Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

[cliftonbros89]

So come Friday it was time to feed.

The newly weened calves haven’t been the most cooperative at eating their corn.

Fed hay to everyone too.


The rest of the morning was spent going over a seed order with the Pioneer guy. So we’ve just about got all of our seed booked for 2020.

Then I had to move things out of the shop. My b-i-l was coming to do some work in the shop.

Then I had to get a list of parts and filters together. I knew Deer had a sale on filters all month but this week was the only week for sales on parts. So I had to get my list of stuff together for Saturday since it was the last day.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So Saturday came.

We did the feeding. Noah joined me too. Him and I feed the calves, and heifers, put out mineral for all the cattle. Then it was off to the bank, the recycling center, and the Deere dealership to drop off the list of parts.

Picked up a few Christmas presents too.


It was a nice day for once so Noah and I cleaned up the 2520 and 4010 so they’ll be clean to get a coat of wax.


My b-i-l’s shop is full right now. So he pulled his 1530 in our shop to look it over. We had to pull the right side axle off. He was having trouble with his brakes. Turns out the pads were completely worn off. Then he found majority of the brake pad ended up in his transmission filter screen. But he ordered his parts so hopefully we’ll get it out back together this week.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Day off today. Have family Christmas with dad’s whole family. So the holiday festivities begin....

 

[Sifan]

Hope your seed, fertilizer and chemical orders go as planned this year and Mother nature doesn't throw you a major curveball like last year. How many acres of corn and beans are you planning on this year?

Inlaws decided 55% corn and 45% beans and to convert two unused harvestor silos from silage to corn storage. I would say odds on that is 25/75.

 

[Farmall450]

That 1530 sure is clean. Cute little utility tractor.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Hope your seed, fertilizer and chemical orders go as planned this year and Mother nature doesn't throw you a major curveball like last year. How many acres of corn and beans are you planning on this year?

Inlaws decided 55% corn and 45% beans and to convert two unused harvestor silos from silage to corn storage. I would say odds on that is 25/75.

We’re not exactly sure what our plan is yet. Things are still looking to be unsure about getting anything planted in the bottom yet this year. So we’re just getting a rough idea right now.

 

[cliftonbros89]

That 1530 sure is clean. Cute little utility tractor.

It’s in pretty good shape. It was a good upgrade from the little Ford he had before. But having such easy access to the 4020 and 7230 kind of spoiled. He really wishes he had something with a loader.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Back at things today after Christmas yesterday.

Checked all the cattle this morning. Put out hay for all of them as well.


Dad finally welded the bale carrier back up and got it out of the shop.

While he did that I did some work to the 2520.

I also got it all waxed up.

I put it all back together and finally pulled it out of the shop. I took it for a drive and parked it in the shed.

We pulled the 4 wheeler in the shop to get it checked out once.


Turns out the belt blew apart. So at least it’s a reasonably easy fix.

Had to lend out some tools today too.

A friend said he needed a 1-1/2” wrench or socket so I got all my options out for him. Something on his water heater. Did what he needed to do and dropped the tools off at my house and left a Busch tall boy in the fridge for me.


Then dad’s neighbor needed to fix threads for the spark plug on his chain saw. I had a thread chaser and a tap that were the size he needed. He tried them but he said the threads were too far gone. So we suggested maybe he try a heli-coil to fix it. But he returned the away as well.

It’s nice to when people respect your stuff. Normally I wouldn’t be as nice. But I trusted them both.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well I did treat myself to a Christmas present to myself from myself. On Black Friday I got some deals from KC Tool.

Got a Wiha 1/2” insulated wrench, a Wera but driver, free Wera bit, free pack of stickers, I asked if they’d give me a free tshirt and they did!

Got the Wera insulated screwdriver set and Wera Koloss 1/2” ratchet/hammer. Not something I really needed but I always thought it seemed pretty cool. I always thought it’d be handy to have in the truck box. It’s built pretty good too.

Another free addition to that package was a 2019 Wera Advent calendar.

I always thought these were cool. It’d be more fun if I didn’t know what was actually in it though.

Since it’s already the 9th I decided to catch
up and open the first 9 slots. Got a sweet stubby bottle opener to add to my collection.

It’s a growing collection.

Maybe I spend a little too much on tools sometime. But at least they get used right?

