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It's been fairly busy the last couple weeks, I'll hit some of the high spots. Initialdave, that's probably not far off, it did make me laugh the first time I saw it.  After I got my cutter back in action my buddy Coop called and needed a little help cutting wheat. Not his combine or operation, but you get the idea.  This is Wheat, specifically, hard red winter wheat. Its one of the few crops that you can grab some right out of the harvester and eat. Make sure you grind it up with your molars really good though.  I got to spend a little time with this beast. It's an old rear end Ford 9000, ten speed with a 6-71 Detroit that's been turned up just a bit.  Step one get it started and get the air building and a/c working. Step two, get out, and get back in and slam your hand in the door. step three cuss truck. Step four if you've got air and you're pissed at the truck you're in the right frame of mind to drive 650 bushels to the elevator. Each bushel weighs about 60lbs, I can't recall what it weighs empty, but I think I have seen gross weights well north of the 56,000 pounds it's supposed to be weigh. maybe 60 and a little bit. Not my deal, I'm just the bus driver. Last year test weights were a bunch higher, like in the 64 lb/bu range. I know a guy that broke his semi trailer in loving half one his first load of the year because of the heavy wheat. I can get it into 10th gear at the end of the first mile, just keep that old detroit screaming about 2,000 and bounce the rev limiter on every shift. Not how I drive my truck, but thats how he told me to drive this one. Coop is a genius mechanic, former Navy man and Detroit expert. If he says run the piss out of it and use the rev limiter to shift off of, by god, i'll do it. What's an elevator you say? This is what the elevator I am heading to looks like from a short mile away. Maybe more like 3/4 of a mile.  To get in there you have to go all the way to the north end of town, east two blocks and then back south down main street. Main street in this little burg is left hand traffic whenever the elevator is open. Two years ago the line to get to the scales was three hours long, trucks were stacked 2 wide on Main street, four blocks long. That sucked dick. In the pic the elevator is to my extreme right, the truck in front of me has to go where the Yellow T600 is pulling out of. The scales are bi-directional, and they have a robot sampling arm so they don't have to come out and scoop some wheat by hand out of your truck.  There's a pretty good routine and everyone knows it. Most guys are really good at alternating weigh ins and outs, every once in awhile you get a cock that line jumps. Name and shame on channel 14 and he's basically hosed over for the rest of harvest because NO one will cut him a break. Everyone is in a rush to get done, but they can only unload trucks so fast. Last year when the lines got bad they would open a second pit to dump in. My turn next to weigh in and get my gross weight. [picture redacted, it's got a town name in it.] Off the scales and a HARD left turn, then cut back to the right and curl around the new silos to line up for the pit.  That's a semi trailer in front of me, they just have doors at the bottom and the grain flows out. In Coop's old Ford, it's a dump bed. You can't feature that I know how to operate one of those, right? Things are a little busy at the pit, pay attention to what they are telling you to do, do it as crisply as possible. Get in, get dumped, get the gently caress out, get paid. On the way out:  Waiting my turn to weigh out. You can see how tight the corners are, the red Kenworth has to make that hard left hand turn as he is coming off the scales. I have to come out of that door totally straight, there's about 6 inches clearance on either side to my mirrors, and the back of the truck is a long ways away. Hard to see in the picture, but the sides are very scarred up from noob drivers that can't handle their poo poo.  I weigh out and haul rear end back to the field for another load. Rinse lather repeat, there's fairly little drama during wheat harvest, at least that's how you want things to go. I had a small medical thing come up and I had to go get sliced on so spent most of Harvest time at home recuperating. This is pretty cool, my neighbor and business partner had his first son last week, one of our mutual friends made these for him.  Little baby spurs with his brand on them. Badass gift and keepsake for a long time. Those spurs are 100% hand made, the letters are free hand cut, tooled and soldered on. Here's some of the poo poo I deal with.  The pond got so low that the cows walked around the end of the fence panel and went to the next pasture. fuckin cows. A rusted through post was part of the problem.  Half hour and poo poo load of ticks later:  No kidding, I picked seven ticks off me that day. Including one out of my beard.  There was also this, I think it's an abandoned Beaver lodge, at least the entrance anyway. Next time I have some explosives I might have to check.  Speaking of beavers here's a drat dam dammit. It's a couple miles away from the abandoned lodge. It's easily holding three feet of water back.  I've been having problems keeping my machine cool enough while cutting in the brush. I just got up and started earlier and got done when I couldn't keep it cool anymore. Well the a/c started working like poo poo, down on power and overheating. With a solid 1/3 of the engine radiator looking like this I don't possibly understand why it's running hot.  So I rigged up a mobile soap dispensing pressure washer, hauled all the poo poo out to the landing to work on the machine. It's not bad to drive a pickup or ute back in there, but it huffs cock to haul anything out on a trailer. Here's my set up.   I was cleaning the front side of the coolers and saw this cute little guy.  Not sure what happened to him, but he either got out, got hot or drowned. Three of the four U joints were out on the rear of our Kubota 1100. It's a pretty important rig, mostly because my pops can tool around in it all day and not waste 30 gallons of diesel. It keeps him occupied so it's worth the price. On jack stands for :safety:  Wheels off, Sam is supervising and reading the procedure out of the book for me.  Rear axle out and half shaft out, it goes where the blue towel is.  Look very closely at the joints. Yeah, they were pretty bad, it sounded pretty gross, but I haven't had time to get to it for awhile.  On the left is the inner half. The three sided plate is the sealing surface against the trans and the splined shaft gets it's torque from the main differential. In the vise is the outer half, I only had to do one of these. The hub end has splines and threads. The end with the boot slides into the yoke on the other half shaft.  I tried beating, cussing pounding and then finally I said gently caress it and get the cutting torch. I really need to build/buy a bearing press.   after I gas axed the spiders out, the loving caps were stuck in.  Torched that poo poo right out.  I cleaned up the bores with a fine grit stone and started putting U joints in.  Ready to go back in.  Assemble in reverse order. Man, I hate it when a manual tells me that. And it never fails that there is some sort of trick to get it done right. I've done this job more than once so it's not that hard, just some of the poo poo is fairly bulky. That was this morning. I've been starting around 5:30 because it's not hot as gently caress until about noon. I can usually kick enough rear end in six hours I can come home and sit in the a/c for most of the rest of the day. Two of my favorite tools are my gas axe. 
