And this is what I get for letting a relative borrow something

Wesspur
Shop deals on ebay
Rugged made
shop deals on amazon
Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
T

taylor6400

ArboristSite Operative
Joined
Feb 19, 2009
Messages
261
Reaction score
18
Location
OH
Well...should have known better. Cousin asked me to borrow my splitter over the weekend. Normally i would just take it and go help him. But I had plans...I hesitantly told him sure as i was in a good mood to be heading out of town for the weekend. Get it out last night to split for a bit...pull it and I can hardly pull the cord. I think he blew it up. Its a Huskee with the Briggs and it uses a little oil if you use it for an extended amount of time. And he knew that AND I told him again that if you run it hard for a long time check the oil every other tank of fuel. Yeah, I asked him about it and he said it ran fine on Sunday...put a little oil in it but it ran fine all day. I bet....I bet he put oil in it when it quit running and he remembered to check it. AAAHHHH!!!! I was so mad last night.
 
I had a troy bilt that would get oil in the cylinder when traveling and would lock up until i pulled the plug and cleared it out. something to try.Also try some wd-40 down in the plug hole.
 
I loaned my neighbor my Shaver post driver. He kept it all winter and I had to go find it in the spring. Got it hooked up to a new Deutz Fahr Agrofarm 100 and before making the last hose connection I thought I'd better check the hydraulic fluid in the lines of the driver. Glad I thought of that cause there was water,black gunk, gray gunk and stuff I have a name for but won't print it here. Had to flush the driver system. Took 5 gallons of hydraulic oil ($65) to flush it clean. He had used a old 9600 Ford tractor and I bet the hydraulic oil hadn't been changed in 20 years. The Agrofarm has wet clutches,shuttle and that mess would have most likely taken them out or made them useless.

The driver will always be broken from now on till I get need to use it.:greenchainsaw:

Sorry to hear about your engine.
 
Guess I'm lucky. My family takes better care of things than even I do.
What's worse than someone breaking your stuff....when you break something you've borrowed.
 
Yeah, the only thing i did was pull the plug and pull it over...same feeling. Just really stiff. I just took it to my saw shop and said let me know what you find. He said it doesnt feel good. Hope i hear back from him yet this week...not a good time for my splitter to be down. But maybe an excuse to go buy a Fiskars SS. I do like to split by hand some too. Good excercise and relaxing. But Im sick right now, and didnt want to overwork myself. He will be paying for sure...

I once borrowed my boss's splitter and the freaking I bean fell off going down the road. It was held on by 2 bolts with nuts...no locktite or lock nuts or washers. Needless to say that was the last time i borrowed anything...I went out and bought my own splitter that fall. After paying to fix his that is. Didnt really hurt anything too bad. One hose was skuffed, operating handle was bent, and a lot of road rash. I fixed the hyd line and handle and took it to a guy who re painted the whole beam. Looked like new...but that was the most uncomfortable phone call i ever had to make! And dont want to do it again. But he was very understandable as that was a freak thing that would have happened to him had he had it at the time and very appreciative for manning up and paying for it. I even changed the oil for him! I didnt want to leave a bad taste in the bosses mouth!
 
Relatives give you a chance to interact with people who, given a choice, you would not.

If your bill is over a deuce, I would consider one of those Honda clones from HF.
 
People I know that borrow stuff, don't take care of there own stuff. I have a cousin that borrows tools from me because he can't find his own. The other day he took the 2" ball off of my pickup, I thought somebody stole it, then he told me about a week later that he needed to find it and give it back. I just went and bought another. He'll never return the one he took. I've seen this scenario too many times. Maybe we have a mutual cousin?
 
A good basic rule of thumb. NEVER BORROW OUT POWER TOOLS!!!!!!
You can lose friendships over it.
 
Hey man similar thing happened to me earlier in the year - except situations were REVERSED! So I was that jackass cousin but I found the engine wouldn't pull the day I was returning my friend's splitter. Had it hooked up to the truck and all, and figured "I should just check it first". Seized.

Somewhere along the line it was leaking oil like a sieve and I only checked it on the first day (borrowed one week) at which point it was full.

I came clean and insisted on fixing/ replacing. Tore it down, lubed it up, got it to turn by hand, re-assembled, and its split 3 cords since.

Recently I went and bought my own splitter. I will be sure to loan it to as few people as possible!
 
Too bad about the engine.

If you need one cheap I'm looking to get rid of a vertical Honda I have taking up space. Runs great, was on a pressure washer that the pump died on. I got it cheap a couple years ago and then never did anything with it.
 
I have a neighbor that I've borrowed a few tools to.. found out quick that he didn't know the difference between "borrow" and "give". Every time I had to go get the stuff back, never once did he return anything in a timely manner.
Had a skilsaw for 3 months, a jigsaw for 1 year +, the wife's glass cutting tools... the list goes on. I finally asked for everything back and will not borrow him a quarter.
 
Had a car for sale. Young kid wanted to put some money down, drive away, and make monthly payments on it. Sorry, I'm a carpenter not a bank. The next day he came up with the money. Pretty much the same with lending. People will seek the least expensive route first, and it doesn't cost them anything to ask to use your stuff. I started out renting a splitter before buying one. They can too. The thing is there is little incentive for the borrower to get your stuff back, to take care of it, or to repair it. If you do lend something out the only one to be mad at is yourself. I still lend occassionally, case by case, and get mad at myself more often than not. Chain saws are definitly on the 'do not lend' list. Hmm! Post a do not lend list in garage for all to see. Often saw this on job site tool boxes, "Don't even ask..."
 
get a hf honda knockoff motor. i got the 6.5 hp one. i cant saw enough good things about it its a fantastic engine. i replaced a 5hp gc series honda with it and it runs awesome. i think i paid like 120$ sometimes you can get them for $99 too.
 

Similar threads

Digital_Dad
Son gased my brand new MS180
2 3
Replies
54
Views
4K
Bill G
B
ace4059
Possible new bad gas. What should I do?
6 7 8
Replies
154
Views
5K
Khntr85
Khntr85
Old2stroke
How was I supposed to know that?
3 4 5
Replies
87
Views
5K
Wow
Wow
D
A Tale of 2 290"s
Replies
6
Views
1K
Ed Penney
Ed Penney
O
Premix fuel OK to use?
6 7 8
Replies
153
Views
17K
bwalker
B

Latest posts

Back
Top