 

[Sifan]

Coworker borrowed my garden tiller in July, didn't return it and told me if I wanted it to come get it. Ticked me off but didn't mind storing it in his garage and let him trip over it all winter. Had to go get it to put in my garden. Three days later, at lunch, he asked if I got my garden in and he wanted to come get the tiller after work. Um yes garden in, NO your tiller days are over. NO, not even if you buy my lunch. NO, not even if you buy my lunch and promise to bring it back the next day.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Coworker borrowed my garden tiller in July, didn't return it and told me if I wanted it to come get it. Ticked me off but didn't mind storing it in his garage and let him trip over it all winter. Had to go get it to put in my garden. Three days later, at lunch, he asked if I got my garden in and he wanted to come get the tiller after work. Um yes garden in, NO your tiller days are over. NO, not even if you buy my lunch. NO, not even if you buy my lunch and promise to bring it back the next day.

That’s why I’m not really one to let anyone borrow anything.

 

[Farmall450]

That’s why I’m not really one to let anyone borrow anything.

^ That's the way to do it.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Today was a little busier than yesterday.

The day stared out cloudy and chilly. But it gradually warmed up as I checked the cattle.

Cattle auction is tomorrow so we wanted to round up the old cows we’ve been wanting to sell. We separated some of the old ones out that we had with the heifers. Then we culled some more out of a group we worked last week.



It was 9 cows all together. Some of didn’t want to work very well today so it took a little while to round them all up.

Dad hauled the cattle off to the auction barn so I put my new tools away in the shop.



It’s a good thing I likely wouldn’t use much on the Wera ratchet bigger than 1-1/8” because it looks like things could get pretty tight with that hammer being on head side if the head.

But I’m anxious to try it out. It’ll likely be put in the truck eventually. But since the truck tools are rarely used during the winter I’ll likely keep it in the shop til spring.

Oh! I almost forgot I’d also added to my collection of JD engine turning tools. There’s a few of the tractors I’ve been wanting to check valve clearances on. So I figured I may as well be prepared.

I had to go to town to get some things as well.

Running low on some supplies for the shop. So I picked some things up. Then I also ordered some things from CarQuest, dropped some stuff off at the recycling center again. I also went and ordered some feed supplement for the calves and some more protein tubs for the cattle.

Also, last week the cart for the torch finally wore out.

The poor wheels finally had too much and broke off.

So I picked up a new and better pair to put on it.


By the time I did all that running dad was just about back from the auction barn.

We need to haul off a couple loads of beans and lucky for us at the right time too. The price on beans has really shot up since yesterday so it’s a good time to get rid of some. So I got everything started up and ready to go.


So this evening we got both trucks loaded and ready to go for morning.

After dark I went to the shop. Got a big day with the special visitor tomorrow. So I took some time to make the shop appear half way decent.


I picked things up, put things away, swept, cleaned up oil spots on the floor, and cleaned all the work tops off. So it doesn’t look awful. The four wheeler is still in there. But we’ll have the new belt for it tomorrow.
As you can see my b-i-l’s 1530 is still there too. But his parts won’t be in til Friday.

I also got everything set out and ready to use and discuss.


Got the pumps ready go too. I’ve got them on my cart yet so he can have an idea of how I want to set things up. It’ll be interesting to see what all he has to say and what he’d like to see. He was sending a new impeller, but unfortunately, it’s been held up in shipping so we won’t have it for tomorrow. He said it’ll likely be the end of the week before I get it.

After cleaning the shop I headed home.

Got gift number 10 from the Wera advent calendar.

I also put together the shop o-ring kit. One of them at least.

Similar to the kit for the truck. However, it doesn’t include the metric port, SAE port, of flat face o-ring kits, as they’re each their own respective kits from Deere. I’ll leave them like that for now. As long as I don’t run out of space in my drawers and need to eliminate kit boxes like I did here.

Busy day tomorrow, we’ll see how it goes.

 

[Bighead38]

Whose the visitor?

 

[Growlertdi]

Manufacturer Representative (might even be the big boss or not far below him) for the new grease guns he has been testing out. wants to see how the guns get used on a farm and how to improve them for a customer like the cliftonbros farm.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Whose the visitor?

Manufacturer Representative (might even be the big boss or not far below him) for the new grease guns he has been testing out. wants to see how the guns get used on a farm and how to improve them for a customer like the cliftonbros farm.

^^^ that would be correct, in addition to the 5 gallon battery powered oil pumps as well.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well today went pretty good. Late now but I should have an update of everything tomorrow.

 

[Farmall450]

Hopefully you figured out the pumps.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Yesterday started a little different.

We needed to get the loads of beans hauled off so that was first on the list. We hauled them off first thing. We should’ve left 10 minutes earlier or 10 minutes later because the sun was right in my face the whole way down the road. I actually had to almost come to a complete stop one time because I couldn’t see.

After returning from hauling beans I checked all the cattle and did my feeding.




I had to get the box blade hooked up to the 7230 for dad because he wasn’t going to straighten up the driveway some.


