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I'm heating a very large and relatively inefficient 300 year old house with wood, and so maximizing how much wood I can pack into the stoves with each load really impacts how much oil I need to burn to supplement the stoves. For this reason, I try to make sure every split is within 1/2" of the...

Bigger is better, but only to a point. I actually had an 084 or 088 (125 - 135cc) for awhile, and because all my work is felling and bucking rather than horizontal milling, I found the 064 (85cc) far preferrable. Those big saws can chew through anything, but at least in stock configuration...

Crazy wind here on Saturday, which would normaly be a bad day to be working under trees, but things have been so thoroughly blown-out the last several weeks, that there's not much dead left to fall at this point. Rain this morning, and I noticed a nice bright yellow pile of sludge collected at...

I wasn't suggesting you replace anything, but figured these diagrams would help you identify and arrange the parts you already have, or possibly determine if anything is missing. Yes, it's normal that you can't order off that version of the parts catalog, as I posted from the older/obsolete...

The most common configuration of standalone splitter uses an 11 GPM pump on a 4" x 24" cylinder, for a full stroke time of 11-12 seconds. Painfully slow, IMO, not everyone is as impatient as me. Running it off tractor hydraulics is usually going to be even slower, but again, some don't mind...

Parts catalog should have everything, but navigating some of the old stuff gets a little more challenging each time they redo the site, as familiarity with these old machines wanes. But if you go into parts catalog and just enter 855, select the CUT (there was also an 855 dozer), then you can...

You've exceeded my very limited memory, on this one! My 855 came with a 72" deck, but I think I only used it once, and probably sold it within 2 weeks of bringing the tractor home. That was all 15 years and three tractors ago, so I remember very little detail on how it mounts. I only remembered...

I knew his sons were all named "George Foreman", but somehow always just assumed they must have different middle names! Making a phone call to that house must have been confusing as hell, for their school friends... or bill collectors. Can you imagine getting the call, "George was in a car...

The 064 is a great saw, but with your 500i in the house, I'm not sure I'd even bother! The 064 was the highest HP-to-weight saw they made at the time, but your 500i makes 10% more horsepower at 1.5 lb. less, if all the published spec's I found for both saws are correct. Likewise with the 036...

An 064 AV and 036 PRO are my regular pairing, for my 10 - 15 cords per year. Great saws.

Looks like they're all 50cc and under these days. I've never had a bad experience with an Echo saw, they've all been reliable and solid saws. But all those I've ever owned have had lower power to weight than Stihl or Husqvarna, and it seems their largest saw today is smaller than the smallest...

Echo makes some great small and reliable saws. But what do they have that's even remotely comparable to Stihl's 500i?!? I've owned a few Echo saws. All reliable as concrete... and damn near as heavy. :p Landscape crews seem to love them, probably owing to their high reliability. I've...

"Why won't my 3-point go down?" "Because it's married?" 🤪 Sorry... but it's funny how that works.

As already noted, large swaths of this country do not have any annual inspection of vehicles. It's honestly hard to understand why everyone doesn't have an annual safety inspection, but there it is. Emissions testing is usually isolated to higher-density areas. In PA, the counties around...

You're right that ICE drivers are paying more. But the numbers I posted yesterday showed that, at least in PA, total money going to registration + taxes for EV and ICE weren't that terribly far apart. Something like $0.20 per day difference. So, I consider it one more incentive to get the...

For most weekend warriors, a bottle lasts a year or more. It's pretty easy to just plan to take it with you next time you're headed that direction, so no need for a special trip. So, maybe you exchange it with 10% still in the bottle, ahead of a big project where you want to be sure you won't...

But they're heirloom bottles! :ROFLMAO: I feel sorry for anyone so caught up in what.. the $250 cost of a friggin empty bottle?!? Even if they've doubled in price since I bought my last bottle, what a waste of time and energy to worry about such small stuff in life. If you're making an...

That's what I have now. But it takes up more space, affecting how you can place chairs under it. Also, the metal base trapped under the counterweights is powdercoated steel, and leaves rust stains on the concrete. The anodized aluminum mounting plate that I'd use with these anchors resolves...

Oh, yeah... there is definitely a huge range of "stainless" out there, especially now with Asian vendors flooding the market through Amazon.com and the like. Even among legitimately-graded stainless, there's 18-8 (ANSI 304) versus 306 and others. You might use 306 underwater in a marine...

Probably good advice, but what can a guy with a "possibly damaged" tractor do to get a reasonable response time out of an adjuster in a wildfire disaster zone? Is there any obligation on the part of the insurance company to actually get around to him, in a reasonable amount of time? I can't...

Your post came in as I was typing. These would work, in fact I have my shop compressor and pool pump equipment mounted using these. But they leave a stud standing out of the patio if the umbrella is ever moved or removed, and the only way to deal with that is permanent removal with a grinder...

yep, Dryland Farmer nailed it, the concrete screws are more a once-and-done solution. I don't think I'll be moving this thing often, but I like keeping the option open to remove it at least occasionally, if possible. I'm leaning toward buying the usual 1-9/16" drop-in anchors for 3/8" bolts...

