Foton Tie Down points - Transporting

[roy697]

Thanks
Well Franky & his parts are living in Kentucky at a neighbor's house. After getting every thing unloaded from the trailer my neighbor came down in a pickup truck & said he would feel better if I put my stuff at his place so he could keep & eye on it while I was not their. ( Wow what a neighbor ) Fished the pond Friday night for a little while, they are just not biting. Saturday went to the pond again at daybreak & tried again, caught a couple small fish & one big one, that was Nicks catch. At 9:05 am we left & headed home. Every thing went good with no problems. The area is clay & it has been raining for a while down their so it was too muddy to do anything.

[GuglioLS]

Roy,

Nice job getting Franky all patched up and ready for some hard work at you beautiful property in Kentucky. I really like the name Franky that you adopted, it suits it's charictor quite well. So I guess everything is working then? This did not take al that much time and you were very frugal, just goes to show what can be done with a minimum amout of capital outlay.

Congratulations,

Larry

[roy697]

I think it is all coming together, Monday we pickup the 28' camper that we bought for down their. Sure was muddy & the fishing was pour.

[roy697]

Monday we take the trailer to KY. I am planning on getting quotes for a storage building & start clearing some of the area. I hope the learning curve for the grader box is not to big. I hope I can grade the area myself with Franky. Otherwise I will have to hire a dozer. First building I plan will be 20 x 40. That should be enough to keep Franky out of the weather.


I think this will be my first place to try the RV after I do some clearing & add stone. I have no power or water supply yet, good thing the RV has wheels. Any thoughts? I know some of you have been at this point, just shopping for ideas.



I was thinking about how to tap the pond water for showers, any pointers welcome. I was thinking some kind of filter & a wood burner heater. (I will have a generator with me when I am there)

[bradblazer]

Nice, Roy!
Looking forward to more pictures as you get set up.

For clean water it's hard to beat a well. Maybe with the pond nearby a shallow well would work. Do you think the soil conditions might allow you to use a drive-in well point? HF has shallow well pumps with small pressure tanks for about $100.

Here's an interesting article on pond water purification and there are links to other pertinent articles:
extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPub.aspx?P=G1805

[Rich Waugh]

Roy,

Yeah, I've sure been there a time or two. Based on my experiences I'll offer a couple of suggestions.

If you're going to put up a shed, put gutters on it and get one of those 500 gallon plastic cisterns. 800 square feet of roof should keep it full in all but the driest weather. Harbor Freight sells a 1 hp shallow well pump with integral pressure tank and switch for about $150 ($100 on sale recently) that will supply all the volume and pressure you'll need for "camping."

For hot water, I'd get a 100# propane cylinder and a 12 or 20 gallon gas water heater. One that small will have such a fast recovery rate that you can turn it of until you're almost ready for the water - 20 minutes should get it hot enough. Or you can build a quickie solar panel with a coil of 1/2" black poly sprinkler tubing and a salvaged tempered glass patio or shower door. If you put the tank above the panel it will thermo-siphon and you don't need a pump to circulate the water, but you have to drain it down at night in freezing weather.

If you're just going to be there for weekends, one of those solar shower bag things works pretty damn well and only costs ten bucks or so. I have a couple of them for emergency use after hurricanes so I don't have to waste gas to heat water and also for use at the beach.

If you're not subject to fussy health inspectors, you can make a temporary septic tank by taking a 55 gallon steel drum and burying it in the ground. Take a pick and punch a half dozen or more holes about 2/3 of the way up from the bottom and make a wooden lid for it. Leave a hole in the lid for the shit chute to enter. Drop the thing in a hole in the ground deep enough to allow you to cover it with some dirt. Best if the soil is porous enough to percolate pretty well, but if not you can add a "drainfield" by putting an outflow pipe near the top of the barrel and feeding it to 3" perforated plastic pipe in a rock-lined trench. This is good for one or two people for several months to a couple of years if you're pretty scotch with the paper and only use the type rated for septic use. Might freeze up in a really hard winter - don't know; I've only built them down here where the only frost we get is in the refrigerator. :-) Keep it a hundred feet or more from the pond, too.

If you're going to be running a small gas generator, build a three-sided shanty to run it in. Face the open side away from where you're going to be and you'll find it won't be nearly so obnoxiously loud. If you want it even quieter, use some flexible stainless steel tailpipe hose to pipe the exhaust into a big car muffler. You'll need to weld up a custom exhaust header flange to do this, but it drops the noise level a lot. (You can drop it even further, I'm told, by piping the exhaust into a drum of water, but I've always been nervous about that and never tried it.) Don't put a fourth side on the generator shanty or you'll overheat the engine sure as hell and kill it in no time flat. Make it big enough that you have at least a foot of clearance all around; more is better. You can line the walls inside with egg crate stuff and break up the sound waves even better, too.

