Good morning!!!!

[dave1949]

This little bugger -

It's the vent for the rear axle housing. It's up under the seat near the pressure-relief valve for the hydraulic system/3PH.

I found that the little rubber vent tube had deteriorated and had partially crumbled apart ... to the point that there was a vertical path into the rear axle for water to get in.

If you have a tractor that is older (ours is 10+ years) I'd suggest looking to see if you have one these somewhere up under the seat and then inspect it's condition.

Good catch, it sounds logical. I'll have to look and see if there is one on my 2003 NH somewhere.

 

[Eric Salop]

-1F, clear, mid-20's today, 6"-10" snow beginning tonight.

Roof clearing day after day can't be a fun job but it sounds like it pays well enough.

Eric, do you have pics of your sheep dog?

Perhaps best I don't show pictures of Max as he is not the typical pure bred black and white Border Collie sheepdog at all.
In fact he looks nothing like a sheep dog - small and brown and of mixed parentage.
He has been around sheep since being a puppy and while I know he is not a sheepdog, he doesn't and neither do the sheep.

I can't get him to "lie down", however he will generally respond to "Away" and quite often "Come by" .
Often he seems to simply sense which way I would like the sheep to move and then simply gets on with it without me interfering.

 

[sodamo]

:laughing: Shouldn't you be out mowing your grass?

Not today - painting

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[newbury]

got down to 36 in my unheated garage, just put a heater on, might bump it up a degree. No place else to keep my powerwasher and from experience, they do not like freezing weather. Funny, the UTV and golf cart sit inside, the vehicles outside. More clearing out of one side before I can fit the car in there.
Three electric heaters on, my bill is going to be a doozy.
global warming?
send some my way please

Sounds like it's about time to throw another pole barn on the estate.

<snip>
A while back I stripped off a bunch of the plastic panels and the seat to thoroughly degrease the tractor. I found that the little rubber vent tube had deteriorated and had partially crumbled apart ... to the point that there was a vertical path into the rear axle for water to get in.

So I figured I'll just temporarily cap it with a vacuum cap - so I can wash down the tractor - until I can get the part to replace it.

Well, it took them a little longer to get the part than expected - and then once I got it, I didn't replace it immediately. Very bad move.

I think what happened was that it caused the axle to pressurize, which caused the rear axle seal to get pushed out. I'm actually surprised that it didn't just push the vacuum cap off.

And, of course, it caused any moisture in the air inside the axle to be retained ... which ain't good.

If you have a tractor that is older (ours is 10+ years) I'd suggest looking to see if you have one these somewhere up under the seat and then inspect it's condition.

Thanks for the warning, just another thing to check.

 

[Eric Salop]

Took these this morning, it was nice enough to do a little snowshoeing before breakfast.

What home looks like this time of year, just in case Drew really misses the snow. :laughing:

The building on the right is the tractor garage. The north side and half of the west end is earth-bermed. 18" of fiberglass batts in the ceiling. Just sunshine for heat. It hardly ever gets down to freezing inside day or night. With today's sunshine it's 53F inside now after -1F this morning outside. On cloudy days in this cold weather it's usually around 40F-45F inside.
View attachment 412861


A lane that runs to the corner of our lot.
View attachment 412862

What a terrific place Dave !

Did you specially angle the roof to catch the winter sun on the solar panels ?

 

[dave1949]

Perhaps best I don't show pictures of Max as he is not the typical pure bred black and white Border Collie sheepdog at all.
In fact he looks nothing like a sheep dog - small and brown and of mixed parentage.
He has been around sheep since being a puppy and while I know he is not a sheepdog, he doesn't and neither do the sheep.

I can't get him to "lie down", however he will generally respond to "Away" and quite often "Come by" .
Often he seems to simply sense which way I would like the sheep to move and then simply gets on with it without me interfering.

Well, it sounds like Max is a good dog, he gets the sheep moved. We can't all be Border Collies. :laughing:

Have you checked out the Dog Pics thread under Photos? http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/photos/158245-dog-pics-157.html

 

[dave1949]

What a terrific place Dave !

Did you specially angle the roof to catch the winter sun on the solar panels ?

Thanks, it needs some sheep. They used to raise a lot of sheep around here to supply the woolen mills (pre-cotton) and meat markets to the south (Boston, New York). Also, the Katahdin breed was developed not far from here. Breeds of Livestock - Katahdin Sheep

I wasn't aiming at winter but it's working out okay. A year-round optimal angle is your location's latitude, my latitude is almost 45 degrees, the panels are 70 degrees. Within reason, the difference in annual output is not all that different for a fixed angle array. What I lose in summer with a high sun angle, I mostly gain back this time of year. Plus, they are steep enough to shed snow and ice cover quickly; production begins more quickly following a storm than if the panels were more horizontal.

The roof design is more intended to shed snow to the rear away from the south windows.

 

[rswyan]

newbury,

Can't recall if I mentioned this or not:

On the compressor, it was the temp (probably thick oil) ... I set the kerosene heater a couple of feet away from the compressor and fired it up and let it run for a couple of hours before I tried to start up the compressor.

When I did, it took off right away ... was a little noisy at first but as it ran it quieted down.

The upside to cycling it all those times last night was that my HFT auto-drain valve (which is probably 10 or 15 years old) cleared itself and will now completely close after it unloads. Before it had a definite leak that wouldn't seal after the compressor shut off and it cycled.

 

[rswyan]

Fasteners on the rear wheel are torqued, the 5 gallon bucket of hydraulic fluid has been brought in from the van and is sitting over a hot air register to warm up, and two (of four) drains for the transmission/rear axle have been drained.

I did a mod on the plastic filler plug for the sump last night because with the special reinforced/heavy-duty top link bracket (required for the backhoe) the plug is a PITA to pull. Drilled it out and installed a threaded eyelet so I can grab it. Used JB Weld to attach the eyelet to the plug (no fasteners on the inside to come loose and fall off)

I'll probably have the minimum 15 hours cure time around 17:00 or 18:00 ...

The Espar heater is running in the van to warm it up ... I'll go up to the shop in a bit and grab the chainsaw

 

[rswyan]

What a terrific place Dave !

Indeed ... looks to be a beautiful location.