While he did that I headed to town to get stuff from CarQuest.

I picked up all of that and headed back to the shop. I had the Silverado for the day because I had to drop off the service truck for inspection for license.

I hardly ever drive this thing anymore. I changed the oil in late October of last year...and I’ve only put just over 2,000 miles on it since then... I really need to drive it more.

I did a few more jobs around the shop and cleaning up some things. Then the guy from Macnaught arrived.

He brought 2 more of their locking couplers and one of their prototypes of their extra long locking coupler for me to to try.

The whole visit went really well I thought. Some things I already knew but he gave me a lot more back ground on the company. I explained things more to him about the farm. Then I gave him my insights on the grease guns, the couplers, and the oil pumps.

He explained that they’ve basically just been a private label for other companies for a long time but have been venturing out to sell on their own the last several years. He talked about a lot of new products their in the process of developing and that they really want to have these locking couplers and the battery operated oil pump to go through good every day use in different environments so they know what they need to do improve upon them.

Then I also explained to him that not every farm is like the ones you see on tv or the internet all the time. Especially in this area. It’s made up of a lot of smaller operations. There also isn’t always that extra income, especially with prices now, to allow that expense on some things, not everyone has a heated shop to service thing. Also, in a place like this we don’t have access to a lot of variety of things. But if they market it right, at the right price, and have good availability of things, it could sell.

I gave him a tour of things, how our set up is, my plans for my cart. I also showed him several pieces of equipment. Showed him all the fittings on our drill, showed him how difficult some of the fittings on the combine can be to get to. I tried to get him to understand that the engineers aren’t designing things to adapt to extra long locking grease couplers. They need to design grease couplers to adapt to tight, short, hard to reach places.

So all in all it was a good visit I think. I think I gave him some good insight on things. He said they’re definitely wanting to target the Ag industry. He said since they’ve came out with the battery operated pumps they’ve gotten a lot on interest for them for large excavators, railroad companies, and even the people who work the large wind turbines. So he said they really want to aim toward those industries along with Ag more as well. It’s a small Australian based company that’s been around for 70 years now. So they’ve been around.

So he was there for at least a few hours.

Here’s a visual on the comparison in size on the couplers.


I didn’t think about it while he was there. But after he left I decided to disassemble the stem he sent me later with their new impeller design. It didn’t work when I first tried it. But I took it apart, didn’t see anything wrong, so I put it back together.

...and it worked!

So I tried it out. It worked. With the JD engine oil at 60 degrees it didn’t pump 1gpm but it was about a gallon about every 2 minutes. Not bad. Better than the very first run.

So it was back to other stuff then.

We got the fourwheeler back together and going.

Dad had started on his torch cart project but didn’t get far.


I made up a few short crowfoot holders for my 1/4” crowfoot wrenches and one for a few 3/8” metric tools too.



Then we took dads truck out to my b-i-l’s to put on his lift.

We had to drop the fuel tank to remove the brake line that blew a couple weeks ago.

So that pretty much wrapped up the day.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So today I didn’t get much done.

Checked the cattle and fed.


We loaded up one of the old cows we moved last week and hauled her off to be butchered.

After dad returned from that we had to go to the Deere dealership. We had to discuss our bill from this fall when they worked on the unloading auger that had been installed wrong. It was quite the discussion but we got things worked out.


But while we were there we picked up majority of the parts and filters I’d ordered for the parts sale.

We took them back to the shop and then I decided to go finish the mowing while it was nice.

So I finished up going around the last fields for the year. I finished just at sundown so I cleaned the brush hog off and parked it in the shed.


Then I finished my day in the shop sorting things.

I sorted out all the parts and put them away.

Then I sorted the filters. I made sure my list matched their invoice and everything was in the box. Everything worked out. So I called it a day.

 

[Growlertdi]

Its awesome to see such a well organized shop in action. Thanks for sharing.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Its awesome to see such a well organized shop in action. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well I’ve really got behind so let’s catch up. Last Friday wasn’t a good start.

First I checked the cattle at the retirement farm. Since my service truck was in for inspection I was driving around my Silverado.

But on the way down the road it just died. Then wouldn’t start. I coasted off on to the side of the road. I figured it’d be easier to get a tow so that was what I did.

We needed to fed hay but first I had to help drag out some trees for my uncle for firewood.

After doing that we did the feeding.

We also had to get some feed supplement and mineral tubs too.

We unloaded that and got ready to grind feed.

But that didn’t go as planned either.
View attachment 1
A bolt sheared off the driveline. This was due to dad having put a tough bale of straw in the last batch of feed. It was the last bale he’d ground and it didn’t completely grind up. So it dried up in the auger in between batches. So as soon as he tried to grind this time it choked up the auger causing the bolt to sheer off.


