Poor mans power steering, and loader work

MACK wrote: Don't shorten the forks!!!!. There never long enough .            MACK

X-2!!!

I've got a pair of 42 inchers I'd happily trade you for your 48's.

 

Got the braces welded in the back, should be good to go there.

 

 

Unfortunately, this project will have to go on the back burner for now. Snowstorm tomorrow, bitter cold this weekend, and we are going to start remodeling in the house, so I need every square inch of garage space. Took the WD back to Grandpa Marvins tonight, but kept the forks down here so I can fine tune on them if/when it warms back up.

 

Drove around a little bit, and even plowed his driveway for him. It definitely steers better once you get off the dry pavement!

 

What do you fellows think about putting wide tires on the steer axle? Those narrow tri ribs are going to be trouble up in the woods, and on Grandpas lawn. I've got some 15" tires off of a pickup truck, just need to find some rims.

 

Found some old topics on here about it. I have five bolt hubs on the WD, but of course I didn't measure them and now the tractor is 20 miles away. From what I can tell, I should go to the junkyard and look for some rims with 5 holes on a 5" circle, with a 3 3/8" center  hole.  The lug bolt holes should measure 3" from one to the next. Seems like the 3 3/8" hole is not common and may need to be machined.

 

Thoughts?

 

Anyways, picking up where we left off, lets put some fattys on the front. I went around to several junkyards, but couldn't find any rims that were the correct bolt circle. I did however, get some sweet wheels and tires from the brother in law, they are like new and were gathering dust in the rafters in his garage.

 

 

Picked up these spacer/adapters on Amazon for $40.

 

My buddy machined out the inner bore to fit over the hubs.

 

 

Picked up some lug nuts, should have grabbed some aluminum polish!

 

 

Not sure if I should get THIS fancy...

 

 

The rims are dished deeper, but its made up for in the spacer, so the offset looks pretty good.

 

 

Tire OD looks about the same

 

 

I was going to dump some corn head grease in the steering gear and see if it turns any better. Looks like its plumb full of nice thick grease already. Maybe TOO thick?

 

 

Bolted the spacers on

 

 

Phew! Gonna be the talk of the neighborhood rollin up on these bad boys. Or something like that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, found another image resizing/hosting site. Lets see how long this one works.

 

In the doldrums of winter, I googled homemade grapple and came across this video

 

 

I know, I know, wrong color. But the idea is sound!

 

Took some guesses as to the measurements and away we go.

 

 

 

 

Got the measurements and ordered a cylinder from Amazon.

 

 

 

Found a couple of old running gears, scrounged up enough free tires to get them all rolling. Had to free up the kingpins, so I picked up a torch set this winter. It was set up for acetylene, but I switched it to propane, and went and purchased a small oxygen tank.

 

Man, I don't know how I made it the first 41 years without having one of these in the garage!

 

 

 

So there, looks pretty handy. The reason behind this whole entire project is more efficient production of firewood up at Dads. He can't handle the big stuff anymore, so it's up to me. He goes up in the woods and works on the tops, which is smaller wood for the kitchen stove, and I get to handle the bigger stuff, which gets split and goes in the basement.

 

We used to cut it up into blocks, then wrestle them onto the trailer, then throw them off in the yard, then pick them up and put them on the splitter, then pick them up and pile them, then pick them up and put them on the trailer, then pick them up and drop them down the chute.  Once the tree is felled, seems all you are doing is picking stuff up!

 

Anyways, back in April, we select cut a few more mature trees. Wound up with 15 logs, of varying lengths and thicknesses. I used the log arch to take them home last year one by one, which is a great method, albeit quite slow. By the time I got one log home through the woods in 1st gear, each turn took almost an hour.

 

I've been chomping at the bit to get them out, but its just been too wet. Finally got a little dry spell, so was able to get back to work.

 

Went up and hauled all the logs out to a clearing, where its fairly level.

 

 

Some of the bigger ones I cut shorter, cause I knew they would be heavy.

 

 

This one was 16'

 

 

You can't tell in the picture, but this one was so big I wasn't even going to try it with the loader, just saved him for last and took him home with me.

 

 

If you can pardon the shoddy cinematography...

 

 

Well, here goes nothing...

 

 

Boy, does this work slick. I set two or three on the bottom, then set some stringers across so I can get my forks under them.

 

 

Didn't take long to get a load of 10 logs of varying sizes.

 

 

Take them home, to be unloaded an cut up in the yard. Holding them up in the air to saw them into blocks is awesome- no more bending over to cut, and you can hold it with the grapple.

 

 

 

Up to the clearing again after supper to get the rest.

 

 

That's hauling them all home and cutting them up in a little over 4 hours.

 

 

It was a pretty easy winter, so Pa doesn't need a whole lot of wood this year. But if we ever need some high production, I think we've really got something here. Now all we need is a rear mounted hydraulic crane, to effortlessly lift the blocks onto the splitter. Hmmmmmm....

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

Well, might as well get after that little project, before it gets any hotter. Went up and started cutting and hacking at the overgrown fence line.

 

Borrowed some fork extensions

 

 

And enlisted some "kid power" for this one. I cut the brush, and they stack it on the forks. You can't tell it, but there is a WD back there.

 

 

Hauled away pile after pile and dumped it in the woods. It would have taken days for us to do this by hand.

 

 

 

I think the dog is the smartest one of the bunch. He supervises from the shade.

 

 

That worn out trip bucket loader is really starting to be a pretty good purchase.

 

 

I think we've got a pretty good system here. I can sneak in just about anywhere with the log arch and bring out logs. We have gone so far as to hook it to the front of the gator and push it deep into the woods where its just about impossible to back into, then back the gator out and back the B in to bring out some tough ones. We have established a clearing on each end of the woods, where I can load them onto wagons and bring more home faster, with less wear and tear on the trails. I can hold them up for cutting into blocks, which is way easier on the ol' spine. Then, we can effortlessly lift them onto the splitter. From there on out my dad can manage the blocks, which is the whole point of all this tomfoolery, so the old man can make fire wood by himself.