The Bota Cave

[Tom_H]

Batman has the Bat Cave, but I have the Bota Cave. It is home to all my tools, 2 cars, my tractor, and numerous implements, most of which are on dollies. Attached is a photo of 5 implements stacked vertically to save space. Near the bottom is the brush hog on its dolly. Beneath the brush hog is the carry all with bolted on casters, rolled beneath the brush hog dolly. Sitting on the back of the brush hog is the rear blade, lifted into position by the electric hoist. To the side of these is the dolly on which the rear blade is placed when time to move it to the 3ph.

All of these sit underneath the scraper/grader high dolly. I use the electric hoist to lift the scraper grader and then roll the dolly beneath it. The scraper/grader has large eye-bolts on the corners where I attach carabiners and chains to lift it. On top of the grader/scraper is its short dolly, used to roll it to the 3ph. Above that is where the FEL bucket goes when attached to the tractor and parked.

Over the next few days, I will add pics of more dollies and innovations I have come up with for the Bota Cave and its equipment. Maybe TBN should start a forum dedicated to garages, shops, and man caves.

 

[Tom_H]

I got this cabinet at a surplus equipment outlet for $50. I built a wooden frame to encase it. Casters make it mobile and the work surface has T-Nuts throughout the bottom which allow me to anchor my bench vice, benchtop drill press, chain saw sharpener, cut-off saw, among other things.

 

[Tom_H]

The electric hoist lets me move the rear blade back and forth between its dolly and the back of the brush hog, also the scraper/grader back and forth between its high and low dollies. It also makes it quick and easy to lift the MMM for blade access.

 

[Tom_H]

The MMM on its dolly:

 

[Tom_H]

Rather than a dolly, the Woods backhoe has bolt on skateboards that I custom built. It takes more time than a traditional dolly, but allows far greater finesse in getting the bh off and on.

 

[Tom_H]

I recently bought a new washer and dryer. The 2 pedestals would have cost $500, which in my mind, is nuts. I used mostly scraps to build a platform which puts the doors at chest height. We can load and unload without stooping over. The little dolly which holds the backhoe buckets and ripper fits under there. Also under there is the 700# of ballast weights I got on Craigslist for $125. They will get their own dolly soon. The other weights I already had sit on a little platter dolly which rolls under the box blade, which rolls into one side of the shelving system I built. The rototiller rolls into the other side. Will have to get pics of those up soon.

 

[Tom_H]

MMM blade gets checked for balance after sharpening:

 

[Tom_H]

Sometimes things are a tight fit. Actually, I park like this just to give my wife more space on both sides of her car.

 

[Tom_H]

This link is to a post with a number of pics of my DR chipper and its dolly. Though a small dolly, it is by far the most sophisticated one:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/92701-dolly-3-point-hitch-dr.html#post1046058

 

[Tom_H]

This is a link to an old post with some MMM dolly info and a couple of other pics of it.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...-mmm-3-wheel-dolly-casters-2.html#post1376070