I can't imagine that being a safe bet. For all you say is wrong with Canada, Europe represents those attributes to an exponentially higher degree. It's no wonder Europe has been through a succession of economic meltdowns over the last 30 years, with essentially 3 productive countries carrying...

I am looking to set some drop-in achors as deep as possible in a 5" thick decorative concrete slab, for the propose of mounting the base plate of a large cantilever umbrella. The mounting plate is drilled for 3/8" hardware, which would be plenty strong, except that all of the 3/8" stainless...

... and if you use Trojans for covering your PTO shaft, buy the un-lubricated variant. I think the lube is water-based. :p

I have an older Hobert Handler 175, which I bought maybe 20 years ago. Like you, most of my welding is outside, where shielding gas can be problematic. But flux core ain't no picnic either, so smokey that you're left basically welding by braille. It also smokes over your helmet viewing glass...

Glad you, your family, and your home all survived that mess. Here's what I'd do: 1. Call insurance company, make a report, ask for someone to call you. I agree, you're going to want to have such a low-hours basically new mahine gone over, to make sure nothing is wrong, esp. given it suddenly...

Farmall went out of business! If only they'd put a condom on their PTO's... :p

Another thread tanked by politics. I have my own thoughts, and actually an inclination to defend wawajake's national pride, as everyone else is piling onto him. But this is a discussion for another place.

I suspect most came with one, but were lost. Even the old Ford 9N, 2N, and 8N (1939 - 1952?) had them, and I can clearly remember the OEM cover on my buddy's old Ford 3000 (1960's). My next door neighbor's 1940's Ford N-series also has one. Ford N-series PTO cover:

I'll have to pull out my manual at some point, if anyone even cares, but I seem to remember it says to keep that spined stub greased and covered when not in use.

That makes sense. I have to admit that my admiration of that fuel filler location was purely from on-the-lot browsing, I never actually had to use it! Re: 3033R, it always bothered me that, for something you're going to use so frequently, tractor manufacturers sure seem to put very little...

Just as many lease cars, while many others can't imagine ever doing that... different strokes for different folks. There is definitely some sector of the market that is more interest in just getting back on the road, than worrying about cost, or whether the battery they're accepting has flaws...

I looked long and hard at the 2R's before buying the 3R, and nearly went home with a 2038R they had on the lot. I really liked many things better about the 2R's, and one of those things was that their filler neck is accessible from the ground. I love the location in the fender, so easy to...

This probably varies by locale. I've always had them show up and mark here, and in fact they always ask the date by which I need it marked, and have asked me to push a project back a few days in cases where they were booked up. I do think their regular contractors have more pull, when it comes...

Sorry to hear of your loss, Ken. The crappiest part of the great cycle of life. None of us get out of here alive!

I lived for several years in a tightly-packed Victorian village, all houses built 1870's - 1890's, that was plumbed, gassed, and electrified real early. You couldn't dig anywhere on that little 0.2 acre property without hitting something, and then spending half the day figuring out what it was...

I thought most states already started doing this years ago? If not, shame on them for being too slow to adapt. In PA, it's $45 to register an ICE and $200 to register an EV, with that price going up to $250 next year. I'm finding various figures on average per-capita gasoline usage, but they...

Same, but I'd probably look at Willy's idea, if I ever lost mine. Another option is is US Plastics, who will probably sell you just one piece of one that's a perfect fit. I think US Plastics is just a distributor/reseller of Caplugs.com and a few other brands, but the big boys like Caplugs...

One of my several hot rods (mid-80's Mustang LX into which I jammed a 7.1 liter motor) didn't have space in the trunk for a proper fuel cell, since there was a NOS bottle and battery already eating up that space. But we were having fuel delivery problems with the OEM sump on the tank, whether...

Not innaccurate at all! We're just slicing the numbers differently, me considering the average of all of Europe, with you focusing on just the top 3 countries (7% of European countries). But maybe I should've stuck to talking about Tesla sales into Europe, as that was my point, and avoided the...

Designs will vary, but in the case of that particular design, it appears you'd be putting a thrust load on a ball bearing assembly (140), by having the wedge put force between stuck driveshaft and the housing. The drawing doesn't show us all the details, but it appears the outer race of bearing...

Wedge, lever... doesn't matter. All are an equally-bad idea, as you're applying a thrust load to the PTO stub, leveraging against the housing. A puller between stub end and driveshaft end avoids putting any thrust load on whatever c'clips or thrust washers are holding that stub within the...

As someone who's been selling product into Europe for decades, interest in European sales has always sort of baffled me, as the numbers never seem to support the interest. Case in point, Germany sales tanked by 76%, so the media idiots create all sorts of headlines about it, and everyone takes...

I think anyone pretending politics is not a huge part of the explanation for any recent drop in Tesla sales, has their head in the sand. It seems very likely that Tesla sales must have previously relied on those who wouldn't have voted for the current administration, who may now be less than...

That's amazing, considering they had just two in early 2018. :oops:

It's possible. My 5184 from USA number came from an April 2023 report, but I found another report stating only 4550 worldwide in 2021 with only 1655 from SpaceX at that time, so it must be changing very quickly. What's the source for your 6000 number?

