Thought about redoing my home made excavator to make it drive with mower transaxle

chad22 · Nov 29, 2013

By the way. I decided to leave the top half of those pipes on that were welded to the rims as I found they make useful holders for a pipe wrench or a small shovel.

Chad

chad22 · Dec 10, 2013

After some thinking. I've decided to just leave the excavator towable and leave the lawn tractor together.

What I'm thinking of doing now is mount the opposed twin on the lawn tractor like it had on it before and then run the hydraulic pump off the bottom deck pulley since I no longer use the deck on the tractor.

I could then use some hydraulic quick connect fittings to hook the backhoe up to the lawn tractor when I want to use the backhoe and just tow it behind it.

Then I could add a loader to the lawn tractor which would be even more useful than just the excavator.

I hadn't made it to Kansas yet as when I left out a few days ago in my 1992 Chevy Silverado the AC clutch engaged when I turned on the defroster :shocked: and tore my serpentine belt up about 10 miles or so from home. "The compressor had seized"

But it puzzled me why the ac engaged when I turned on the defroster. My uncle and I thought it was the idler pulleys and then the alternator. But after I got it here and decided to turn on the defroster again during the ice storm I heard the squealing again. I turned it off and unplugged the ac compressor clutch and low and behold I finally found why the belt broke. It was because of that darn ac clutch engaging when turning on the defroster for the windshield.

I just decided to leave it disconnected until I get to Kansas as I've got a new ac compressor in the shop there. And I sure don't need ac in the truck right now anyway. :laughing:

By the way. It surprised me, I bought the belt and a bypass pulley from a small local napa store where I had broke down and when I had mentioned that I had broken down right there in town on my way to Kansas. He dropped the price of the belt from $27.00 down to $12.00 and the price of the bypass pulley from $55.00 to $30.00 and best of all decided to not even charge me sales tax. :thumbsup:

I'll sure be doing business with him again. I wasn't even trying to get a discount. I thanked him very much for the discount though and the no sales tax.

Got the truck fixed now and will be making the trip to Kansas probably Monday. I didn't put the bypass pulley on yet though as I discovered I'd have to remove the ac pulley before I can remove the bolts to the ac compressor. lol

I can't complain to much about the truck though as surprisingly this last break down has only been the 2nd time it's broken down on me since my dad gave it to me on my 18th Birthday. "I'm 25 now".

The last time it broke down was when I was hauling a load of brush to the dump in Kansas about a year ago and it broke down right as I entered the gate and it was the distributor module then.

Anyway A loader will be in the works hopefully soon which I'll be working on in our shop in Kansas.

Then I think I'll paint the backhoe and tractor that IH yellow once finished.

Chad

NormL · Dec 10, 2013

Chad, the reason the AC comes on when you turn on the defrost is to aid the removal of the condensation on your windshield. It does this by reducing the humidity in the in-cab air, one of the functions of the AC system. I've been reading about you folks getting nasty winter weather. I could say"welcome to my world", only when you get it where you live, it's probably lots worse. so I'll just urge you to be careful out there.

chad22 · Dec 11, 2013

NormL said:
Chad, the reason the AC comes on when you turn on the defrost is to aid the removal of the condensation on your windshield. It does this by reducing the humidity in the in-cab air, one of the functions of the AC system.

Ah okay. Good to hear it's supposed to do that as I was thinking something was wrong.

I've been reading about you folks getting nasty winter weather. I could say"welcome to my world", only when you get it where you live, it's probably lots worse. so I'll just urge you to be careful out there.

Yeah we had some nasty weather the last few days here. The ice is trying to clear off the trees now and the 43F we're getting today with sunshine feels like spring weather compared to the last few days.

Looks like we may get close to 60's F during the day this week too. That will be really nice.

Had an outside pipe burst today while I was gone checking the mail. My cousin came over and noticed it and called the city to come shut it off. I got it fixed now though and turned back on.

It was okay during the freezing temps and decided to break when it was warm. lol

Chad

NormL · Dec 11, 2013

chad22 said:
Had an outside pipe burst today while I was gone checking the mail. My cousin came over and noticed it and called the city to come shut it off. I got it fixed now though and turned back on.

It was okay during the freezing temps and decided to break when it was warm. lol

Chad

Sometimes a waterpipe will survive freezing temps as long as the water is flowing. Even just a slow flow will do. It's when there has been no demand for long enough for the water to crystallize in the line that the trouble starts. Sometimes!:confused3:

BHD · Dec 12, 2013

the freezing temps broke the pipe but since it was frozen it was not leaking until water thawed and started to flow again, Ice has a hard time leaking,

NormL · Dec 12, 2013

BHD said:
the freezing temps broke the pipe but since it was frozen it was not leaking until water thawed and started to flow again, Ice has a hard time leaking,

I can't argue with that. Chad only mentions it was an outside line, possibly not the supply line. Had it been his supply line he'd have known when it was frozen.

GPintheMitten · Dec 12, 2013

Sounds like your a handy guy. Looking forward to the rests of the project(s).

Chopperhed · Dec 15, 2013

NormL said:
Sometimes a waterpipe will survive freezing temps as long as the water is flowing. Even just a slow flow will do. It's when there has been no demand for long enough for the water to crystallize in the line that the trouble starts. Sometimes!:confused3:

A few years ago, my water line froze at the shutoff valve in the alley. Epcor, hooked me up to the neighbors through the garden hose connection, and then installed a trickle line before the meter to prevent further issues.

I turn it on in January and let it trickle until april. It keeps the line from freezing up.

My pond pump is still running and we've been down to -40 a couple of nights. It ran until late march last year

Moving water tends to not freeze.