It's been a little while since I've gotten to do much with my tractor, mostly been dealing with cattle, but I got to some things today. First, non-tractor related stuff.
For those interested, a sawsall, is truly a sawsALL. It works on tires for sure. I finally got rid of all of the other tires not on rims, so I had to get back to working on those two on rims. After another feeble attempt at breaking it free from the rim, I gave up and got out the saw. I cut across it thinking I'd be able to just peel it right off. Wrong. That sucker was fused! So.... plan B. I just sliced the outter section off on both sides.
You can see the two rips on either side of the first cut I made where the FEL teeth punctured the tired. That was a bunch of pressure and the tire wouldn't release.
And the rim with remnant.
I'm convinced that thing never would have come off.
So on to better (tractor-related) things:
With that out of the way I went out and fixed the float/shut off valve in the water tank below the pond (no, not with the tractor, I'm getting to that). The whole mechanism was about 25 years old and was rusted out. I'm not a plumber, so I was happy to be able to get the old stuff off without breaking anything and get a new one installed. All we need now is another 2 feet of rain to have enough water in the pond to actually fill the tank.
It was bone dry which made it nice to repair. I was getting ready to go cut some more trees around the pond (they are all in the dam and will likely cause problems) when the matriarch cow on the herd, Lucie, informed me that she was hungry, cranky, and had really big horns.
So I decided to put out some hay for them. I dropped the bucket and carry-all (the typical implements for me) and prepared for feeding:
Incidentally, Rob, recognize this?
Just got it in. Works great. It wouldn't fit on my FEL arm, so I went for the ROPS. Thanks for the links. That's a Marlin 30-30 with a scope. It's a bit tight, but it was 29° out there and the leather was really hard. I'm hoping once it get's broken in it will be easier in and out.
OK, another side story, since we're here. I had also been looking for a scabbard for my saddle. That same place had exactly what I was looking for. It even has a shoulder strap so you can take it off the saddle and carry it with you.
That's an Uberti 1866 Yellowboy in .44-40. Sweetest shooting rifle I own. Love that thing.
So back to the tractor stuff. Here's my tractor loaded down, with the iron, the filled 18.4X34's, and two big bales it's got to top 10,000 lbs. That is just cool.
We just started feeding hay last week, so this was only the second time I have used the FEL with a bale. I loved it! It is nice to be able to work with the bale, and even spread them out on the ground with the spear so that all the cattle can get in there. The end result...
Happy cattle...
...sad tractor.
I noticed while getting the hay that I was having an increasingly harder time steering. I'd mentioned this before here at low rev's I have a hard time turning. This time it was really hard though. I peered back over the seat at the hydraulics and saw this:
There was hydraulic oil everywhere. Not sure how well you can see it in that picture, but it was bad. Further investigation found this:
There was some kind of rubber boot covering an opening in the hydraulic tube thing (don't know the official names, sure someone will help me out there). There was a steady drip, and when I touched it oil spewed out fast. You can see it dripping in that picture. I drove on up to the barn and took the boot off. Here's the opening, not sure what this is for other than to spring a leak:
And sure enough there was a tear in this boot:
That pretty much shut me down tractor-wise for the rest of the day. I grabbed a chain saw and went out to the pond. I cut down about 30 trees including 6 large sycamore's. That was fun! I don't have pictures because I left the camera on the tractor, but I'll get some shots when I start cleaning up the mess, and I'm definitely using the tractor for that!
On my way home I stopped and got more hydraulic fluid and a new boot. Can you believe these are the same part? I guess 16 years of hydraulic oil can swell this rubber a bit:
Now for a question. I thought my tractor had a seperate pump for the steering (1991 Ford 6610 II).
Is there any way that hydraulic leak would affect the steering? If they used the same oil then it's obvious, I think, but I fear that I'm going to replace the boot and oil and it still won't steer.
Thoughts???