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Jul 10, 2013 22:26
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Kuncks, just because it's you....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_and_Oklahoma_Railroad I had to look it up real fast. I think that yellow thing is called a Corvette if I'm not mistaken. That one is of the 03 vintage. Nothing special, removable hardtop, six speed. It's my pop's car. Currently parked in the ranch shop because of Chevy's fantastic ability to gently caress up the smallest things, like how to properly build a six way adjustable seat on the passenger side. I don't have a better picture of it because I haven't been working on it. Pop's not a guy to really modify much of anything. He's got good taste. I do however have a fantastic picture of his other car. A 1963 Stingray split window.  In red. With mag wheels. He had it restored in the mid 90's out in Colorado at the Corvette center. Mostly just gone through, wear items replaced or repaired, added a/c, a decent radio, new rear leaf springs and an amazeballs paint job. I got to drive it most of the way home, 7 hours when I was 17. That was a fun trip.  340hp 327cid. All original. I think the only other mods are a closer ratio trans and a short shifter. He has been offered truly obscene amounts of money for it and refuses to sell. I wouldn't either, he's had it since 1964, as the second owner. He bought it with less than five thousand miles on it. How about that?
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Jul 10, 2013 23:16
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I too use the thor method, always have. There are just those times that three years of daily exposure to dust, dirt, a little moisture rust welds poo poo together. Or I just like using my cutting torch too much. I simply didn't have enough power to beat them out this time. It happens. I've had two calls today about dump trucking,  so I am getting things scheduled for later in the season when it cools off. I get up early and do ranch work so I can goof off all day while it's hot. Back to killing trees soon, the weather is bad for doing much of anything this time of year, it's 80 at dawn and gets worse from there. I still might have to haul the pressure washer set up back over to the landing to wash my a/c evaporator. I'm basically dealing with visitors for the next two days, so yay me. Knucks, every thing that goes wrong with that yellow car he always says "well there's a bunch of guys on the internet with the same problem, and this is how to fix it..." every single time. :commisar: I have some things I spend money on that not everyone appreciates, so to each his own I guess. The red one will stay in the family no matter what though.
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Jul 11, 2013 01:30
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I didn't take anyone's advice, I bought a pair of Rocky's. Steel toe, square toed cowboy boots. I got tired of untying and retying my loving boots ten times a day. Pretty good so far, I got them on clearance so they are extra good for the money.
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Jul 11, 2013 23:44
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Welp.  Down another couple days waiting for parts. Totally my fault, focused on the blade and put a tree branch right through the front glass.  I got a couple pieces in my right eye, had to go to the optometrist to get them out. Just minor fragments, and some superficial scratches. I'm ok. Just a little red eye.e: The PRK that I got in the Navy is still good 12 years later  20/20 in both eyes.
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Jul 17, 2013 03:47
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New glass and seal from JD was 240. A new polycarb door is 750. and they last about as long in the brush as glass, but they scratch really easy and when you stop cutting trees and need to do dirt work, it's too scratched. The Deere and bobcat sales people tell people to not get the poly carb if they are going to be sawing trees. A lot of guys have tried them and everyone has gone back to glass doors. In other news, I dropped a 125lb tub of crystallized cow mineral and protein on my left leg. I didn't break it, but that was 5 full days ago and it still hurts like a bastard. It's still swollen up, and all sorts of interesting colors. I'll post pics later, I promise, it's too gruesome to not share. Today was my first full day back at work and all hell broke loose last night weather wise. Ridiculous wind, insane hail and rain like I have never seen before in my life. I would rather go through a cat 4 hurricane again than have another storm like last night. I've got about a thousand acres, coincidentally where the fuckin cows are standing that is stripped bare. 80% loss of forage. Never seen anything like it. I've got some pics, but mostly I am tired, sore and covered in mud. I'll share, I promise, just not right now. It's been a very very long day.
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Jul 24, 2013 00:37
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N is for Nipples posted:
Fine. Here you go. It still hurts like hell. These are all from today, literally since you wrote your reply.     As long as I move around about 80% speed I am ok. Unfortunately the last two days I have had to work my rear end off.  When I sit for a long time it gets really stiff and I have to use a cane to get around for a minute until it loosens back up. The pics don't do a good job of showing how ugly my leg looks. Swollen around the ankle and foot really bad, black blue and yellow from knee to toes. The scrape on my shin is where the stupid thing landed. There's still a fair size goose egg there. Continuing heat/cold therapy and wrapping with ace bandages helps a lot. e: stairs can kiss my rear end though, and I have a three story house. With a split main level. 
