Category: Video Blog

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Shoppe Clean-Up and Mower Repair (Post #617) July 31, 2023

Broken Mower Part

No Land Rover content this week. I started the weekend trying to get the chores done first. Mowing the grass which grows at a ridiculous rate due the the wet July we’ve had. I’m cutting grass every week now.

I got on the mower and got my book on tape going [Extreme Measures by Vince Flynn the eleventh book in the series]. I kept hearing some odd noises, vibrating parts, and the engine was running like crap. Just last week I was evaluating how many more summers I might get from this mower while I was patching the holes in the tires with plugs.

I have been impressed at how trouble free this mower (Husqvarna 1842) had been with this being the sixth summer. I’ve only had one other serious repair. It was also a mandrel. I have also replaced one battery and before the summer is up, I really should replace all the tires.

After an inspection I saw the shaft on the mandrel wiggling like crazy. The upper bearing failed on the mandrel. So it wasn’t going to be grass cutting for the weekend, it would be mower repair. I looked the part up and found it had a John Deere part cross referenced. I went down to P&K Tractor on Highway 9. The parts guy was SUPER helpful. He looked up the part on several sites and found a part number at O’Reilly’s. Turns out in his words this was the most common bearing in the world. I was surprised how many different parts numbers were associated with it. I ran down to O’Reilly’s grabbed two.

The bolts (steel) were really stuck in the mandrel housing (cast aluminum). You don’t have to be a chemist to know this is a recipe for disaster. And that’s exactly what happened.

I wound up having to attempt to drill and easy-out what was left of the bolts. Broke two drill bits and eventually the mandrel. Four hours lost. I’ve ordered a replacement, it comes in this week. So I spent the rest of the day cleaning and organizing the shoppe.

I’m going to visit an old Marine friend of mine this week. Jeff was one of my closest friends in the Marine Corps. We went to boot camp together and artillery school. I haven’t seen or heard from him since perhaps 1988. Gonna be great catching up. RovErica’s kids are coming to stay with us this week too. With all this happening I don’t think there will be any video next week. But we’ll see.

Jeff and Bear
Heavy sigh.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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Fender Prep and Planning to Weld (Post #612) July 3, 2023

Me looking back at the camera.

In this installment I talk about how I will attack the rust in the driver’s side rear wheel well. I bought some shielding gas for my mig welder and will be welding patches and fixes this week. My GoPro camera decided not to record audio on the underside review so you’ll have to settle for a lovely voice over (which is terrible). You’re welcome.

Hope you enjoy the content. You can contribute to help with the cost of keeping this site on the internet through my Patreon account.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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Bumper Project Part 1 (Post #599) 9/7/2022

Part 1 of the Bumper Project

Part 1 of the Bumper Project. I mocked up a new bumper using cardboard. It will likely be 5×3 inch tube with rear fender protection. I got the idea from the PFab Youtube channel. You can check out his video in a link on mine.

If you remember the old bumper was damaged by an inattentive driver of a Hyundai reaching over to pick up a jar of spaghetti that had rolled off her seat [Okierover.com].

I’ll post another video when I get closer to pulling the trigger on this project. List of needs:

  • Welder
  • Plasma Cutter
  • Steel

I don’t have any of those things at the moment. I’ll have at least as much invested in those items as a new bumper from RTE would cost WITHOUT the tire carrier and jerry can holder. But I’ll have a welder at the minimum and maybe even a plasma cutter when I’m done.

If I hit the lottery, I’ll still buy the welder and plasma cutter, but I’d probably consider buy a RTE bumper built to spec.

Thanks for reading/watching and Happy Rovering.

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Footpad Repair (Post #595) 2/24/2022

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YuB75PMaZA0%3Frel%3D0

Some time ago I noticed the footpad on my inner fender well would droop when I rested my foot on it. In the beginning I would just put my foot under it and lift it back up. But one day when doing that the footpad broke away from the fender well.

The bolts holding the footpad in place had rust welded to the fender well. So when I was lifting it back into place I was actually bending the fender well pieces, much like you wiggle a wire rapidly to break it. As I’ve said before I really have become accustom to resting my foot on the pad and I wanted it fixed.

So I took some time and investigated and repaired it. I used a Dremel tool with a 60 grit grinding wheel and got as much rust off the inner and outer fender well. While I was behind the quarter panel I also ground off some surface rust.

Once I had it all ground down, I applied some acid etching primer to the metal surfaces. I know it won’t last forever, but maybe it will slow down the rust.

Thanks for reading and watching the video. It’s low quality but hopefully entertaining.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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The Seasons in Oklahoma (Post #525) 2/17/2015

I love Oklahoma weather.

The weather in Oklahoma is unique. Southern California has their two seasons, dry season and sunny season. Florida has their dry season and wet season. Oklahoma has all four seasons.

We have Spring aka Tornado Season. You’ve seen my posts, this season keeps most of the weaker of our species away.

Summer, also known as what passes as Sub-Saharan Africa. Its a mystery to me why we don’t have more lions wandering around.

Winter, where we have ice storms, thundersnow, and wind that cuts through you like a knife. You haven’t lived until you’ve sat through a late November football game in Oklahoma. You can well imagine the wind chills in winter keep a fair number of people away too.

OSU vs Baylor 2013. 10F
A very cold selfie at the OSU vs Baylor 2013. 12F

And finally, Fall, the best of our seasons.

The best thing about the weather in Oklahoma, is you can have 3 of the 4 seasons in a single week of weather. The day I shot the video above the weather was 70F and just a week earlier we had a high of 37F. For the month we had a low of 17F and a high of 79F.

Last night we had bands of ice pass through the state allowing for ice skating on the streets of Edmond, Oklahoma. We’ll be in the low 60’s by Saturday.

Stay warm out there Spring is coming, Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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