You'll love yourself later if about the first thing you do is to pour a concrete slab at least 12' by 16' so you have a clean, level place to work. When you form the slab, put a few heavy-duty welded-eye ring bolts in the outside edge. Gives you a place to chain aa generator, gang box or other valuable and portable stuff so passing thieves don't have it too easy. Also a place to tie down a tarp roof. Later, you can put a storage shed on it, but at first I wouldn't do any more than just some posts to support a tarp over it for shade and rain. The best tarps for the money are the heavy vinylized polyester fabric ones they sell for covering logging trucks. A couple hundred bucks will get you one big enough for a 12 x 24 slab with plenty to spare and it will last for years. I've had one in use down here for almost ten years now with no damage at all. White is best if you can find it - I special ordered mine. Cooler and gives better light under it for working, especially if you rig lights for night work.

If you're planning to burn trash, adding an electric blower to a 55 gallon drum incinerator will turn it into a veritable crematorium - you can get a wood or charcoal fire hot enough to reduce aluminum vans to molten metal and organic waste to fly ash. Hell, you can use it to forge steel with, if you're of a mind to do that. A 160 cfm blower fed to the bottom of the firebox through aluminum dryer duct will do the job like a champ. A draft gate on the blower *intake* will allow you to throttle back the blower without burning up the motor - don't restrict the exhaust side.

Well, that's what comes to mind immediately. If I think of anything more I'll post it.

Rich

[bradblazer]

Used billboard signs are supposed to make great cheap tarps. Here is a link. You might be able to find a local seller on Craigslist.

www.billboardtarps.com/

When I was in the AF, we used to put the generator in a pit to be "tactical". It was always a challenge to ensure fresh air flow to the intake. With your tractor you might be able to construct a 3-sided berm around your generator. Line it with a retaining wall if you want it fancy. Just make sure it has free drainage (obviously).

Rich - I like that blower to a drum idea.

[Rich Waugh]

Great idea about the used billboard faces, Brad! Those things were just coming into use when I got out of the sign business 20 years ago and they were really tough fabric. They were stretched into the frame like a drum head and would withstand flying debris, etc, without ripping. I'm a bit embarrassed that I never thought of those when I needed a semi-permanent roof for my little shop. I probably could have gotten on e through my old contacts at that time. But the truck tarp material I used is still going strong after ten years so I'm happy enough. I know a couple guys who are wanting tarps down here so I'm going to have to check out that link myself, thanks!

The blower in the drum thing really works great, Brad. Good enough that if you're not careful you can literally burn up the drum itself. That's essentially the same thing my coal forge is, just on a smaller scale, and that gets hot enough to burn up steel in a moment.

Some years back I got annoyed with a barbecue grill I had that would never get quite hot enough to properly sear a steak. I yanked the burner assembly out of it and replaced it with a homemade one with a small blower and that thing rocked! I've never really understood why they don't sell them like that.

When enclosing a generator, even with a 3-sided shanty, I always put a window fan to circulate fresh air to it. Just plug the fan right into the genset so whenever the thing is running the fan is, too. A cheap fifteen dollar fan will save a thousand dollar engine. Those air-cooled engines absolutely hate being overheated and/or trying to re-cycle their own exhaust. Guarantee fresh intake and cooling air, pipe the exhaust away and change their oil religiously and they last a surprisingly long time. Fail to do those things and they usually have a service life of around a hundred to two hundred hours and then regurgitate their innards.

Best bet for long-term generator use is a water-cooled diesel driving a 4-pole alternator head, but now we're not talking a "portable" generator any more. Still, if I could afford it, that's what I'd put together for down here - a two cylinder Jiaingdong diesel coupled to one of the ST 4-pole generator heads. Let the diesel loaf along at 1200 rpm and you don't even have that much noise.

An even better solution would be one of the Listeroid low-rpm diesels, but the EPA put the kibosh on getting those into the country, dammit. Those things will run forever and then go another week beyond that. Besides, they sound really cool. :-)

Rich

[roy697]

Power should be available once I figure out where I want it. I think I want a pole with the meter & a switch that can be locked out when not their. The soil is a different matter. Where I wanted to build the dozer hit sandstone, under the sandstone is a layer of limestone, that is confirmed. This was strip mined back in the 80's. By moving around the pond I may be able to put in a well but that is IF I get away from the limestone. Same with the small septic system. A lot of unknowns right now. I'll take one thing at a time & make this work. This is a get away thing, not looking to move their to live, I just want a place to go to for a week & come home for the weekend & go again. Thanks for the input.

