Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

[lis2323]

Re: Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

I wouldn’t mind it...if it would work for the shop...but the half where the tanks are is still gravel. Plus, at least one door to go through. If the shop had been set up for today’s maintenance when it was built in the 70’s we could just plumb a pump and reel directly to the bulk tanks...so even though I’d like a setup similar to that I’m not sure it’ll work for me...for now at least.

That’s understandable.

You would truly laugh if you saw OUR farm “shop” in the early days. [emoji1]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[cliftonbros89]

Re: Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

That’s understandable.

You would truly laugh if you saw OUR farm “shop” in the early days. [emoji1]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Ours has definitely come a long way. It’s come a long way just in the last 10 years. But I know at one time they used to just work on stuff over at my uncles in a little 3 sided shed. Just about big enough for the 4020 to fit in and that was about it.

There’s always lots of “plans” for remodeling, adding, and changing things in the shop. But that goes for anything.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I’ll have an update on today by tomorrow. Being the eve of deer season I have places to be that have zero cell service.

 

[Farmall450]

That's too bad on the cordless pumps. Would be nice to see a petroleum transfer pump from DeWalt/Milwaukee so users of their batteries can have a well made tool.

4 gal per charge is insane.

I wouldn't run oil through a pump designed for water. (ie the M18)

 

[WI-tractor-Dr]

I’ve been in the process of reading through your thread and enjoy seeing how other farms operate. My parents own & operate a small dairy farm up here in northeast Wi which I am an active part of helping in the field and the shop.
I don’t know if this interests you but this is what I use for dispensing oil

https://m.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200622686_200622686

 

[WI-tractor-Dr]

My link doesn’t seem to be working as I would like but here’s a screenshot of the product.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Ok. Quick update.

I took care of all the cattle Friday morning. Feed and hay.


Only set back of the day was the 3020 wouldn’t start.

But I got it going and rolled on with the day. With it being the eve of deer season dad was only focused on that.

He got everything ready to go.

After I made sure all the cattle were good to go I picked up the shop, again. Like I said before, deer season tends to bring visitors to the shop. So I picked things up so everything was out of the way.

Even though it’s pretty full at the moment.


Majority of the time if anyone puts their deer in the cooler they skin it at the shop and eventually cut up the meat at the shop. So I put everything together and ready for anyone who may need to skin a deer over the weekend.

So after making sure everything was good to go, then taking care of things that my dad, mom, sister, and brother-in-law forgot to do before they headed out for the weekend, I quit early and went home to get my own stuff loaded up.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So now update on the oil pump. As I said I was definitely disappointed in the pump. I sent for a refund and a return right away. My request went through no problem. I decided to go ahead and send the company an email telling me what issues I had.

The next morning I received a reply back, from the companies U.S. division’s Vice President. He said he wanted to make it right, what I’d experienced out of this product wasn’t what it should be, and send his cell number and insisted I give him a call as he’d really like to talk to me about the pump.

So I called him up. I’d explained to him what I wanted to use it for, using it on the farm, the conditions I would use it in. I told him my test of the pump. He asked the type of oil and temperature. Which that afternoon the outside temperature was around 46. I had the thermostat in the shop set to 66 from earlier that morning. When I’d tried the pump I’d used about 3 gallons that had been sitting in the shop and mixed it with some oil from the bulk container outside of the shop. I’d allowed it to sit for a little while to possibly warm up a little bit.

Regardless the guy told me they’d ran test on it to pump in at least 60 degree temperatures. But he said it should still pump faster than what I experienced the second time around even if the oil is colder.
He explained that they just released this product in May and are really excited about it as there isn’t anything else like it on the market. He said there has been lots of interest in it and our farm operation is definitely one of the target customers their looking for. But he said they really want to be sure it works well in all conditions. There’s been clients involved in ag and railroad and the like very interested in this product but it definitely needs to work in a variety of conditions to fit those operations needs.

So he said he wanted to work with me a little bit. He said he would process my refund on the pump. But then he explained they had a different impeller they could put in the pump that he’d like for me to try. So he said he’d send me a complete new pump kit with the other impeller already installed, a new impeller for the kit I already have, and an extra battery. He said he just ask that I put the new impeller in the one I already have and really give both kits a test, try them out and give him feedback on how they preform and operate.

