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By the way great job on the extra skirt board! Probably overkill on the tar waterproofing and paint, but hey, why not! Make sure to do some backfilling on the outside before you are compacting your extra new fill on the inside, so you don't bow the boards out.

Isn't your skirt board around the building perimeter perfectly level? Ideally it is, such that you don't need to use levels/lasers to float out the concrete; can just use the skirt boards as your guide. For the foam, a technique I saw and copied on my pole barn build was to cut a 45 degree...

^ basically the treadle on my old cub is just really small. So there isn't much room to have your foot to the side of it, and reach your toes back in to press forward. Furthermore it is a stiff, small pedal, so you have to hover over it and press down with your toes or heel. It sucks. That...

I don't have a 5th wheel... I only bumper tow. My '03 2500HD has ~3200 lbs payload capacity, so 1000 lbs of tongue weight doesn't slam it down very far. With all due respect please don't assume you know more than someone else's experience without understanding their towing setup whatsoever.

Thats really insane that they could make such a colossal error on the website and list their biggest, best tractors as only having a 2-range HST. Would be a total deal breaker for me; enough to close the website right away and look at other brands. BAD BOY, is anyone listening? The 4035...

Sorry to hear that LFP. Honestly the treadle-pedal was enough to convince me not to bother trying to score a deal on a Kubota. The price tag being the other main reason, lol. My older Cub tractor has a small, non-ergonomic treadle pedal also. My leg gets fatigued from having to essentially...

Around 2" is just right for my 2500HD also. 5-6" would be ridiculous and have my headlights aiming into people's faces. Note, if you have a 1500 pickup, you might need a 5" drop to have safe tongue weight.

Fair enough, but do take some glamour shots when your fall colors hit. :)

Jeez. Whats with sll the vitriol on this site today….? I live right near Ann Arbor. Great restaurants, arts, and arguably the best university in the world. We can all make fun of their idiotic local government tho, lol. I can also promise you that the Aeschilmans do not live in or identify...

Sheesh clint, a bit rude, no? Typing on the internet can make folks seem unappreciative, even when they actually are. We all are glad you are sharing your mods and thoughts!

It's a joke, man.... I've seen it several times. Was a good chain email letter thing for many years.

Sure, I inferred that from the tone of some contrarian posts. IE the "wax? no way lol" attitudes, which I do also totally understand. It's just a machine that no one else sees, after all. Who cares if its dusty or even starts to rust a little. I just bought my Kioti with 103 hours on it, and...

A wax coating helps prevent rust. Especially if you have some scratches or abrasions over metal - the wax coating is an air barrier to prevent rust formation/growth. Up you to if you care about your machines appearance or long-term integrity, but there's nothing dumb about some paint...

Had similar thoughts, but the place I plan to store the backhoe is too narrow to use the stabilizers, they will stay locked in their upright position. I figured I could use the blocking strategically as a fulcrum point if needed, manipulated with the bucket/hoe. Plus I don't want to store it...

Yeah, well they're never going to be old growth, if you cut them down. 🤪 Yeah sorry I didn't mean to say those were old growth trees, I have no idea. Why are they dying?

Skeans, do you ever feel like those trees are too majestic to cut down? Why not take the 2-3'ers and leave the big boys to grow forever? Not enough old growth forest left on this earth, IMO. Impressive work, no doubt. Just kinda sad, too.

I haven't taken my BH off yet. But I am quite sure I'll have to figure out how to do it myself. I am imagining that I will assemble a nice collection of wood blocking, and simply use the bucket out behind the hoe/tractor to apply downforce as needed to lift it up and take the weight off the...

Whoa. Did not know such a device existed. First impression, this is a pretty irresponsible product, so use it with great care and a giant grain of salt. It relies upon basic vehicle data, a handful of "calibration runs", and then a single internal tri-axial accelerometer to estimate your...

So what's the most common way to add a hydraulic thumb on a backhoe? An electric 3rd function or diverter type valve mounted on the backhoe boom arm, that steals flow from the bucket curl circuit temporarily? My new (to me) Kioti w/ backhoe has a mechanical thumb, but it is a bear to...

Yeah I have the 3rd function box there, right in the way on mine. There is still plenty of room behind it for a single foot to step on something sturdy. I have a plan formulating...

Well I didn't feel right about doing any more digging until I ensured everything was well greased, so last night I dove in. I knew it would be a bit of a chore with including the backhoe, but I did not expect to find 50 zerks! 50! jeez, man. I decided to try a lock'n'lube coupler; not bad...

Fair point if anyone actually did tasks like this with a small tractor in the USA. At least in my area, we don't. I was definitely thinking more about personal home property use, though. But furthermore, Kioti lists the "max trailering capacity" of their tractors with the exact same figures...

The gear tranny vs HST debate always seems kinda pointless to me, when basically all of our diesel CUTs can spin all 4 tires in the dirt, no matter what trans you have. There's definitely some larger frame machines with 25 HP to stay under the tier4 emissions that probably feel underpowered in...

So, you have 40 acres of gravel lot for 20 vehicles per day? I would humbly suggest, simply not having 40 acres of gravel, instead. 40 acres can hold a lot of critter habitat, or grow a lot of plants. Having a gigantic expanse of gravel that you have to maintain, for no real purpose, is...

