Toy, Prep or Tool

[Biggkidd]

@Neb
Far as I was concerned it was PAID in full after the first hour working it! Have you ever hired a machine and operator? I have and WOW talk about expensive. Just the delivery and pickup is more than this machine cost me. I paid a guy $2500 one time to clear 3 acres. It took him a week part time milking the clock. He could have finished in a long day. He was charging by the hour and working when I wasn't able to be there. His machine was a lot larger and almost new where mine is 50 years old and well past worn out!

BUY A MACHINE if you have the jobs for it at home or paying. Personally almost everything I buy was on it's way to the recyclers before I get it. Then I usually fix whatever needs it and keep it until there truly isn't any life left in whatever it was or until the day I die. lol I very seldom sell anything I bought or made.

 

[Biggkidd]

This doesn't really go here but... I can't remember where I put it but somewhere here I mentioned putting restore in my tractor engine after seeing project farm's test on it. I am happy to report my tractor starts much faster and easier in cold weather. It smokes less, shows less unburned fuel on cold mornings now also.

 

[Biggkidd]

Got the fuel primer pump replaced and the seal around the throttle shaft. = NO MORE FUEL LEAKS! Woo Hoo! lmao

Also flushed the radiator a couple times with TSP and just put 5 old tubes of alumaseal in it and got it up and running. For the moment the radiator isn't leaking either. I don't expect it to stay that way. It had some pretty significant leaks. But progress none the less.

 

[Biggkidd]

Alright worked the dozer a few hours. Almost have a path all the way around the area I want cleared. Left the radiator cap loose and only used about a gallon of water. Which is a HUGE improvement. Since I had it nice and hot and have done all the engine opening I plan to for now I went ahead and changed the oil & filter. Moving on up! lol

 

[Biggkidd]

Not making a lot of forward progress today. Still working down by the creek. The slope is steep and so close to the edge I've been having to cut the trees after pulling them over. No room to push them creek to my right hard slope to my left while the dozer sits on a space about 9 feet wide and 15% slope itself. On the right / creek side it's a sheer drop of 5-6 feet and parts of that bank are undercut as well. Slope to the left is strong enough I can't push anything while going up. Not even sure I can go up... Can anyone say PUCKER FACTOR! Oh well I am making firewood anyway.

BTW The radiator is holding pressure amazingly enough.

 

[Biggkidd]

Well I did it! No I didn't flip the dozer although it was close a time or two. I did get it rocking on one track hard enough to give me the shakes for 20 minutes. LMAO

What I did do was get all the way around the area I've been working on. HOLY COW that's going to take a lot of fence and fence posts! I'm thinking the next step is going to be going around it with the bush hog so I can cut the saplings that are still all in the path. I'm trying to disturb the ground as little as possible until I figure out exactly what I'm doing.

 

[Biggkidd]

Got a few more hours on the dozer. Messed up and put the radiator cap on tight instead of snug and it sprung a bunch of leaks again. Also noticed it's using some oil. Can't really say how much as it wasn't level. Also had to fill the torque converter fluid back up again last time I used it. What I've been doing is getting the growth back farther away from the perimeter. I'm thinking I'd really like to go ahead and push the entire area off. Just not sure I can afford to. lol For now I'm just trying to get everything farther back from where any fence will be so if I do end up fencing it first then I won't have to work close to the fence. SLOW PROGRESS is better than NO progress!

 

[Neb]

Got a few more hours on the dozer. Messed up and put the radiator cap on tight instead of snug and it sprung a bunch of leaks again. Also noticed it's using some oil. Can't really say how much as it wasn't level. Also had to fill the torque converter fluid back up again last time I used it. What I've been doing is getting the growth back farther away from the perimeter. I'm thinking I'd really like to go ahead and push the entire area off. Just not sure I can afford to. lol For now I'm just trying to get everything farther back from where any fence will be so if I do end up fencing it first then I won't have to work close to the fence. SLOW PROGRESS is better than NO progress!

At least you can get an idea what leaks need fixed.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Ben

 

[Biggkidd]

Got a few more hours on the dozer today. Actually made another decent dent. The more I work it the more I want to finish it all before I fence it. IDK Surprisingly there is some nice looking soil in some of the areas I've been pushing off. I'm also starting to get the hang of rolling larger stumps out of the ground. Got a few a lot larger than I expected to move with this little machine. One of which was close to being as wide as the blade.

Refilled it with fuel today still don't know how much fuel it holds but my answer is a bunch! lol But I have run a lot of hours since last filling it most of the way up. Not sure why but I have some aversion to filling the last 6-8 inches of the tank, no idea why. Maybe because I tend to tip it pretty hard rather often.