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Jul 25, 2013 05:25
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Beach Bum posted:I know I don't have to tell you about infection, since you probably clean that wound every day with peroxide or alcohol or something similar, but that does look infected as hell from the swelling. Please don't lose your leg to gangrene Seriously, it never even bled. I have cleaned it several times with peroxide and alcohol. I have a ton of soft tissue damage, I saw a PA yesterday and got some therapy instructions. I was starting to get worried too guys.  I'm on the mend, should be back to full speed in a week to ten days. On another note, I got a new toy today. I bought a scraper to put in the front of my skid steer.  That cute little thing has a 2.5cyd pan. My stock bucket is .75cyd (cubic yards.)  Made by Ashland Industries and they call it the GroundHog 2500. There's a few videos of one running on youtube and they are all terrible quality. I intend to fix that very soon.  I played with it for about 90 minutes tonight, worked on a road that is in very poor shape. It's a really fun toy and I'm looking forward to learning how to best use it. For now, it will move a ridiculous amount of material in no time at all. Ashland claims their scraper is 158% more productive moving and spreading material than a bucket. I freakin believe it. Holy crap.I can't wait to get some video. Why are scrapers cool? Because in the right material, like I have lots of, they are very very good at doing several jobs at once. I can cut, trim, spread, compact and haul all with one tool. Some jobs are bucket jobs, some are going to be scraper jobs and some are going to be flip blade jobs. I've got to build watergaps tomorrow, if I get done early enough I'll go play in the dirt and hopefully make a movie.
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Jul 27, 2013 01:46
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The leg is healing nicely. I finally got caught up enough on stuff to be able to spend some time in the shop and work on my cutter. The corners of the teeth are getting worn and it's cutting slow. I've got about 40 hours on this set, and that's pretty good for them only being about half used.  Time to go to the shop and put on a fresh set of teeth. I have a jig and a special carbide grinding wheel to retouch the dull teeth, but today's not that day. I'm just putting on a new set. The new ones are different steel and a different carbide profile. I can't tell any difference. Here's a collection of tools...  Well this is going well....  I broke that one and twisted a 'L' wrench about 30 degrees around. The bolts were stuck on the bores by a years worth of rust and loctite. If you're breaking wrenches, what's the solution? Heat!  All told I had to torch two of them off. The other eight I just heated the base metal up to a dull forge red and they loosened right up. One was rounded out inside and the allen key wouldn't grab, so it got Gas Axed off. This cock sucker came part way out and then stopped and I rounded it off inside. Gas Axe time.   I win! Red hot metal as evidence!  After i got all the teeth off I ran a bottoming tap down each hole to clean up the threads.  Full set of new teef.  After the teeth, I was feeling a little froggy, already sweating and having a good time. So I went to work on the push guard screen.  It's bent pretty bad, and it's been vibrating. There's cracks on both sides in the corners and I wanted to reinforce the screen a bit.  Prep work, got to grind for a good weld.  Using C-Clamps and vise grips to pull it back onto place and weld the brace.  All done.  I had to tighten a few bolts, grease a couple joints and now it's ready to be put on the trailer and sent back to the landing. I'll get back to cutting soon. I'll also be taking the scraper over to do some road work. So have some scraper pics. Looking down into the pan  Full load  Outside view of a load  And the cutting edge  I was picking up some rock off an ancient oil well location and spreading it on a road, then some sand and misc dirt to mix in. 13 seconds to load the pan on flat ground, faster when loading downhill. I like this toy.
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Jul 30, 2013 01:57
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New video day! http://youtu.be/ecx_EDh5Gms There's a link at the end to another video, check that out too. Let me know if it's too fast, I'll do another cut, I figured 21 seconds was plenty long enough to see what was going on. I also made another dump truck shifting thing. When youtube gets finished dicking with it, it will be here: http://youtu.be/8EZK8UdHs7U It felt good to work something close to a full day again, my leg is doing pretty good.
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Jul 31, 2013 05:54
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Motronic posted:From this day on I will feel like a complete sucker when cutting roads with just a bucket. Ho-le-crap that thing is awesome. I had no idea they made a pan that small or that it would work that well. I know, right? I heard about them a couple years ago, finally found this one cheap and close enough to get me interested. New I think they are about 13,500 bucks. AcidRonin posted:this thread is loving awesome. About that "robot scoop arm" on the elevator, is that as cool as i imagine it is in my head? It's about 3% as cool as you're imagining. two swivel joints and the pivot. The tube is just a vacuum nozzle. It sucks a little bit of grain from the truck and takes it all the way inside where they by hand, split the sample into 3 different machines. One to check moisture, one to check how clean it is, and one to check weight. Those are networked to the scale computer. You leave with a scale ticket that has test weight (of the grain,) cleanliness dockage amount (how dirty and weedy your crop is,) your tare and full weights, how many bushels you have and how much they are paying you for it. A good elevator crew will keep the trucks flying in and out. This year they could have hired a box of monkeys to do the job, that's how lovely our wheat harvest was. I promised some storm/weather pics two and a half weeks ago...well, it hasn't done much but storm and rain since then. I'm having a hell of a time getting anything done in all the mud. I can't even get to my skid steers because of the mud. Dump truck is parked, no sense in tearing up the roads I want to fix... Anyway, have a wall of pics. This first series is from the storm on the night of the 22nd. 7ft high debris line   Beavers, natures flood control engineers.  Ever seen what pea size hail driven by 60-80mph winds does to trees and grass? I have, it's weird.     The hail beat the poo poo out of this prickly pear cactus.  Weeds five feet tall stripped of everything but the stalk.  This wash wasn't there the day before.     I have a thousand acres that looked like this.  Blew this decent size cotton wood out of the ground.   How much water went through here?   1030 The next morning and there was still a pocket of hail an inch and a half deep. 88 degrees too.  Flipped over irrigation system   Hay bale stack blown over.   Big m'fing tree blown over/apart.  Behind my house, my yard is on the right side. There's normally NOT water here.  My backyard shooting range....underwater. 