So that meant unchoking everything.

So after we fixed that we tried to grind feed again. But now the roller chain on the auger came off.


I got the chain back on but it needs to be replaced looks like the auger is going to go out very soon as well. But we finally got the feed ground and out.

After finally getting the feed done I cleaned up the grinder a bit to pull it in the shop.

I also did a few other shop jobs and washed up the 7510 and brush hog.

Dad went to a cattle auction for the evening as well.

 

[Farmall450]

That's too bad on the half ton. Fuel pump?

 

[cliftonbros89]

So Saturday I checked all the cattle.

Dad bought 5 new bred heifers at the auction the night before. To replace the old cattle we sold.


Then it was time to do the feeding and put out mineral.


It was a damp morning.

Could’ve used some wipers on the Kubota.

 

[cliftonbros89]

That's too bad on the half ton. Fuel pump?

I believe so I haven’t really got a chance to look into it much yet.

 

[cliftonbros89]

...and despite the rain I got the feeding done.


I also helped by brother-in-law put his 1530 back together.

Dad finally fixed the torch cart.


So after the 1530 was finished we pull it out and I got the shop cleaned up and ready for more work.

I back the grinder in and pushed the truck in out of the weather with the loader.

I borrowed my b-i-l’s fuel pressure tester to check the truck.

Which is what leads me to believe it the fuel pump.

I hooked the charger up on the truck and called it a day in the shop.

Then I went to feed at the retirement farm.


I made a stop by True Value to pick up a few things. The girlfriend used my chalk box and let it sit outside this summer, in the rain, so I got a replacement. Come to find out so bought me one for Christmas...along with something similar to what’s pictured to unclog drains...she wasn’t happy.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Monday was a cold cloudy day.



I did all the feeding.

Then we had a little rain to make things nicer.

In addition to the days events I had a problem with the wiper on my truck.


So some disassembly was required.


Then I set in on checking out the grinder that needed some attention.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Late Monday into Tuesday we had some snow.

But the cattle didn’t let it bother them.




Luckily, none of the waterers were even froze up.


Fixed the windshield wiper problem too.


I also started replacing roller chains on the grinder.

It addition to all of the the pump meter went out on the diesel pump. At the same time so did the hose in the pump.


I stuck some of my grease fitting stickers on the grinder as well. Just so serve as a good reminder for everyone.



I gave the Macnaught locking coupler another try on the grinder. It seemed to do pretty good this time.


I forgot how many wingnuts are on the grinder. They’re either getting replaced with regular hex nuts or I need to come up with something to remove them better.


So I checked things over good on the grinder, tightened things up, greased everything, replaced all 4 roller chains, and I think it should be good to go.



Dad also got a little torch set from my b-i-l

 

[cliftonbros89]

Yesterday started like every day.


Took care of the cattle.



Got the diesel pump back together.

Then I had to make some stops in town. Run some errands.

Dropped a load of stuff at the recycling center.

Then I planned to pull the 7510 & brush hog in the shop to work on.

But it wouldn’t come out of park.

To make things more of a pain in the *** the steering wheel catch won’t hold so it just falls down in the way.

I took apart the cab to check the linkage in the cab but it all seemed fine.


But that was put on hold as we had to get one of the semi trucks in town for inspection. The other we were going to load to haul beans. The price finally jumped some this week so we decided to sell some.

In the process of all the that I needed to move the F-250, which we just worked on last week, but it wouldn’t start...things have been great lately.

But we got the truck loaded by dark. Pulled started the F-250 and pulled in the shop to charge the batteries.


Although things warmed up during the afternoon and we finally saw the sun and the snow started to melt it made things pretty muddy again.

 

[cliftonbros89]

And so we arrive to today.

Started with a new born at the retirement farm.

It seems as though they all manage to have their calves in the very early morning hours all the time. Never during the day.

Took care of the rest of the cattle.



Dad hauled off the load of beans we loaded yesterday. By the time he returned the other truck was finished with inspection. So I drove to town and swapped trucks and loaded the first truck to haul some more.

Then we had to get in the bin and I had to scoop.

We loaded the truck and dad hauled it off.

While he did that I found one of the batteries in the F-250 was bad so I went to town to get a new set.

I’d also got the last of the parts from the parts sale from Deere yesterday. So I put all of them away.

Put out some more mineral for cattle afterward too.

Then I tried to further investigate the 7510.