 

[Caribou]

When you park it for awhile fill it most of the way, allowing for expansion. Most of the water collected in your fuel is from the airspace above the fuel. There is moisture in the air and it condenses on the metal tank and runs down to the bottom. The less airspace the less condensation. On a day to day thing there is no issue but if the tank sits half empty for months you can have a problem.

 

[Biggkidd]

I try and always leave tanks full for several reasons. Over the years I have also learned filling some types of equipment to the top isn't always wise. Now if I'm planning to leave something idle for several months or more I may also drain the tank and leave the line open.

 

[Biggkidd]

91 here today and now that I know that I also know why the dozer was heating up / overheating so fast. I didn't realize it was that hot. Made another small dent in the area by the creek. I know someone who knows what they are doing would make a lot more progress a lot faster. At one point I had it turned sideways on a hillside and could feel & hear the weight lifting off the track on one side. That was when I decided I'd had enough for today.

 

[Caribou]

91 here today and now that I know that I also know why the dozer was heating up / overheating so fast. I didn't realize it was that hot. Made another small dent in the area by the creek. I know someone who knows what they are doing would make a lot more progress a lot faster. At one point I had it turned sideways on a hillside and could feel & hear the weight lifting off the track on one side. That was when I decided I'd had enough for today.

Smart man, knowing when to quit. It is wasted effort to compare your skills to some mythical other operator. Someone is always better, no matter who you are. Compare the work done to what you would be doing with an axe, pick, and shovel.

 

[Alaskajohn]

My only other neighbor on my mountain has a D4. He lets me borrow it for $100 an hour. Each year I spend a good 4-6 hours on it. Such a useful tool, and I don’t have to worry about keeping the old beast running with this arrangement.

 

[Tirediron]

And really good choice to avoid side hills as much as practical, re railing a track on a sidehill is a nightmare, even with more and often larger equipment. Not something I would choose to participate in.

 

[Biggkidd]

Believe me I am trying to do all the pushing I can up and down. I was in the zone just working away not even realizing I had turned so much trying to go around a good tall straight cedar I wanted to keep for now. I'm leaving useful stuff like that where I can so I can come back and make building and fence posts out of them.

 

[Aklogcabin]

All the above. I bought a 59 case backhoe for 4 grand 10 years old and could sell it today for more. I have a spare snow plow blade so i made myself a new tool.
To keep the 420b company I have a 41 Farmall H, 73 Speedex mini yard tractor, a late 40s case tractor in the front yard for yard art. Kids love playing on it. It's sitting next to my late 50s gmc 4x4 truck swamp buggy. My 59 International B-800 linesman truck with a boom n drill is my beautiful wifes favorite. I kinda like my 76 F-250 4x4 but my daily driver is a 79 El Camino.
Yeah I'm a tired iron junky. They all work good except the case yard art. And go well with the snogos n wheelers.
Well maybe they are toys

 

[Biggkidd]

I finally got up the nerve to try and do dirt work with the dozer. I have seen how bad people with no dozer experience can screw up and make HUGE problems. Turned out I was unduly worried. Found out several things in the process. First and foremost it overheats a LOT faster and worse digging dirt then it does pushing trees. Which makes perfect sense considering tree work is a minute of strain here and there as to where dirt work is constant strain and higher RPM's all the time. I was flat out working it today. I have to admit I actually did an amazing job but I think all my years running a skid steer digging pools meant I wasn't starting from scratch trying to learn. It turned out it digs almost exactly the same. I knocked down a couple old fire berms from the last century. They were about 5 feet high and 10-15 feet wide. I got the first hundred feet or so done. Got that mostly leveled back out the way it should be. These berms were put in when there was a forest fire somewhere close long before my time here. Maybe before my time period. That is about all I can do on the berms for now as the goal on this go round is to get the ground in shape to put a fence around this block. Once the animals go in and clear it out / eat it down I'll go back in with the dozer again provided we are still here then. Only about another half mile to go to get around this block. I've already got the trees down for the most part though. There are still a few I have to take out that are to close to where the fence is going.

 

[Magus]

Time to dig that bunker/root cellar then!

 

[Biggkidd]

About 5pm it got dark as night. Wind picked up and the temp went from 98 to 77 in a period of minutes but it never did rain. I waited to see what was going to happen then went and got on the dozer again. I "think" I am about 3/4 done working around the new block I'm trying to get ready for fence. Man I am working this old D4 HARD lately. The left track has started slipping on the sprocket occasionally. May to have to stop after this piece gets finished and see if I can figure out how to fix that. Might try and call my old friend Darren and see if he has any ideas. This kind of equipment is right up his alley even if this one is older than anything he ever ran. Another couple hours and I think I will be ready to start the hard part. Cutting cedar for posts and planting them. I am not looking forward to that.