A light won't stop you from starting your trip with the parking brake or 4wd engaged, but it should at least save you from getting too far down the road, in that mode.

I took the "we" as USA only, since he was referring to domestic expenditures in that post.

You just want to take the time to make yourself feel special? :p

That can only happen if you're cutting them wrong, like using traditional dual-bevel cutters. With flush-cut dykes, cutting up against the lock body, there's no sharp edge left to cut you, ever.

If it takes you a half hour, you're doing it wrong! You can skip the foreplay, when you're alone, Massey. :p

Yeah, I had some crappy ones like that, at one point. Try the ones from Deere, they seem to work really well in any weather where you're likely to be seeing dust. The booties that cover the male couplings get too stiff to work nicely in very cold weather, but there's usually snow on the ground...

I operate daily on a big hill with a loader, so I'm continously switching 4wd on to go safetly down the hill with a load in the bucket, and then switching it back off for turning operations on dry hard pack or asphalt at the top of the hill. After a few trips up/down, it can be real easy to...

My dealer sells and services Stihl, Husqvarna, Echo and RedMax! They have side by side racks of Stihl and Husqvarna, and the Echo's go on the floor around the perimeter of the whole show room. I don't think they have any RedMax saws, just trimmers and blowers for that brand.

I grease my PTO stubs. Never been an issue. I keep the OEM condom on the thing when not in use, although sometimes I'll forget to re-install when dropping an implement, and it does have dirt/dust stick to the grease. But I have these things called paper towels, and this other thing called a...

We don't have 10000, we have roughly half that, at 5184. And even if they lived forever, no, it wouldn't be enough. Our GPS system, unless there are components undisclosed, is the most fragile and ancient of all the various nations that have independent GPS. Our system has nearly zero...

Just hooking mine back up, after spreading fertilizer this morning. I do rinse the tractor off after spreading fertilizer, because it’s often corrosive, but otherswise just wipe the outside of these assembled pairs real quick with a paper towel, before pulling them apart. Hydro filter change...

You’re supposed to plug the male dust plug into the female, when you couple the connectors, to keep both clean.

Same. I’ll wrap a choker chain around four full tree lengths at a time, if they’re under 10” diameter. I don’t care about the ful so much, but it’s a long wait in the woods, while my buddy skids a load of 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile out to our staging area, and comes back for the next load. He was...

Every time someone convinces me to give Laphroaig another try, I’m reminded how much it tastes like that old Listerine antiseptic throat spray… at $100/bottle. :p I like Scotch, but I’m not sure how anyone actually enjoys that stuff.

The push for higher data rates seems to have gone from legitimate necessity, to just a way to keep the machine that is Verizon growing. It’s very rare for anyone with a connection that’s reliably 400 Mb/s to have any issues, even with several users in the household all streaming, unless every...

Didn’t that make a mess of hubcaps and rims? Also, don’t most tire compounds dissolve in gasoline?

My Deere also came with the color-coded dust caps on all lines. Lots of them, given my rear remotes, power beyond, hydraulic top link, and third channel out to the loader. They work great, but can be a bear to get off the male coupling in cold weather.

I watched way more than 3 seconds, and nothing has happened yet. False advertising! Sounds like it was a pretty terrible accident. They hit a pipeline, assumed it was a buried rock, and commenced trying to pull it out of the ground with two big farm tractors. Four men involved, and I skipped...

I spent many years of my early career designing fiberoptic transmitters and transponders, and my wife has spent 30 years in the manufacture of these components. All long-haul fiber is 7 - 9 micrometer diameter, as in Ø.007 to Ø.009 millimeters... microscopically tiny. What you see when you...

It's hard for a thoughtful or intelligent person to not find all of the various opposing presentations of these topics at least a little confusing, or to have anything but mixed feelings about all of it. Anyone who claims to really know the whole truth in all of this is being at least a little...

Oh… Elvis.

Mercury tilt switch is not a good solution, IMO. How much does the lever or linkage angle actually change, between 2wd and 4wd? Is it more than the rollover angle of your tractor, or even the maximum slope you're likely to encounter? And what about the fact that the thing is bouncing around...

I sold my 1963 IH Cub Cadet just a few years ago, still wearing original tires, and zero cracks. They had plenty of tread wear, but otherwise looked mostly like the day the machine was built, 50+ years earlier. Keep tires out of the sun, and they last a long time... like original owner's...

late to this thread, but this is the ONLY way to do this job. It's possible you already damaged the PTO by driving the shaft end onto it, but why double your chance of damage pulling on it? They are not made to handle a lot of thrust force, and there are plenty of printed warnings about...

Or a small bucket. :p I hit a groundhog with a car once, with the right front tire of an old boxy Volvo 240, and thankfully I was only doing maybe 35 mph. It was so solid that, if I hadn't seen the thing a second before impact, I'd have thought I hit a block of concrete! Needless to say the...

State laws vary, I'm sure. Castle doctrine probably applies in some, but not in others. I actually started my engineering career in the mid-1990's working for a company who had developed what was then very advanced machine vision algorithms, applying them to autonomous weaponry, like this but...