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Aug 8, 2013 16:15
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double posting because I hit the length limit. Looks like Bob isn't going to be heading in to cut trees today.   Oh yeah, I still have a hole in my leg.   And....Sam. 
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Aug 8, 2013 16:15
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Crankit posted:Do you have or use a CB radio or anything like that when you're out on your land? We have VHF radios that we use when we need them. Most of the time it's a one man show...just me. My neighbor and I use handhelds a lot when we're riding pastures together. We've had over 4.5 inches of rain in the last week basically. Possibly more to come, I'm not getting anything done other than put in watergaps and fight the mud. I tried to get over to my skid steer two days ago and didn't make it, no way in hell I am getting the last mile in there unless I walk. And gently caress walking half way that uphill in the mud. Picking tree limbs out of the yard is almost a daily thing right now, and it won't dry up enough so I can cut the yard. Never would I ever dream that I'd have to wait for the yard to dry so I can cut the grass(mostly weeds) in August.
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Aug 9, 2013 18:34
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Preptopus, I have a steel roof on my house and so does everything at the ranch. AcidRonin, I wish flooding was a problem. Flash flooding can be a problem though. In short, rain is good, some rain is better. Rain grows grass, cows eat grass and get fat. We eat cows. I try to disturb the land as little as possible and only do what's necessary. On another note, I'm going to try to do some dump truckin tomorrow!
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Aug 13, 2013 04:09
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Herble Gerblederp posted:I've worked in a grain elevator for a few years now. If there's any interest in how they work and it's cool with Used Sunlight Sales I could take some pictures tomorrow and throw together a post showing how we do things. Get right after it, I'm a little curious as to what magic actually goes on after I dump a load in the pit to be quite honest with you.
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Aug 14, 2013 15:25
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Anyone want to guess how much a set of tracks costs for one of those machines? I'm having issues with pictures on my phone right now, tried to upload some to Imgur last night and the loving phone deleted them. p.s., Eat more cows.
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Aug 21, 2013 21:23
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Ferremit posted:A set for our little Vermeer S600TX at work was A$1200, add in the prancing deer tax and Im guessing little to no change from $2500 2500 each or a set from JD? If you said EACH, you'd be right. Holy poo poo.... I found a pair for just under 3 grand shipped. I'm about to toss my phone in the garbage, still having issues with it. 'Prancing deer tax' I like that.
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Aug 22, 2013 03:46
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The tracks are supposed to last a thousand hours, which might as well be lifetime for me because I'll probably trade before then. I got these for a little more than half what a set of Deer(e) tracks would. http://rubbertrack.com/item_259/18-450mm-EXT-Series-Replacement-Rubber-Track.htm Bobcat has an option for steel tracks on their second to largest machine Other guys in the industry will vouch for this, but we started at 8 this morning with three riders and one guy (pop) in the Kubota leading the 266 cows. The drive was a mile, we had the cattle penned, calves sorted off into one pen, sorted two limping bulls off, the non limping bulls off, and then sorted 3 smalls and 2 cows of the neighbors off. Loaded two pots, a ground load trailer and a big stock trailer, got paid, then one neighbor showed up to load his critters. All said and done, got the cows turned back out on grass by 2. We've got count on the cows and bulls, one calf short. I'm beat. Imagine playing an outdoor sport for six hours non stop, that's what I feel like. At least we've had enough rain that I'm not covered in muddy dust, that sucks rear end. Nothing worse than having a streak of mud run down your face into your eye because it's dusty as gently caress and you're sweating buckets. I'm off to bid a rock hauling job! Used Sunlight sales fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Aug 22, 2013 |
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Aug 22, 2013 20:58
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Pics today!AcidRonin posted:
Funny story. Spring 2012 pop and I went about an hour away with our machines to help a friend clean out his sump ponds for irrigation. Three day job, we got finished up and paid off, as we were heading out a seismic crew that was working in the area had decided to park two of their trucks right in the middle of our trailers and fuel trailer. One of the seismic crew trucks was blocking me from being able to get hooked up to my trailer, so I got in my truck and went down the road to find the crew's super. Found him and he said the truck was his, I asked him to come move it and he basically blew me off. I told him that if he wasn't there in five minutes to move his piece of poo poo truck I was going to flip it over in the bottom of the pond. Mind you, the landowner is a friend and he's been having problems with these jerks, I have been on site for three days and they made my life harder than it had to be more than once. He didn't think I was serious until I got the corner of my bucket under the back bumper of his truck and lifted it off the ground. That fat bastard came running across the pasture waving his keys over his head so I set the truck down. He hopped in, fired it up and the last I saw of him he was heading south over the hill. Paul called me a week later and said that the corporate boss of that supervisor came down and had a talk with Paul and left of with a very different impression of the way his crew was operating. Onward to pics! More storm damage, this fence got hit by lightning. The cable can't carry the current and it burns, saving the energizer. High tensile wire will carry enough of the lightning to fry the energizer. When it hits it basically vaporizes 20 or so yards of the cable and the end looks like it was cut with a torch. (stupid camera phone)  mostly what I have is pics of the track replacement. I paid some prancing deere tax and had JD come put them on. It took them about an hour and fifteen minutes. I had it jacked up, on blocks/stands and all the tension off the tracks.  Maybe I should back up and show you the damage. The tracks are rubber, with an endless cable running one each side on the outside. The drive sprocket engages steel crossbars (if this was a steel track machine they'd be called grousers if that helps) that are embedded in the rubber. The cables and crossbars are NOT connected. The crossbars transfer drive power from the sprocket to the track. The cables keep stretch under control. These are what the crossbars look like when they aren't in the track where they are supposed to be.  Since this is AI, i'm going to assume that ya'll are understanding what I am telling you and showing you. Notice the cracks, this is also where one of those crossbars is supposed to be.  More cracks and missing crossbar.   This is my fault, I've been running them too tight to keep them on in the brush. I just need to slow the frick down and be more careful. Expensive lesson. So here's what three grand worth of new tracks looks like.  Cue the Gray shirts! 'Ten ton' crane on that truck couldn't lift my 12,000 pound track loader. had to toss my 8 ton bottle jack under there to get another inch of lift.  Step one, pry the track off and use the crane to move it around.  I didn't/couldn't get pics of the process because I had to be in the machine to roll the drives forward and back to roll the track on. Nekkid drive sprocket  Side shot of the undercarriage. I checked all the rollers for play and bearing noise. All good there.  Flying tracks!  I swear it just jumped on there.  Proof we at least took the track off the other side....  gently caress you imgur for deleting pics. Guess I'll have to take some more tomorrow. It rides a lot better with these and they turn better every way but spinning (which is the worst thing you can do anyway.) I have a poo poo load more traction, I pushed a couple scraper loads and I really like these tracks. Couple other things went on, had a trailer tire simply decide to stop living and it came apart.  It was still holding 60 psi, I treated it like an armed bomb until I got the valve core out. I also had to shovel out a couple tons (literally) of mud and rock that was stuck in my dump truck. This flustercluck...  Turned into this pile.  I tilted the bed up as high as I could and keep my feet under me, tripped the back gate and climbed up a ladder, got in the truck and shoveled. Took about an hour and fifteen minutes and I was covered in sweat. Not very much fun. How was your week?
