[Mark / Ohio]

...After listening to that first one, I see that narration is not my forte, lol. ....

Bah! You done fine! :2th:

 

[Capstan]

After listening to that first one, I see that narration is not my forte, lol.

Heck, it took me years to become sort-of competent.. This was your first video with narration (I think)

-Stan

 

[Austen]

Late to the party, But Congratulations my friend!

You have one of the nicest machines on the forum.. And I don't say that lightly.

-Stan

Thanks buddy!

 

[Austen]

Well, at some point there will likely be an auction or estate sale and without the tractor the family does not have much need for the attachments. So you may get another chance at them then.

Mark pretty much hit the nail on the head.

One of the family members has passed over recent months and I thought now would be an appropriate time as ever to write the family a nice letter expressing a collection of memories that I've had with each of them growing up next door as a child to current times. In the letter I included my awareness of the attachment(s) and explained that I would even be interested in purchasing them and lending a hand at organizing their garage in exchange. I hadn't heard back until a surprise today.

One of the family care takers had saw me pull into the driveway and walked over as I got out of the truck. It was a pleasant surprise and amongst other things learned that "everyone knows the attachments are yours."

I explained that I will be leaving in less than a week to move to California so we arranged Sunday to get them. It will be a bit of a treasure hunt in a way as I don't know what the other attachments are other than the blade, assuming they are indeed even there. Probably should go in without my hopes too high just to prepare myself in case there aren't. In the meantime, I made a post on the PK Yahoo group asking a generalization question regarding miscellaneous mounting pieces or hardware that I should be looking for that may go along with the attachments. As I remember, the garage is literally wall-to-wall full so it should be interesting.

I am pretty excited this opportunity has finally come. Not that I need it, but maybe I will even make a deal on that old '77 Ford 4x4 pickup I had talked about earlier if the price is right or some other OPE item. :sidelaugh

 

[Ericjr16]

Sounds like you might be in for a possible haul!

 

[Mark / Ohio]

Good luck on the hunt! :2th:

 

[motorhead12]

I hope you find some good stuff! :ThumbUp:

 

[Austen]

Due to a work related move that has left me very busy (why you haven't seen me around as much lately), I sadly hadn't left a prompt reply to my earlier message about that much anticipated garage treasure hunt.

This was all planned a few days before I was about to leave for California and honestly, there was just not enough time to tackle the extent of the project. When I went over and the neighbor/caretaker and I opened the garage door, there was 30 seconds or so of dead silence due to the complete bewilderment of the extent of stuff that occupied every square inch of the garage. You'd have to be a mouse in order to step more than an inch anywhere into the garage. To reorganize the garage to pull the attachment(s) out would have been a multi-weekend long adventure for a team of people. I did not have the time or priority to pull that off when I was doing preparations for the trip.

The good news was that I was able narrowly point out the blade attachment to the family member who reassured me they would hold it out for me along with any other attachments when they go through everything for an estate sale in the future. :ThumbUp:
It was sure hard to park the tractor in garage and know that I wasn't going to see it for a long time. Aside from my family, it was one of the hardest things to say goodbye to and leave.

 

[Ericjr16]

I too have been way too busy for the forum. When questions from dad arise, I go to MTF. Austen, sounds like we both are on a new path! My new job is very demanding physically and the hobby is tiring also. Lost some enthusiasm of late.
Sorry to hijack the thread.

Thank God the tractor and the attachments will await your return!

 

[Austen]

I too have been way too busy for the forum. When questions from dad arise, I go to MTF. Austen, sounds like we both are on a new path! My new job is very demanding physically and the hobby is tiring also. Lost some enthusiasm of late.
Sorry to hijack the thread.

Thank God the tractor and the attachments will await your return!

Hey Eric, good to hear from you! It's good to catch up!

No, not a derailment at all. That's what these threads are for!

It sounds like you've been having a very busy summer. Hopefully as fall approaches things will maybe slow down and things will get back to normal for you on the hobby side of things. Be careful with your body and keep it in good shape as you do.

I was in a two or three year old Duramax recently that made me think of you. Are you still driving yours? Nice trucks and the front end feels completely different than the leaf spring axle setup on the front of mine. Speaking of which I took out the tailgate today with a branch. Made me pretty peeved to say the least but thankful it was only the tailgate and not one of the bedsides. Going to order a newer 2013-2014 style tailgate for it along with a rear off road bumper to match the front and some other things later this month. I'll post some updated photos once that happens. I miss our old diesel discussions.

I remember that I promised you a "Truck Yeah Part 2" including a photo of all three of the trucks together that I never got around to posting. Here it is below.




And an updated photo in the hills above Laguna Seca after the FIM superbike races.

Well good to catch up. It sounds like we're both on different life journeys at the moment that have sidetracked us away from our online social life but it won't be forever.

 

[Ericjr16]

Hey my friend! Been weird for me with new job and other stuff. No, I was taken off the road as the former driver returned after stroke. I get out some, but in stake body or bosses truck. Sucks that a branch took out your tailgate! At least you get to update the looks of the truck!
I got some new toys at work at least! They bought me a new to us forklift and the JD skid steer is a nice toy to play with!!
The newer one! The radiator was clogged with dust so I used compressor to clean it out.

The old beat down forklift.