This is where my Ring camera drives me absolutely nuts. It notifies us for deer, fox and squirrels several times everyday, which I honestly don't mind that much... they're fun to watch for the few seconds they're usually on screen. But at least one damned spider builds her nest right in the...

My favorite thing about you, is your ability to have a civil discussion on any topic, without unnecessary snipes and jabs. :p

Cool! I live in a big old house, with several interior stone walls 2 feet thick, so our WiFi system consists of more than a half dozen wired hot spots. The prior owner left numberous un-terminated stubs of cat.5 dangling in both basement and attic, but we've never managed to find any end...

Please post back with what you come up with, since I'm facing the same sort of dilemma. I have a HD color video camera with lights (from Ring) over our driveway, and due to the mounting height and just limitation of H x V pixel count, picking out faces or license plates from the captured...

Yeah, I know it all gets wrapped up, esp. when the leading face of the EV industry goes into working directly for the President. Oh well. Shame to see folks vandalizing car lots, as a protest against one man. That's obviously not helping anyone. I guess people look at the fact that Tesla...

Is this the politics thread, or the EV thread?

Looks like that camera is going to be good enough to tell you there's an intruder, but maybe not good enough to make an identification?

That terrible drought that killed lawns and everything else last fall, seems to still be in effect. This is one of the driest starts to spring I can recall, so far. I have been looking at an increasing amount of exposed dirt where there used to be lawn, with a plan to overseed this spring...

As someone who basically grew up spending summers at the shore, and countless hours wasted by varous Jersey shore boat ramps, I've seen at least a few of these. Never an EV before, though!

If the person who edited that video hadn't pointed out that the man standing next to the truck was trying to "stop the flying board", I'd have assumed he threw it across the median at the oncoming car. :ROFLMAO: Must have been a windy day!

With 900+ bolts, I assume you're using something better than the stamped sheet metal wrench Ikea included in the kit? :p

I used to work part of every year in Germany, back in the 1990's, when their high speed rail system was still the latest and greatest thing going. Trouble was, being a country of old villages and older roads, they just had these 350 km/hr (220 mph) trains running right thru villages and through...

Looks like half the RR crossings in Bucks County. No sight lines, no drop bar, just an X with a pair of red lights straddling it.. and they don't even work half the time. I was the passenger in a car that came within about 10 feet of being hit by a train. Blind crossing, in the rain, and the...

I'll check my filing cabinet next time I'm in the barn, but I might have manuals for most of the implements made for the 855. If not, the parts catalog I posted earlier in this thread should have all of the assembly diagrams at least, teo help you figure out how that mower is assembled, and...

Wow. Now that I think about it, I think that was actually the line being given, in that very scene! Good recall. Pretty good movie, if I recall, but it's been a long time since I saw it.

Mandir = Temple = Church? :p Oh! Since all of our trailers in PA have brakes on all axles, I have never actually seen one set up with brakes on only one axle. Surprising to me it's on the rear, thinking that most vehicles transfer their weight onto the front axle when stopping, but I guess...

You gotta wonder what farmer doesn't own a 3/4 ton truck. Or is this tractor going to suburban lawn duty? Perfect demsonstration of the ultimate sheer strength of metal.

??? How would brakes on front axle only be better than brakes on all axles? My figuring is that, with brakes on all axles, the break-away system has you covered, no matter how the trailer is loaded. Brakes on the rear axle only isn't even an option, as far as I've seen. I don't think that's...

You know you're old when you look scarier than you actually are.

When a rogue trailer is freewheeling down a hill at me, I'm not sure my first thought will be, "don't worry, it's only 4999 lb.". :ROFLMAO:

Nice! Yep, I remember that floor plate well, had it off countless times. In fact, if I recall, you need to remove it each year to grease the front universal joint on a driveshaft. There's an interlock lever that pops up when that plate is removed, but I can't remember now what it does, as I'm...

I see stuff like that everyday from local farms, and I honestly don't see a problem with it, as long as trailer brakes and emergency break-away are working (PA requires brakes on every axle). I am sure this guy is hauling that load just across the farm, or on local roads between field and...

You're right. US Fed spending on Alzheimer's research is $3.8B, which ain't nothing, but cancer gets $7.2B. Of course, cancer is scarier to most, and infinitely more likely to affect those in their working prime. Read that as "those making spending decisions", if you will. Researching...

Nope, not the same tractor, I just checked. BTW, do you know what the "A" in your sn means? Maybe 2wd vs. 4wd? Mine has a "D" in that spot. As to hours, two things: 1. Mine also showed very low hours on the meter, because I had to replace my meter, when the tach needle feel off the spindle...

Interesting. My 855 was also one of the first ever made, I think the serial number ended in 056, but will need to look that up. One of the problems you're going to run into with this tractor is that Deere made substantial changes to many components in year 2 of manufacture, ca.1987, so many of...

Parts Catalog for the mower decks: https://partscatalog.deere.com/jdrc/navigation/equipment/4311 If you tell us your mower size and tractor sn, then we can probably point you to the exact page, but I suspect you're missing the mower deck lift straps or arms. Browse the catalog, and you'll see.

