What a disappointment!

[mlmartin]

A long (two weeks) story, made shorter, but no sadder.

I had to refuse the shipment of my new attachments today. They were a 5 1/2' box blade, a post hole digger w/9" auger and a 6' rotary cutter (a total of 1300#). They were to have been delivered sitting as close to the tailgate as possible so I could unload them with the forks on my FEL.

When the truck arrived, the driver cut the latch seal and opened the door as I watched.

Other than my attachments, the 53' box was empty. The pallets holding my stuff had not been secured in their position at the tailgate. In the process of getting to my home, they had slid, with great force, into the nose of the trailer.

The pallets had taken the blow pretty badly, both of them were broken. I could see bent, bare metal on the skirt of the mower deck. It appeared that the back wheel assembly had been broken off. I couldn't see any obvious damage to the box blade or the post hole digger, but I didn't want to accept them and then find a "hidden" problem.

I've contacted the local shipper, the initial shipper and the vendor. The vendor is putting together a replacement order as I type. The initial shipper has been very helpful and has offered to help the vendor through all of the steps in making an insurance claim. The vendor hasn't done interline shipping before.

I will probably have to wait another two weeks for the new order to arrive. This is especially aggravating in that I need all three implements last week.

Matthew

 

[FarmerBob]

Matt...

Sorry to hear about your new equipment. I know what it is to wait anxiously for a new "toy"... only to be disappointed by something beyond your control. If 'ya lived a little closer I'd loan you some of my "toys" 'til your new order arrived /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif. I've got a new aerator on the way and I'm keep'n my fingers crossed that it arrives intact.

FarmerBob

 

[mlmartin]

Thanks for the commiseration. It's such a pain doing all of the research, finding the devices that look like they should meet my needs, finding a vendor with reasonable pricing and shipping and then to have to send the stuff back because someone at the very end of the shipping chain couldn't be bothered to secure the load correctly. That's life, I guess.

Thanks for the loan offer. If you lived closer, I'd take you up on it

I still have to finish cutting in a swale around the new barn. I think I've gotten enough experience to scrape off the topsoil and save it. At least I'll give it a try.

After the swale is cut, I need the box scraper to grade the swale, the post hole digger to install a three board fence around the paddock. Then it's time for the box blade again for spreading loam in front of the barn and stone dust in the paddock.

All of this has to be done by the end of June. So much for the day job:-(

I have a one acre pasture regrade job (the barn builder left some amazing ruts with his material handler) and two acres to mow. Then there is a 3/4 acre parcel to bush hog with the rotary cutter. The wife wants a three board fence all the way around the pasture and a riding ring ...

The previous owner of this tractor averaged 49 hours a year. I've put 42 hours on it in two months. I'll probably tail off my usage once all of the major jobs are done, but I doubt that my usage will drop to 50 hours a year.

Matthew

 

[FarmerBob]

Sounds to me like you're gonna be REAL busy. Maybe you oughta think about what the old timers used to do... but instead of having a "barn raising"... have a <font color=blue>"fence building, paddock building, pasture grading party"</font color=blue> and invite all your friends and neighbors and their tractors /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif.

FarmerBob

 

[mlmartin]

Oh, those are just some of the _major_ jobs. There are lots of minor ones to do, too. It's pretty amazing how many chores a single 4 acre parcel can generate If I get all of the major jobs done before the snow flies, I think I will have broken even on the tractor purchase over hiring the jobs done.

Once the snow flies, my 68" snowblower should reduce my snow removal time from 6 to 9 hours (depending how many times I had to fix the old Cub Cadet 147) down to two to three hours. My co workers have told me that now that I have a monster snowblower, it won't snow again for 10 years. That works for me

Matthew

 

[mlmartin]

Two weeks later and now it's a much happier camper typing. It took a little more than two hours, but I just finished unloading my implements from the TT unit. The pallets were broken up a bit, but the equipment seemed fine.

Of course, nothing is ever easy. The 6 foot rotary cutter was on a pallet that was put in the trailer sideways. The truck driver took his well being into his own hands and put chocks under the pallet as I lifted it with the tips of the forks on my 870's bucket. I was then able to put the forks full length under the pallet. I had to put two chains to the far end of the cutter to lift it up and keep it balanced. Of course, it had been put on the pallet upside down. Again, the chains and the FEL came to the rescue.

The rotary cutter was quite a bouncy load with 650 lbs out beyond the lip of the bucket. Even with the backhoe for rear ballast, the yo-yo effect was pretty disconcerting.

Using my chains, I dragged the pallet with both the box scraper and the post hole digger to the tailgate. It was an easy pick up because the pallet was oriented correctly. Even though the center of mass was much closer to the bucket it was equally bouncy. Of course that combo was 220 lbs more than the rotary cutter.

The only bad parts are that I just had time to move the stuff to the back yard before having to leave for work and the chain guards for the cutter haven't arrived yet. They were shipped UPS.

Matthew (who really, really needs that box scraper after the weekend rain)