Shoot, I can make the step up on the right side of my ck3510 also, but i'd rather have a step too... Seems like having a step there would mean less load on the fender grab handle or steering wheel when you pull yourself up into the station. If there is space for a step, it should have a step...

The SSQA quick attaching/detaching is really fast! I just got my Kioti CK3510 with a few SSQA attachments and I frickin LOVE IT. You just pull up to where you want to drop current loader attachment, lower to just above the ground, get out and go flip the levers up (takes 10 seconds and your...

Interesting thread for me, as I just acquired my own backhoe, and am not very experienced with it yet. I found at full low idle, it was slow, not very strong, and did lug the engine a little. But 1800-2000 rpms was plenty and I found no reason to rev higher. Definitely a little louder to run...

Man, I would be pretty ticked off if my neighbor's animals kept getting loose, into my yard, and then I had to pay thousands of dollars for half of a fence I didn't necessarily want or need. Sounds like the OPs new neighbor is being pretty upstanding, though. Let him pay for the whole fence if...

I also agree, and did my slab a few months after finishing my pole barn. I wish it had been sooner, but had to let my finances recover a smidge, and do all the prep work myself (ratwall, then level/grade, compact the snot out of the sand base, lay 6 mil poly, and 2" insulation (25psi R10), then...

Got my son to forget about TV shows and video games for a bit this weekend. He loved it, was very cautious and deliberate with each backhoe motion. Painfully slow to watch, but I was glad he was being so careful haha. So nice to be able to take modest trees down without lugging out a...

If the rear blade and box blade are not floating like you expect, I would also suspect the "full turtle" setting on your 3-pt speed is to blame. Did you try it on rabbit yet? Heavy blades are good, but they do still need to float.

Thanks, jj. I've already come to realize how much easier my firewood production will be now, having the front grapple. Instead of clambering through the forest to grab every downed log, I can simply stay on the seat and pluck trees out and up with the grapple. Before, I was often really...

Yep, exactly. Since my barn is pole construction, I don't have any "foundation slab". But a 4" thick by 24" deep rat wall does sort as serve as a crude one (my slab sits on top of it around the perimeter). I was uncomfortable with the idea of burrowing critters making a deluxe condo right...

With a pole barn, the poles themselves are the actual footings - they typically get placed 3 to 4 feet down, atop concrete pucks or encased in some concrete. This is below the frost line and is what structurally holds the whole building up. You just then toss a simple slab down inside the...

Build it now, if you can, but don't wait on the concrete. It really sucks to have a dirt floor - it will turn into fine powdery dust unless you gravel the whole thing. Plus trying to have a work shop or work on any vehicles... then you have to move everything back OUT someday, and...

I would imagine you'll get better results and long term protection by letting the wood dry out first, yeah. Do you have a wood moisture meter? Even something basic link regular Thompsons water seal would probably work well.

^ thanks, good links. I guess piecing it all together myself really shouldn't be too hard. Are you sure that's the right length cylinder? I'll measure my top link. Any ideas what cyl would be best for a side link, also? Same cylinder is $50 cheaper (but out of stock) at surplus center...

Outstanding! The wood looks real nice when wet, any plans to stain/preserve it? how many 20v batteries did it take to cut all the ends off? your ‘yote has a nice snack there.

^ heck yeah, that blade looks awesome. Now… can I get it for $1000, tomorrow? 😜 Speaking of lead times, can you sell me a hydraulic top link kit soon?

Good tip on the backhoe while trailering, thanks. Definitely not planning to drill or weld my ROPS, but then again I rarely fasten my seatbelt, so… 😬

I added some work lights to my ck3510 last night. Since the round flashers mounted off the ROPS were badly busted long ago by the previous owner, i took them off. They seem sorta redundant anyway, since the fender lights flash brightly to the rear already anyway. So it was a good spot to mount...

Yeah, actually you can leave the whole 3-pt in place while the backhoe is attached! Everything for the 3-pt is still on it now, as I received it. My goal is to prioritize all my digging projects now before i take the backhoe off for winter and use the 3-pt daily instead. Still searching for a...

Oh snap, you broke the glass by driving around with the door left open? Yeah, dont do that, folks. 🤪

Just read on BobIsTheOilGuy forum that 424 and delvac are identical product. Confirmed from Mobil site that the specs are identical (even though they don't appear to want to you to easily reach this conclusion). Althought I suppose it does say on the delvac label: "also known as mobilfluid424"...

Sounds pretty fair. Will get back with ya soon. It's a pretty small package, right (for economical shipping)?

Haha yeah I keep forgetting about the busted flashers. Somehow I just don't see them. I think I will give the ROPS setup a full overhaul anyway. Probably flip the toolbox around to the inside, flashers to the inside, and add LED work lights at the top (under the top bar of course).

Hey y'all, I'd like to groove my R4 tires for winter traction. But I don't want to buy a $110 ideal tire groover kit to only use one time ever. Anyone want to let me borrow one? I'll pay shipping both ways, or come drive to you in Southeast/south-central Michigan. Thanks!

Yeah I have thought about probably needing better backhoe pads. Despite finding the Kioti part # of 293061 for the big foot pad kit, I don't see them listed for sale anywhere online. Maybe have to order through a dealer? oy.