Nope. Top link is the upper link on the 3-point hitch, which is just a passive turnbuckle to keep the implement from flopping over when the lower arms lift it. The mower deck linkage has no connection to the 3-point hitch, they just operate off the same controls. There should be a pair of...

Oh, and if you think you’re missing linkage, first raise the three-point control lever, then crank the height adjust wheel to the left (counterclockwise) until it stops, then lower the three-point lever. I bet your linkage will drop down after you do this.

The three-point control lever lifts the belly mower, and the little wheel on the transmission tunnel by your left foot sets the height it will drop to, when the quadrant controlling the three-point is lowered. So if you want the belly mower to stay up when lowering your three-point, first raise...

I buy a lot from McMaster-Carr, to the tune of a $10k - $30k per year. Their prices run 2x - 5x what you'll pay elsewhere, but you always know what you're getting (their downloadable CAD models are invaluable), and you always get it same-day or next day. I use them more for hardware than for...

Same. I've only had one, way back in my mid-20's when I was experiencing some bad acid reflux issues, but they didn't knock me totally out. They gave me enough of something that I was pretty loopy, and didn't care much what they were doing to me, but I think they needed me awake enough to obay...

I have no horse in this race, but that was pretty funny. :ROFLMAO:

Not sure where you came up with that. You can still buy every single factory base configuration part ever made for all of the Deere x55 series, right down to major castings like the front axle. I just sold my 855, and had no trouble with parts availability. The only thing they’ve discontinued...

Burn it? Build a boat out of it?

No direct experience with the 755, but I ran a 4' Woods M4 brush cutter behind my old Deere 855 MFWD, for mowing trails, and that worked great. The 855 was rated 23 hp engine / 19 hp PTO, if I recall correctly. Even the 855 was a little light in the nose when I'd remove the loader, so it'd...

lol... no worries. Yep, all speakers are wired to two amplifiers. The only WiFi involved is in streaming from our phones or tablets to these two amplifiers. One amp that powers all of the outdoor speakers is connected to our network via WiFi, but in the same room as the primary...

Espresso tastes better, and has a similar effect.

Good question, and I'm not sure. It's something that's been repeated to me many times, by the township inspector, by our gas company, and even by an excavator we had on-site two years ago. So, whether or not it's a code requirement, it seems to be the ubiquitously-accepted convention, at least...

Long hill.

Interesting question. It'd take 20,000 miles of wire to hear even a 0.1 second delay, so you'd never hear anything like the delays you get out of some wireless solutions, using a hardwired system. A small phase distortion at higher frequencies takes much less delay though, so let's run the...

Just be aware that there's a 24" separation requirement between gas and electric, for reasons that will become obvious to you the first time you need to dig across that trench. :ROFLMAO: So, if putting both in the same trench, you're going to be digging a mighty wide one, to do it safely and...

There's always the option to fly out there, load the hotshot's trailer, and fly back. Not the cheapest option, I guess, but maybe not too terrible as round-trip tickets are sometimes cheaper than one-way. If comparing costs, don't forget to add something for the mileage you're putting on your...

Yep. My house was done before the wireless BT speakers became a thing, and I suspect those probably have too many lag/phasing issues when trying to arrange as many as we have in this large house, so ours is all hard-wired to the utility room in the basement. Miles, and miles, and miles of...

Yeah that's definitely been the case for many years. But having watched PECO run all new underground lines in our neighborhood last year, I'm wondering how much that holds true today. They basically dig a hole every 100 - 200 feet, and just shoot the line thru the earth between holes. No more...

Yeah, I figured. I'll do that next time I'm in the shop. Never looked at how the stops are implemented on this saw, but I'm assuming it's a simple tab on the screw head, that I can snip or file off. I do believe I'm in tune, but right up against the rich stop, in getting there. Hey, what do...

lol... I still have big speaker stacks, but they're touring / stage speakers, since I was in a band and my house was the practice studio. The big home stereo has been replaced by a cluster of WiFi streaming amplifiers wired to about 40 tiny speakers scattered throughout the house, porches, and...

Exactly. Everyone knows you need a stack of components in a glass-front floor-standing cabinet, about chest high, and at least one pair of enormous 3-way speakers the size of small filing cabinets. Put The Wall on the turntable, turn up the volume, and turn down the lights...

We're underground here, too. Really cuts down on outages, in our heavily-forested corner of PA. At least in our case, the underground run from Verizon (FiOS) was free, but it was less than 500 feet from the closest box to my front door. If etpm only needs 5 poles, their run is probably even...

Finally selling your vacuum tube tester? <-- has a few

So, I installed one of these on my 036 this week, and had a chance to put a little time on it today. I wasn't cutting anything bit enough to bury the nose, so it wasn't possible to judge how much power it added, as this saw always had plenty of power to sling the 20" bar and chain thru the 12"...

Lower the quadrant (3-pt control lever), and then see if the knob turns more easily. Or do it with the 3-point lowered and tractor off. They can be real tough to turn when there's a load on the 3-point.

