[AT] Fun with the manure spreader

Fri Nov 17 20:02:26 PST 2017

Same concept as when I can back up to a trailer and hook up on the
first try when no one's watching!

Al

On Fri, Nov 17, 2017 at 11:10 AM, Vaughn Miller <vemiller at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hand start tractors always start easier when no one is watching and you are
> not in a hurry.  When you need to get something done or you have people
> watching is when they will give you trouble. :-)
>
> Vaughn
>
> On Fri, Nov 17, 2017 at 7:22 AM, Henry Miller <hank at millerfarm.com> wrote:
>
>> My hand start B is easy as times, and at times I struggle. Fresh gas in
>> the starting tank makes a big difference. (I put old junk fuel in the
>> main tank, rotten stuff I wouldn't let any other engine see).
>>
>>  It starts the easiest when you don't want it to. I changed the oil once
>>  and moved the flywheel just looking for leaks and off it went. If the
>>  fuel is on and a kid plays with the flywheel even the slightest when
>>  you are not looking you will have a surprise running engine. Note that
>>  kids are likely to have jumped on the seat and turned the fuel valve
>>  before getting off and playing with the flywheel.
>>
>> That is one reason I drain both fuel tanks after I'm done.
>>
>> Like Dean I'm conservative with this tractor. My grandpa before me was
>> asked to enter it in a pull. He said "no, if I pull it I might break it,
>> and then I have to fix it". I do work, but nothing that needs all 16
>> horsepower it could deliver. She is getting close to 80 years old and
>> should enjoy retirement just pulling kids on a hay ride. I'll buy a new
>> tractor if I want to work hard. (I get an employee discount at John
>> Deere which changes that calculation)
>>
>> --
>>   Henry Miller
>>   hank at millerfarm.com
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 17, 2017, at 05:46 AM, Al Jones wrote:
>> > Dean, not to derail this thread but  I saw your comment about your
>> > hand start H.......that is a tractor on my must-have list, and the
>> > "itch" for one is getting stronger and stronger.  I only have
>> > Farmalls, all with starters.  How tricky is it about starting and
>> > running?  I have seen guys with hand start Bs and so forth and
>> > sometimes they struggled.....
>> >
>> > Al
>> >
>> > On Fri, Nov 17, 2017 at 2:19 AM, Dean VP <deanvp at att.net> wrote:
>> > > Dean,  That had to be really hard to accept. 😊  Reminds me of when I
>> had my wife pull my hand start JD H with another JD H because I couldn't
>> get the damn thing started. Down the driveway on to the asphalt road. Not a
>> pop. She stopped and asked me if I had gas in the tank. Next subject! Yes,
>> but not in the tank that I had connected to the carburetor. Duh!!!
>> > >
>> > > Dean, a hint that I too had to learn the hard way. Sometimes we think
>> we are still using newer tractors and implements and push them to their
>> design limits.  But on the older/used implements it is sometimes very wise
>> to not quite fill the manure spreader completely full. 😊   Learned the
>> hard way. It pays to be a little conservative.
>> > >
>> > > Dean VP
>> > > Snohomish, WA 98290
>> > >
>> > > -----Original Message-----
>> > > From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com [mailto:at-bounces at lists.
>> antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Dean Vinson
>> > > Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2017 6:46 PM
>> > > To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group' <
>> at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>> > > Subject: Re: [AT] Fun with the manure spreader
>> > >
>> > >> Winter hogs in the barn and manure spreader made for some long
>> > >> Saturdays
>> > >
>> > > Paul, that takes me back about 40 years.   While in high school I
>> worked for
>> > > a dairy farmer, who'd had a pretty nice dairy barn:  Maybe 40 milking
>> stanchions in two facing rows with a center aisle for the silo unloader and
>> grain cart, and a manure trough/chain around the outside that then ran up a
>> ramp outside the barn and over the spot where we'd park the spreader.  But
>> he'd grown tired of the relentless dairy schedule and eventually sold his
>> > > cows, tore out the milking equipment, and converted to hogs.
>>  Compared to
>> > > relatively minor manure cleanup around the trough, which had been the
>> routine with the cows, I had to clean the entire area with a scraper and
>> manually shove all the manure out to the edges and into the trough.