 

[Austen]

1/22/2015 Updates

​

I figured now that since I was home visiting family that I could post a few small updates to the tractor, some of which I did not get around to doing at the end of last summer. The tractor had been on a Battery Tender the last six months and she fired right up. I haven't really "used it" since I've been back as the grass is dormant and I don't have any ground breaking attachments other than a grader blade I haven't been able to acquire yet. It's definitely fun to see it again and drive it around some.

Mowing Deck Idler Pulley Prematurely Bites The Dust & Idler Delete Mod


Remember those new shiny idler pulleys that I installed on the deck soon after I got the tractor? While mowing with it last summer, the bearing in one of them completely loosened up out of its race and took out one of the drive belts of course while doing so. The whole bearing and race assembly was un-repairable and haven't anything like it before and Jerry hadn't heard of this happening after I contacted him about it. This was dissapointing to see as one of the key goals with this is project is to eliminate failure points.

Idler Pulley Delete Mod

VS

After looking and thinking about it, I decided to remove the idler pulleys off the deck as an experiment to see how it would run without them installed. After installing new drive belts and mowing with it several times since, I have had no ill effects without sans the two extra idlers. While some may say otherwise, less moving parts the better as I see it and until an issue arises without running them, that how it's remaining. It also cleaned up the deck surface quite a bit with them removed too.

Reviving The 3-Point Adjustment Caps

The caps on both adjusters were really faded and an ugly brown color. I put some thought into whether I wanted to replace or paint them, but didn't like the idea of paint. That's when I remembered 'Forever Black', an awesome automotive black dye that I've used in the past with great results. This stuff is designed for bringing back the black luster of faded rubber on car bumpers etc. I applied it to the caps- much better. Below is a photo of what they used to look like for reference.


New Rear Diff Gasket

The rear diff gasket began leaking worse so it was time to take care of that. Replacement gaskets for the diff can no longer be purchased for these tractors so guys use RTV gasket maker as the alternative. While this would work fine too, I liked the idea of having an actual gasket in there like stock so I made a template and created one. Of course I changed out the fluid too. I had some photos on my phone when I did it last summer but they somehow got deleted. I found the template and grabbed a photo.

 

[BOSOX]

That's one cool looking tractor, never get tired of seeing pictures of it! Looks like a nice day to be outdoors too!:2th:

 

[motorhead12]

Thanks for updating us! I hope you get the idler pulley problem figured out. Looks great, and gorgeous weather! :cool

 

[Austen]

That's one cool looking tractor, never get tired of seeing pictures of it! Looks like a nice day to be outdoors too!:2th:

Thanks, Mike, the photo was actually taken last year and when I came across it I saw that I hadn't already included it in the thread.

Thanks for updating us! I hope you get the idler pulley problem figured out. Looks great, and gorgeous weather!

Thanks Nico.

The current setup is probably not one that I'd go about recommending but we'll see how it pans out here. Admittedly, the belts do have more slack in them due to the absence of the tensioners but it doesn't seem to be enough to effect the operation.

 

[Mark / Ohio]

Thanks for the update! :2th:

On the belt idlers you probably would notice the slippage the most when they are good and hot from mowing tall heavy wet grass. But since your probsbly not planning on mowing any pastures you'll probably be OK since it worked for your test without throwing one.

 

[Austen]

Time for an update on this guy!

I've wanted for a while now try out the Gannon Earthcavator on the Economy. The swivel balls on the 3pt were seized so I had free them up first.

Aside from being a mower, I don't think this tractor has seen much if any ground engaging work before so I kind of felt like it was wondering what it was doing at first. :tango_face_wink: I left the deck on as I'm using it frequently for mowing but just wanted to experiment with it a little and see how it would perform with the box blade; later this year once mowing season is over I'll remove it.

Overall, it did a great job. The implement is completely different to use vs. when it's on the Bolens. It is a 'slower' process to use it simply because it's not a hydrostatic tractor so you're always clutching and shifting but that's just the name of the game with this one. The hydraulics are a little more 'relaxed' in their response but that's alright. It was cool to have low RPMs vs. the hydrostat where you're just about at full RPM all the time. I used it around the back of our fence to pull out some ivy and it did a nice job. Lots of fun- I could do this type of thing all day. :tango_face_smile:

The belt needed its first adjustment.

It's been a great tractor and it's fun to try it out for a different task. It's fun owning these two very different machines. :fing02:

 

[Ericjr16]

Cool you played some with it! I could have bought a machine like this a couple times but no way to load or move it! Not sure what dad would think though?

 

[Austen]

Cool you played some with it!

Yeah, it's play for sure. I try to justify this stuff as "work" but I enjoy it so much that it's more like play than anything. :tango_face_smile:

I could have bought a machine like this a couple times but no way to load or move it! Not sure what dad would think though?

Time for a trailer!

 

[Mark / Ohio]

https://www.suspensionconnection.com/12091-ford-fusion.html

Load Star ATV Trailer Kit 5 ft. x 8 ft. ATV with Rear Loading Ramp-LS - The Home Depot

:tango_face_smile:

Probably want an external oil cooler on your transmission too since it was not designed with the thought of ever towing with it. :tango_face_wink:

https://www.etrailer.com/tran-2015_Ford_Fusion.htm