 

[Caribou]

You might get lucky and just have to adjust the track. Likely best answer is a new drive sprocket. I've seen Dad do a buildup with hard face welding rod but that is a lot of hours, and rod. It is easier to do that in a shop or parking lot rather than in a mud hole with a thrown track.

In the material you are working in it is easy to get build up of material between the tracks and the drive sprocket or idlers, especially if everything is worn.

 

[Biggkidd]

The sprockets are in pretty good shape, not at all sharp in anyway. The big tension spring is cracked, It's been cracked for years.

 

[Biggkidd]

Put another hour or so on this toy er tool today. Been pushing around a low spot where the fence needs to go through. Trying to get all the regrowth trees cleaned up and pushed to the back side of where the berm might go. I'm leaning toward building a j shaped berm to put the fence on. Two hills are real close together and the bottom stays damp if not wet all the time. One hill is about twice as tall as the other that's the reason I'm thinking j shaped. I need the fence to stay pig tight and there's no way it could in that soft bottom.

 

[Biggkidd]

Well I could only stand it so long. The clouds came out the sun went away and I went back to work on the dozer. I SHOULDN'T have, blew something as there's suddenly water in the oil. It was running great getting it done but I kept watching for the temperature to go up and it never did. So after about a half hour or forty five minutes of it staying cool I got suspicious and came back and cooled it down and checked the oil. You check the oil while it's running. Anyway the oil has a good bit of moisture in it and the breather tube / crank case vent is dripping water. Now it's slightly possible the thermostat stuck wide open keeping it cool and a chunk of crud from before I changed the oil fell off or got loose getting mixed in the oil. I was on some insane hills and it had about ten years of accumulated moisture in it from not being used when I bought it. But when I left it the radiator cap was to hot to hold yet there were NONE of the many usual leaks. Which to me means it was more likely out of water. Although I did put all that stop leak in it awhile back. If something did blow I hope it was the head gasket!

I wrote that last post a few hours ago for some reason it never posted.

It's now several hours later and I just went back to check on the dozer and I "MIGHT" have gotten lucky yet again. The radiator is full to the top and no visible oil in the water. I think maybe just maybe a clump of gunk fell out from somewhere inside the engine and got in the oil this thing had a ton of moisture after sitting out in the weather without being hardly used at all for the last 14 years that I know of. I also had it on some seriously steep hills today and I was working it HARD. So something could possibly have worked lose and gotten mixed in. I guess only time will tell. It's raining here we need it terrible but it will put a HUGE monkey wrench in my working plans. If it rains much at all it could be months before this area is dry enough to work again. I NEED this fence built ASAP as from the looks of it there will not be any hay to buy, even if I could afford it. The hay fields look like crap, short stubby and mostly dead. We haven't had any meaningful rain here in ages!

 

[Neb]

Well I could only stand it so long. The clouds came out the sun went away and I went back to work on the dozer. I SHOULDN'T have, blew something as there's suddenly water in the oil. It was running great getting it done but I kept watching for the temperature to go up and it never did. So after about a half hour or forty five minutes of it staying cool I got suspicious and came back and cooled it down and checked the oil. You check the oil while it's running. Anyway the oil has a good bit of moisture in it and the breather tube / crank case vent is dripping water. Now it's slightly possible the thermostat stuck wide open keeping it cool and a chunk of crud from before I changed the oil fell off or got loose getting mixed in the oil. I was on some insane hills and it had about ten years of accumulated moisture in it from not being used when I bought it. But when I left it the radiator cap was to hot to hold yet there were NONE of the many usual leaks. Which to me means it was more likely out of water. Although I did put all that stop leak in it awhile back. If something did blow I hope it was the head gasket!

I wrote that last post a few hours ago for some reason it never posted.

It's now several hours later and I just went back to check on the dozer and I "MIGHT" have gotten lucky yet again. The radiator is full to the top and no visible oil in the water. I think maybe just maybe a clump of gunk fell out from somewhere inside the engine and got in the oil this thing had a ton of moisture after sitting out in the weather without being hardly used at all for the last 14 years that I know of. I also had it on some seriously steep hills today and I was working it HARD. So something could possibly have worked lose and gotten mixed in. I guess only time will tell. It's raining here we need it terrible but it will put a HUGE monkey wrench in my working plans. If it rains much at all it could be months before this area is dry enough to work again. I NEED this fence built ASAP as from the looks of it there will not be any hay to buy, even if I could afford it. The hay fields look like crap, short stubby and mostly dead. We haven't had any meaningful rain here in ages!

