Not dumb Bruce - your tractor, your rules : ) That said, I will enjoy your rope-starting videos! I occasionally rope start mine to see what sort of health it's in and what I've found is that it takes about four pulls if the tractor has sat for a while. I think next time I go out there I'll turn the pony back and forth few times over the intake stroke to "prime" the cylinder so's to reduce the # of pulls - that's my theory anyway