What I did today
Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 9:49 pm
Well, it's time to stop playing and start working.
Stop playing around with the loader, that is. And start getting some use out of it! We're heading out of town this weekend, so all work on the loader has to be halted and the (overwhelming) mess cleaned up. So I did that this morning.
It turns out we're heading to the far, far north, ALL THE WAY to Indiana. I'm not sure if that's past the Arctic Circle or not. I figure it has to be close.
(I'm KIDDING. I grew up in that general region. I'm a transplanted southerner.)
Anyway, my offspring has moved up there, and bought a fixer-upper house. So we're heading up there so I can do a solid week of upward-fixing. I'm really looking forward to it.
HOWEVER, it's been a while since I did any large scale remodelling work off the premises. I have most of the tools I need to do carpentry/painting/flooring/plumbing/electrical/roofing/HVAC etc, but they're all squirreled away in the deep corners of my basement shop. So I have to make a master list of what to take, get everything rounded up and dusted off, and get it all carried up from the baseent shop and into my (new to me) enclosed trailer.
IN the far past, I would have made 111 trips up the basement steps and out the garage. Ugh. In the recent past, I would have driven my golf cart down and loaded up its little cargo platform and driven it around and unloaded it into the trailer 6 or 8 times. Meh.
BUT what I'd really like to do is set a pallet in the middle of the basement shop, load it up with tools and equipment, and then pick it up some kind of machine, and drive it around to the driveway and set it right into the trailer. 3 or 4 pallets ought to do the trick. Now THAT would be slick.
SO.... I have a forks assembly that I made to fit my 3 point hitch, and I took a few minutes this evening to weld that assembly onto a quick-tach mounting plate, and Voila!: I now have forks on my loader. I'll get to the bucket later, I'll need to modify it fairly extensively. But the forks are already square and flat and super easy to weld up. 30 minutes and I was done, and most of that was getting the tractor in position to get the fork assembly in the proper height and orientation.
So now I have a pallet sitting in my shop, and tomorrow I start loading.
I'm really very pleased with the operation of the loader. I'm really glad now that I went the Power Beyond route, because I have so much available flow. If I had gone the proportional valve route, I would have had all pressure I need, so the strength would have been fine. And I wouldn't have had to manufacture any custom hyrdraulic components. But I also would have had to put up with flow compromises all the time. "Barely enough" for the loader, "barely enough for driving/motion. But this way I have 100% flow for driving, AND 100% flow for the loader. The very best possible outcome, and I feel pretty fortunate that it turned out this way.
Stop playing around with the loader, that is. And start getting some use out of it! We're heading out of town this weekend, so all work on the loader has to be halted and the (overwhelming) mess cleaned up. So I did that this morning.
It turns out we're heading to the far, far north, ALL THE WAY to Indiana. I'm not sure if that's past the Arctic Circle or not. I figure it has to be close.
(I'm KIDDING. I grew up in that general region. I'm a transplanted southerner.)
Anyway, my offspring has moved up there, and bought a fixer-upper house. So we're heading up there so I can do a solid week of upward-fixing. I'm really looking forward to it.
HOWEVER, it's been a while since I did any large scale remodelling work off the premises. I have most of the tools I need to do carpentry/painting/flooring/plumbing/electrical/roofing/HVAC etc, but they're all squirreled away in the deep corners of my basement shop. So I have to make a master list of what to take, get everything rounded up and dusted off, and get it all carried up from the baseent shop and into my (new to me) enclosed trailer.
IN the far past, I would have made 111 trips up the basement steps and out the garage. Ugh. In the recent past, I would have driven my golf cart down and loaded up its little cargo platform and driven it around and unloaded it into the trailer 6 or 8 times. Meh.
BUT what I'd really like to do is set a pallet in the middle of the basement shop, load it up with tools and equipment, and then pick it up some kind of machine, and drive it around to the driveway and set it right into the trailer. 3 or 4 pallets ought to do the trick. Now THAT would be slick.
SO.... I have a forks assembly that I made to fit my 3 point hitch, and I took a few minutes this evening to weld that assembly onto a quick-tach mounting plate, and Voila!: I now have forks on my loader. I'll get to the bucket later, I'll need to modify it fairly extensively. But the forks are already square and flat and super easy to weld up. 30 minutes and I was done, and most of that was getting the tractor in position to get the fork assembly in the proper height and orientation.
So now I have a pallet sitting in my shop, and tomorrow I start loading.
