Curses, mice.

[MinnesotaEric]

Ended up vacuuming all the living mice up, repeatedly blowing from both sides and vacuuming the mouse house. Then I hit the entire area with a pet enzyme odor eliminator, which worked, but then it smelled bad too, and so I hit it with a can of "Fresh Linen." Then I said, nuts and threw six bags of stinky mothballs up there and put the cab top back on.

The rear fenders get hit by my CAT2 Quick Attach. Every other OEM mounts their rear fender more forward to avoid such interference problems. My fenders got broken off before I even used the tractor when I started it up on the driveway and the thee-point lifted up and beaned the fender extensions. I ordered new fender extensions but only plan to install them if I ever sell this tractor.

As it is, the power steering hose has a pinhole leak and so I need to sort that out before I can put my tractor to work again and that stinks since I just came home with a new-to-me tractor-hauler yesterday.

 

[Threepoint]

Eric, very nice truck!

BTW, when you remove and replace the NX cab roof, do you have a buddy to help you lift it up and off, then back? Seems like it would be very tough to do alone.

 

[DieselnHooters]

Amazing that they even got up there. All that glass and they still found a way.

We've been raising chickens for a few years now and noticed the mice population explode shortly after the chickens. As messy eaters, their is food all over the place for them. We tried traps, poison and flooding out their tunnels with no improvement. Then we got some cats, and the difference is significant!!!!! Three years ago I killed over 20 snakes, my wife killed a dozen, our dogs killed three that I know of, and the chickens got two that I know of. Last year, after the cats started doing their thing, we all killed a dozen snakes that I know of, and so far this year, I'm at two, and the chickens are at two. Cats are a farmers best friend!!!!

Are there fewer snakes because the cats keep the rodents in check or are the cats preying on the snakes?

 

[4570Man]

I just bought a similar truck. Not many luxury features and not a lot of power but they’ll do a lot of work. What motor is in your truck? 5with a 2? I see yours has budd wheels which wasn’t common for that year truck. Does it have drum or disk brakes?

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Three point, Yes, I have one of my friend pop over and give me a hand. While not heavy, the cab top is awkward and the fresh air/recirculation lever goes through the headliner vent in back and must be aligned. Turns out that to fix the steering hose leak it looks like I should remove the entire hood and its pivot as well, another two-man job.

I just bought a similar truck. Not many luxury features and not a lot of power but they’ll do a lot of work. What motor is in your truck? 5with a 2? I see yours has budd wheels which wasn’t common for that year truck. Does it have drum or disk brakes?

This one is an '85 with an 8.2L Detroit diesel and an Allison 5-speed. Empty it cruises okay at 60mph, maxed at about 65 mph and slows down on any hills unless WOT. I'm sure it is drum brakes all the way around with its air brakes. It feels like drums. I wanted one with the landscaper low rise dump so my tractor could load it as well as being able to drop both sides of the dump as well as chain the rear for evenly dumping road-worthy grades.

Good news is that with a trailer I can run off and get a CDL air brakes with this thing.

 

[4570Man]

Have you had a chance to drive it loaded or measure fuel economy? My 366 moves along pretty good empty and doesn’t do that but loaded on flat ground but with a 10 ton load uphill it’s pretty slow going. What do you mean with the CDL part? Is yours air brakes?

 

[Threepoint]

Three point, Yes, I have one of my friend pop over and give me a hand. While not heavy, the cab top is awkward and the fresh air/recirculation lever goes through the headliner vent in back and must be aligned. Turns out that to fix the steering hose leak it looks like I should remove the entire hood and its pivot as well, another two-man job. [snip]

Thanks. I've managed to avoid pulling the roof on my NX over the past five years (hard to believe I've had it that long). Just propped it up to wire the six aftermarket LED floods. The radio went in fine from below. Dealing with mice would be a different story, but so far so good!

BTW, is your tractor full-time at your lake property in Nevis now, with a place to work under cover? I recall that she was a trailer queen for a long while. Have always marveled at how much maintenance and modification work you were able to manage in your epic thread "My NX6010", year 'round without an enclosed workspace.

I think you're probably right about having to pull the hood for good access to the steering hoses.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Have you had a chance to drive it loaded or measure fuel economy? My 366 moves along pretty good empty and doesn’t do that but loaded on flat ground but with a 10 ton load uphill it’s pretty slow going. What do you mean with the CDL part? Is yours air brakes?

Yes, my new-to-me truck has air brakes. I have no idea what the performance will be loaded. At some point I need tro bnring it over to my house and crank up the lift cyclinder pump pressure, greese and change fluids.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Thanks. I've managed to avoid pulling the roof on my NX over the past five years (hard to believe I've had it that long). Just propped it up to wire the six aftermarket LED floods. The radio went in fine from below. Dealing with mice would be a different story, but so far so good!

BTW, is your tractor full-time at your lake property in Nevis now, with a place to work under cover? I recall that she was a trailer queen for a long while. Have always marveled at how much maintenance and modification work you were able to manage in your epic thread "My NX6010", year 'round without an enclosed workspace.

I think you're probably right about having to pull the hood for good access to the steering hoses.

If you do lift it off, take a small adjustable wrench and use it to knock the little red plastic thingy off of the blend air door in the rear headliner. Then it is those same 12mm nuts and washers and straight up and off.

That said, no, I still have no shop and all of my work is done out of doors and as a result, may nice-sunny days are wasted working on junk. For example:

The tractor splits time between my lake house and the new place where you see me doing all the cutting, grappling, tree knocking over slash pile burning. It comes to the lake place to get worked on outside.

Hood wise, I was able to pop off the hydraulic rams and tilt the hood up and out of the way holding it up with a tie-down. The steering hose was pinched between the loader's lower frame and the starter, so I had to remove/loosen the starter to get the steering hose past that. I'm going to see if my local Napa can make me a replacement steering hose a couple of inches longer than stock so I can route it better--that is if they can make me a hose in the first place as we don't have any full-fledged hydraulic jobbers in my area.

 

[DieselBound]

I really didn't need to see this thread...

I have had mice infiltrate my NX. Not real bad, hoping that I caught them early on: got to operating the tractor early. Dealer frigging RTV'd my top (their "cure" for water incursion) in which case removal ain't going to be easy. I KNEW way back when that this was going to bite me in the behind: I get so tired of dealing with hacks done by others (and pissed when done by "professionals").

Can't have cats because they'd be coyote bait, that and my pup would be after them. We also have a bunch of free-ranging chickens: their coops and feed are far away from the house and machinery.

Have found that bucket traps work really well. Might look to set some up here and there outside: have one under the house and it has essentially curtailed (is there a pun there?) mice activities.

Parted with a couple of cars recently (one which I really didn't want to part with) because I couldn't house them inside my garage. My "new" truck (94 Ram Cummins) has more money into it than my cars, combined, so it needed to come in out of the hostile environs of the outside.

I hate meeces to pieces! (these, hornets and mosquitoes are the only things I have no compunction killing- hornets only when they're too close to the house [and especially after being attacked]).