Then he says with being on the farm he’d like to have me try out some of their other products. So he’s also sending 2 different manual pump grease guns along too. They’re supposed to be real heavy duty and work great. Also, a 10 year warranty and can be rebuilt. With that he’s also sending 2 of their lockable grease couplers (similar to a lock’n lube or Univer-Co locking coupler) it’s supposed to be able to unlock itself in high pressure situations. I believe they also have some sort of warranty as well.

So we’ll see how it all works. He just said he’s like for me to really give everything a good try and keep in touch with him on all of it and give him feedback on everything. So as of right now it’s also not going to cost me a thing either. I was emailed the invoice and tracking number on Friday. Everything is supposed to arrive mid week. We’ll see how this goes.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So firearm season arrived. A chilly start to the morning but I had action in no time.

Dropped a young 8 pointer by 8:15. I had plenty of time so I just waited awhile. By 9:30 I got out of the stand and gutted him. Went back to the stand for a while. I knew everyone else was going to go in early for lunch so I just decided to take a slow walk to get the 4 wheeler so I could load up the buck.

I was going along my path slowly and sure enough jumped a couple does. I spotted one that stopped. So I froze. She started coming back so I crouched down and slipped behind a tree out of her view. Just beside the tree was a little clearing in some underbrush. It looked like she was going to head right to that spot if I gave her some time. So I just stayed crouched down, ready to fire, completely still. Sure enough I gave her a few minutes and she walked right in to the clearing, perfectly broadside, looking right at me. I pulled the trigger and she dropped right where she stood too.

Just a minute later my b-i-l called me on the radio and said he was coming through to head out for lunch. So it was just in time. I gutted the doe and headed out.

I checked them in, then took them by the Conservation Department as our county has mandatory CWD testing this first weekend of season, then it was back to the shop to skin them and hang them in the cooler. Saved the bucks head to boil out, took the hides to the local Elks club (the make the hides into gloves and donate them to veterans), then took dad back to the woods to hunt a little more and I called it a day.

As of then I was the only one to shoot anything. Everyone else saw deer but no one took any shots. I never mess around on deer. Typically if it’s brown it’s down. Not exactly something everyone agrees with but I’ve got too much else to take care of. But I let a few young bucks pass through yesterday.

So I have a doe tag left. Hopefully I can fill it too.

 

[dchance]

That sounds like great customer service on the pump and other tools. Hope it all works out.

Dwight

 

[Farmall450]

That sounds like great customer service on the pump and other tools. Hope it all works out.

Dwight

Yeah it does

 

[lis2323]

Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

Pretty darn good customer PR.

Realistically though they came through because of the way you documented your concerns and presented yourself. They realized you were a qualified target customer that could actually help their sales.. as opposed to an average Joe complaining that their product “didn’t work”

So good for you in the way you handled a valid complaint AND kudos to the manufacturer for recognizing a potential problem and addressing it professionally and promptly. [emoji106]

Either way perhaps you may have helped them improve their product and in the end if it is still not to your satisfaction you won’t have felt you wasted your time as they tried to address your concerns.

Win Win IMO[emoji481]

 

[captain14]

Hopefully they will review your documentation and update their equipment to suit your operations .

After the deers are processed, everything goes into dedicated freezers? Will this be enough for the year?

 

[cliftonbros89]

Re: Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

Pretty darn good customer PR.

Realistically though they came through because of the way you documented your concerns and presented yourself. They realized you were a qualified target customer that could actually help their sales.. as opposed to an average Joe complaining that their product “didn’t work”

So good for you in the way you handled a valid complaint AND kudos to the manufacturer for recognizing a potential problem and addressing it professionally and promptly. [emoji106]

Either way perhaps you may have helped them improve their product and in the end if it is still not to your satisfaction you won’t have felt you wasted your time as they tried to address your concerns.

Win Win IMO[emoji481]

Yeah it does

That sounds like great customer service on the pump and other tools. Hope it all works out.

Dwight

Yeah I have to say I was really impressed by that. The guy was really nice and super professional about everything. So I’m really interested to get everything and see how everything works this week. I’m looking forward to kind of working with them on this.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Hopefully they will review your documentation and update their equipment to suit your operations .

After the deers are processed, everything goes into dedicated freezers? Will this be enough for the year?

I hope so too. I’m interested to see how it all goes.

Yeah after I get everything cut up I’ll likely put them in the deep freeze. I actually don’t have one at my house. But dad has a large one I can store some for awhile. But I’m going to definitely try to purchase one for myself very soon.