Finally got another smidge of seat time yesterday. Decided to toss the grapple back on and go pluck a few boulders from my trail sides. Being able to just snatch 600-800 lbs off the ground is pretty awesome, gotta say. Having SSQA and linked-pedal driving is just so nice. It's still weird...

Lol at that amazing music accompanying the vid - Which states 58 tons for the full rotor assembly. Since the center hub is probably at least several tons, if not 10-15, this puts each blade at around 15-16 tons. Not a feather, by any means. Those are probably metric tons in the video, too.

Lol, nope this was a one-off package. Someone else’s bad fortune, and a disinterested current owner provided me this opportunity. I’m still pretty stunned that i landed it. Didn’t have a second choice or anything. Was probably gonna buy a ck3510 new, for ~$23k and then have no trailer, backhoe...

Yes! Thank you Stan. I hoped it was this simple. $30 and an hour to quickly fix a problem that people spend a lifetime hating, or dealerships hours of “diagnosing” and throwing parts at. No loader bucket should be floppy! Don’t tolerate it, folks.

Yeah all that sounds like a good summary, K5. But what i need is some info on what kind of valve to buy and where to install it. Anyone have links and pics they could share?

Dang, thats a great deal. Congrats, serious machine you have there.

Had to get the power washer out yesterday. Didn’t want to blast the engine or electronics too much, but its nice to have her so clean…. Almost new. Almost.

Thats a beautiful tractor, congrats!

https://www.tractorhouse.com/listings/farm-equipment/for-sale/list/category/1111/tractors-less-than-40-hp/manufacturer/kubota/model-group/l3240 Do some basic research and you can find comparable values. Looks like you could get about $17,000 pretty easily, private party. No reason not to...

Like the ones I had to crawl under the front loader and backhoe boom to get to? lol

The battery is under the air filter right up in front of the radiator. Super convenient; pop the hood latch, a gas strut lifts open the hood, easy access. Or you can take one 12mm bolt out and the whole (heavy!) steel hood lifts right off, like I did last night. I figured it would be easier...

Thats why you never ever clearcut, and only select cut hardwoods. Full shade all day long, on my bridge. :p

All I see is a cardboard box.... :P

Did you go sit on and try out all of those tractors? Pretty good list of candidates there, but some big differences, too. You need to feel them all out to really learn what you prefer and what is most comfortable. For the Kioti, 25 BHP is not a lot if you need to brush hog thick stuff. The...

Thank you. My bridge is hidden in the woods in the middle of my own property, thankfully. And my neighbors keep to themselves. I can't see why anyone should care anyway, if you build it A) way up out of the water or highest flood level, B) nice and permanent to avoid risk of downstream damage...

Oh and your clutch pedal lock has nothing to do with a backhoe. That's just to protect the clutch if you store the tractor for a long period of time. READ YOUR OWNERS MANUAL. TWICE.

I just bought a lightly used ck3510 TLB setup, so I have the larger KB2475L. I also did not get any manual. For the main boom lock on mine, I found it was impossible to disengage unless I first pulled the boom back a bit using the hydraulic control lever. In general, you can't disengage these...

I just settled on "Clementine" for my new machine. Clem, for short, I suppose. I briefly considered "Jeju", in honor of the Korean island that grows their famous tangerines. But it seemed a bit too esoteric. Maybe that's her middle name.

Haha, my neighbor old-man-Bob, a transplant from KY, says the same thing to me all the time.

Yep, thanks. I did a little semi-impulsive upgrading a couple days ago. Made a full story post in the Kioti buying section.

Looks like Tmod took that page on his website down. I wonder if Kioti corporate got after him. Anyway I have a new-to-me 2019 ck3510se that has this problem, so I'd like to know the part number and see a pic of where to install such a valve. Would probably opt to try it myself instead of have...

Oh right, our old popup camper had those telescoping jacks. Before I bother fabricating anything I will probably just try bringing along some simple jack stands. They wont need to be jammed up tight under the trailer frame, just stable enough to catch the trailer as it dips down during...

New visitor for my bridge. The troll approved our crossing, thankfully.

Yeah i need to figure something out for that. I was thinking I can just bring my own harbor freight 3-ton jack stands along. But some swivel jacks mounted on the trailer itself might be kind of slick. I dont mind if the trailer tail drops a couple inches when unloading, but 5+ inches is...

I just installed rear wheel weights onto my John Deere Gx335 on monday evening. Maybe 45 lbs on each side? The machine didn't really need it, but the weights came with the tractor and were sitting in my way in the garage, so might as well go on. I do have some steep hills but I never drive...

Wheel weights can help some (lowers center of gravity). Wheel spacers are even better, if they will still fit within the cutting limits of your mower deck.

I finally have a setup worth posting here. Have to say, this thread was one of the first ones I lurked in and drooled over, pining for the day when I could haul my own equipment around properly, and independently. Finally. My ol' '03 2500HD w/ 6.0L LQ4 gasser w/ 4L80e trans doesn't win many...

Thanks, good tip.

Daaaang, Mo. You guys are still rocking over there. Great work.