>> > > Besides all the additional effort it was just a very different
>> consistency
>> > > and of course almost all manure and no straw.   Didn't work nearly as
>> well
>> > > with the manure chain.
>> > >
>> > > And then of course came winter, as you mentioned.  The manure chain
>> was driven by an electric motor turning a big sprocket at the very end of
>> the unloading ramp outside the barn, and every now and then the chain would
>> come
>> > > off the sprocket and the whole thing would stop.   Climbing up that
>> hog-crap
>> > > covered ramp with some wrenches and a pry bar or whatever, in the
>> frigid January wind, and hanging out over the edge of the ramp to wrestle
>> that chain back onto the sprocket, makes for kind of an entertaining memory
>> now but was much less fun at the time.
>> > >
>> > >> I didn't mind forking manure too bad growing up but I did hate
>> walking 25'
>> > > with each fork-full to get to the spreader...
>> > >
>> > > Farmer, I didn't have that particular experience but we did do all
>> > > barn-cleaning and spreading by hand:   Kids and pitchforks in the barn
>> > > pitching onto the old single-axle wagon, then out in the field
>> pitching it
>> > > back off the wagon.   Seems like we got pretty good at pitching the
>> stuff
>> > > quite some distance while spreading, to minimize the walking but also
>> to avoid having to stop so often (and slow down the ordeal) to move the
>> tractor and wagon.
>> > >
>> > >> I hope you had a front end loader to load the spreader with. That is a
>> > >> lot of hand labor to load with a manure fork!!
>> > >
>> > > Cecil, yep, I was living large...loaded it all with my trusty little
>> Kubota
>> > > BX2370, and then fired up the Super M to go spread it.   Didn't so
>> much as
>> > > touch a pitchfork.  :)
>> > >
>> > > I did have one related (mis)adventure, though.   That Kubota is a
>> workhorse
>> > > but still just a little machine, and for almost four years now I've
>> used the living daylights out of it.  All the finish mowing but also
>> light-duty brushhogging when it seems more convenient than going to get one
>> of the real
>> > > tractors and the brushhog, and lots and lots of loader work:   80 tons
>> of
>> > > riprap, huge quantities of dirt and mulch, countless loads of
>> firewood, shoving in the ends on dozens of giant burnpiles, all the zillion
>> chores that you can find for a front loader even if you only have a little
>> one.
>> > > At the start of this year I realized it'd go over 400 hours and
>> therefore need some shop servicing to tend to the heavy stuff listed in the
>> maintenance schedule, but I'd hoped it would wait until after some frosts
>> so I wouldn't have to worry about mowing grass while it was in the shop.
>> No such luck, 400 hours came and went sometime over the summer, and I just
>> kept
>> > > running it.   Kept the usual eye on fluid levels and such but had some
>> worry
>> > > that I was pushing my luck, especially with the heavy use.    So then
>> of
>> > > course I bought the manure spreader and started into that giant pile
>> of manure, loading that spreader up over and over.
>> > >
>> > > One day I went out to make some more progress on the manure pile,
>> started up the Kubota and went to back out of the shed, lifting the mower
>> deck as I went, and all of a sudden it just stopped dead in its tracks,
>> wouldn't move
>> > > forward or backward.   Engine sounded fine, loader worked fine, but the
>> > > pedals felt mushy and weird and the tractor wouldn't move at all.   So
>> I
>> > > consulted Google, which led me to assorted webpages explaining the
>> limitations of these relatively light-duty machines and the risks of
>> > > overheating the transmission fluid, etc.   Dadgummit, they got my
>> number.
>> > > So I called the local farm equipment dealership where I'd bought the
>> thing from to begin with, and they came out and winched it up onto a truck
>> and hauled it off to the shop.
>> > >
>> > > A few days later I talked to the service manager, dreading the bad
>> news and
>> > > the size of the repair bill, and he explained the problem:   Evidently
>> while
>> > > raising the mower deck I'd bumped the hi-lo range lever into neutral,
>> and turns out it works way better if you put it in a range that involves
>> motion.
>> > >
>> > > Dean Vinson
>> > > Saint Paris, Ohio
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
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