Can you get it back to your shop to investigate?

Ben

 

[Biggkidd]

I don't have a shop to get it in. LOL All I have is a long skinny tool room of sorts I call the shop area. It's crammed past overflowing with tools and I do most of my repairs right outside of it. Considering the radiator is full up in to the neck I think I got lucky again. The only way I know to know for certain is to run it and see what happens. I don't have a diesel compression tester. I will also add that I had thought the last two or three times I used it I was thinking the thermostat was sticking. On account it would get fairly hot almost into the red and suddenly cool off and stay fairly cool. I think I got it hot enough today, again right to the edge of the red for several things to happen. One the the stop leak got hot enough to bond two thermostat stuck wide open after getting hot enough to finally move. Three a chunk of crud fell lose from inside somewhere and got mixed in the oil. It did have a whole lot of moisture in it when I got it. Some moisture coming out of the breather has been normal for this but there was more coming out today. A small little steam cloud maybe 2 inches across and about a drip maybe two every second out of the breather / crank case vent tube.

 

[Neb]

I don't have a shop to get it in. LOL All I have is a long skinny tool room of sorts I call the shop area. It's crammed past overflowing with tools and I do most of my repairs right outside of it. Considering the radiator is full up in to the neck I think I got lucky again. The only way I know to know for certain is to run it and see what happens. I don't have a diesel compression tester. I will also add that I had thought the last two or three times I used it I was thinking the thermostat was sticking. On account it would get fairly hot almost into the red and suddenly cool off and stay fairly cool. I think I got it hot enough today, again right to the edge of the red for several things to happen. One the the stop leak got hot enough to bond two thermostat stuck wide open after getting hot enough to finally move. Three a chunk of crud fell lose from inside somewhere and got mixed in the oil. It did have a whole lot of moisture in it when I got it. Some moisture coming out of the breather has been normal for this but there was more coming out today. A small little steam cloud maybe 2 inches across and about a drip maybe two every second out of the breather / crank case vent tube.

With exceptions my my knowledge is mile wide and an inch deep. Can't help you diagnose.

But please share your adventure so I can learn.

Thank you

Ben

 

[Biggkidd]

So far it looks like the golden horseshoe is still working. First we didn't get so much rain as to halt this project. Just enough to make the top really slick and knock the dust down. Second and more importantly the radiator is still full and the oil looks better this morning. That's not to say it doesn't show any moisture because it does. However it isn't showing a lot and no signs of pure water. I am really starting to think it may have been a combination of events that looked like a major problem yet may not have been.

I'm going to give it some time for the top of the ground to dry off some this morning. It's to slick to try and go down any of those hills right now, I even had some trouble in the golf cart with those AG tires keeping traction this morning! Then I'll try it and see what happens. If and yes I know that's a BIG if everything is okay with the engine then this little bit of rain may turn out to be a huge blessing for knocking down all the dust. It was so bad yesterday I was having a lot of trouble breathing and seeing. I don't even want to think about how the $140 air filters look! Some prices are even more insane than others.

 

[Biggkidd]

I spent the last hour and a half on the dozer it would appear everything is fine. Took it a LONG tome to heat up but once it did it got hot soon there after. I am now 99% sure the thermostat is stuck partially open, not wide open like it was yesterday. If it were wide open I don't believe it would have eventually gotten hot like it did. You can sit and idle it for 5-10 minutes and watch it come back to normal. Then it heats up fairly quickly after that. So I'm cooling off while it isn't running and is cooling down itself. Considering taking the thermostat out and replacing it with a restrictor plate for the summer. That might do away with the over heating troubles. I'm just about through the silt and down to the clay where I want the berm to go. I took over 20 yards of nice silty topsoil out of there. Sure wish I had a dump truck to move it with. There's a whole lot more five plus times more that needs to come out of this bottom and be put to a better use, Like garden beds. I have got to figure out a way to move this topsoil it's in the way where it is and I can certainly use it in other places. I can load it with the tractor but unloading is the issue if I use the deuce. UGH!

Turned out the rain was indeed a huge blessing no dust at all working it this morning and it might even dig a little easier.

 

[Biggkidd]

Got another hour and half on the dozer. It ran flawlessly.

Sure thought I'd be in to clay by now but I'm still getting topsoil and silt. I have moved a lot of dirt. Now the area closest to the berm and under where it needs to be is wet. I've been trying to pile all this wonderful dirt I've been taking out. At this rate I may never get done. I want clay for the berm so it packs down tight and doesn't move. It needs to hold a fence nice and tight. When standing on the surface it feels like you're slowly sinking.