A couple final tidbits for now: The Kioti website, and tractor data, all say that the ck3510 ROPS is 99" tall. Why any tractor manufacturer would make their machine just over 8 feet tall, instead of just under, confused me. I have a nearly 9 foot barn door in front of clem there, so no...

Oops that all got super long. I suck at keeping things brief but hopefully at least some of you will enjoy the story. Honestly this whole thing feels like a dream, almost destiny. I somehow find the exact (seriously EXACT) tractor I've been wanting, with the exact setup (backhoe, 3rd...

Unfortunately for me, it was 90 degrees under a blazing sun. Way above average for late August. I don't want to complain about an ideal summer day; I guess I'd just rather be on a lake or river for it, lol. I work in an air conditioned cubicle every day. And I forgot to bring a hat...

The Purchase: So as soon as my equipment loan was ready, I took an afternoon off work (yesterday) to blast west across lower Michigan to pick it up. The seller had brought it down to the yard at RMB equipment, who shares the space with West Michigan Tractor sales. HUGE shoutout to Ron at RMB...

Thanks gents. I think her name might be Clementine. Kinda played out, maybe, but it fits. She's got 102 hours, probably mostly stored outside, some dents and dings, broken plastic here or there. Fuel gauge doesn't work. Needs new filters, for peace of mind. But that's all the complaining I...

I got it, and got her home smoothly. Somebody pinch me. Full story tomorrow. I just leveled up, significantly. So rad.

Welp, I can't jinx myself on pickup day, right? right? Pics coming later, once it's on the trailer and hitched to my truck. I'll update this with lots more info and pics tomorrow, unless everything falls apart at the last minute here. I'm nervous, lol.

This..... is a very good point. LOL

Lol neither man. This bridge is huge. You think one single dude can scan the entire surface of every structural member on it, without assistance or oversight, every year? Get real. Having more than one person on site brings better accountability to the work.

Obviously this is a sound theory. But when in reality, (if) rapid climate change causes unpredictability in regional climates, including already observed localized trends to distinctly hotter, cooler, wetter OR drier, local plants can't react that quickly. Instead the native flora are more...

Loan is approved and ready. Heading out tomorrow. I'm too reluctant to share the sale ad or pics though. No post here until I get my OWN pics with it loaded on the trailer lol.

^ 15 feet and still jammed tight?!? That doesn't seem right.

Sorry, I can't divulge that or talk about it until I know it's real! I've been almost nauseous since the middle of last week when, a) I found a deal no one else had jumped on yet, and b) my wife somehow agreed to let me blow a huge chunk of our savings on the down payment, and get a 7-year loan...

Aww c'mon now, this is the only way to know if you need to use 4WD or not, lol. It took me a while to simply learn that If I'm doing any digging, or heavy front loader work, I need 4WD on first.

Oh I was serious. That's an awesome reference tool to obtain for free. Probably what, hundreds of dollars from a kioti dealer for a copy? Yeah I don't have a kioti... yet..... currently waiting on my equipment loan to close so that I can drive across the state and pick mine up. Don't worry I...

Have to chuckle a bit at the notion that petrochemicals and known carcinogens soaking permanently into the floor of your shop is an "advantage". I simply put two coats of acrylic sealer on my nice smooth concrete garage floor, and I can soak up any spills and dispose of them properly and...

Whoa. 360 MB, 864 paGES! thanks.

Yeah it's not that much more cost to pour it later. However on a metal building, don't you typically want to fasten the building onto the slab? Otherwise, what is the foundation for the metal building? Just sitting on the ground, anchored into the earth (like a simple carport)? Second what...

Yeah I love Ward's, but that makes sense. What about the sunbelt in Ypsilanti?

I thought of one advantage that I like with the bolt on forks - I can install them at the very outside edges of my bucket, to get them nearly 60" apart. This is really nice when moving large logs, for side-to-side stability. Narrow forks make logs much more tipsy.

You're not wrong, per se, but I do this all the time with my clamp on forks. My bucket would probably be pretty tweaked if I didn't have the iowa-farms toothbar on there reinforcing the lip (my forks actually clamp directly onto the toothbar steel). But the forks go on/off easily, and carry...

I think so, worth a shot anyway. Where are you renting from? Ward's in hamburg has skid steers and attachments for them. Probably a bit more coin, though. https://www.wardsrental.com/product/skid-steer-soil-conditioner-hydraulic/ I made the mistake of not doing this step. Just smoothed it...

^ HA. Better keep it under 60mph. Man, why the heck wouldn't you just put the tailgate down.

^ Ted and Travis, you guys are doing a great job staying in communication with people about these product delays. Hopefully this period of stress is teaching you how to better estimate shipping times up front, to avoid customer frustration. I was thinking about ordering a top and tilt kit from...

^ I think you're right, rekees. It's interesting to see the number of people with a somewhat fatalistic attitude like this growing. I'm sort of drifting into that camp too, honestly. Probably too late to stop the damage we've done, now nature will take over and respond as needed. Here's...

Lol no, I don't care about the town size. My point was that the video maker cherry picked his location to find a trend that fit his viewpoint. So I easily did the opposite in 10 seconds of searching. But again, if you do this across the entire planet... and average it out.... its a clear...

