This week's tractor upgrades

[Jim Timber]

I whipped up a hydraulic top link, and added a basket to the fender.

The top link required cutting the cylinder eye off and adding an extension and welding a new replacement eye to that. Took more time cutting the old one off than it did making the new one. The basket was actually far more work, but only because it was a rusty mess when I got it and I had to blast it clean, then repaint it (which is harder than you might think because of all the different surfaces).

Before you point out my mashed fender - that happened 300' into my property the first time I drove this machine in my woods. The trails just weren't wide enough to accommodate the added length of the loader and while I was dodging trees with the bucket, I managed to hook one with the rear tire. To my surprise, it didn't push out of the way and I got crunched. Oh well! It's better than having a widow maker land on my head, and it liberates me from caring about how many additional holes I put in the tin. :D

My Deere green paint equivalent is obviously a wee bit off... I'll probably paint the cylinder when I find a better color than the stuff I got. That's why I don't really care the BBQ black (toughest spray bomb paint I've ever used) doesn't match the glossy of the rest of the cylinder.

 

[tooln]

Lookin good.

 

[Jim Timber]

Need the ground to thaw out and drain before I get to use it. Was working on the edge of the swamp over the weekend removing some fill the neighbor illegally placed and had to brake turn in 4wd because I just couldn't change direction otherwise in the mud. Got 6" into the top of the pad they made and it was frozen solid.

When I went up yesterday for the township board meeting, I had these with me, but didn't do anything but drive out of the container to work on it and drive it right back in.

Btw, the roof was covered with condensation inside it. I'm going to be working on my top vent stack before too long. I have the bottom one just about ready to install.

 

[tooln]

I only had condesation once and it was when I closed the container up right after putting the tractor away hot. Now I let the door open to cool down before closing it.

 

[BJE80]

Where do you guys find those containers?

 

[dipper]

Jim what does the top link do? Skidding logs? I've never seen anything like that

 

[Jim Timber]

If you put a lift arm on the 3pt (like a cherry picker), you gain a substantial amount of travel over just the hitch's ability to raise and lower.

It also lets you change the aggressiveness of your implements. So if you're box blading and want to cut more, you'd angle the box down in front so the blade digs more. But if you wanted to just move some material around and not dig, you can move the top link out and it levels out the back of the box to reduce the angle of the blade keeping it on the surface.

Hydraulic tilt is another option people add (together they call them "top and tilt" or just TnT), for when you're crowning a road or digging a ditch so you can just move a lever instead of messing with the lift arm links. I don't know how much I'll be using the adjustment on the tilt links, so I haven't even looked at making a hydraulic tilt cylinder yet. The ditching I need will get done via a rental excavator and or dozer when the time comes.

 

[Jim Timber]

Where do you guys find those containers?

There's dealers all over the place who buy them when they're decommissioned or if a cargo company has excess inventory. I found my dealer on craigslist and was able to locate a couple who were a short distance from my land to eliminate the excessive shipping fees I would've incurred had I bought one in the metro and hauled it North.

I spent about 20 minutes with a 4# engineering hammer last week and beat out several of the dents. They're not remotely smooth, but they do more closely follow the intended contours. :D

 

[tooln]

Where do you guys find those containers?

I got mine from a place in Wi Rapids. There is also a place in Merrill that sels them. The price was real close it was just cheaper for the trucking for me from Raapids.

 

[Jim Timber]

I need to get some NPT extensions for the bottom swivels to clear the center elbows, and I need a non-swivel -8 to 3/8 NPT elbow to clear the front elbow (swivel hits) for the second 3rd function line. But for the most part my diverter valve is in.

I'll deal with wiring when I have the hoses sorted.

 

[tooln]

I take it a grapple is in your future. ;)

 

[Jim Timber]

Been in the plan since before ever signing for the machine. :)

 

[dipper]

Jim are u concerned your hydraulic pump will handle all that. I guess if your not running everything at the same time it doesn't really matter....

 

[Jim Timber]

12gpm is plenty for how slow I work. :)

I don't even use all my flow potential now. Most of the time I leave it at fast idle on the hand throttle and don't goose it to speed the pump.

The diverter cuts the curl circuit to engage the 3rd function through that same circuit. So I can grab and lift, but I can't curl and grab.

A true 3rd function would allow all three movements at once, and that might slow everything down to a crawl. I don't think I'd like a solenoid valve to feather pressure to the 3rd function on something like a snow plow, so I'm ok with only having 2 live circuits at a time.

 

[Jim Timber]

Some better pics:

This shows how I need more clearance to get the inlets to clear the second ports fittings (3rd function) on the side.

I'm going to reverse the fittings on the inlet (bottom of valve in current orientation) so the lower one is forward as that should space them better in the vertical boom position. Once the spacers are added, those fittings will clear and rotate as needed all the way to vertical.

This one shows how I have the hoses managed now.

This is the quick connects going into the SCV. I haven't looked to see if these are set up right according to the manual, but I'm going to switch the extended bottom fittings for the shorter top ones. I don't like how the hoses lay with them as they are and think having the longer ones drop over the shorter ones should work better.

 

[Jim Timber]

I take it a grapple is in your future. ;)

Cashed in on Cabela's $75 off 500 coupon, and got another $25 gift card for spending over $100 in store today. The 65" grapple is on sale for $2359 which makes it a pretty good deal at $2259 and they're ringing it up as Ag so I get my tax exemption up front (rather than having to file for a refund). I pick it up tomorrow with my trailer. :D

I was giving serious consideration to the Everything Attachments offerings, but their full strength grapples are a lot closer to $3K and their wicked grapples aren't rated for the power or weight of my machine. The Woods/Alitec design has very substantial cross-bracing, despite not using any tubes. I was surprised by it's quality when I saw one out in front of the store a few weeks back, but then the dingleberry "outfitter" I talked to wouldn't sell me one - he said I'd have to pay shipping so he wasn't even sure what the total price would be. :confused: I told him I'd take the one out front - "how much?" Then he said that was a display model and not for sale. :rolleyes: So I found out they were on sale and went back to look again Saturday night, only to find the grapple was gone. (dingleberry wasn't there) I found a different "outfitter" who said they must've sold it. Hmmm, if you sold it, why wouldn't you sell it to me 3 weeks ago??? I was pissed! Easter Eve, no real managers on duty. My request to speak to a manager somehow translated into dingleberry calling me and leaving a message saying he'd sell me a grapple now, and they had them in stock.

So I went to the Woodbury location today to make sure dingleberry's store didn't get the sale. I told the outfitter there about dingleberry and he said he didn't like him either, and conveyed a story about how he blue falconed a co-worker while they were all coming back from a training seminar in Tx.

 

[tooln]

Jim
What size did you get? If I remember right Woods makes the units for Cabela's and Woods make good stuff. Congrats.

 

[Jim Timber]

65" - I wanted it narrow enough to fit between the end uprights on my little atv flatbed trailer and those are about 68". If I ever decide it's not wide enough I can add more tines to the sides.

Woods does make them, but it's labeled Alitec on the sticker (same company now). I was able to look over the unit before committing to buying it, and the fit/finish is very nice from what I could tell with it strapped to the pallet.

I'm pretty excited. Their demo video of the 7'er is impressive. They tear shit up with that thing!

 

[Jim Timber]

I didn't know they had a 5% veterans discount - so they took that off too. :)

 

[dipper]

Looksike fun. I don't see it ripping big trees out, but it could be handy on smaller projects