Gentle Giant came up in the shuffle rotation today, and I got thinking how old those guys must be by now... if not gone. Well, it turns out Ray Shulman, one of the three Shulman brothers that started the band, passed a year ago this month. Gentle Giant never really saw very big commercial...

lol... yeah. I understand the numbers game they're playing, but like Milo said, I think there's room for more of them to capture the part of the new car buying market that does want a manual. One thing we've always faced, is that manual is more desired by young males buying used cars, than by...

Yep. I remember arguing this with the local Audi/Porsche dealer, who told me "most Americans don't want manual transmission." To which I replied, "you're probably right, but most American Audi customers probably do!" lol... how could I have forgotten the Mustang! I actually owned a 7-liter...

So, here's an interesting question: Excluding vehicles that cost more than the average American home, what high-power or otherwise desirable vehicles still exist with a manual transmission option, in 2025? I remember shopping new BMW sedans and wagons way back in 2010, or thereabouts, and even...

I'd have gone ball-peen. Less likely to catch and rip my pants. :ROFLMAO:

Sorry, you're right. It was the Tundra I had looked at. The T100 was an older Toyota full-size that a friend owned, years ago. I always figured Toyota would be the last hold-out on manual transmission, but I think they dropped it from their full-size trucks even before Dodge.

It's funny, because Kubota makes seriously good tractors by all accounts, but I keep hearing "I love my Kubota, but the treadle peddle..." from my few friends who own that brand. If this pedal is such a turn-off or problem for so many buyers, you have to wonder why the brand insists on sticking...

I guess I should have added "with a V8 and 4wd", since I think some of the 2wd v6 GM fleet trucks can still be bought with manual, in standard cab configuration. I don't know about Tacoma, but I did check Toyota's full-size 1/2 ton (T100?) back when I was shopping for my most recent truck. I...

I was going to ask how you steer when plowing snow, since that's all done by independent braking here. But maybe you don't get much snow in Kansas? Love the mod. I guess if you need to own Kubota, and hate the treadle, it's a good way to go. Ever consider selling it as a kit?

Mom taught me to drive in her automatic, then bought a cheap 4-speed manual for my sister and I to share. Thankfully it was my sister's second manual trans, so she taught me to drive stick, age 16. It was a gutless little Ford EXP, so it actually took a little more skill to not stall that...

I dragged home a poplar tree once. Once. I burned the entire 1.5 cords of it in about 8 days, and we were still cold! :ROFLMAO: Most useless firewood ever created, each split must have less BTU value than a roll of newspaper. Don't waste your valuable time or wood shed space on that stuff!

"It's in there."

We have the same. The old-timer I used to cut with called it "piss oak". I think it's closely related to swamp oak, or may even be another name for the same sub-species. It may smell like piss when cutting into it green, but it's a good high-BTU wood, if you have a few years to dry the stuff...

That's really cool. It's always fun finding out what your ancient relatives did, when they were much younger, esp. when you've only ever known them in their older years. I play the great highland bagpipes, an instrument that puts one as closely possible to having a perpetual aneurism while...

I think the answer is there, in a round-about way: He wasn't looking for a more timely solution. His aim was to push his existing shop toward becoming able to deal with Tesla, so they're better able to handle the next one, not finding the quickest solution to getting this one car repaired.

The softest of the "hardwoods"? :p

It's possible there were multiple versions/improvements over the years. The way I remember it, there were two different levels for difficulty, which just controlled the size of your on-screen "paddle". So if a better player was playing against a weaker player, you could set the better player's...

I pulled out the old 1979 Atari 2600 around Christmas, got a new adapter that works better than the old antenna/game switch, some new joysticks, and set it up on the 45" flat screen in the basement rec room. My 15 year old son loves it, most notably Pong, Combat, Pitfall and Space Invaders. He...

Is Superman suspected?

Probably my single favorite actor, or at a minimum, near the top of a short list. He's not only in a lot of great movies, but he's usually the best part of any movie he is in. Unforgiven comes to mind. Eastwood is in even more of my favorite movies than Hackman, but Hackman's the better actor.

Oh, yes... plenty of trees around here. Between a good friend's property, my church, and a few neighbors, I'm drawing on close to 100 acres of dense hardwoods forrest. I haven't dropped a healthy tree in many years, at least that I can remember. Everything you see here was blown down in...

I burn dozens of logs nicer than that, every year! :D The reality is that I'm surrounded by big oaks and walnuts, and while it's not uncommon to have someone accuse me of burning "veneer quality" logs, the mills around here don't want them, or won't pay us what they're worth to me as...

Oh, I should have added: If you're actually lifting the logs rather than dragging, then tongs are great. I use them for lifting logs over the side of my trailer, when unloading it: That said, chain chokers are still more secure, and let you grab more than one at a time: Both have their...

Tongs on a drawbar on the 3-point works fairly well, much more capacity than the bucket, and much less likely to tip the machine. I've dragged hundreds of cords of logs out of the woods with a Ford 3000, usually working about 1/2 mile in from our staging area, and we've found 3-point to be...

A lost art... like the mix tape! I had more than one casette as a kid, where the end of the song was interrupted by Kasey Kasem. :ROFLMAO: A few years younger than you, but I remember one in particular, the Hooters "And we danced" recorded off Saturday's "Billboard top 100" in the early 1980's.