Ok Kev, I sat through the video finally. :p Fairly well crafted arguments. Honestly, somewhat compelling. Some quick thoughts: - No data was actually hidden, though. He was easily able to obtain it from public sources, after all. One would certainly hope that professionals, scientists, and...

Yeah..., you keep saying that. Data sets and models get updated and improved all the time, man. It doesn't invalidate the science, but it sure does give skeptics like you a great talking point.

Ha! Great critter collection you have there.

Haven't seen posts from him in a long time (was he banned?). Then I type _f e r d_ and the forum changes it automatically to "(removed)". odd.

Lol, ok. Anyway I'm sorry if I'm coming off rude. I don't mind that people disagree on this sh*t, it's been way too political and contentious for far too long now. Skepticism is an important part of science. If your theory can't hold up, it isn't valid. Personally, I think the data is...

Brake light fuse disables the engine/starter? That's just nuts. Checking all the fuses in the panel probably would have been near the top of my diagnosis list, though.

(removed), is that you....? I can't type f e r d ?

Well, that's not true, but if you're not willing to do the critical thinking and source quality evaluation yourself... oh well. My links reviewed the actual research and presented factual, summarized results. Yours were opinions of random individuals falsely presented as broad-scale scientific...

Bull? chill, bud. There are numerous reports of uninsurable properties. I never said it was universal. Sea level rise is slow, there's still time for money to be made.

Looking good! I was just thinking about this project of yours the other day, and wondering if we might see some final, completed pics soon. Do you have all the decking pieces you need to finish the ramp?

For sure, some of them are trash from the start, which truly sucks. It definitely made me nervous to spend thousands of dollars on mine, and wait to see how they performed, or for the first hailstorm. Mine are "canadian solar" but surely made in Asia. 4 years in now, so far so good.

Since you guys are still talking about mountains, here is a video of my casual drive up the tallest mountain in New England from the other day: J/K obviously that is Travis Pastrana in an 800HP Subaru, with zero fear. You can't tell me that THIS one isn't a mountain, lol.

We do need to figure out how to fully recycle the precious metals and other content in solar panels. It's possible, but I don't know how hard anyone is trying just yet. But solar panels often last 30 to 40 years, new/current ones could be even better. Shoot the ones on my roof have a...

Just to follow up on this one - your sources are all garbage and you ought to be embarrassed to post these links. Cornwall alliance for the stewardship of creation? c'mon. And Heartland institute (your science times article) is "the primary American organization pushing climate change...

C'mon, Mt Marcy ain't no hill. Thats a true mountain. Whiteface would like a word too.

Well no, I do not know that. You would most likely not be able to find me detailed, wide-ranging reviews of scientific papers from the 1970s that show me that most scientists believed that a cooling phase was imminent, because it didn't happen. Feel free to try to prove it to me, but I doubt...

This is a good question because unfortunately my father's 1949 Super A has also succumbed to the same fate. It boiled over one summer day and we put water in it to keep working, then forgot, and it froze up. It sat for a while and then we found coolant and water in the oil, etc. So I tore the...

See, this is where the facts are so easily skewed. This topic comes up all the time and I have personally seen it debunked here on TBN more than once. But I guess it's my turn now: NO, SCIENTISTS DID NOT PREDICT AN COMING ICE AGE 40 YEARS AGO...

Good questions, here are answers that are only my personal opinion. 1) No, if human activity did nothing to the climate, it would be incredibly foolish to try to engineer and manage it. Frankly I would be more scared of some of the greenwashed idiots conjuring up schemes to darken the skies...

This is well said. 100% agree. Not only was everything you just said true, but for people like me that care about reducing carbon emissions, the international shipping trade is an abomination that needs reduction asap.

Eh, I'll probably have to log off this thread now, because folks like yourself come in with their minds made up, and don't want to do any research. You already know that the term climate change is just a ruse for the liberal elite to consolidate power, so, your mind won't be changed. We'll...

Ok, chill, chill. It is easy to google this and find conclusive data either way, if you don't want to do any critical thinking about it. But please do note: The lancet study did not control for the seasonal cycle in death rates; deaths are always higher in winter, due to influenza and other...

Interesting, thanks. Thats the thing about all of this, our understanding continues to get better as more research is done. From your article: ..along the U.S. East Coast: In many areas, the Atlantic Ocean is rising 1 to 2 millimeters a year. At the same time, the coast is sinking an...

His house is up a hill from the bay. It wont flood before he's long gone. Insurance companies are pulling back from flood-prone areas all over the place, in many parts of Florida for example. Just pay a little more attention and you'll start to see the shift underway.

Kevin.... this is an easy one. A very easy one. You could have just searched it yourself. HEAT kills many, many, many times more humans than cold. In a cold climate, there is still a growing season for food production, and you can easily keep warm all winter. In a baked, dry, hot...

Nice grade!

Eh, atmospheric rivers can still hit in the winter and dump 6-10' snowfalls on the high sierras. Often the rain/snow line moves up really high, to 7000 ft or so, but it still helps the high altitude snowpack. I'm kind of a nerd for extreme snowfall data. I've snowboarded around lake Tahoe a...

Good eye! It is a Cub Cadet 7305. MTD (owner of cub) simply bought them from Mitsubishi; though I'm not entirely clear who made the front loader. Mahindra did the exact same thing with some of their models, which appear to have slightly stronger loaders. Mine is equivalent to the Mahindra...

