Farm activity this week consisted of working on tractors for a good portion of the week. The 4630 especially got some TLC. We’ve be finishing up installing the loader we bought at auction recently. I started just a little bit of prep on the big Deeres to get ready for tillage and planting. A few other things are going on too, as we wait for the weather to break and decide to turn to spring and stay there for a while.
John Deere: Team Green
These three are waiting patiently for spring to arrive. On the left is our 8420, and next to it is the 8360R. The 9320 is peeking out from behind. The 8420 will remain on planter duty as it always has. The other two will be on tillage detail.
I decided to take a few minutes to put monitors and receivers in the tractors. The yellow dome sits on the roof and receives GPS signals (actually this one gets GLONASS too), and the screen is our interface for a lot of functions from autosteer to controlling most of the planter functions. This same monitor also resides in the combine at harvest to record yield data. Precision ag technology is something I really enjoy, and it makes our operation more efficient and productive.
Adding Function to our 4630 Tractor
So here we have the loader frame pretty much installed on the 4630. There’s really not much to it. If you can turn a wrench you can probably handle this job providing you can get the loader in position.
The bucket that came on this loader was pretty much junk. We have a nice bucket on hand, but it is a newer style that won’t fit readily on the 148 loader. What we decided to do was cut the brackets off the back of the junk bucket and build on to them by copying the quick attach setup that goes with the other bucket we have. Now we won’t have to knock pins in and out to install or remove the bucket as it should work just like a newer quick attach system. We have plenty of scrap steel around, so this didn’t cost us much other than the gas to run the torch and the welder.
The way the steps and toolbox were set up on the tractor didn’t work very well or at all once the loader was installed. A little bit of rearranging and a couple of welds later, we have a nice set of steps and a new spot for the toolbox.
Line-X for My Truck. Again.
Bedliner take two. The liner I just had installed a few months ago was already peeling off the tailgate of my truck. The place I had do the work looked at the truck for about a minute before they offered to just replace the entire thing. Seems the bed wasn’t properly prepped, and the guy who did the work is no longer employed there. The new liner looks great, and it probably provides a little better rust protection now since I’ve drilled a few holes in the bed since the first liner was put in.
Tanked
We were able to sell off two old propane tanks we’ve had sitting in an old shed for a long time. The propane company gets a couple of tanks, and we get some more storage space and a little cash!
At Your Service
This is a brand new trailer we had built for the farm. We are going to use it as a service trailer when we are in the field. The box at the front is the toolbox/fuel tank out of the truck Dad traded at the end of last year. The two fender boxes we picked up on the same trip to Illinois when we bought the loader. There are two more chest type boxes, and we picked up all four Weatherguard boxes for $450. They aren’t in super shape, but that’s a pretty good price considering I paid almost $800 for the Weatherguard I just put in my pickup. The red fuel tank has a fresh paint job. We think it’s about 40 years old. It’s been sitting in another barn for a long time. A brand new tank would not have been much cleaner inside than this one was! There are a few more things to add to this trailer that we’ll be working on next week.
One of these days spring is going to hit, and we’ll be scurrying to get in the field. We’ve got a lot to do before that happens though. Stay tuned, and don’t forget to keep up on Facebook and twitter too!
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Thanks for sharing the nice pics. Thumbs up!