vtsnowedin
Elite Member
Not snow removal but I thought it would be of interest here. Yesterday I fired up the 5045E and drove it over to the back forty to skid back some firewood logs that had blown down. They are down in a hollow by a brook and about a half mile from my house. There is about a foot of snow on the ground but with the ice chains on the rears I've been having no trouble going back and forth. it was ten below in the morning so I waited until the sun was up and the temp came up a bit to about ten above. I drove down in turned around and backed up to within chain reach of the tree then sawed it into four logs with the butt and next log being about fourteen feet long and a good two foot through at the butt. I didn't go any longer because the first pull out of the hole is about a four-to-one slope and I didn't think I could pull anything bigger up it.I hooked onto the second log and pulled it up without incident to the top of the hill about three hundred yards from the blow-down. I unhooked it there leaving the end hanging over a knob so I could hitch on easy when I came back. I turned around and headed back down for the butt log planning on pulling the two together down the mountain to the wood splitter at the sugar house. All seamed OK until I went to turn around down at the bottom to back up to the butt. The left tire started spinning and when I looked at it the ice chain was gone!!! Now I'm in a pickle, forget the log, can I get the tractor back to wherever the chain fell off. I tried diff lock but the uneven traction just spun me around (very slowly) until I was pointed down hill beside the butt log. No luck backing up and I didn't want to fool with the loader trying to push myself back up out of the hole as I would soon be tangled up in some hemlock trees on the sides and the limits to a wide stance were right about there in regards to roll over.
Oh well time to get out of the cab.
Did I say it was cold? It was colder then a witches ,, er,, um , heart.
I trudged up the skid road looking for the missing chain. I expected it to be at the top where I spun around to head back down as far away as luck would have it. It was about three quarters of the way up. both small clevises that latch the end hooks were gone but one of the center cross link connections which was an over lap repair link was still hooked. The other one had come unhooked a while back and I hadn't got round to fixing it and it hadn't seemed to bother (until now). Now to get it back on the tire. These chains are too heavy to pick up so I looped it over my shoulder and dragged it down the skid road to the tractor glad that it was downhill all the way. When I got it there I looked in the tool box and found that I had two more clevises that would work for the latches so the main problem was how to unhook the center repair link without a vice and a hammer and pry bar. I used the vice grips in the tool box to hold the link and a screw driver and managed to get the screwdriver blade between the over lapped ends and start to pry them apart. Shaft not strong enough to do the whole job I switched to the end of a box end wrench and tried several ways to get enough leverage to get it wide enough to get it off the ring.
Did I mention that it was cold??
Finally it occurred to me that the cross link was smaller wire size then the ring and it didn't matter which link came out of the repair link. Dooh! flipped it around and got it apart. draped it over the tire and drove ahead two feet to get onto it then hooked up both side chains with the clevises. I didn't fool with the center links as there was no way to pull it together until the cross links get settled in. turned around ,got up out of the hole, hooked up the log and back in business. Both logs are now blocked up at the splitter but I'm going to fully hitch up that chain before I go back for the rest of that tree.
Moral of the story is don't let little things go or they can become bigger things at a bad time. And keep spare clip rings and clevises in your tool box. It will save you time and walking.
Oh well time to get out of the cab.
Did I say it was cold? It was colder then a witches ,, er,, um , heart.
I trudged up the skid road looking for the missing chain. I expected it to be at the top where I spun around to head back down as far away as luck would have it. It was about three quarters of the way up. both small clevises that latch the end hooks were gone but one of the center cross link connections which was an over lap repair link was still hooked. The other one had come unhooked a while back and I hadn't got round to fixing it and it hadn't seemed to bother (until now). Now to get it back on the tire. These chains are too heavy to pick up so I looped it over my shoulder and dragged it down the skid road to the tractor glad that it was downhill all the way. When I got it there I looked in the tool box and found that I had two more clevises that would work for the latches so the main problem was how to unhook the center repair link without a vice and a hammer and pry bar. I used the vice grips in the tool box to hold the link and a screw driver and managed to get the screwdriver blade between the over lapped ends and start to pry them apart. Shaft not strong enough to do the whole job I switched to the end of a box end wrench and tried several ways to get enough leverage to get it wide enough to get it off the ring.
Did I mention that it was cold??
Finally it occurred to me that the cross link was smaller wire size then the ring and it didn't matter which link came out of the repair link. Dooh! flipped it around and got it apart. draped it over the tire and drove ahead two feet to get onto it then hooked up both side chains with the clevises. I didn't fool with the center links as there was no way to pull it together until the cross links get settled in. turned around ,got up out of the hole, hooked up the log and back in business. Both logs are now blocked up at the splitter but I'm going to fully hitch up that chain before I go back for the rest of that tree.
Moral of the story is don't let little things go or they can become bigger things at a bad time. And keep spare clip rings and clevises in your tool box. It will save you time and walking.
