You are too kind. Thanks for the feedback. Thanks for all the ideas too guys! And YES feel free to steal whatever you can from the concepts.
Renze, I just couldnt use that darn angle, it pissed me off too much looking at it. Drilling all the holes (twice as many as the first time including the top and rear access ports) took less than one evening after work, maybe two hours. It was worth it. In hindsight, I now realize I could have used just the single back-surface holes for access, and would not have needed the top holes. It was a little more challenging to get the bolts in the holes using the back surface ports, but holding them with an offset box wrench proved to be very workable. On the other hand, locating the top holes was easy 'cause I simply drilled right through both sidewalls of the tube, the bottom surface first, that being most important location-wise. And later I put the 1 inch bit in the mill and redrilled the 7/16 to the 1 inch for socket clearance. Deburring took five minutes for the outside of the holes, and another half-hour for the inside of all the holes.
Next Saturday is the big test (weather permitting). I will take the camera for before and after, and action shots. Maybe I need a tripod for an action video (ooooooh!) . Anyway, all fifteen miles of my neighbor's ATV trail will need some level of maintenance, some areas more than others. I know of one area that will be completely washed out and we'll need to start with imported rocks for the foundation again. And another area that needed a good rock-raking BEFORE the foot of rain in a day and a half hit. My neighbor now owns my "old" 4100 tractor and rake combo, the pretty well set up KingKutter rake I had added hydraulic swivel to (and TnT to the tractor). And I am ready with the new improved model rake on my new 2520. We plan to start at 8 am, take coolers with refreshments and lunch, and use the family radios to keep in touch (this is an area that people, even after riding there five or six times, still get lost in the woods trails.). I am so excited I can hardly sleep at night. Now that we are all set up with the equip., its almost too much fun to groom and improve the waterbreaks and mow and stuff. Is it Friday yet?
