Wild and Free

I too have been through a lot of first responder training and as far as accidents goes if you are only talking head on collisions then yes the cars lose but only if talking apple to apples as far as equal modern crash cage and safety features goes but most of the accidents in our area are roll overs and it is the total opposite. People walk away from car roll overs at a much higher rate than pickup roll overs. The weight off the vehicle plays a huge factor in the force and velocity of the wreck which transfers to the passengers buckled in or not. We still have a high rate of non seatbelt users and that contributes to a lot of the deaths as they are ejected which also goes back to the weight and velocity of the forces at play making pickup wrecks much worse in single vehicle accidents which is more common here. vehicle collisions are usually in town and at a much slower speed and new vehicles pickup or car are pretty much all done for in a bad enough crash and with the safety features and crash cages and surround airbag systems there are rarely the injury seriousness of the older vehicles. In safety demonstrations It is amazing to watch the new plastic / tin can vehicles with the crash cages do high speed head on collision scenarios with the old tank cars and see the damage it causes getting into the cab area. The new cars always win when looking at the potential injuries to occupants, the older cars have the engine axle and everything in front of them pushed up against the back seat almost ensuring death or extreme bodily damage. Me thinks we all did a good job of derailing this thread lol.

Much like Mikes 2nd gens I too have a Unicorn for a wife lol, I taught her everything i could but she grew up in the middle of nowhere on a small dairy farm and was dirt road poor and self sufficient and did with what they had. I taught her how to back long trailers and spent time coaching her and she now makes most guys look bad especially at the boat ramps, i think she backs in more boats than anyone else and has saved many from divorce lol.

I have to disagree here, Just a quick add up of my wife's last 3 cars all compacts with manual transmissions she has logged 620K miles on them total in the last 20 years and numerous bad winters and blizzards and only been stuck in a snow drift one time that I can recall, she actually got on top of a hard drift and broke through and got high centered. Studded Firestone winter force tires have more than proven themselves. I felt way safer in snow storms as has she in her little but dragger cars than in a lot of pickups, she has passed many many many stuck 4x4s over the years where she keeps clawing through with her studs. Then lets talk ice haha those studs really shined bright then, many times she was the only one able to get around, even she has numerous stories to tall about her cars on ice versus all others without studs.

Living in the rust belt and the rig already having rust is an even bigger reason to cut and run if you can, the corrosion brings on a whole heap of other issues long term well beyond the general maintenance and other general glitchy items.

Ha Ha, I absolutely do not miss the 2nd gen money pits. Took me 3 of them to realize it and got tired of the never ending maintenance and cost related to the upkeep. 95 1/2 ton 360 / 99 2500 V10 / 02 2500 cummins all 4x4 autos. Only owned the 99 V10 for about a year and realized I would have needed 2 part time jobs on top of my full time job to either keep me from driving it or to be able to afford gas for it if I did drive it. 11-12 on an excellent day 10-11 average and 7-9 towing, ugh!

I am more interested in what the difference between working class and middle class is after reading that description.

Yeah I saw that right away when I posted the diagrams, I am in the same boat with my tractor they do not break down the pumps themselves in the diagrams, need to contact the dealer to see about this. I have a hyd pump leaking between the sections but no pump breakdown diagrams.

https://www.bobcatpartsonline.com/#/catalogBrowser?path=%2F0000-Loaders%2F0000-763%2F0000-512250001 %26 Above, 512450001 %26 Above, 512620001 %26 Above%2F0006-Hydrostatic System%2F0006-Hand Controls https://www.bobcatpartsonline.com/#/catalogBrowser?path=%2F0000-Loaders%2F0000-763%2F0000-512250001 %26 Above, 512450001 %26 Above, 512620001 %26 Above%2F0006-Hydrostatic System%2F0010-Hydrostatic Pump https://www.bobcatpartsonline.com/#/catalogBrowser?path=%2F0000-Loaders%2F0000-763%2F0000-512250001 %26 Above, 512450001 %26 Above, 512620001 %26 Above%2F0006-Hydrostatic System%2F0009-Hydrostatic Pump

I was going to look up the 763 but there are numerous serial # variations, could you post up the serial # to help me look into it. Also exactly what model # it is as they made them for many years like 763 c,f,g or h-c, h-f, or h-g series. lots of variations on that model. https://www.bobcat.com/historical-specs

You better get that fixed, that is the swash plate linkage control on top of the pump which looks to be leaking really bad already probably due to it slopping about like that. Hopefully you can get just the seal for the swash plate control rod there sometimes those are not serviced separately, this is where skid steers get spendy real quick once you need to break into the hyd system. There are many online places to get parts for the skid steers take some time to shop around. Here is the online Bobcat parts portal for diagrams and part numbers you can't buy from here but it allows you to see the parts break down. Been using it for the new to me Bobcat CT450 tractor I just bought last weekend. https://www.bobcatpartsonline.com/#/catalogBrowser?path=%2F0000-Compact Tractors%2F0000-CT450%2F0000-ABHM11001 %26 Above W%26%2347;Cab%2F0005-Electrical System%2F0003-CAB Light Group

Love this, will definitely be passing this one on when needed.

Didn't you get flooded out last year too?

