Tractors, Mowers, Chippers, Trailers, Chainsaws, Generators, Driveway Erosion Control, ETC.

After I dumped my loads out I went to spread them around with the tractor. Scooped up a bucket full and went to lift it and she said 'nope' so I dumped a little out. Still nope. Dumped a little more, still nope but it was thinking about it. Turns out I could only lift about 1/2 bucket full at a time without squatting the tires.
Got me curious, so I filled up a box and weighed it on the bathroom scale. Worked out to between 148lbs per cubic foot, so 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard was 2 tons per yard. Your composition might be different than mine, of course, since mixes vary from one part of the country to the next.

I know that when they were loading me the weight varied quite a lot based on the size of the scoop they were giving me.

 

I was considering a subcompact tractor.
Glad now that I got a compact.

 

Same way here, it’s as expensive as gravel now.

 

I bought her from an old guy with a backwoods little car lot/garage -- scrap was very high then. He told me a guy had offered $600 for scrap. He said "I watched that little truck work for too many years (at a GMC dealer) for it to go to scrap. I'll be in the ground before it goes for scrap." I told him "Mr Wood, you sell it to me and I'll be in the ground before it goes for scrap too." He looked at me hard for a few and slowly said "I think you might be my man." Mr Wood is long dead now but I'm keeping my promise.

She had been unloved for a while (and being 70 years old...) so it took a lot of grease and oil to get things moving. First I put the mast up and needed a come-a-long to get it back down, then tipped the mast back and it wouldn't go forward. Modern fork lifts have double action cylinders on the mast tilt, on this old girl the single action cylinders extend to tip the mast back and big springs pull the cylinders closed tipping the mast forward. I put the forks under the rear bumper of an old truck and exercised the works along with lots of new grease.

It is a 6 volt with a 12 volt battery, don't know if it would charge a 6 volt battery or not. For the small amount I use it a battery tender works fine. I did need to finally need to break down and spend hard money -- the old (mismatched) spark plugs just wouldn't do it anymore.

Off to Auto Zone on a Sunday (my good parts house is closed on Sunday), told the girl at the counter I needed spark plugs for a 1946 Towmotor LT 40, she stared at me blankly for at least 7 seconds, finally says "a what?" I repeat, she tries computer -- "a what?" -- "is it a boat?" -- turns to Google -- At this point I asked for (4) Champion D 21. $18 and back in business.

Manual transmission fork trucks are not all that convenient to operate and she will fill the garage with a smoky haze but doesn't leak anything, the brakes work and she runs quite contentedly doing anything i ask -- she is a good old girl.

 

I can drive it on the dirt section of the driveway without any trouble, I did venture in to the grass once (seemed like a reasonable idea at the time, just a few feet, should be fine... yeah, right) -- needed the old F-250 for an assist on that one.. Mostly I use it in the garage as it is smaller than it looks, the wheelbase is only 40".

 

Did a bunch of gravel work at my place with a friends Ford 1620. 90 tons moved in an afternoon widening the drive and re-grading it up to the road. Totally changed how I use the driveway.



I found the cheapest running and driving JD 318 I could find and it’s great after throwing a new carb and deck bearings at it. No hour meter so zero idea how many hours are on it. My wife approves of hydro steering and the hydrostatic trans.



I’ve started down the rabbit hole of implements and added a 4 way snow blade. It turns out that a snow blade works awesome for smaller gravel leveling work too. Super happy it has a float function in the hydraulics.

 

Nice! Them 318’s have been catching my eye.... they sure do hold value.

 

Thanks! I almost got sucked into a 420 or a 332 but they are more than double or triple the price of a 318 too!

I paid $800 for the tractor, deck and new bearings in a box with it. I’m about $200 into maintenance for it and found the plow for $300. For $1300 all in, it’s a nice little machine that will do everything I need short of a FEL on a compact tractor for tree work.

 

Great buy! Looks like the wifey thanks you for her new toy ;-)

 

Shrug. Mine's considered a compact as well, but it's on the smaller side of the CUT range. The loader has decent breakout (I think it's like 1200lbs at the pins) but it's also got a fairly large/deep bucket. Which is great for moving snow or firewood around, but you can outpace the loader's capacity pretty quickly once you get into heavier stuff like loam, gravel, or reclaim.

I was referencing more for snow season around here, but I'm sure that getting it onto the softer stuff or wet grass would be problematic too

 

I’m gonna try to get around to putting a starter on my mower tomorrow so I can get my vacuum on for leaf season. I’m tired of banging on it with a metal rod (solenoid is bad). Guess I’ll loosen the engine and try and twist it so I can get it out. It’s a poor design and I’m sure the people who design them for sure don’t work on them it’s right up against the pump.

 

Somewhere there is an engineer laughing right now.

 

Tight squeeze... stuff the darn thing into a freezer and see if that helps

 

Pffftttt a starter, no problem!! Until you look for the darn thing and say.... who would design a thing like this!!

 

Summer gone by and grass is slowing down.... kid and I had good time mowing with my brother.

 

Brother joe sends me a pic of my sons first beverage.... LOL Christian wouldn’t of drank it..... being 15 and all.... pic makes me laugh. Us older folks might remember some fond memories of family members giving us our first beverage ;-)

 

Some more of the kids mowing chores. He’s me to a T.... great helper and loves to do whatever I do for the most part