That's really cool. When I was a kid, there were also a lot of old homes originally homesteaded by my family, but all sold off after my grandparents' generation. Some had been handed down father to son, for more than 300 years in our family. But these houses down here aren't built for...

Nice setup, there! I average 10 full cords per winter, but our house is large, old, and mostly uninulated stone construction. We have 60 windows, more than half of which were installed in 1775. We have 14 exterior doors, some of them dating back as far as 1734. This place ain't exactly the...

lol... that's not a Martini! It's vodka in a funny glass! :D Even the traditional gin martini drinkers had been going more and more dry, some getting the the point of just spritzing it over the glass, but now things seem to be swinging back toward the more traditional. Most old recipes are...

Same. For this reason, I always move 1 full cord up to high ground near my barn at the beginning of the season, while the ground is still dry from summer. That way, if I need to fetch more wood up to the house while the ground is soggy, I don't need to haul my wagon thru the low ground to my...

I've heard of guys trying to run regular engine oil filters on log splitter hydraulic systems, only to have them fail, but I've never personally seen it. But think about this. The 20 GPM pump on my log splitter is pushing 1.3 quarts per second through that return line and filter! Now, how...

* up to 13 tons combination weight, IIRC.

Maybe it's easier to just jack up the front of the tractor and drop the front axle an inch or three? Might not even need to disconnect the steering hoses or linkage, if you're just looking to buy a few inches.

It depends on flow rate and filter size or construction. Most figure up to 100 psi as "normal operating", but you won't find many log splitter manufacturers with lines rated under 300 psi on the return side. Assuming you won't see much more than 20 PSI, and selecting your line construction...

* as long as you're not sideways to a hill. :D

I figured it's worth asking the guy who's handle is "dirtymartini". :ROFLMAO: I'm mostly bourbon in winter and gin in summer, with the odd rye Manhattan sprinkled in here or there.

Well, now that we have the important stuff figured out, what's your martini recipe? :D I like variety, but keep coming back to this recipe. Fairly traditional ratios, but the Sapphire gives it a unique twist. 2 to 2-1/4 oz. Bombay Sapphire gin 3/4 to 1 oz. Carpano dry vermouth 1 dash...

Rent a trailer? That'd be lowest cost, if you already have the truck, but PA/AZ/PA is an awful long round trip. My mom has hired many of those guys who cart snowbird's cars from Florida to PA and back each year. Most have been pretty good, and no horror stories. I'm sure there are at least a...

I've always wondered about the paint underneath. I mean, who cares about the wrap? It's cheap to replace, and some even claim it's there to protect the paint from chips. But you're baking the paint beneath it, and potentially trapping moisture there that could cloud the finish. I remember...

I had thought you said low pressure side, which still sees positive pressure, depending on flow rate, viscosity, and filter condition. The pressure there should be relatively low, but it's still positive pressure. But suction tube is another matter, that's actually at negative pressure...

I'd be surprised. Think of the massive volume of that cylinder, versus the tiny surface area of any one valve seat. A damaged valve seat will cause leak-down, likely even reduced compression... but zero compression? I don't see how. A valve stuck open might do it. But I'd be really...

Is it at least re-inforced?!? The most popular clear tubing that is resistant to hydraulic oil would be clear versilon PVC plastic, which has a max pressure rating of only 30 psi at 72F in 3/4" ID... and burst pressure goes down with temperature. There are hard (semi-flexible) clear plastic...

Customarily used on cars much cooler than the CyberTruck. :ROFLMAO: https://www.instagram.com/snapthatsawrap/reel/DCAhPpFtFFL/

I wouldn't be pulling piston and rod until after following dodge man's lead, and looking for a broken injector or glow plug. You can run the piston to the bottom of the bore to check the cylinder walls for damage from whatever object got in there, without pulling the piston. Maybe you will...

Parking brakes are notoriously poorly-maintained on automatic transmission vehicles, just out of pure dis-use, especially those driven by someone who didn't first learn on manual. I think inspection places also don't often bother checking its operation, even though they should, and I've bought...

Interesting history on these terms. Before dual-reservoir brake master cylinders, it was required that all road vehicles have an “emergency brake”. There are requirements built into that term, that the brake must be able to stop the vehicle from a certain speed in a certain amount of time, I...

Many of the 22 ton splitters only have 11 gpm pumps, and so it's normal to use 1/2" on high pressure side, 3/4" on low pressure side. Most tractors flow a heck of a lot less fluid through their SCV and auxiliary lines, than a log splitter. You want proper hydraulic lines for everything except...

Yep. That's about what I was paying in 2012, as well, but for just the saw with bar and chain... no toolbox. That's an awesome saw, BTW. I had it's sister, the 084. I think they were 125 and 135 cc, respectively?

Just received some straight shot mufflers from Egan, and they came with two longer screws required to install, but no gasket. Kinda assumed that they’d come with whatever is needed for install, and old gasket came off with old muffler cover, so I’m guessing I need to order that separately to...

Magnetic north just moved a few inches to the south, having hauled all that iron from New Holland PA down to NC. Welcome to the forum!