^ that said, if you DO go to the trouble of renting a large vibratory roller, you might as well get a dozer back out there too, and do it all in stages to get it correct.

Yes but that might be enough to hold a concrete slab in place that will only hold some hay bales, right? This isn't going to be a precision workshop or factory floor, from what the OP said. Maybe we're all over-thinking this a bit. Plenty of pole barns have been built on uncompacted fill...

All we really have to do here in the water-rich states is fight back and stall everyone long enough until the quality of life in the desert goes to hell, and everyone leaves there anyway. It could mean quite a population boom here in the moist states (gross), but there's no law against wanting...

Man, I really wanted to ignore this post and move on, but it's impossible. Just some of the most idiotic garbage imaginable. Where's your degree from? Did you pass a basic physics class? Conservation of energy is very real, but you seem to conveniently ignore that our earth's energy COMES...

Oh geez. 7 to 8 feet of new dirt, that wasn't fully compacted every 6" ? It's gonna settle a lot, and take a while to do it. That said, if you can get concrete down 5 feet, you're probably gonna stay pretty stable. I've seen skid-steer mounted augers that can go 5+ feet deep. The...

Cool project. Good supply of pics, but do you have an overhead/aerial view with sufficient detail? Very hard to get proper depth perspective from the ground level shots. I would definitely keep a circular / pull-through driveway. The delivery guys will sure appreciate it, but you and your...

Over our dead bodies. People who want to live in the desert get to figure out how to survive without water, not how to steal it from more sensible areas to live. :P

They will be an L shape, conventional. I have 10' under my truss bottom chords, so I'm gonna take 6 steps up to a 3x3' landing along the wall, then it turns towards the building center (truss/roof peak) to continue upstairs. Not looking forward to the extreme loss of space, but trying to be...

Finally got my tractor front axle repaired (outer bearing failure) so that I could clean up the deadfall from last week's storms. This dead ash tree wood has stood vertical, but dead, for at least 10 years. "dry storage" as a co-worker of mine calls it. It makes terrific firewood, only a...

Yes, I fully agree and this is definitely the plan eventually. My 30x36 pole-barn garage/shop is going on 4 years old now, and I still don't have stairs built going up to the 15x24 attic room. Once I can get my storage up there, a whole half wall of shop space opens up. Soon.

When I checked out from messicks, USPS was at the top of the shipping options and was much much cheaper than Fedex or UPS. Since I am only a few hundred miles away, it seemed low risk. Well anyway I am glad to report that the tractor is fully reassembled and back in action. It was down for...

I usually like a good project to justify buying new tools, but I don't have space in my shop for a 20-ton press yet. DO want. Might have to nab a bearing puller set though. Such as: https://www.harborfreight.com/slide-hammer-and-bearing-puller-set-5-pc-62601.html

Final gear is in good enough shape to avoid messing with; I'll check the tractor side tonight also: Reassembled! Looking forward to a couple cold ones in the garage tonight after the kids are in bed, to get the tractor driving again.

Dave, just to follow up on this point, both my inner and outer circlips were symmetrical; no sharper edges or directionality that I could see. That said, I was able to discern which way they had been facing due to the wear marks or certain diameters, and reinstall them the same way.

Fantastic work! Thanks for sharing. Pretty straightforward = good engineering.

^ well I didn't quite repair it yet, Gord! Working it now. Just had to ask for help to go find a special "blind-hole bearing puller" to get the outer bearing race to come out of the hub cover. Thanks for the tips, Beez. I left my drain plug open and hosed everything inside the housing off...

Interesting that it keeps happening. I'm doing this repair on one side of my Cub Cadet right now at ~780 hours. I sure hope it doesn't happen every 500 hours, but I probably won't be the owner of it by then anyway. You should probably jump out of the L5740 before it happens again...

Yeah it was hard to stay asleep for long on Wednesday night in the southeast corner of the state. I didn't look at a clock, but it must have been at least a full hour of constant lightning, with several local strikes. And torrential downpour.... we got 3.5" of rain in a hurry. Then when I...

iCloud is worthless unless you want to keep paying Apple, after spending $1000 on your device in the first place. The free 5gB is full as soon as you turn your device on and import anything from a prior phone. F^&* apple (but, I love my iPhone).

I triggered him somehow. Too many shysters out in the oil fields, I guess. Anywhoo, got my parts in yesterday right on time, just before the huge line of severe thunderstorms blew through Michigan and decimated our power grid. 10 gallons through our generator so far... first real long-term...

^ Lol. Excellent rant, roust. I didn't mean to gripe. But replacing the majority of parts inside just one portal axle on this machine could cost one well over a thousand dollars, on a machine that's only worth maybe 10k. In other words, more than my entire 3 week camper trip (fuel, and...

Thank you! great tip, I forgot that someone did tell me to do that initially as well.

Is your computer on a wired local network to the hugesNet? No wireless router (wifi) ? Airdrop requires both devices to be on a common wifi network for best results. Or like Ralph said, just email them to yourself. I do this a lot.

