9/10/2015

The Trenchmaster Bed Edger is working well.  The Blue Bird Bed Bug has gone mostly unused.  The promise from the new owners of Blue Bird to look into the issues I highlighted in this blog has gone un-fulfilled.  We will keep our last Bed Bug as a back-up.  I will continue to post as issues arise. 

 First big update of the spring.  Number one the EZ trench is having belt issues we get about 2 rentals out of a $25.00 set of belts.  This may be operator error I need to do more investigating.  So far the blade has not broken and replacing the belts is a simple 10 min job. 

The Bed Bug is now our back-up machine.  We have had an oil leak on the Honda engine since last fall. We have replaced the oil pan gasket the clutch gasket and the seal on the oil drain plug.  These repairs did not alleviate the problem.  I suspect that the engine block has a crack.  I don’t have time to work on it so we borrowed an engine off of a Blue Bird Sod Cutter.

During the engine replacement we put on a new chain new bearing bolts and a new blade.  The machine just came back from its second rental since rebuild with a broken blade shaft. Also 3 of the 4 bolts on the outside bearing housing were broken off.

When I checked the clutch oil I noticed the dip stick is starting to melt.  I have talked to Honda several times and the only answer Honda his that it is the wrong application for the particular model engine.  

March 9 2014

A few weeks ago I went to the Rental Show and introduced myself to the new owners of Blue Bird.  Seems Husqvarna sold off the Blue Bird division.  Husqvarna has been buying up companies over the last 10 years I would demand to see a Car Fax before I would buy a division from Husqvarna.

Imagine driving off with a shiny used car and arriving home to learn it has problems.  I imagine this is how the new owners felt when I was done giving a presentation of all the Bed Bug issues.  I left behind a printed copy of my Blog and some enlarged pictures of broken parts.  

From Blue Bird I went to Honda engine booth with my pictures of melted clutch dipsticks.  The Honda people were concerned that the overheated clutches on the Bed Bug might be an issue.  The Honda people promised to look into the application to see what is melting a part in only one specific application.

From Blue Bird I wandered the show floor looking to purchase a replacement for the Bed Bug I sold last summer.  Particularly I was looking for a Bed Edging machine that I looked at last year called “E Z Trench”.  In talking with the Easy Trench rep he had seen my Blog and had passed it on.  I did purchase one of the E Z Trench Bed Edger’s.  The “Easy Trench” sales rep wanted to be included in my Blog.  (I am not sure that will be a good thing but if you believe in your product you have nothing to lose.)

I won’t get the machine for a few weeks but this is a picture.