Just be aware that many epoxies, maybe even most epoxies, are not fuel resistant. You don't just have to worry about it failing and leaking, but the remanants of whatever dissolves or crumbles into the gasoline then being run thru your expensive engine. They do make specialty...

Surprised it wasn't 12 smaller ones, based on their later work.

I've been known to do this. Story of my life. :ROFLMAO: My main concern with this is that it just increases impervious area, and moves the same problem out another 15 feet from its current location. I would have the advantage of not having to follow exactly the same ruts on/off the pad, as...

You could pressurize the can with the blower end of a shop vac, so all plastic chips blow outward while drilling. I would NOT put the suction end of a shop vac on a used gas can, unless it were extremely well-washed first. Seems like a recipe for exploding shop vacs.

Interesting! Gotta read up on this. At first glance, it looks like it goes under turf?

Slightly more descriptive image, for those with less imagination:

That's indeed what has happened over time. The general grade doesn't really have any noticeable hollow there, but the ruts do have a deep spot about 8 feet out from the door. This may be more from me stopping the tractor there to hop off and open the doors every day, than anything else. But...

I understand not wanting to mix up 5 gallons of fuel at once, if you're not using it in a reasonable couple of weeks. But a quart?!? That's literally one tank full on my favorite chainsaw, and I can go thru a few tanks in just one day of cutting. I know folks like to complain about the new...

Exactly. I've owned a few gravel drives, and have driven on many hundreds (thousands?) more. They don't work particularly well in our climate, as our ground and roads go through freeze/thaw cycles almost every single day, all winter long. Compact it as tightly as you like in the summer, redo...

The concrete lintels or parking stops would probably not break, they're rebar'd appropriately. If I did my own pour, you'd better believe it'll have several full-length rebars in each plinth. It won't break. The issue I have with individual pavers or grid sections is that they do very little...

Oh, I'm sure! But every time I choose a 20-year material, I just end up hating myself for that decision, about 20 years later. I suspect reinforced concrete in this application (no road salt) will probably out-live me. That little carriage barn was built between 1734 and 1775. I'm not sure...

Not interested in gravel, if only for the having to mow this area, and keeping it out of the grass. Besides, I've owned gravel driveways, and they rut almost as badly as mud, when your driving pattern is constrained to one narrow lane with no variation. I'm shooting a doorway, wheels always...

I've been dealing with the problem of wheel ruts at my shed entrance for too long. This was yesterday: It's just the first 6 yards from the door going out, and this happens every year, as the sun always softens the frozen earth in this area. Yesterday was 9F - 19F, or something close to...

I worked at my desk all weekend, while it poured rain, so I could spend a little time out on the frozen turf splitting wood today. Thinking of this thread, I grabbed some pics in process. Here’s an interesting aside: what saw gear and tools do you carry with you, when out in the field...

I’ve wondered for awhile now, if semi trucks aren’t the more ideal proving ground for BEV technology, than passenger cars. They generally operate on predictable schedules, and can be configured accordingly. There are forced driver rest periods, even for the long-haul guys, where charging could...

Once the wood has been dried a year or three, there’s much less moisture in it, and so less interesting for the wood-boring bugs that may attack your house… especially in winter. For this reason, I store wood up at my my house after it’s been seasoned a few years down in the wood lot, and only...

When I bought my first house, I was 23 and my neighbor was a very out-of-shape 50-something. I would hand-shovel or do our entire shared driveway with my little Ariens 824 walk-behind 24” snowblower. Had 13 years of that. Now I’m the 50-something, but still in good shape, and I’m plowing a 25...

The time to ask about firewood management is usually before building the shed, as shed size and construction should be dictated by handling method. Of course, this may be more useful to others stumbling into this thread, than the OP who has already built their shed. If you have a tractor heavy...

This was a factor in deciding to buy a larger tractor, for me. I was between the 2R-series and 3R-series from Deere, really preferring the ergonomics and loader visibility on the smaller model. But I really wanted to get rid of my damn snow blower, they just become totally miserable on an open...

That's a really good idea. I'd bet just smearing Turtle Wax onto the plow blade would help a lot, even if you don't bother buffing it off. Application is even less work than the buffing. :D This is a new problem for me. I bought a nice sparkling new Deere in 2019, and because it's only for...

Agreed. What's the difference if any fluids dripping off my car run out through the door opening onto the ground, versus collect in a floor drain and then are piped outside to the ground? I could understand if there are prohibitions about running floor drains into municipal sewer systems, they...

I see headlines like this one, and almost always assume it's either an elderly operator (most often), or someone very young and inexperienced. It's always a bit more of a shock when you read the guy was in his 40's or 50's, where one is less likely to be affected by mobility issues or lack of...

What really surprises me most, in all the responses to this photo, is no comments on the Millenium Falcon toy! Isn't owning one of those originals like printing your own money, these days? I suspect I gave that one away to a neighbor kid, or mom sold it at a garage sale for $1, when I outgrew...

Single point of failure systems will always fail... eventually. Especially when that single point of failure can be the operator's memory. Kinda surprising that there's nothing requiring an interlock these days, such that the truck cannot be driven until the crane arm is down and locked...