Wild and Free

Color of both of mine all depends on the season here lol. Lets just call it earthly. When I do my annual or biannual cleansing I find one is silver and one is Burgundy/silver two tone. Didn't buy either for the color the color came with the good to me deal I found when I bought them.

$15k will get you a really nice newer low hour 4x4 utility or subcompact tractor mfg of your choosing with a loader, then most have backhoe options for them that are quite impressive from what i have seen. If you are doubting it skip it better options than a dedicated backhoe unless you are going to do sideline work with it which could pay back quite quickly, if just for personal use pass.......

Not having three point and or PTO is also a downer with dedicated backhoes. If it was a utility tractor some have pto and three point but are rare. I would pass and find a tractor that one can use other attachments on. Nothing wrong with the older case backhoes they are really good units cheap and easy to repair but limited use is what would keep me from pulling the trigger plus the size if you have a smaller acreage.

This pretty much sums up the last several days in my neck of the woods. Hettinger is roughly 100 miles sw of my house. I have seen pics of peoples thermometers showing -50 to -55 last night in low lying areas of western ND. I have been sitting and tending the wood stove the last 3-4 days. Today I ventured out for a 6 mile run after it warmed up to around -10*f lol.

For the price one is still WAYYYY ahead of the game even if they only last 30K miles in my world of driving mostly gravel roads, even for the non kedge grip. I am wondering what i will get for miles on the current c rated 265-70-17 VS the last set of D rated 285's which went 40K with probably a couple thousand towing miles in there.

Can't beat em for the price in my book, Did you get the kedge grip? I am really seeing the benefitt of it the last couple weeks now that we have some snow on the roads, can tell the traction and braking is much better. I was a skeptic on this but now like it having experienced it even if it does lessen tire life a bit according to them.

This was on my 2010 Hemi EVIC display Wednesday morning on my way to work. Supposed to see the same temps the next 2-3 nights with some wind to boot. Talking -50 and colder wind chills.

We are just getting into the cold right now The next couple days our highs will be double digits below zero for 2-3 days over the weekend. The Black hills area is always the warm spot in the area, its widely joked about but true that lots of North Dakotans move "South" to the Black hills for retirement and for the warmer climate lol.

I used to run a 5K gen with extension cords run all over the house from the generator outside and had to do as you did and continuously swap around to different appliances every few hours but then did a home improvement project and added a transfer switch along with a 98% efficient 110v propane furnace and got a 6500 watt gas powered generator that has 30 amp 240 hookup now and can now run all the critical circuits I needed through the transfer switch box and do not need to worry. Have run this for a week straight already during power outage a few years ago with no issues and a couple times with a day or two power outage.I have rural water so do not need to worry about running anything that is 220-240v anyhow although i could if need be. I do have a well too but only use it for watering garden and lawn when needed and or if need be emergency backup I can switch the house to well water with the flip of 3 ball valves.

Had an 83 Chevy 1500 6.2 diesel in High school and it was two tone black top and lower body with brighter blue color similar to the color surrounding the text box here through the mid body are, was very sharp pickup paint scheme and it was known as the "Bruze" like a black and blue mark lol.

They must have tweaked the laws since I lived there while going to college. At that time in 92-93 they had no fault laws where if the chain laws were enacted and you were involved in an accident and did not have chains on you were the party cited with the incident no matter if you were at fault or not. Us techers made some good coin at the truck stops in Laramie when the chain laws were in effect. After class and if on a weekend several of us would team up in pairs and charge 25 bucks an axle per truck and we had trucks lined up, could do about 5-6 axles an hour. Paid for the beer fund lol.

Wyoming does have chain laws that are posted along the roads when needed, South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana do not have requirements to use them. http://www.tirechainsrus.com/tire-chains-laws.html

Might want to keep up on this fire. http://www.kotatv.com/content/news/Legion-Lake-fire-breaks-out-of-Custer-State-Park-463790383.html

Seems like a solution looking for a problem

The only gas powered things I have with fuel shut off valves are my 2 Generators where the tank is above the engine and I run them dry as well, all other gas powered stuff I own do not have shut off valves and they sit for roughly 6 months unused through winter so 91 premium which is mandated by law to have a 1 year minimum shelf life is the only option. Regular ethanol begins to degrade after 30 days and regular non ethanol has a 60-90 day window before it begins to degrade. I have heard from mechanics that local municipalities go as far as blending Avgas to premium gas for nearly indefinite storage life as avgas has a completely different set of rules for stability. I had heard they do a 25% avgas to 75% premium blend as a lot of things they use may sit for a couple years or longer between uses.

Yeah if something is on its last leg it's worth a shot. My cure all for all of my small gas engines around the place was when I switched to 91 non ethanol premium gas several years ago. Have not needed to mess around with one to get it to start or run good since the switch, they all start easier and run better all around.