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Aug 27, 2013 02:08
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AcidRonin posted:Part of me wonders what a cow must thing when they see you in big machines or a big section of fence get vaporized. Then I realize that it's a cow, and it cant understand. Cows are funny critters, and I spend lots of time with them. They are somewhat intelligent and trainable, but I supposed we've had a few generations to breed those traits in that we want. They learn electric fences are hot and to stay the hell away from them real fast. I think that cows find food with their noses, the eyes are mostly work like a close range search radar. What attracts them most is noise. I can make a recording of the sound of the feeder running, sounding like it's dropping feed on the ground, play it on a boombox in the middle of the pasture while riding a four wheeler and they will come running to me. When they get there they are a little confused though.... Simple positive reinforcement with treats is the easiest way to train any animal, you just had to find the right stimulus and right treat. Been working on my skid steer all day, one trip to Mecca and I'm frustrated. Something is wrong electrically, I thought it was rats eating my wiring, but that's not the case. After taking about two 5 gallon buckets worth of fine dust and wood debris out of the machine and going hand over hand the entire wiring harness, I can't find anything wrong. JD is sending a tech down Wednesday morning. FML, can't wait to get that bill. I hope it's a computer box, because I have two more years of warranty on all the computers, but the labor is still going to high as gently caress.
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Sep 9, 2013 22:41
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Ferremit posted:A fun trick is to find a spot in a cow paddock not occupied with half a bucket of liquid poo poo and lay down. Count how long it takes for all the cows to gather around you going "WTF is that?" They more or less come over in small groups and check you out and then leave you alone. What did you do for fun growing up?
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Sep 10, 2013 05:09
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AcidRonin posted:When you say Mecca, do you mean the JD Store or something? Yes, and my thought behind the joke is that it's a pilgrimage I seem to make a lot. Just passing through the house, having some food. I'm heading back out to the ranch to do some scraper work and mess with a creek crossing.
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Sep 10, 2013 18:08
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I like Deere because they have the best parts system on Earth. Need an obscure part for a rare combine that they only made 500 of 40 years ago? They can get it next week. Mobile techs are not cheap, but neither is downtime. It's about a half day project to haul it to Deere, 3 hours is about what it takes to get there and back, load, unload and do all the loving around you have to do. They should be able to run down and troubleshoot the electrical gremlins I'm having in a couple hours. Hopefully it's something warrantied. Basically every company that sells heavy equipment or ag equipment has a small fleet of mobile service trucks.
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Sep 11, 2013 00:29
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The Midniter posted:If it's covered under warranty does that also cover the labor, or are you on the hook for that? I have to reread the fine print on the dealie, but there's a 200 dollar deductible on covered repairs, and I have to pay Windshield time. JD picks up the parts and tech time. If it's NOT something under warranty, it's $95/hr, including windshield time. I was incorrect about that. After waiting three hours for the tech to show up, I gave him a run down of what was going on and he set to work. I can't miss any meals, so I ran home for lunch. Tomorrow, I have myself talked into trading in my Harley on another Harley..... Put here or in CA?
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Sep 11, 2013 18:45
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AcidRonin posted:I suppose the Harley is NOT for ranching? Since I know the NSA is reading everything and they probably talk to the IRS, we'll just call it a "Management expense." The Deere tech left...with a 300 bill. There was a loose connector inside the main computer box. I'll be in the garage taking all the chrome off my Softail Heritage, and gettin ready to bring home an Ultra Classic! I'm excited.
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Sep 11, 2013 21:18
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AcidRonin posted:sounds like a tax write off to me! Heh, firearms and ammunition can be considered farm/ranch supplies. So is ALL my diesel fuel.
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Sep 11, 2013 22:38
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Getting caught running red fuel turns into a huge goatfuck. I've never even been inspected, and I run the correct color fuel anyway. I accomplished zero work today. I also have probably done dumber poo poo that cost me more money too. Behold, my latest irresponsible purchase. It's a 2006 HD Electra Glide Ultra Classic (R). Or FLHTCUI for you Harley nerds.   It's loving gorgeous, way better looking that the Heritage softail I traded in. It's been raining off and on since I got home...and my driveway is dirt. This bike is too pretty to get muddy on her first day. So no ride report yet, tomorrow, however, is another day.