I’ll likely cut everything into steaks and stew junks, then grind a lot of it into burger meat. Then maybe, maybe if I feel like spending some money I’ll have some made in to sausage. Two will definitely be enough for the year for me I think. If I do shoot a third I’ll likely give it to my aunt and uncle (one of dad’s sisters) that’s out of town. Either dad or I shoot a doe for them every year. My uncle calls is whiskey hunting. He’ll give a bottle or two of Irish whiskey as trade for the deer.

 

[XJSuperman]

Wow, congrats on the deer. Can't ask for much more than that. Decent weather, morning kills, and a nice spot to hang em.

Thats really cool about the oil pumps too. If you can keep well documented, clear communication and be helpful for the company it should really benefit you both. Im sure they'd love a range of temps and oil weights run through the pumps. Although, they should be doing that themselves...
The grease guns are certainly a welcome item in todays world. Seems we have a hard time finding a good manual grease gun anymore. They all leak and break in a year or so, and you can't rebuild them very well. So Im happy to hear about that.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Wow, congrats on the deer. Can't ask for much more than that. Decent weather, morning kills, and a nice spot to hang em.

Thats really cool about the oil pumps too. If you can keep well documented, clear communication and be helpful for the company it should really benefit you both. Im sure they'd love a range of temps and oil weights run through the pumps. Although, they should be doing that themselves...
The grease guns are certainly a welcome item in todays world. Seems we have a hard time finding a good manual grease gun anymore. They all leak and break in a year or so, and you can't rebuild them very well. So Im happy to hear about that.

Thanks. It all worked out great.

Yeah I’m interested to see how it all works out and what they have to say after it all arrives. I’m up for trying it out.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well Monday it was somewhat back to normal. All the cattle were glad to be back on schedule. I checked on them all, fed the calf and heifers, also put out a few bales of hay.

I also ground a batch of feed for the calves.


Dad spend most the day hunting. So later this afternoon I decided to go to that stand we put up last week.

I saw a young doe so I took the shot.

She was down that big rocky hill so I got some help to drag her out.

So there was number 3. My last tag filled. It was a long way up the hill but we made it.

Dad went hunting out at one of the rental farms. He ended up shooting a doe too. So we had 2 more to hang in the cooler tonight.

So I’m all done for the season. So back to work. Lots to do.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Update on the week coming tomorrow

 

[cliftonbros89]

Alright. I’ll try to get caught up. But I’ll likely forget some things.

After taking care of the cattle last Tuesday I had to drive around one of the fields I’d spread rye and fertilizer on to find the ******** the spreader. I needed to return it and the jack had fell off in the field while I was spreading everything awhile back.

My plans for the day were a little interrupted as dad wanted me to help him put up yet another deer stand.

After I helped with that I went to pick up some molasses to mix with feed.

While I did that I had a talk about some more seed corn and soybeans. I ordered some more too.

Then I arrived back just in time. I had to help retrieve another deer.


Dad’s friend shot it in the food plot back behind dad’s house. According to my uncle and his cameras it was the biggest deer around.


So after I helped with the deer I did a few things in the shop.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Wednesday I checked on all the cattle.


It was a nice day so I ran the bin fans.


I also headed out to work on mowing around some of the bean fields since it was drier then it had been.

That pretty much took up most of my day.

Later in the day the 7510 got a little warm so I ran back by the shop to blow out the radiator and air filter.

After that it was good to go.



I ran til after dark and finished the farm where I was at after dark. Then I headed back to the shed cuz there was supposed to be rain over night.

I got home and my package arrived.

 

[captain14]

Good luck on the initial set up and evaluation. I’m sure they want an honest opinions about their products. Hopefully you can provide some actual field testing for them.

Is everything in the box as you expected?

 

[cliftonbros89]

So Thursday I started by checking the cattle.

It did rain a bit so I headed back to the shop. So I opened up the stuff that arrived.



I’ll get the a review on that. I’m going to send the company a few reviews on things.

Then I did a few things in the shop.


With it raining I went to town for a few things.

I’ve been needing a deep freeze for awhile and since I’ll have deer meat to store I bought one.

That evening I moved it to the basement and plugged it in.

Then it was on to a special main corse for supper.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Friday it was time to put out hay for all the cattle.

We’d had more rain.

Then I had to help dad clean a few deer.

Lot of meat hanging.


Then I tested a few more of the new items out.


Lots of deer out and about that afternoon too.

By dark I got a call from my uncle.

He’d shot at a deer but the end result wasn’t good.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Early in the morning on Saturday there was more rain. That turned to a windy drizzle.