My wife and I are sort of unicorns as well, we only have over the air tv for local channels and usually only watch the local news and not much past that the last few years, we are on the go so much it doesn't pay to have a monthly bill for satellite which is nothing but repeat stuff most times anyhow. We are however finally getting high speed fiber optic hooked up in our area soon, it has been run up to the house just needs to be hooked up and get the new wireless modem installed so we could stream whatever we want through whichever we want to choose. Netflix amazon ect. Just need to get a modern flat screen tv lol. we have an old 38" HD tube Sony Wega that is about 3 feet deep and weighs about 300 lbs. All the other subjects above I could get into as I follow and try to keep up on a lot of them but they are topics for another day, not enough time now. Localized weather modification has been going on since the 50's, there is actually a big lawsuit going on right here in ND between the state and a lot of farmers over this issue where the farmers want it stopped asap until more modern info of if it has a positive or negative affect on things, the state says its a positive but use only the info from the 70's when it was started. Globally the Geoengineering of overall weather patterns and along with this comes the Chemtrails and the poisoning of entire areas or countries is beginning to be proven over and again the last 5-10 years, what HAARP and other countries experiments are doing to the world is anybodys guess but there are definitely human factors at play which won't much matter if we don't get a hold of the Nuclear mess like Fukashima and all the other nuclear plants that are on the verge of death and catostrophic issues due to location and age, Heck in Florida they completely shut down 2 Nuke plants before Irma hit to avoid a fukashima event that's the first time in US history they have done a complete shut down which says a lot about the uncertainty of the nuke plants integrity.

Those are 3 piece like Lukes links, I think that's why they have play they don't seat as tight as the press in or the one piece energy suspension bushings. I am on the fence of going back in with OEM style bushings or energy suspension.

I would just mow like normal without the blower vac for a couple hours change oil then let her buck.

Yeah just put it to work like normal on a mower and change it after the first couple hours of use to get the break in oil and sediment out. Just use the 30 wt as it says nothing special. Does it have a bagger or blower vac on it? If so i wouldn't use them for the initial break in period. 10% less HP is going to be noticeable on the small rig.

The new to me toy was just delivered to it's new home. The mighty Cummins hauled a steer to the butcher shop today too.

Which track bar bushing did you use? I am due for a new drag link and either different track bar bushings or a new track bar. I did Lukes links track bar bushings from Genos over a year ago and they are junk, the axle moves about 1/2 inch side to side and then it bangs at steer lock while doing short slow speed maneuvering when the axle decides to snap side to side. The passenger side track bar bushing has a ton of movement in it. i have even taken it out to see if the bolt and bushing match size which they do but the bushing itself is too soft and allows for a ton of side to side movement, the driver side moves a bit but nothing in comparison to the pass side.

Wow they like to gouge for rental fees down there!! I am lucky being only 30 miles from town and having numerous equipment rental spots so close makes competition strong if I do need something which isn't very often, maybe once every five years or so. I have an uncle who has a lot of the equipment i don't including a mini x so i just borrow from him the last decade or so. We horse trade, I fix and maintain some of his things for use of it. He is super jealous of my Bobcat deal, he has been looking for a bigger one like this to fill the gap between his big Gehl 6635 skid steer and small B7500 kubota tractor he has, he would have scarfed it up if he wasn't in the UK now for his wife's job contract for another 1.5 years.

Do you do a lot of backhoe work? Just wondering if the additional cost of one of those units would be worth it versus what little a mini excavator rental would cost if needed. I have used rear mounted tractor backhoes and front mounted skid steer backhoes and to be honest they are slow cumbersome and a PITA to use overall. Mini excavators are a lot easier and faster to operate and more maneuverable not to mention one can get into a lot tighter areas with them versus a tractor mounted backhoe. Around me one can rent small equipment for 100-150 for a full day tops.

Well Just added another tractor to the fleet. Just picked up a 2009 Bobcat CT 450 B 49 hp tractor, way too good of a deal to pass on. I have both of my Kubota tractors for sale the dealer gave me a super cash deal on the tractor but wouldn't give me anything for my Kubota's on trade for it. Talked to the original owner who bought it brand new and traded it in on a brand new bigger series Kubota, he had nothing but praise to say about it. He runs a large land scapeing business and said it had been well maintained and i did some research on his business and found he has a full time mechanic who is super anal which shows in this unit. No issues except for a bearing in the front axle recently, spent most of its life rough cut mowing but did a variety of other small jobs in its 1400 hour life. Ran it for about half an hour today and played in a dirt pile for a while with the loader and was amazed at the hydraulic power it has. After last winters numerous blizzards with no cab and after many years of using my poor little Kubota for pay loader jobs decided to get a newer tractor more suited to my needs and use and finally got a cab with AC and heat. Got it for 18,500 cash, they will deliver it Monday, threw in 2 very nice Case-IH dealer sweatshirts and a Kubota cap lol. Lots of people were looking at this tractor locally but if you drag your feet you lose out. Even the previous owner had a short studder when i told him what they were selling it to me for and said i would be getting an excellent deal lol, didn't ask what they gave him for trade but I think he misses it a lot. https://www.tractorhouse.com/listings/farm-equipment/for-sale/20877297/bobcat-ct450

Any new developments or progress on this leak? Not sure how many facebook but here is Ryans FB page for his business. https://www.facebook.com/BlueTopSteering/

Yes AH brought up a point I missed as well about never prefilling filters due to dirty oils it is absoluelty critical to never prefill fuel filters too. The last mine i worked at actually had a bulk oil loop filter system that prefiltered oil before it was pumnped into anything. Most all large operations also have really good bulk fuel filtering before it gets the final transfer into the fuel truck for end use as well. When dealing with multimillion dollar equipment with 100-500K components alone this is critical to longer life.

That's what filters are for lol.

Mostly, a bit of it could be some additives but mostly stuff that is naturally suspended that can't be removed during the refining process. I have read about it many times over the years and was always taught to never try and get every drop out of containers due to this. There is a reason most oil containers are black or dark colored so you can't see the bottom.