Even my 2009 CT450 Bobcat tractor with a 2.4 litre Daedong / Kioti engine is still IDI. Indirect Injection In an internal combustion engine, the term indirect injection refers to a fuel injection where fuel is not directly injected into the combustion chamber. Gasoline engines are usually equipped with indirect injection systems, wherein a fuel injector delivers the fuel at some point before the intake valve. An indirect injection diesel engine delivers fuel into a chamber off the combustion chamber, called a prechamber, where combustion begins and then spreads into the main combustion chamber. The prechamber is carefully designed to ensure adequate mixing of the atomized fuel with the compression-heated air. The purpose of the divided combustion chamber is to speed up the combustion process, in order to increase the power output by increasing engine speed. The addition of a prechamber, however, increases heat loss to the cooling system and thereby lowers engine efficiency. The engine requires glow plugs for starting. In an indirect injection system the air moves fast, mixing the fuel and air. This simplifies injector design and allows the use of smaller engines and less tightly toleranced designs which are simpler to manufacture and more reliable. Direct injection, by contrast, uses slow-moving air and fast-moving fuel; both the design and manufacture of the injectors is more difficult. The optimisation of the in-cylinder air flow is much more difficult than designing a prechamber. There is much more integration between the design of the injector and the engine. It is for this reason that car diesel engines were almost all indirect injection until the ready availability of powerful CFD simulation systems made the adoption of direct injection practical. Indirect Injection - Advantages of Indirect Injection Combustion Chambers Advantages of Indirect Injection Combustion Chambers Smaller diesels can be produced. The injection pressure required is low, so the injector is cheaper to produce. The injection direction is of less importance. Indirect injection is much simpler to design and manufacture; less injector development is required and the injection pressures are low (1500 psi versus 5000 psi and higher for direct injection) The lower stresses that indirect injection imposes on internal components mean that it is possible to produce petrol and indirect injection diesel versions of the same basic engine. At best such types differ only in the cylinder head and the need to fit a distributor and spark plugs in the petrol version whilst fitting an injection pump and injectors to the diesel. Examples include the BMC A-Series and B-Series engines and the Land Rover 2.25/2.5-litre 4-cylinder types. Such designs allow petrol and diesel versions of the same vehicle to be built with minimal design changes between them. Higher engine speeds can be reached, since burning continues in the prechamber. The Mercedes-Benz type prechamber is able to achieve over 6000rpm in a turbocharged engine. Indirect injection is superior for running on thicker vegetable oil fuel, due to lower pressure injection, a longer burn time and increased swirl ensuring more complete combustion.

Yep I agree with what Mike said about any sort of snake oil lubricant additives. There is one product that is very good in the cooling system though. I have used these for many many years and they do work excellent. Used to put them into the cooling system of every brand new overhaul or rebuild or even after a head was off for work. Many places who build engines and sell them to public put them in as well. very cheap insurance. I would not use any other snake oil additive other than these. I have used them and seen them work to seal up the small coolant weep numerous times that B cummins are known for in the right front of the block as well. http://www.acdelco.com/auto-parts/vehicle-maintenance/mechanical-repair/cooling-system-seal-tabs.html

Yeah they are indirect injection engines so it is normal for them to be cold blooded and a bit rough at cold start up for a few seconds even with / after long glow plug cycles.

Plan on spending 3-4 days minimum or more if you can in the Black Hills.There is soooo much to see and do there it is mind boggling. Mt Rushmore is just one small stop. That time of year beware of the weather which is very unpredictable inside the hills, it has its own weather pattern and you can see a foot of snow very unexpectedly, the temps are a lot more mild than the areas surrounding it but the snow can pile on real quick. My list of do not miss things. 1 - Mt Rushmore, I would do this crazy horse and Hill city in a single day all close to each other. 2 - Crazy horse Monument, excellent stop lots of history and things to see plan on several hours at least. It is very close to Rushmore could do them both in a day. Very close to Hill City. 3 - Hot springs is nice place to stop and the mammoth dig sight and museum is interesting its on the south end of the hills. 4 - A drive through Spearfish canyon is a must and I do not know if you are traveling with camper or not they have a beautiful lodge there and is also on the snowmobile trail head into the hills trail system My wife and I stay here and rent sleds there every few years. They offer complimentary Shuttle bus from the lodge to Dead wood every couple hours on holidays and special occasions too. 5 - Spend a day in Deadwood and Leads, tons off history there and lots to see and do, New Years night would be a fun time to be there just to people watch. My wife and I spent one new years there and it was quite fun, we didn't even drink as watching the crowds was enough entertainment. 6 - You can swing through Rapid City it is on the NE side of the hills and a fair sized city and is easy to get to any spot in the hills within an hour to hour give or take. Take a drive to lake pactola, not sure if there is much to do or see in winter time though but a short drive from Rapid City. 7 - Hill City has a ton of things to see and do as well. I highly recommend eating at the Alpine Inn there, authentic German food. Has a great natural history museum as well. 8 - If you like Ski slopes there are two south of Deadwood leads, One it Terry Peak the bigger one and the other is Deer Mountain the smaller one both very close to each other. 9 - depending on your route to and around the hills Devils tower is in Wyo just west of Spearfish and hour or so. Like I say this is just the best of what the hills has to offer, most things will be closed in the winter but as you drive around the hills you will see that a full week in this very small area would not be enough time to do it justice. thats not even touching on the internal hills stream trout fishing, hiking, rock hounding, gold panning , off roading ect.

Yeah I know others are ditching EGR as well but DEF is not going anywhere. Good Cummins is finding a way to reduce the size of the after treatment systems on the smaller engines. Be interesting to see what they come up with on the high HP end of the line.

Not yet. Just burned off the first set of treadwright 285-70-17 D rated and went back down to 265-70-17 C rated wardens. 285's got 40K out of them lots of trailer towing and probably 50%+ of the miles were gravel as its my DDer and I drive 45 miles of gravel 4 days a week just for my work commute alone not counting the trips to the inlaws farm several times a month. Got 265-70-17 E rated wardens waiting to go on when the current set of Coopers that came with the wheels are done for which isn't far off. I know of several folks who have had great luck with them as well around me and other co-workers who currently have them on order, one for a 2011 crew cab cummins. I had great luck with the Hankook ATM as well. they are extremely popular around my area and for good reason, excellent all around tire.

I have been having great luck with Treadwright tires and they have a great sale going on right now. I just put the second set on my 2010 1500 Hemi and have a set in the shed waiting to go on the Cummins. Running 235 80 will always wear out way faster due to less tread on the road especially pulling trailers, Get some 265 70 17 and you will get better life out of them, I laugh at the people around here running the narrow tires and complain of short life while towing regularly.