So I had the coat on to feed the cattle some corn.


My aunt and uncle wanted some deer meat so I gave them the small doe I shot.

So they made me a trade for the meat.

My girlfriend and the dog came out to the shop for the day too.

I had a bit of time so I took off one of the tie rods on the 2520.

The one end wouldn’t break loose.

So I decided to try the mini-ducter on it. It worked!


So I at least got the new ends on.


Then I had to call it a day.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So for Sunday.

I fed the heifers and the calf and checked the rest of the cattle real quick.

Then it was off to a Thanksgiving for my girlfriend’s mother’s side of the family. So it was a short day.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So we’re to today.

It was time to put out hay again. We were just in time too. A new born calf had found its way into a hole full of locust tree branches. So after a few thorns catching me we had the calf back with the cow.

Dad had a brake line blow on his one truck over the weekend so we had to go get it and bring it back to the shop.

After we go the truck I had to grind some feed.


A batch for the big calves, a batch for tank for bucket feeding and a batch for the feeders for the calves still on the cow.

This evening I sold the old bumper jack thst was sitting around.

Got $50 for it.

I got the tie rods replaced and back on the 2520.

But I still need to check and adjust the toe-in.


The inner two were definitely wore. I’m assuming someone must’ve replaced these at some point. They didn’t have any grease fittings and it shows.

 

[Farmall450]

Looks like a good week. Hopefully the new transfer pump works a bit better.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So my worker Noah has been taking an engineering class at school. So a couple weeks ago I asked him if his class could help with my filter cutter issue.

So they modified mine.

The added some aluminum space to raise the blade higher so it fits some of the filters better.

It works too.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

Good luck on the initial set up and evaluation. I’m sure they want an honest opinions about their products. Hopefully you can provide some actual field testing for them.

Is everything in the box as you expected?

Looks like a good week. Hopefully the new transfer pump works a bit better.

Things are a bit different but not terrible.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So the first thing I was the pistol grip grease gun.

It very much resembles the Lincoln pistol grip grease gun. Heavy duty. However the hose on the Macnaught is very short, a little too short.


I put their locking coupler on the gun to try it out too.

Not as compact as the Univer-Co coupler, but smaller than the Lock’n Lube, which I haven’t ever tried.

I tried it on the 2520 and the 4010.

But while using the gun the rod kept gradually pumping out. I’ve never had this issue before. It wouldn’t stay in.

The coupler also wouldn’t lock on to two fittings at all. The short hose was a bit of a pain in the *** too. In my opinion, for a grease gun, the longer the the hose the better.

The orange on the coupler serves as in indicator show the couple is locked or unlocked.

On clean up I found the orange was an o-ring that easily comes off when trying to wipe the coupler off.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So I tried the coupler and grease gun on the 2520 & 4010. There were a few fittings that the coupler would refuse to lock on to. Unless it’s locked on it won’t grease the fitting. So that was a little frustrating.

So the second locking coupler I stuck on my DeWalt grease gun.

I took it out to the shed and used it on the 9770.

For some of the easier to get to fittings it wasn’t bad. But yet again I had trouble with it actually wanting to immediately lock on to all the fittings. Then if it doesn’t it gets grease everywhere, therefore making the coupler that much more of a pain in the *** to pull back and lock on to other fittings.

But then there were a decent amount of fittings that I was unable to get with it. As I’ve always suspected would happen with these types of couplers. Some areas it was too bulky or too long to actually fit on to the fitting, meaning for those it was completely useless. I’d be better off just using a regular Lincoln fitting like I always do. It’s not practical to have two guns or to swap two fittings in the field just for the use of the locking coupler on just some of the fittings in the field.


There is a large size difference in the locking coupler compared to a standard one.


The standard one that comes from Macnaught looks very similar to Lincoln’s as does the rest of the gun. So I’m assuming it would work fairly well. But I’ve yet to try it.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So on to the oil pump. I was eager to try this new one out. They even wrote on the packaging that they put in a new style impeller in the stem of the pump.


So I charged the battery up and they sent a second battery as well so I charged it up with the charger from the first kit.

I set things up to do a few test runs.

Even took two temperature checks on the oil and wrote everything down.

First test wasn’t with the complete new kit. With JD 10w-40 which was 62 degrees. The shop was about 64 according to the thermostat and a thermometer on the wall.

