MANSFIELD, Ohio – It's time to get some of the hard-working summer machinery ready for winter. When you've made the final cut with the lawn mower, some winterizing care and preventive maintenance will help the machine roar to life again next spring.
Push mowers, lawn tractors, weed trimmers and leaf blowers – all the machines that operate with a gasoline engine – will benefit from similar winter preparations before they're stored away.
Sam Miles of Mid-Ohio Gravely suggests these steps:
Run the machine until it's out of gas. It's beneficial to add fuel stabilizer to the tank. Allowing gas to sit in the tank for a length of time can cause carburetor problems.
After adding fuel stabilizer or conditioner, www.yardcare.com recommends running the engine five minutes to distribute conditioned fuel throughout the fuel system. Stop the engine, let it cool, and drain the fuel tank or run the engine until it stops. Then restart the engine again and allow it to run until it stops. Continue to attempt to restart the engine until it will no longer start, according to the Web site.
Remove spark plugs, add a few drops of oil in the cylinder and pull the starter rope slowly to coat the cylinder walls and lubricate the engine.
Change the oil – either when you put the machine away for the winter or when you get it out in the spring.
Clean out the underside of the mower deck, removing accumulated grass and debris with a scraper, hose or pressure-washer. Be sure it dries thoroughly.
Prime and paint any exposed metal to prevent rust.
In lawn tractors or self-propelled mowers with electric starters, keep the battery charged.
"If it sits around dead for an extended period of time, it won't hold a charge. It will be dead," Miles said. "Some people have a full-size battery charger, or you can buy a small trickle charger."
Don't store machinery near salt or fertilizer. Fertilizer fumes are corrosive and can rust metal parts. Store the machinery in a clean, dry spot – never in the house or basement.