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

My buddy got his hitch powdercoated. Not sure why he didn’t do orange.

 

Shoulda welded some hooks on that frame for chain pulling...cars, logs etc.

 

If you knew my buddy and his tractor skills you’d know why I didn’t. I have hooks on mine

 

I have friends like that. Smart decision!

 

Here’s the hooks on my hitch, actually have 2 hitches, one is cat 1 and one is cat 2 a little beefier. Two hooks for pulling straight and one for pulling up. The one for up works great on fence post. I also put a piece of pipe in the center and have a bale spear for it and a gooseneck ball for moving the trailer around.

 

Used the hitch (another one with a fast hitch adapter) last year to get a power pole from a neighbor.

 

Has steel gone crazy in the last 6-7 years in your area? Around here the price of channel, tube, and angle seems to have almost doubled since I started welding again.

 

Yes, it's about doubled around here in the past 6-7 years as well.

 

Gotta get creative. My scrap guy will let me dig his pile and sells at weight price. Think I got ~150lbs of cut offs for $14 last time I went.

 

My local scrapyard mostly just has cars/parts, washing machines, water heaters, etc. Never seems to have much for structural steel unless you're looking for the big I-beams from mobile home frames.

 

I have one scrap place like that and another that sells steel and also has a scrap pile. Look at your steel supplier and see if they sell drops or take in scrap.

 

Yeah, I'll have to ask them if they sell the cutoffs next time I'm up. I know they don't take in scrap, but I'm not sure what they do with their odds & sods.

 

Drops are usually much cheaper. Also look on FB marketplace. I caught a fab shop moving and bought a bunch from them for really cheap awhile back. I've also scored at the restore resale shop locally.

 

Had the day off and got in some seat time. Cut a bunch of brush and edges where I mow. Let a bunch of the edge stuff lie and hooked up the brushhog and chopped it up.

Also finished brushhogging my county road frontage which was 5ft tall field grass. Rats as big as my foot were running out. Twas a good day on the seat.

 

Got a little seat time today too, put some fertilizer on the goat lot.

 

Friend of mine saves me his small rolls for our goats. Went and got one on the trailer feeder I made a few years ago to make it easier to get and also clean the old hay out of the shed. Tractor barely clears the header.

 

Today was a maintenance day, since everything's still too soft to get out and work it. Oil & filter change, blew out the air filter, changed the fuel, hydraulic, & HST filters, and topped off with fresh fluid. Greased every zerk and ball, and then swapped the front universal & portal fluids. I considered changing the HST/hydraulic & power steering fluids, but everything was still perfectly honey-colored so I didn't bother.

 

A little more brush burning today. Moved a bunch of long sumac with a pallet on my rear fork lift set. Lifted a 23ft tall tree to haul to the brushpile.
Before any safety nanny loses their mind. The pic was right after I lit the pile and I moved the tractor right after the pic. Tractor is 30ft from the pile.

 

Welded a piece on this broken fertilizer bracket today.

 

So the sleeve hitch fork set was built for my other GT and the angles are wrong for my 3240. Using it pissed me off more than helped. I said to heck with that nonsense today and built a forkset for my bucket.

My other set is also T-posts and handle 400lbs well so I'm fine with them for my bucket as I don't intend to lift >300lbs with them. Strangely enough they are high tensile rail steel and are unbelievably tough for their size. I wanted no tool attach so built it to use 1/2" pins.

I plan to build a couple plugs to keep dirt out of the retention pipes. If I bend a T-post I'll build some pipe forks. Ran out of time and will squirt some black on it later.