[Chipmaker]

I have had numerous cracks in the deck adaa[pter that came with my used but like new Agri-Fab (Craftman badged) Chipper shredder vac cart. The deck adapter is made of a plastic material and was previously butchered and mounted on the previous owners mower. It fits but barely on my GX 335 with 54C deck, but it was worn pretty thin on the bottom edges and had numerous cracks and chunks missing, and was a total bear to attach to deck and not have to drill any new holes to mount it. I priced a new adpater at sears, bought $50 and then called Trac Vac, to see if I could get a deck adapter to fit the 6" hose size on this unit I have. My reply was ayes, no problem. Please staya on the line.......Next I am asked where I live etc etc, and am given a dealer or distributor. Calls to them give me more names but it seems no one was willing to look up what parat number I needed to order or the reply was, well we sell other brand items from that distributor, but not Trac Vac, so we can't help you. Getting pretty disgusted by now, I called back to the factory, and told them look, all numbers i have gotten lead nowhere, and I did not care what state the dealer was located in all I want is a dealer that "DOES" handle Trac Vac and that could help me. Get the reply we only sell through dealers, and do not sell to indiividuals. Duh..so what am I supposed to do. All I want is a dealer to order a part from. Finally the person on theother end of the phone replied, well I guess if we charged you the retail rate we could sell to you. Really, well thats nice, I did not expect a discount anyhow.......So he said I needed a 632-6 adapter and it would take 7 to 10 days to make and then a coupl;e of days shipping. Fine, till then hopefully all the leaves and pinestraw will be donw and ready to finish up on this fall cleanup job. The actually make each adapter for the specific deck its used on,......and they are supposedly able to be mounted with original attaching holes for the chute deflector. They are made froom steel and all welded construction. Total price for any deck adapter was $100 shipping included. May be a bit high, but I think as new as my tractor is, and the ability to keep the vac cart patched in the upcoming years it will be well worth the money instead of buying a univeral type adapter that really did not fit this 54C deck worth a darn, even if it was not butchered by previous owner.

So any other Trac Vac owners out there, just what type of duct hose does the Trac Vac use? Agri Fab is just a basic rubber type material with a semi smooth interior. The cyclone rake uses a polyurethane spiral wound smooth interior hose. I used this type hose on my home brew unit. It seemed to have less restriction and residue buildup inside it during use, and was nice as you could see the actual flow of materials. So now that I have a new custom fit adapter coming I can once again press my ho9mebrew unit into action and use it for the real trashy stuff to pickup, and I'll only have to reduce the hose from 7" to 6" at the deck adapter, which I think I can make a reducing adapter for pretty easy, or at least easier than a total fabricated adapter like I made for my old 180 JD when I had used it to pull the vac cart.

I pulled the head off the engine today as it started to smoke after the governor gear broke on me, and the cylinder walls etc look fine. I pulled the piston and found that two of the rings were cracked (probably from when it over reved when the governor broke) so I ordered a new ring set for it. Piston was fine, as was the rod. So by the time I get my adapter I should have the motor reringed and ready to go.

 

[amicks]

I agree that the metal boots are better and will last a lifetime. The $100 for the boot with shipping included is a good price. Some of the best hose is made by Goodyear but it's rather expensive at about $1.15 per inch. 60" piece is $69.00, but it'll last.

 

[Chipmaker]

Heck $1.15 an inch is cheap. I paid over $19.00 a foot for the 7" clear polyurethane stuff with a heavy gray colored plastic spiral in it. This stuff looks like what Cyclone Rakes uses, but much heavier walled but still pretty darn flexible. I had a secrtion of it drag on the ground for a long time and it shows no sign of wear except some scratching and dulling in the contact area. I , well my wife even managed to back over the hose with her car and it sprung right back into shape. Used it all last year and it still looks like new. Had to buy 7 feet of it for my home brew cart. Yep, you can usually weld or patch up a steel item much easier and more times than you can any plastic item. Guess I need to make a PVC reducer to allow me to use my old hole on the old cart with the new deck adaptr now. Probably have what I need in one of my scrounge sheds if I look hard enough.

 

[Sergeant]

Tubing

And I though $1.35 was alot for 7inch JD tubing I see Chipmaker paid $1.58 a inch.

 

[Ingersoll444]

As for what Trac Vac uses. My dealer deals with trac vac also. I bought a take-off hose from him to use as a remote pickup hose , and for peices to fix my hose on my Ingersoll Hydrovac. It is the wire wound flexlable rubber. Kinda like REAL thick, rubber dryer hose. I payed $100 for a ten ft leingh, and it also came with a nozzle on the end with a nice handle.

 

[leolav]

I bought the hand wand attachment for my agrifab Mow n vac. It is 5" diameter hose, they stated it was 15 feet, was actually 22 feet. I guess someone can't measure. I like it for the extra length though.

 

[amicks]

Chipmaker, Me and you look alot alike, well we do ride different color tractors. arty:

 

[Chipmaker]

Yep we sure do don't we. My L & G used to be painted red at one time, so I can't complain, but I just had to drag out that old paint bucket and make it green. I think I may paint my house next.

If I can get a decent image of my GX 335 I hope to use that.