I turned the pump on...nothing...shut it off made sure everything was set up right...nothing...tried the second battery...nothing. So I grabbed the pump from the first kit. Stuck on one of the new batteries...nothing...”are you ******* kidding me!!!”

So I decided to try to old set up again. This time it actually worked. Not quite a gallon per minute but it ran a hell of a lot better than the previous time.


So I decided to try it with hydraulic oil. The oil was the same temperature as the engine oil. It pumped out great!! It was almost right at a gallon per minute.

So was the first time a fluke? Was it too cold? I’m not sure. I contacted the company again and told them the problem with the stem from the new kit. The guy said that the new impeller must’ve been stuck or installed wrong. But he said they’re going to have stems with the new style impellers shipping out in a few weeks. He said he would send me on.

So overall not terrible I guess. I just recently saw another GJ has just got this oil set up as well. I saw it in the welding thread and service cart thread. That guy has a cool set up.

So I guess I’m going to try it out some more and test things. Maybe the grease gun coupler will work better after it’s broke in. But it’s hard for me to go with the standard grease gun again after using my DeWalt all the time.

So I guess I’ll look for the new parts to arrive and really test things out. I’ve been in communication with the company on and am going to send them my reviews on everything as I go along.

You can kind of get an idea of what I’m going for on the set up with the cart. But I’d really like to find something else the stems can go on other than just the regular 5 gallon buckets.

As you can see the plastic openings don’t hold up. This happened due to the use of a hand pump. The battery operated pump doesn’t shake or vibrate. But I’m worried about the weight of the pump wearing on it. That’s also why I would likely have to invest in a few more stems to avoid extra ware swapping them in and out.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Oh. I also tried the locking coupler on the DeWalt gun on the 1990 drill. Just a few row units. But it actually did seem to work well on that. Other than one fitting that didn’t take well. It built up pressure and was hard to remove, as I’ve experienced with the other locking couplers before.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So on to Monday.

I fed all the cattle. They were in need of hay which dad helped me with. Then we had to rescue this pictured newborn calf from a sink hole full of locust tree limbs that it managed to end up in. But we got the calf out and managed to only get stuck by two thorns.

We ended up with a little rain shower that afternoon. Didn’t get much done that day.

Other than I did grind 3 batches of feed.

 

[cliftonbros89]

This week’s theme seems to be, getting nothing accomplished.

Tuesday after doing the daily feeding dad helped me put out the last batch of feed I ground into the feeders for the small calves.

Then it was time to do a job that needed to be done.

Time for deer meat.


With some help from dad we cut up my buck and my doe. We cut up all the steaks and ground a bunch into burger.

I’ll have a decent amount of meat for awhile. Enough for the new freezer.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Wednesday was similar.


Noah was on his first day of Thanksgiving break so he joined us for the day. He helped me take care of the feeding and checking the cattle. Then we cut up the 3 doe of dads. Cut steaks, made some sausage and brats mixed with some pork ****. It was an all day ordeal.

Kept me from working on other stuff. But it needed to be done and I’m glad it’s done.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So here we are. Thanksgiving. Still had to feed and check on the cattle.


Everything was going well and quick until I went to check some of the other cattle.

Some one, this time like the grandson, from my uncle’s family went through and left a gate open again...leaving me to waste about a half hour of my day chasing cattle, because some was was too stupid or too lazy to take 10 seconds to close a damn gate!

But I finally got them in.

The rest of the group didn’t make things any easier as they insisted on standing right by the gate to watch me chase the others.

Dad was going to come with the four wheeler to help me. But then it just quit. Engine runs but it won’t go in gear. So he didn’t make it and we had to tow it back out of the field with the Kubota.

Didn’t have anywhere I had to be today. But I figured the girl would prefer I take the afternoon off.

 

[cliftonbros89]

It’s been hard to keep up with everything on GJ the last several months. I don’t know if I’ve missed out on much or not. Probably a good thing that I haven’t looked at the “show us our new tools” thread in quite awhile, that can be dangerous.

I had just though about the secret Santa thread too. I was considering participating. But I’ve noticed I missed the deadline.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Thought I may try to take advantage of some Black Friday deals. I saw a few tools sites with a certain percent off your purchase. But I’m not really sure what to look for or what I could really use right now (then again what couldn’t I use?).

One purchase I am thinking about making is from Recycled Firefighter.

I’m thinking of getting a pack to hold everything for my metal detecting kit. Little pricey, but it’s a pretty cool little company.

https://recycledfirefighter.com/