I love some of the ideas that were given here along with other posts at this website. We have some pretty smart people here.

(The generator that I have is 4000 watt, hand start. It starts great & is almost as quiet as they come.)

[roy697]

Well I had the chance to go down to Kentucky & use Franky. Spent one day with the box grader, need some advice on that. I tried to adjust it to cut down into the soil but just scrapes the top, needs more weight? The plan in to put a piece of 6x6x3/4 inch angle on it unless some one has a better idea.



Next did a little fishing.



The bluegill were biting but not the bass. The view was great.



The next day I tried out the bush hog.





The wife & I took a walk into the woods after cutting the grass & just enjoying the piece.



And a picture of my temporary cabin on wheels.

[roy697]

Well Tuesday we went to Kentucky again for a couple days then it started raining again so we headed back home again. But in the two days I ran Franky with the bush hog. Getting more familiar with the tractor & stuff. Lost the engine dipstick, guess a stick came up from under & pulled it out some place, will need to replace that. Also found when climbing steep, very steep the hydraulic fluid leaks thru the vent on the filler plug so what kind of fix have you guys come up with? Found another place that is leaking if pointed down hill is around the shifter. Can not get it to repeat that. Pulled the covers & I don't see anything to keep oil from leaking out except gravity. My boots are shot so I need to replace them. I thought there might be a o-ring or something around that ball on the shifter but was able to see anything in the parts book. Any Ideas or am I just expecting to much, all most all of the farm is up or down, some very steep, one place all 4 wheels spin but was not able to climb so I backed up & moved over a few feet to a lesser grade.

Thanks for any help

[bradblazer]

Roy,
Missed your Mayday post - nice pictures and it's good to see that the tractor is running well. Your mower is doing a good job.

The box blade will generally dig in more when you shorten the top link to tilt it forward. The scarifiers go deeper and the front blade is lower than the rear blade. If you have a draft control lever it should be all the way up otherwise the 3ph will automatically raise when the going gets tough. (may be desirable depending on what you are doing). If you got the box blade used the blade edge might be worn. You can take it off and flip it over to a new edge.

On the hydraulic reservoir, the fill/vent is at the rear of the box for easy access. The problem is that the vent is submerged when going up hill. If you operate the hydraulics in that condition as the volume of oil in the reservoir changes fluid will exit the vent instead of air. The best solution is a vent in the center of the cover under the seat. Some of us have simply extended the cap with some pipe. It helps but I can still get a spill when operating the hydraulics going up hill.

I have not had oil leak from my shifters - you must be operating on some STEEP grades. I think you are right - the shifters are not made to seal completely but it is important that rain is kept out.

Be careful - I think it's generally recommended to limit the slope to about 15 degrees for most tractors. I do regularly drive up and down a 17 degree hill. Use the ROPS and seatbelt. You can also widen the stance by flipping or rearranging the rear wheel components and swapping the the font wheeels.

Brad

[roy697]

Your saying I can take the wheels off, turn them around, inside & make it outside, & gain width, wow, I never thought wheels were reversible. 99% of the farm is not level.
If you put a pipe in the fill hole what did you do with the dip stick, did you extend it?
I'll have to read up on that draft control. I have played with it but still have not got it figured out. Thanks for the input.

[bradblazer]

On the rear wheels, the inner disc is cupped. you can reverse it. If the weights end up inboard no problem. The rim lugs can be mounted inboard or outboard of the inner disc. Also the rim lugs are offset so swapping the wheels side-side (to keep the tread in the right direction) may be needed to maximize width. Max width is with the inner disc cupped out, rim lugs mounted outboard and lug offset inboard if that makes any sense.

Here is my cheesy dipstick extension. I just grabbed some parts I had lying around. Rob made one with a reducing (increasing) coupling to expand the volume it can hold. I keep the dipstick//vent cap screwed in the top and remove the extension to check the level.


I haven't really used mine in draft control myself but here's how I understand it works. The toplink connection has a big spring behind it. When you are plowing and it gets too deep the plow will lever against the top link, compressing the spring, and a feedback linkage on the 3ph valve will adjust the position upward. As the going gets easy again the position goes back down. The sensitivity is governed by the draft control lever. The effect is to provide constant force (draft) instead of constant position.

[3RRL]

Roy,
Here is a thread about making the wheel stance wider on my Kama.
Widen Tractor Stance Kama 554
It should apply to yours as well. Be sure to make it so the valve stem is on the outside (I forgot) and that the tread is in the right direction.

Also, starting on reply #10 of this thread is where I added an extension (bell shaped) to the hydraulic fill. I made a new dipstick for it too.
Spin-On Strainer and Overflow
Rob-