are offered in two ranges, either 0-80 or 0-150psi. I figured the 0-80 would be good but I wanted to ask first.
 
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JFettig

Vendor
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Location
Blaine, MN
TDI
B5 Passat, 2010 Jetta
I wonder if we send him a set of injectors, if he'd get it done quicker? I can live without injectors in that car until the head is done... Is he back from vacation yet? If so, call him and ask.

Jon
 

isonic

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2009
Location
St. Paul, MN
TDI
2003 Golf 4door 5spd
I wonder if we send him a set of injectors, if he'd get it done quicker? I can live without injectors in that car until the head is done... Is he back from vacation yet? If so, call him and ask.

Jon
After we got done talking last week I actually had this same thought. I will give him a call on Monday and see what he says about that idea. I think that he might be back already. I think he was gone last week.
 

JFettig

Vendor
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Location
Blaine, MN
TDI
B5 Passat, 2010 Jetta
let me know if you find that he's back, I need to call as well if he doesn't reply to my e-mail anytime soon.

Jon
 

SpamJ

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2001
Location
Cable, MN
TDI
Jetta Wagon 2002 Silver
Maybe we can get a group rate on injectors, I have a set in my glovebox that need to be balanced....

Maybe I need to drive down on Monday...
 

TurboM700

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Location
Moundsview MN
TDI
2000 VW Golf
I wouldnt mine also having mine gone thru and made bigger. With 250,000 miles on them i'm sure there less then perfect. Down time is going to be big thing for me.

Mike
 

greengeeker

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
Try HeadWerkz in bloomington. When I worked on cars we sent alot of our import heads there. They do great work and speicial in german cars.

http://www.headwerks.com/
v8 coupe works there. I have no feedback for the shop though as I send all my head work to Frank. :eek:

Sam - I'd be up for a road trip but I doubt being there is going to help him get things done faster.
 
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