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Sep 13, 2013 01:09
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I am going to keep depending on luck and staying the hell away from town to keep from getting my dump truck inspected. My lights aren't legal, I'm still working on getting my brake lights to operate properly and I may have a few small leaks under the truck. But hey, the rubber is good and the brakes are new!
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Sep 13, 2013 02:45
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My buddy Kyle stopped by today and he confirmed that charcoal will get the red dye out. He's been a Deere tech for 10 years, I feature that he knows what he is talking about. He also has a pretty cool 359 with a 3406B Cat and a 13 speed that he uses to haul hay and grain with... Anyway, we were talking trucks and I said my Jakes weren't working. A little bit later I went in to fetch the keys, I came out and he had my dash apart. (literally two screws hold the dash in and it's hinged on bottom.) Seems the problem with my Jakes was that the switch wasn't hooked up. One of the connections had popped off. Put it back on and took a little test drive. So I've got working Jake brakes now. There's a hill that's pretty steep that I have to go down a lot. Something like 10% grade for a third of a mile. The rock hauler belly dumps with 550hp ISX's drop to about 35 at the top of it if they hit the bottom at 65. It's a gnarly climb, especially for the 'flatlands' of Kansas. COming down that hill is pretty hairy in a forty year old dump truck with just service brakes. Anyway, tl;dr, I got my jake brakes working, expect a video of twin stickin and jake brakin soon.
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Sep 15, 2013 07:53
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My shift pattern usually goes like this. main trans/aux trans I start off with the back trans either in second if I am loaded or whatever if I am not. I'll work up the low side, second on the aux trans keeps all the low side gears really close together. When I hit fifth in the main trans, i'll go to third on the aux trans before I jump to the high side of the main trans. I like to stay in third on the aux box until I get to 9th and 10th, then I play with the 3-4 shift on the aux box to split those gears out. 2/2 3/2 4/2 5/2 (this is the 2-3 shift on the aux box.) 5/3 Skip sixth gear because it's literally the same as fifth. 7/3 8/3 9/3 9/4 (starting splitting gears on the high side with the aux box) 10/3 10/4 <--- Haul rear end gear. I can try to make a better shifting video and sort of show the shift pattern. I'll put that on the to-do list. Something else, a 13, 15 or 18 will still only have a total of six gates on the transmission. Just a basic six speed pattern, but in a 13/15/18 you have air shifters to split gears, with an aux trans it's a second stick. There is this guy, http://youtu.be/8lEYaTvvq4g Only the stick in the middle is actually a gear shifter, the inside and outside sticks are just connected to air switches under the floor. It's cool, but it's not a three stick transmission. Kind of ricey and makes things needlessly complicated. If I was driving over the road I'd have a 15 or 18 and gear it for the moon and leave the loving shifter alone. Six holes and two switches are hard enough to keep track of, not to mention turning the jakes on and off so why add two MORE sticks. Maybe he calls it theft prevention because no one else will ever figure out how to drive the fucker. This dude has a similar transmission arrangement to what I have, But he doesn't have a two speed axle. And it's in a Cabover. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCQj68cdb88 And then there is this, a Mack with a triplex. http://youtu.be/2mf6AUbjT-s?t=29s I can't do that. That dude, however is pretty badass. I didn't watch more than a few seconds of this, but he seems to know what he is talking about. http://youtu.be/arClXRkHKGs So now that you've watched all those, here's a few seconds of revving my truck and letting it jake down in the yard. Enjoy. http://youtu.be/XdXlU-9n1SY I've got some cool pictures I'll share with ya'll later.
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Sep 15, 2013 18:24
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I hate to interrupt the red fuel and two stick jake brake discussion, but I've got time to sit down, upload some pics and make a post. Rats in my wiring, notice all the dirt and wood debris. It's a half day project to clean the hull out and do a good job.   Rat nest  Squeezed into the shop  Cab up  Pumps, hoses, valves and general magic poo poo. The place where rats ate the wiring is in the bottom right.  Under the back hood.  Pre made patches for the wiring harness that the rat(s) ate.  Zero room to work down there.  One more done. Notice how much dirt there isn't. I had to empty my 5 gallon shop vac twice. It was a mess down there. Filled the shop with dust too.  All done, I did black tape everything and tied the harness back.  This however was not the problem. The problem was a loose connector inside the main computer box. The wire harness that I repaired is for the left side wheel speed sensor. Oh well. I also broke my scraper.  That's what happens on a down hill push when the caster gets caught in a cow track. The sound it made snapping off was pretty cool though.  I got to use my favorite tool, my trusty Gas Axe.  Then the grinder.   checking for straightness.  I took it over to my buddy John Boy's and he filled the gouges in, ground it flat and welded on the new spindle....for ten bucks. Another little welding project that I did. We've gotten several awards for the ranch over the years that come in sign form. Signs must hang, and everyone else around here just ties them to the fence. Not me, they must hang high in air so people can see them. The sign, I covered the name of the county. I know there's some of you that have probably figured out where I am to within a few miles and thank you for maintaining my privacy.  I built the new frame out of angle iron. Used the torch to 'V' notch the stock, and just folded it over.  Corner weld of the frame with mounting bracket.  Another mounting bracket. Not bad for an old dude that learned to weld in high school.  Finished the new part. Sam approves. Dropped a coat of rustoleum black on it. Things don't rust very fast out here, it's really dry.  No more of that, every other picture I took either has a highway sign in the frame, or the mailbox with names on it. It got cloudy and my solar panels got dirty. As a result, I almost ran out of water for the cows and had to get a generator around so I could pump water over night. First thing, I checked the oil...and it was full of fuel. Oil change time!  This generator is a piece of crap, but it will run for 16 hours at a time on the water pump on about 3.5 gallons of fuel. I've had to rewire everything but the guts of the generator itself. We've also had a hard time with pull cords. So I said gently caress it, took the pull cord housing OFF and rigged up a handheld starter left over from my go kart racing days to start the generator. Now, it's really no problem to get the generator running. It fires right up with a couple seconds every time.  The problem is when the battery on your starter goes kaput and you're too cheap to buy another fifty dollar battery for it. So you use jumper cables from your truck to he starter to start the generator.  Shut the hell up, it works.  I also cleaned some solar panels, the bottom left is still dirty, everything else is clean.  That's all I have unless you want to see my Harley from about 50 different angles. 
