Quack 20

[Duck]

It's 5 degrees here & there are 31 mph sustained winds.... in town.

I think I'm gonna put on a pair of shorts & go roll around in the snow for about 5 minutes with no shirt on, then come inside & take a hot shower.

That's like drinking 5 gallons of coffee & a case of beer in 30 seconds.

I didn't end up doing that. I was seriously considering it though.

Maybe I'll do that today. I have to get my 68 year old Ford tractor fired up & embark on a long, cold, miserable journey into town where I've got some snow pile relocation to do. Morons pushed the snow UPHILL, .. when they should've pushed it the other way so as it melts it won't constantly turn the parking lot into a skating rink.

That tractor has no cab on it. Just an open seat. Steel steering wheel that sucks the heat right out of your hands even with gloves on. Steel seat but somewhere in the barn is a padded leather seat cover I can put on it. And the hydraulics never work until I pressurize the reservoir with at least 20 psi of air to force it down into the pump, then it'll be unpredictable until the hydraulic oil warms up a bit. It tends to turn to foam in the cold.

 

[Duck]

I have never seen this much snow at the Geezer Farm. There's a drift about 50x50 foot that's 3-4 feet high that I'm gonna have to relocate somehow. Even with a tractor & a front-end loader, .. this could take days.

I think I'll just fire that tractor up, get it out of the barn somehow (huge drift blocking the door) and drive it into town at half throttle, carrying my torpedo heater & go to a friend's house & use his garage to change all the oil on the tractor. It's got the engine oil & filter, .... has to be a 50/50 mix of 40-wt diesel engine oil & Lucas or it'll smoke like a truck doing a regen, ... and I'll have to get online to figure out what the hell goes in the trans/axle/rear hydraulics. Might as well change the front hydraulic oil which is regular "universal tractor hydraulic oil" that comes in 5 gallon buckets.

I'm gonna have to run that 68 year old tractor at full throttle under heavy load for hours & hours to clean up that crap. I should make sure it's got good oil in it at least.

 

[Tim]

and I'll have to get online to figure out what the hell goes in the trans/axle/rear hydraulics.

Universal tractor hydraulic oil

 

[Duck]

Universal tractor hydraulic oil

No it's not that kind of oil. The transmission, differential, and the hydraulics for the 3 point hitch all share the same oil and it's not traditional hydraulic oil. It's some kind of gear oil but it's got to be a certain viscosity because of the hydraulics. I have the original operators manual for it but I'm too lazy to reach 2 feet above my desk to get it down & read it. Especially since the pages are falling out because it's almost 70 years old.

 

[Tim]

Well sometime between 1946 and 1975 Ford must have changed something. My Ford 3000 uses universal tractor hydraulic oil.

 

[Injun]

 

[Injun]

You need to install a 15 amp CLA on that and get yourself some heated liners and gloves.

 

[Duck]

You need to install a 15 amp CLA on that and get yourself some heated liners and gloves.

CLA? Huh?

It's a 6 volt system, with a generator, not an alternator. No voltage regulator, just a screw on the back to adjust the output voltage. The higher the RPMs, the more volts. I have no idea how many amps, but it'll boil a battery in less than an hour if it's cranked up to 9 volts.

It used to boil batteries all the time til I turned it down to 7 volts.

 

[Duck]

That snow drift didn't want to be bothered. The top 5 inches was like concrete. I could walk on it & hardly make a dent. When I rammed it at full throttle, top gear with the tractor, I set the bucket down right before I hit it, the tractor stopped in about 4 feet & it made cracks in the top of the drift that were over 10 feet long.





If I set the bucket too high, it would just ride up over the top of the drift, even with the leading edge of the bucket tilted 45 degrees downward. Once I scooped a chunk out of it, if I rammed that top crust, it would stop the tractor. The only way to scoop it was to jam the bucket underneath the top crust & lift up on it. Then it would break into chunks.







Done. Now I just need a truckload of salt.

 

[Rigjockey]

They laid down enough salt this year, I have a truck load for you. If you have a power washer to unload it from the sides. I know it sounds crazy but the water from the wash will not freeze.

 

[Duck]

They laid down enough salt this year, I have a truck load for you. If you have a power washer to unload it from the sides. I know it sounds crazy but the water from the wash will not freeze.

Bring it down here. The gravel driveway was green last summer & it was brown before it snowed. Maybe the salt will kill the weeds.


I used the grader blade to plow the lawn ..

The narrow sidewalk leading to the back door will drift shut in 10 minutes so I made a 5 foot wide path with the grader blade. Tore the hell out of the lawn, .. oh well.

Then I did it again when I went to put the tractor back in the barn. It was downhill so it was easy. There was about a foot of snow over a big area by the little roll-up door on the side for the tractor. The paddle tires grip pretty good in the grass but they're worthless in the gravel.

 

[Rigjockey]

Bring it down here. The gravel driveway was green last summer & it was brown before it snowed. Maybe the salt will kill the weeds.

Alls you got to do is order a truck from my company and cancel when I get there. Then I am stuck there for three days while they try to find me a load out of Chicago, Chicago that has 50 loads leaving every half second. LMOA!

 

[Duck]

I just thought of something, ...

The biggest drift on the farm is between my camper & my ranger. It's at least 4 feet high & about the width & length of a full size pickup. And it's got that hard shell on top.



IGLOO!!!!

 

[Duck]

I got this PM message from @SkateBoard I'm afraid to open...

 

[Duck]

Well here we go again, ....

I just got a phone call. They have another truck in need of rescue. Also in Lake Station, IN.

This one was wrecked & has allegedly been repaired to "roadworthy" condition but needs brought back to Iowa so they can send it to their preferred body shop to finish the repairs.

I already know what highways I'm gonna take.

I hope it's a Kenworth. I don't know how to drive an automatic big-truck in the snow.

 

[Tim]

I got this PM message from @SkateBoard I'm afraid to open...

View attachment 24256

Maybe he wants you to make a bigger than life cartoon of him.

 

[Hammer166]

I already know what highways I'm gonna take.

You know, one of these days they're going to put a scale on that east half of 20 and ruin it for everybody.

 

[Tim]

You know, one of these days they're going to put a scale on that east half of 20 and ruin it for everybody.

Hush you!
When they do I'm gonna stop ru..............
wait




I dont run up there anyways.

Build it see if I care.

 

[Hammer166]

Hush you!
When they do I'm gonna stop ru..............
wait




I dont run up there anyways.

Build it see if I care.

They've closed a bunch of them over on the west side of the state, but then went and built that new one on 218 after they got 61/218 all four-laned from St. Louis.

 

[Duck]

I went shopping.

Got an entire new painted exhaust system for the old Ford tractor - everything aft of the manifold - for $24.