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

Let the kids do some digging. This Little Rock wasn’t much work and he popped it all by himself.



Now this one was just high enough to grab a mower blade. Not much above the surface.





Well little while later I end up with 2 rocks that the FEL can barely get off the ground. Bottom one was about 5 feet long.


And yes because I have a backhoe.

 

Got two monster backhoes shorin’ up the Riverbank before the levels increase from breakup. I’ll see if I can get close enough to get a pic or two tomorrow.

 

Funny how they 'hide' like that.
When I was in my early teens my dad decided to dig out the rock out behind the barn that he always hit with the mower while he was haying. We borrowed the neighbor's TLB, sounded out the edges of the rock with a big pry bar, and started digging out around the perimeter. But even though it was only about 3 feet around at the top, it was shaped like a traffic cone, and the deeper we went the bigger it got. By the time we had dug down about 5-6 feet it was the size of a VW Beetle. So it's still there

 

At one point I was about yo give up but one scoop on the side gave me hope as it moved a little. Repositioned and popped it out. Now for the yard to dry out more so I can bring some dirt down to fill it.

 

I worked on the 3240 today. Rebuilt the spool valves (loader lift and curl, and rear hitch lift) and ordered all the parts to fix the rear diff. Replaced one spool that was scored when I initially built it with one I picked up off ebay. I drilled out all the linkage holes to 5/8" and replaced all the plastic bushings with BFBs bought from aircraftspruce. All my bushings will be replaced by BFBs as I get to it.

 

It’ll be right when you get done with it

 

I worked truck fleet and trailer dealership for a combined 20 years. It instilled in me the sense of "It better be right for the next 10 years when it leaves" attitude. Can't have a load on the side of the road when it's expected 1500 miles away because it wasn't done right.

 

I get that
I did plant services, when your equipment goes down the entire plant goes down -- and everybody (especially people with a title starting with Mr.) knows your name. If it goes down on the night shift they will call you.
This gives people like us an entirely different perspective on maintenance and repairs than a floor maintenance guy.

 

Did some fire-setting this weekend. Wanted to do it last summer, but it was too dry and I wasn't able to get a burn permit.
When I was leveling the lower lot last summer I came across some pretty big rocks, bigger than what the tractor could really handle (I was able to push them all together, but I couldn't lift or stack them out of the way). So I built last year's brushpile on top of them, and when I set it off this weekend it was super dry, so it burned really, REALLY hot. Worked even better than I expected. Now they're all broken down into manageable sizes, or they've got stress cracks that should make them pretty easy to break down with a sledge. I already bashed a couple of them on Saturday afternoon, while they were still hot, and they sounded just like cast ceramics rather than rocks; super fragile and almost hollow-sounding.

09:30-


11:30-

 

Looks like fun to me. That's a great idea waiting for the rocks to get hot and then trying to crack them. I have a rather huge burn pile waiting to be set off as well but I think I'm going to wait another month before I light it.

 

It actually worked really well; the pale rock at the center of picture 3 actually split in half during the burn, and then each of those halves split into smaller pieces as they cooled, plus some misc. smaller pieces that flaked off. No sledge necessary. I ended up with 5 pieces that are roughly 12"x12" or 12"x16" rather than one big 2'x3'x4' lump.

And the large dark one in the upper right of picture #6 has a couple of big cracks in it now, so I bet with some wedge & sledge work I can split it pretty much in half, which will bring it down to a manageable size. Everything else pretty much destroyed itself. Very cool.

 

Had a total failure of a weekend outing for my Kubota B4200. I took it to my cabin to do some groundwork and mowing and the old girl wouldn't fire up. My glow Plug indicator went out and she would just crank. Thought i'd lost my glow plugs, or maybe had bad diesel, but I ended up finding a bad electrical connection to the glow plugs themselves, once I got back home lol. Fiddled with the connector and should be good there, but weirdly my glow plug indicator went bad at the same time. I will order a new GPC eventually.

Heading back tomorrow for redemption.

Wasn't all bad though, my 8 year old got a quick and dirty lesson on how to try and bump start a tractor lol.

 

shaeff's winter work on his tractor (MF35 Utility) - None
shaeff's winter work on his mini skid steer (LJ500) - None, but I did bring it in the basement to keep it out of the elements. Going to repack the curl cylinder, drain/refill the hydraulic oil with the proper stuff, give it a good cleaning where needed, weld up some cracks nice and hot, fix the broken zerk fitting that I stupidly put in a place where it got sheered off.

So once I get the curl cylinder repacked and oil drained and refilled, I'll pull it back outside and weld it up.

The 35 Utility really needs to be split, but we're now expecting a baby (our first, due late August) so things are about to get too busy for me to bother with splitting it. I'll put it back together and run it as I have for the past five years. Split some other time...

 

Congratulations on your first child

 

And our condolences on your spare time.

 

Yessir,
Years back I visited the sight of a Big compressor station fire. All the sand fused to glass. Kinda like that crunchy ice you used to Stomp on when you were a kid. The pipes looked real until you touched ‘em & they fell apart.

 

I just picked one up myself. Not only is it a 6.slow gasser, it's also got the NV4500 5-speed and it likes to be shifted like a semi. There is no "fast" with this truck but it's comfy and only used for farm work so it fits the bill. I have no idea what kind of mileage it gets to be completely honest but it's not fantastic.

 

Didn’t realize these had a manual available in this set up