Smallest/least expensive tractor with closed center hydraulics.

[Redneck in training]

if you have a forklift. Remove the hydraulic controls and pump from it and modify it to fit your tractor. I would leave the open center hydraulic unmodified and add the closed center so only hydraulic fluid is shared (or not) and then connect the front loader and forklift boom to it.

 

[MossRoad]

...I can see where a similar mistake on a manual (like dumping the clutch) would be disastrous. I'm glad I have the hydro and I wouldn't go back now.

Yes. I was loading an aircraft in the rain with an angry pilot yelling at me (he was supposed to be helping me, but thought "help" meant telling me what to do. I had full pallet baskets full of catalytic converters trying to squeeze them into the small door on the plane. He leans out and calls me stupid just as my foot slipped off the clutch pedal (with no rubber pad, just wet, bare metal), and I slammed the pallet into the side of the door frame. Missed him. I managed to stomp the clutch pedal again as the forklift rolled back from the plane and he popped his head out again cussing, just as my foot slipped a second time. The basked slammed the door frame again, and I almost pinched his head between the basket and door frame. Well, third time's the charm, and it happened again. At that point, the pilot was pretty convinced I was trying to kill him. I was just trying to get that stupid forklift under control, but it was BAM BAM BAM three trips into the side of the plane, caving in the door frame in rapid succession each time he stuck his head out..... :shocked:

I finally got it under control. I was shaking like a leaf thinking I just damaged the heck out of that plane, and may have injured the pilot. We both just sat there for a minute in our respective corners, me on the forklift leaning over the wheel shaking, and him hiding in his plane shaking.

We both finally made some eye contact. I explained that he's supposed to be helping me, his yelling isn't helping me, my clutch pedal has no rubber pad, my foot slipped multiple times, on a piece of crap machine that shouldn't be operated by anyone, I'm soaked to the bone in a cold rain, it's 3 or 4am in the morning, and I just damaged an airplane and almost killed a guy.... and now I have to call the FAA because your door frame is caved in and your plane is probably overloaded with these two skids of catalytic converters.

He helped me unload the skids and move them in by hand, got a ratchet strap and straightened his door frame enough to close the door, tied the door shut, gave me $20 and left..... probably flying over your house. :laughing:

Anyhow, that's why I hate manual transmissions on equipment like forklifts and tractors.

 

[ptsg]

I'm so sorry MossRoad. I know it was actually a serious situation but I'm laughing so hard at the moment just imagining the guy poking his head and almost lose it. :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

I'm so sorry MossRoad. I know it was actually a serious situation but I'm laughing so hard at the moment just imagining the guy poking his head and almost lose it. :laughing:

Yeah, it was awful! :laughing:

So we closed at midnight. If you were on-call, and a plane came in that needed service, they would call the on-call number, which was forwarded to whoever's house was on call (1980's). If we got called, there was a minimum $20 call in fee the caller would have to pay, plus services. We'd get the $20, plus overtime.

So this guy calls, I go out. He needs fuel and forklift service. Forklift service means forklift, not manual labor. The plane is a Beech18, a tail dragger like this


but converted to a nose wheel like this



but with a large freight door where that passenger door is.

The guy wants me to load 2 skids of wire baskets full of catalytic converters, and help him move them to the front of the plane. Well, I can only fork them into the rear. To move them to the front, you'd have to push them to the front. I'm pretty da%^ strong, but I can't push a skid of catalytic converters on a slight uphill angle inside that plane. Plus, he's not paying for manual labor, just forklift service. To top it off, there's a wing spar across the floor of that plane, so that prevents anything getting skidded to the front. I tell him this, and he gets irate. Demands to call my boss, the owner, at like 3:00am.

So I call my boss, a drunk by 5:15, and tell him. He tells me to help the guy out and the pilot agrees to help me. Well, no. I have to unload an entire skid basket of converters on the ground, in the rain. Then I have to load the empty basket into the plane, push it to the spar, lift it over the spar, then load another full basket into the rear of the plane, transfer all of the converters from the basket behind the spar to the basket in front of the spar. Take the empty basket skid off the plane and load the converters back into it and onto the plane. Guess how many converters the pilot helped me move? About 1/4 of the first basket. He said I made him late and he had to refile his flight plan and left me in the rain to do the work by myself.

It's when he came back out to the plane and saw me still putting converters into the last basket on the ground when he started yelling and cussing at me saying he wasn't going to pay the $20 call-out fee because I made HIM late!!! GRRRRRrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!

That's when he got into the plane and started yelling at me to hurry up, and that's when my foot slipped off the metal clutch plate three times in a row, and I bounced off the plane three times in a row, and each time he unknowingly became the target in death-match whack-a-mole by popping his head out between whacks! :laughing:

It really did look intentional after the second time, let alone the third.

 

[art]

The kubota tractors can do it for you! Standard equipment~ It does it with open center hydraulics!