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Sep 15, 2013 22:48
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Those solar panels power a submersible pump that pumps water up 120 feet to an 8,000 gallon storage tank. From there, gravity takes over and feeds a system with six 12 foot diameter stock tanks and about 4,000 feet of pipe. The tanks have an Aluminum float connected to a brass valve with a rubber seat. If pipeline pressure is greater than the static head in the tank and the float is down, water flows in. If the float is down and line pressure is lower than the tank head pressure (indicating that I'm out of fuckin water) it won't back feed. A couple cloudy days with dirty panels and you get really low on water. When that happens I hook a 6kW generator up to a 1200 watt load. It runs a long time and runs at full capacity. It's also a cool fact that the pit pond where the pump is will still flow 20+ gpm while pumping 12 gpm out with the pump. It's a really good spring. e: Got a dump trucking job for tomorrow. Not sure how many loads yet, but it might keep me busy the rest of the week. Found out this morning that my dump truck leaks electricity. Bad enough to discharge three 950 amp batteries. Time to hook up a disconnect switch and chase shorts. I also have to replace that 24 Used Sunlight sales fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Sep 17, 2013 |
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Sep 17, 2013 01:00
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Try searching here, asking if you can't find a thread. http://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/forumdisplay.php?63-Skid-Steers I personally don't know of anywhere, sorry. I got a dump truckin job, not even sure how many loads it's going to end up, but I started off with three today. I had to finish ranch work before I could go haul rock and the quarry closed today at 2:30. I hit the yard at 2:45. The L/O is having me spread rock on his roads, and I've got about a mile and a half to do. On the down side, I can't seem to find my frickin GoPro. I'll figure something out, the jakes sound pretty cool.
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Sep 19, 2013 00:19
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Not knowing that model specifically, but as long as it's a belt, should be easy enough to procure a replacement. There should be one drive motor per side and a huge gently caress off chain that keeps the front and back wheels turning together. IF it's a hydrostat drive, if not...maybe it's got some strange clutch arrangement. Speaking of solar pumping systems....the ranch I am hauling for this week has TWO solar systems that will pump 60 gpm. Those panel arrays are huge, but I don't think I will be close enough to one for a while yet to take a picture.
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Sep 19, 2013 04:02
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I didn't have the greatest few days at work at the end of last week. Wednesday I had ranch work to do before I went dump truckin, so I only got three loads hauled, but I looked at the whole job. It's going to keep me busy for a long time. Thursday, I got the ranch work done early and was heading to get the first load of rock about 9:00am. First load went fine, without a problem. The truck just hummed right along. Second load, about 14 miles off the pavement going around a right hand corner the engine died. At 10:40 in the morning, 14 miles from the pavement and no cell service. I had to stand on the rock in the bed and hold my phone over my head and talk on speaker phone. I got a ride back to get tools. It took me until 5:30 to get it running. Cummins PT fuel systems work great, until you get air in it and then they are hosed. I had to haul in some fuel and get the system re-primed AND chase an electrical problem that may or may not have been a contributing factor. By the time I got her running it was sprinkling rain, and I had 15 tons of 4+ rock in the back that's know to set up like cement if it gets wet. Got to get that poo poo out, it was 7pm before I made it back to the yard. Next time I run the loving truck out of fuel, I know how to fix it and get it running quickly. Fuel pump pic..  Who knows what's a fuel line?  Who knows what fuel line does what?  The diagram I found shows the main fuel feed to the engine coming out of the shutdown valve. Of which I do not have a clear picture. Just another day fixing a broke rear end dump truck on the side of the road 35 miles from town and about 5 from the nearest house.  Later that day....  I wish that picture would have come out better. I like the light and the framing, but it's not quite in focus or I was shaking and it was getting dark. One or the other. I took a dump.   Those tanks are 30 feet across and they raise American Bison on this place. I hauled 30 tons to each tank or the 4+ size rock. They were going to try and get it spread out around them shortly in case I have to bring more. I'm also doing about three miles of road for them, so I'll be in the area a lot. The manager of the ranch also said that the drilling and production contractors (for the oil field) might be interested in me hauling some for them on their lease roads. It's going to be a good deal if I can get some work down there. I'm trading rock for fuel, they keep fuel on site. I don't have to go more than a couple miles out of my way to get fuel now so hopefully my dumbass will keep a little more in the tank. The rock I am going to spread on the roads is a 2-3" clean gyp rock. It's got about 10% fines in it and that's just about right to help it bind back together and make a good road. I made a test run and got my chains figured out. Ten links worked great in 2/1 gear. Getting loaded    I bail out when they load, the lack of cab seals and constant Kansas wind mean poo poo loads of dust inside. Here's the battery disconnect I installed.  Here's the piece of exhaust that I removed....  I may have done a small amount of damage to it getting it off....it was coming apart though and not connected to itself in three places. Horrendous exhaust leak. New piece installed...  I love air tools. An air chisel and impact tool made that lovely job last about ten minutes. The truck is a lot quieter now and the jakes sound a little better. The piece of flex pipe between the Y and my right muffler also has a crack and leak in it. Now that I know how inexpensive the pipe is, I'll pick up another piece next time I am at the truck shop. It's been a nice weekend, and I am looking forward to getting back to work this week and making some cash hauling rock. Knucks, how's the skid steer buying?