Yeah, medium-duty 6 foot box blade with an extra 200 lbs of weights, does the job well. All winter long she usually only has a 6-foot scraper blade (with maybe 100 lbs of extra weights, also) that is much less confidence inspiring for heavy loader work. And winter is unfortunately when I do...

Things I am glad about, at this point: - that my rear tire was easily plug-able and went right back onto the rim. - that my axle gears were not broken. No missing teeth, just some minor scuffs. - that my drop/portal axles do NOT share common gear oil with the entire front axle. Much less oil...

Ok, let's see what we might be dealing with in here; never repaired anything like this before. Oh great, there's literally 75 parts in each drop axle?!?! Thankfully it was at least easy enough to find where the leak was coming from. The oil seal where the hub driveshaft comes through was...

A few weeks back I got a text from my neighbor buddy who I share my tractor with; "rear tire is off the rim and front axle is leaking..." Umm, what the heck? Everything was fine the day before, but, stuff happens. His pics: Well I spent most of my day at work panicking about how our...

I tried to buy a golf cart for a while. After a couple test drives of cheap beaters, I realized a 36V cart was NOT gonna cut it for me. Just so dang slow, especially when headed up hill. I got close to snagging a couple 48V project carts for under $2k, but the sales kept falling through...

Those plastic bed liners are slippery! I guess a Toyota V8 has enough oomph to get the stack sliding.... Straps, dum dums. Now you gotta hand re-load the pile, and buy a new tailgate.

Lol, not Ram 1500s though. Until the most recent model refresh, most of them has between 900 to 1200 lbs of total payload. A lowly 6700 GVWR on a truck that weighs well over 5000 lbs itself. I was hoping to buy an ecodiesel for a while, until I researched the pathetic payload numbers, and...

^ yeah.... you're right. I see no evidence of a loader squash. But even a full yard or 1.5 yard dumped at once should not buckle a new pickup frame. Alternate theory. Was the ram lifted with aftermarket suspension? That front looks pretty high, even given the situation. I dunno, I'm stumped.

You might be on to something. Sometimes at the local nursery / landscape yards, the loader driver tries to squash my 3rd yard of soil/rock into my 6x10 dump trailer to get it spread out and below the trailer sides. More than once, they have compressed the trailer suspension dangerously far by...

Looks good to me. Affordable, too. Putting this idea on my next-tractor mod-list.

Not from GM/Chevy, they have 3.42s (usually on the Duramax) or 3.73s standard on the new 6.6L gas. But yes, the 8 and 10 speeds transmissions are what enable lower rear axle ratios, since the ratio spread in the trans can be so much higher and they shift very quickly/efficiently.

Oh man, that sucks! What a disgusting mess you have to deal with now. The fuel line comes in the left (drivers) side right? And the muffler exits out the other side. Must have been from material near or laying/touching the muffler, is my guess. Mouse nest? They can jam a whole crap load of...

In a lot of european nations, there's simply not sufficient mature hardwoods for everyone to collect and split. So they have to burn whatever saplings and trimmed branches they can get ahold of. Which probably works fine, but you probably have to stoke the stove every 20 minutes. Guess I...

Even untreated wood would still last for years in the ground. With current basic ground-contact PT, I can't see how it would even rot within a decade. After which, yes the board loses structural integrity, but it doesn't just disappear and leave a void. Even if it did, after 10+ years, the...

Correct, same 6.0L LQ4 and 4L80 trans, 8-lug hubs/wheels, etc. I tried to find a clean 1500HD for a while but there's not very many around in good shape still. As I recall from researching, the 1500HD is essentially a 2500HD but w/ 2" lower suspension. I think it only came in a crew-cab, 6.5'...

^ yeah. The ford 300ci inline 6cyl would probably be my other top choice for most reliable, but it's a little before my time. Not too many left out there these days either. To clarify for everyone, GM has multiple 6.0L small blocks. We are talking about the iron-block LQ4, with zero fancy...

When I was truck shopping 5 years ago, my priorities were a capable, (towing, payload, w/ 4WD) low-mile machine with no rust that fit my modest budget. When an '03 2500HD w/ 6.0L showed up on craigslist with only 88k miles and no rust (from new mexico), I had to jump on it for 13.5k. Probably...

Congrats dude! The wonderous miracle of diesel powered hydraulics.

Lol yeah, and after a couple beers it becomes, measure thrice, cut twice. Just stay on the long side until it fits. :p

Thanks guys, I'm excited to check out the area, which I'm sure is simply gorgeous. And likely much more interesting than our mostly flat lands of southeast Michigan. And yeah I always have a DD along if my wife is with me... lol. She had to quit alcohol and re-tool her diet to keep her gut...

Well you raise an interesting question, in my mind anyway. Would Menards, or any other big box, really hold all of those particular boards hostage at the current price? I would guess not, that they are free to lower the price on those at any time, if demand is low, or cheaper replacement...

Dayumn. If anything would make me actually measure twice, cut once..... it's that price.

Looks awesome! I wanna see it grab a log off the ground. :) Edit: whoops, got to the end of page 1 and thought it was the end of the thread so far. Nice work.

Love the look of a fresh mopped concrete floor. I remember that being hard work in my build (sweep, vacuum, mop 5 times... then stain/seal) but it was so worth it and very satisfying afterwards. I sincerely hope your floor holds up well under your protection for the next few months. I would...

