Any one else caught "the bug"?

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amos
1010 crawler
1010 crawler
Posts: 360
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2016 7:29 am
Location: Piney Woods of east Texas

Any one else caught "the bug"?

Post by amos » Sun Nov 19, 2017 10:47 am

Friends and some family(not the wife thankfully) think I'm crazy to keep buying dozers,etc and need considerable work and then sell or keep them.Been blessed with a good living and can afford new or newer equipment to use but I don't get any real enjoyment from that. Give me a dozer I have to drag out of the woods and onto a trailer to fix and I'm one happy camper.
I'm 56 and been turning wrenches since I was a small child:from bicycles to 200,000 HP steam turbines and everything in between. Definitely got "the bug".
What I've noticed in talking to others and various heavy equipment repair shops is no-one can find anyone under 35 who is interested in this sort of work/enjoyment:even operators unless it's a full cab with A/C,heat and a satellite radio along with laser guided computer controls.... What do ya'll think?
Had a young man come and look at the 450C I just finished and he was concerned about chewing up the lot during test run. Son I said, I'm pretty sure I can smooth out any damage with the dozer your butt is in. Do what you want....
Amos
Pushin hard or diggin deep life is good.
What's ahead is what matters. What's behind is already done.
A fool of a man is he who doesn't ask questions...
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason...

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CuttingEdge
2010 crawler
2010 crawler
Posts: 534
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2014 5:13 pm
Location: Maine

Re: Any one else caught "the bug"?

Post by CuttingEdge » Mon Nov 20, 2017 5:05 am

I definitely have it.

I am not a great mechanic though I went to school for it for 2 years. I am very slow! On the frozen bolts lets say that Lavoy or PondHogVT would not give another thought to, I scratch my head, my chin, and my chest, but eventually get it out. At the same time I lack a shop and quality tools, but again, do manage to get it done.

I prefer the older equipment only because it tends to be simple. I think my 350D could be torn apart from blade to winch with a standard set of wrenches; try that with new equipment.

I clear a lot of land, for myself and others, and for that I rent the bigger, newer stuff and it still breaks. I have lost tracks, shattered rear sprockets on 700G John Deere Bulldozer's and split tracks as well. A lot of people think new means no repairs, but I know better; it just means huge payments AND repairs.

I keep a running list on what I need to fix on my dozer, and have since I bought it, and it is constantly getting better. But I like bulldozers. We always had one growing up; a John Deere 1010 and so I prefer tracks.
I have no intention of traveling to my grave in a well manicured body; instead I am going to slide into heaven with a big power turn, totally wore out with busted knuckles, jump off my dozer loudly yelling, Woo Hoo, another Shepard has just arrived!

User avatar
amos
1010 crawler
1010 crawler
Posts: 360
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2016 7:29 am
Location: Piney Woods of east Texas

Re: Any one else caught "the bug"?

Post by amos » Mon Nov 20, 2017 8:02 am

Good Morning Cutting Edge,
See you are up early too. Nice post.Funny story on tools: I bought 6000 pounds of hand tools at auction from the military. All U.S.A. made and some new and some needing to be melted down.Took a VERY long time but I kept what I wanted/needed and sold a little over 2000 pounds at $10.00 a pound to a multitude of buyers. Still have about 2000 pounds left and made a tidy profit. Another good source for tools when I was poor and hungry was pawn shops,garage sales,and flea markets.
On rusted broken bolts: oxy acetylene rig is a must have. On broken bolts under 5/8" using a cutting head and blowing a hole through the center will almost always clear the broken bolt remnant without hurting the threads. With bigger broken bolts and or seized nuts,bolts etc heating with a rose bud tip will again almost always free them up for removal.
Had some seized and wollered out 1/2" square hole plug drains and fills on my 450G dozer and I bought a few el cheapo .5" drive extensions from harbor freight and welded them into the wollered out holes in the plugs and all 3 of them backed out with ease(heat from welding broke the rust bond).6 bucks for a 4 pack of extensions and saved me hours of work.
450C I just finished was a long,long project: took it apart 18 months ago and ordered first batch of parts then got busy at work and didn't start reassembly till first of last month then it was back to waiting on parts...
Did turn out nice and if it doesn't sell it won't bother me. Just take to farm and use there as i know it's a good one.
Pushin hard or diggin deep life is good.
What's ahead is what matters. What's behind is already done.
A fool of a man is he who doesn't ask questions...
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason...

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