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Sep 23, 2013 01:43
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Dump trucking is not very much of my time at all. Yes, the cows are #1, they pay the bills. They get taken care of first. Some days that takes all day, some days...about 45 minutes. After that, I'll go cut trees, work on fence or build roads or haul rock. I work about as long as I feel like working. I'm not the best at time management, but I have some cool charts to help me keep my poo poo straight. I have an office with ranch maps and grazing charts on the walls. It's nice being really flexible, there's a patriot guard ride tomorrow morning that I am going on for example.
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Sep 26, 2013 02:36
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Walking out the door in about five minutes to go on this ride thing. The WBC tried a protest in 2006 out here and it didn't end well for them. There will be 15 or so of us this morning. I kind of have to trust that the cows are OK this morning, it's going to be noon before they see me.
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Sep 26, 2013 15:26
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devmd01 posted:Plenty of property available out there to make some bodies disappear. I actually told a Lawyer something very close to that a couple years ago. I was on the Plaintiff side, trying to recoup damages from a fire my neighbors lit (negligently.) The lawyer was from the insurance company. I had 2 of the 3 defense (insurance company) lawyers in my truck and one of my lawyers. Their lead lawyer started shooting off his mouth, while we were a mile back in the pasture. I very simply told him to shut up and if he didn't that I had heavy equipment and that 7,000 acres is a lot of space to hide one body. He shut the gently caress up and never said another word to me. WBC didn't show up, they never do. (lots of space to hide bodies.) Tried and failed to capture a rogue bull this morning, he went to the brush and three of us couldn't get him convinced to come out. The owner pretty much gave me a blank check and permission to do anything short of shooting him to get him captured. I have a few ideas, hopefully next time the cowboy crew assembles for my neighbor I can steal them for an hour or so to get that big bastard caught. 2,000+ lbs of bull goes where ever he wants to, and right now, he wants to hide in the fuckin brush. Big mineral hump this afternoon and getting the skid steers ready to go do some fire prep work so we can burn some poo poo in the spring. Three machines, seven attachments and about two miles of fireline to prepare. Lunch done, time to go back to work. Activity in this thread makes me want to add more content. I am going to try to work on a road that I messed with yesterday, but had to stop because the machine won't run cool.
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Sep 27, 2013 19:04
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I just got in from helping my neighbor prep some fireguards for a burn we're planning next spring. The north end of it is only a mile from my house, so I'm pretty interested in making sure we have a good strong fire guard built. Our prevailing winds are S->N here in the spring, fall and summer. Winter time, old man hawk comes down from the north. I still don't have a solid plan for getting the bull, it's going to be more of an opportunity thing than a hard and fast plan. It may however involve tranqs. I can get ahold of some Rompun, and it's bad rear end stuff. Known side effects include death. Skid steer vs. Bull ends predictably with the bull simply running away. So...pics, yeah? So last week I got a few loads of rock hauled. Here's how it looks around the telephone corner (long story, don't ask, but it's a local landmark.)  Bonus Sam shot.  Spread out nice and even.  How about Buffalo?  South Central Kansas Traffic Jam.    I bought a new mower.  It's pretty badass it pivots about 30 degrees and has casters in front to help follow the ground. I can't find another mower with those features.  I did a mineral hump the other day, if you don't know what that is It's vitamins for cows. It comes in 50 lb sacks and 200lb tubs. The 200lb tubs can kiss my rear end, they are not fun to load by yourself.  Dog is always my co-pilot.  This little Suzuki is a great truck to haul about a half ton of poo poo around.  Right hand drive, 4 speed with a dual range transfer case and locking axles and diffs.  It is also a frickin billy goat.   How about some articulation?   The front end has blocks on top of the struts that lift it 2 inches to clear the tires. The back, the kit I bought had a helper spring that made it ride rough as hell. So I took them off and built longer shackles.  The air intake was really low and tended to suck in a crap load of dust. So I moved it.  Redneck engineered intake system  Driving around and looking at grass I noticed this coming back onto my place from the neighbors. Which side is mine?  How about some dung beetles? Dung beetles are a sign of healthy soil.  Cows eating their vitamins, it also has 28% protein to help them digest lignified (dried) grass.  What else did I do? I moved some sand.  I could maybe fit about a shovel full somewhere...maybe?  Here's my borrow pit, only a few loads taken out at this point, mostly I stripped off the grass and sagebrush.  Some sand gone...  Even more gone...  I have more pics of the borrow pit, but I didn't frame them right and there's no reference. I can't even tell what's going on, so you don't get to see them. The rest of the week I'm going to try to get some dump truckin done. I'm going to try to pull 6 loads tomorrow, we'll see how that goes. Also, I have some more pics on my phone, I'll try to be motivated to get them uploaded tonight and make another post. Kerbal space program is ruining my life, free time and sleep time.
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Oct 2, 2013 02:24
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I find that it's not a matter of how fast you can go in that little truck, it's a matter of how fast you want to. Just remember you're the first one to the scene of the crash. You'll beat the other guy there by a couple hundredths of a second at least.
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Oct 2, 2013 21:35
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