Interesting. Ground-contact SPF 4x4x8 are only $9.57 up here today in southern Michigan. Seems dumb they would be cheaper here, since the wood is probably from your area originally!

^ Awesome setup, M59, but you're over double his $30k budget, man. Boozle, my only advice here beyond the good tips you have gotten, is to visit some dealerships and sit on tractors. Some tractors a huge beasts. If you can't fathom how they would fit down your trails, between trees, or...

Jeez. It's only 90 miles to get through Mass on I-95, and these yahoos ran out of gas. Can you imagine how mad these guys were at whichever one was driving? LOL. "Brother Lawrence, we got plenty of gas, right? Yeah... we should make it no problem. oops."

Noooo! Don't do the floors yet, man. After drywall, after! We did our stained concrete floors last. I'm not sure I'm understanding why you would hesitate to do it later? Nothing about the flooring job should hurt anything else in the interior finish work. The only thing you should do after...

^ bear sixty's got it - floor jack. I always back into my shop when I need to remove or reinstall the ramp gate on my 6x12 landscape trailer - lower the gate to the floor, and roll the big floor jack right under the trailer side of the tailgate to support it. Easy peasy.

Dang, Looks like you could pull up with a big flat bed trailer and truck-mounted forklift at around 3am, and make off with a fortune. :P

Your decking looks great! Thanks for continuing the updates. My small dewalt impact driver had no trouble with my lag screws in my bridge build - but I pre-drilled all the holes, which surely helped. And I had 20+ year old recycled decking, not nearly as hard as new white oak lol. For your...

Mostly agree. The two things that instantly stand out to me in your list though: Yes, an extra 100 lbs on the FEL can absolutely be noticed if that is the exact amount of extra weight you need to lift, and your FEL can't do it. And two, the 2-range vs 3-range trans is a huge deal. A two range...

2" straps can hold that tractor to the trailer, but not in the configuration shown! There nothing preventing that machine from sliding backwards until the straps are loose and can then fall right off. Glad you made it home without incident. I really can't believe a tractor shop let a machine...

^ coupled with that thought, rusty, is the fact that it can be hard to keep the boards running perfectly perpendicular as you go across the bridge, even though you might have squared it up really nicely to begin with. So you might pre-cut the board ends dead straight up at the garage, and then...

And Las Vegas has never been over 117. It was significantly hotter, 1300 miles to the north. Lytton is gone. Hope everyone made it out...

Another article I saw this morning about Lytton. It was actually three days in a row of 121F high temps. In interior British Columbia. Thats insane. https://gizmodo.com/wildfire-devastates-canadian-town-thats-been-suffering-1847209313

Well my cub cadet (made by mitsubishi) also just developed an oil leak out of the front right lower MFWD drop axle, so I would be interested in how you fixed your leak. Near as I can tell there are 3 seals - top input shaft, wheel hub output shaft, and the case cover itself. I gotta...

^ good point, Eddie. Maybe the widest roll of window flashing or zip tape that you can find? Ideally covering all the flat portion of your cut on the top side of the poles. The gooey tape also reseals itself around screws coming through it. Good call on the GRKs, they are indeed stout. And...

One comment I got my on my own smaller phone-pole bridge a couple times, was that I should have covered the top of the poles with waterproofing, under the decking. Ideally metal flashing, since tar paper breaks down pretty quick and then holds water. Any plans in that regard? I would think it...

whipty dos? whipty dos. :) Sorta surprised to hear your grader blade isn't working real well. You do mean a rear scraper blade, correct? Whatever implement it is, the 3-pt already floats. How is it digging in with any extra force in a dip, if there's no down pressure? Seems a chain...

Dang jjp, that video is crazy. Talk about a water hammer. The one poor sap who hits the dislodged cover than gets blasted again by a second round of eruption... cruel. Alex, looks like you need some crown in your drive to force the water off to the sides, so it doesn't run right down the lane.

Your question is well answered already, so I'll just ask.... didn't you notice that one of your lower 3-pt arms was just dragging on the ground? Or is that missing also? Oh wait, the backhoe is mounted now? So this linkage wasn't in use, just keep it somewhere safe in the garage, I guess...

Bad a$$. Well engineered, sir. One immediate question: That creek looks pretty small. Did you consider a trail re-alignment that might have allowed you to have a much, much shorter overall bridge length? Looks like you go over a pond for the first half that you could have possible just gone...

Thanks gents. Got another heavy downpour last night, maybe 1 to 1.5". Looks like it washed my repaired edges a bit, but no real damage. The upshot is that it nicely cleaned all my sandy brown gravel in the rebuilt driveway into a nice natural grey again. I-94 is still closed in Detroit. I...

^ he came down and saw me doing the repairs. I think he felt my frustration that my driveway was now draining the road frontage in a way it never has before. I told him I might have to add berms and cut the front ditch lower again, and he just said "well, you might have to mow it then", which...

Yeah /pine, it was a lesson. My driveway handles it's own rainfall run off just fine. But it is not supposed to be the exit path for the main drainage ditch of my 50mph road frontage. I need to clear the weeds and look through my culvert. But one smoking gun here is that my sweet old retired...