A loving home for a neglected MF1455v

[1stDeuce]

I like it a lot, and think you did alright price wise. I love the ingenuity to fix everything you're finding. If your handy with painting, you can make that machine look great. Same for the backhoe.

Yup, I'll probably paint it eventually. Perhaps this spring if it's still too wet for building our house... I already bought the decals, when I bought some filters and other misc parts it needed.

Great Thread!! I just bought a 41HP fixer upper,,, so I will be watching your thread for ideas,,,

Thanks, Just welded two tabs to the ROPS for the power beyond couplers. Wouldn't do that to a new tractor... Well, I might... But I'd worry more about the paint matching...

Next up is replacing the four loader hoses and moving the couplers down below the right side of the platform. Might add a diverter too, and run it to the back for a hyd Top Cyl. And I keep thinking about a grapple... Might have to build one.

 

[1stDeuce]

Chainsaw holder

Hmm. I never put pics of my chainsaw holder on here...
Two pieces of steel, one angle and one bent plate, and one sticky rubber diamond tread from HF. Working great!!

Right after the paint dried:


Added the rubber diamond for the saw to sit on:

 

[1stDeuce]

Finally done with hose replacement!!

Replaced the last four loader hoses a few weeks ago, and moved the QC's to the base of the loader frame, where they should have been in the first place.

Cut up the bracket off the back and welded it to the loader frame:



All connected and even out of the way of my chainsaw carrier.



The one issue I've noticed already is that it seems to be eating the O-rings in the couplers... Two were leaking this past weekend, and I found them torn. I suppose they're technically x-rings... One was leaking again yesterday. I have a package that I bought from McMaster, so I'll replace it again.

I don't think I'm stressing them with this arrangement... It's not much different than how it was at the back of the tractor, but the x-rings seem to tear when I install the couplers. The x-rings were factory on this loader, but if they keep failing, I'll just switch to normal O-rings.

 

[1stDeuce]

Time for some updates!!
First, the X-Rings in the couplers never did work out. They all leaked. They evidently got cut as the couplers were connected... Went to standard round O-rings and no leaks and no cuts since.

I also built a canopy for it. Two sticks of 1.5" square tube and two bedliner floors...


Make a frame...


Short legs to U-bolt it to the ROPS and a little black paint...


I bolted it to the ROPS, and added front legs down to the loader frame. (I still need to do something other than bolt them through, but this has been working all summer...)


As you can see in the background, we've been busy building our barn. Excavating the level pad took FOREVER... Clay so hard that only the backhoe bucket would touch it, so we spent a month of evenings scratching it out...

The barn will be 34x48 when it's done, with 12' lean-to's on each side. The side wall between the roofs will be clear panels, so should be lots of light, and hopefully some solar gain in the winter when the sun is low.

 

[TSO]

Nice job on the canopy... Barn is looking good!

 

[1stDeuce]

Man, how time flies!! I can say for sure that the x-rings for the loader couplers were a bad idea. I replaced them with standard O-rings and haven't had so much as a drip come off them in the two years since.

I believe it's around 800 hours now. Backhoe has done a LOT of digging with no issues aside from a seal kit for one cylinder and new bucket teeth. FEL bucket cracked a little where the braces connect to the bottom plate and I welded them up. They'll probably crack again eventually. Perhaps I'll use the next time as an excuse to convert to SSQA instead of the not-quite-global QA that it uses now.

I just ordered new tires, as the front tires are getting worn down pretty well, and one rear has splits in the sidewall at each tread block. I'm upping from 10-16.5's in the front to 12-16.5's, and in the rear from 17.5-24's to 16.9-24's. That will give it a little more front lead, but that's probably not a bad thing. The new tires will mimic the diameters of the optional Ag tires, so I'm really not concerned. Tire shop says the fronts will be "hard to mount" but they'll work fine on the narrower rim.

We did have a little mishap this week... My wife was loading the dump truck, and let the clutch out while it was in forward instead of reverse. She crushed the front plastic grill. I had considered making a frame to protect it using the loader as the base, but decided not to because we don't load the big dump truck with it often, and it would make removing the grill to get to the battery more difficult. I priced a new red plastic part and it's $360 from the cheapest source... Ouch!!!



I'll probably have a go at fixing this one at some point when I paint it, but for now it'll just be grill-less.



This tractor has earned its keep around here, though it still does look pretty neglected. Perhaps I'll fix that when the house is done, in a year or so...

I will say that I am glad I didn't opt for a smaller tractor, or for a new one at 2x the price. This old girl gives me no trouble, asks for very little attention, and does everything I ask of it.

I'll try and post some tire pics when I get them mounted. The fronts are the new R14 Goodyears...

 

[1stDeuce]

Baby got some new shoes!!

One of the rear tires had some severe sidewall cracking on the outside, and one of the fronts had a really deep sidewall cut/gouge, in addition to being fairly low on tread.
For those looking for tires, I found a good deal on new "overstock" tires (Likely seconds or blems) through Tiretown in Leavenworth KS. Link to their listings on ebay might work for a while...

I've wanted to bump up to 12.00 fronts for a while, and finally got that chance. By noting that I barely had to steer to relieve any 4wd bind, I deduced that I have virtually no front lead with the 10.00-16s and 17.5L24's that were on the tractor. To keep from having too much lead, I bumped the rears from 17.5L's to 16.9's at the same time.

To put numbers to it, the front tire size bump was about a 9% increase, while the rear bump was only about 6.5%. Since I didn't have much front lead at all with the present tires, and I was getting a LOT of crow hop in turns while running the loader in 4wd, I figured this would be OK.

I also elected to try out some R14 front tires, rather than just re-shoe with R4's. Seemed to me that the R14's would offer better traction in our wet clay, as well as in the snow.

Everyone loves pics...
New front tires look HUGE...


Front tires before:


New front tires:


New rears too!!


I'll probably eventually have a go at the rear tires with my grooving iron to make them look a little more like the front tires but for now, I have better things to do.

With the 10's on the front, I ran about 18psi, and if it dropped below 15psi, I could push a bead off pretty easily using the loader with only the box blade on the back. With the 12's I'm at 14psi presently, and with a full scoop and only the box on the back, there's a bit of squash, but not enough to worry that the bead will push off. Much better flotation on the front this way, and I'm happy with the results.

Please don't comment to tell me I have too much front lead. I would estimate it at around 5%, but perhaps as high as 7% (Oh the humanity!!) On this tractor, the additional lead makes loader work much less hoppy when turning, which means less binding. Though I can feel a little drag on hard surfaces, I don't run 4wd on hard surfaces. (Duh)

Overall there is far less binding when I'm running the loader in 4wd, especially with the backhoe attached. (~1800lbs of "ballast" off the back...) IMO, the overall strain on the front driveline, taking into account both traveling in a straight line, and turning while running the loader, is actually LESS than before, when I had virtually no lead.

I did a little before/after ideal steering angle, to see where the steering needed to be to shift freely in and out of 4wd. I was barely turning before, while I now am about 1/3 of the way to the stops. I like it!!

And I like the R14 tires. Got to play in the mud some, and it steers so much better than the half worn R4's. I'll also add the the R14's I found were 4 ply rated, not 6 ply, but since I never ran the 6 ply 10's anywhere near their 45psi max pressure, I don't expect it'll be an issue.

Time will tell how well they wear. There's certainly a bit less tread surface contact on hard surfaces, but if they wear a bit faster, I'll just replace them in 10 years instead of 16.