In the tight spot under the cab I tried to check the linkage from under the cab to the transmission but it’s hard to tell anything. Especially since I can’t move anything in the cab while under the cab. It doesn’t help that everything on the side of the transmission fits so tight to the frame that it makes it hard to even get my hand up on anything, let alone actually see anything.

But one other time I had an issue with the linkage. It was the linkage to the 1-4 gear shifter, two very small bearings on a rod for the linkage went out. That kept causing it to not stay in gear. If I was in B2 I’d shift to go in reverse and the 1-4 gear would shift itself back to one putting me in B1. But I finally figured it out. But I’m order to take the linkage apart the easiest way to do it was to take the floorboard panel out in the cab. Oh, and the seat, the panel beneath it, the duct work for the blowers for the a/c that are beneath the seat panel, linkage in the cab and under the cab, knocked out some hard to get to, hard to move roll pins and finally got it out to replace the 2 bearings, each to bigger than the tip of my finger, and then all back together. So I’m curious if this could be a similar issue. Partially, because you couldn’t actually see that the bearings were out until they were taken out...

But anyway, then dad arrived back and we loaded the truck again.

We set the auger up on the big bin full of beans now. He hauled that load off and we loaded it again to haul more tomorrow.


We also got all the burger from the butchered cow today. My uncle bought most of it to give to his kids for Christmas. The rest was split between my freezer and dad’s. So now the freezers seems definitely full.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So there we go. Caught up for now. Had some cold days but it’s going to warm up again. Had a lot to do but I still feel like I’m not getting anything accomplished. It’s muddy for now but there are several days to on the way with plenty of sun and warmer air. Lots to do and I’m by no means ready for the holidays. This has been one headache of a year and I’m ready for it to be over. But I can’t believe it’s almost over already.

Corn prices haven’t gone anywhere. Beans got a big boost this week but I doubt it’ll last long. In spring there were reports that hundreds of thousand of acres were going unplanted this year. Then reports of literally 10’s of millions of corn going unplanted and bam the price went up this summer. But then the speculators started speculating, that with all the tariff back and forth news dropped the prices back down. But now there are reports saying there was so much corn planted this year at with regular crop rotation some group of a-hole’s are already expecting next years soybean group to be the 4th largest bean crop ever. ...how the hell does this work? What happened to this like 18 million acres of corn that wasn’t supposed to be planted? How do we keep planting more acres of crops every year? How can we basing current grain prices on next years crop that isn’t even close to being in the ground yet? That’s just the start of it...

But anyway, like I said, lots to do. I’ve been keeping in touch with the Macnaught people about the oil pump. Turns out there going to be releasing a high flow pump stem they should work better for the heavier oil, especially with cooler temperature. In addition to that they’re going to be release the same set-up for 16 gallon (60L) containers. They’re also working on developing the same type of battery powered pump set up for antifreeze/coolant and DEF. I have to say I’m pretty interested in seeing how the high flow set up would do. Same with something for the 16 gallon set up. I was thinking the 16 gallon setup may be a batter option for the shop then possibly come up with something for the 5 gallon pump for the service truck. But we’ll see. I just need to find containers. But it sounds like they have a lot of ideas for this battery powered platform. They also really want to make it as efficient as possible. I’m eager to hear what they come up with.

 

[cvairwerks]

Look up a Cleco wingnut driver....

 

[Pingel85]

Look up a Cleco wingnut driver....

Or cut a slot in the end of a cheap socket for the wings to fit. Chuck it in a driver or impact and spin em off and on

 

[mfg0772]

I believe so I haven’t really got a chance to look into it much yet.

I had a similar issue with my '00 silverado a few years back. Going down the road and quit, then wouldn't start. I had assumed I ran our of fuel (my gauge didn't work) but when I added some, it still didn't work. Turned out to be the fuel pump.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Look up a Cleco wingnut driver....

Or cut a slot in the end of a cheap socket for the wings to fit. Chuck it in a driver or impact and spin em off and on

I’ve looked at some bits before just never got one. I thought about cutting an old socket. But I didn’t know how well it’d work. I figured I’d just bust it.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I had a similar issue with my '00 silverado a few years back. Going down the road and quit, then wouldn't start. I had assumed I ran our of fuel (my gauge didn't work) but when I added some, it still didn't work. Turned out to be the fuel pump.

I assumed it was the fuel pump on mine as well. I hooked a gauge to it and even with just the turn of the key it doesn’t show any pressure and I can’t hear it. I knew I had 3/4 of a tank for sure. Which is going to add to the fun of changing the pump. But it needs some brake work anyway. So I guess I’ll get everything knocked out and once and spend more.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I figured it’d be easiest just have to truck towed. But my road side assistance was terrible. I wasted a half hour on that. So I just called the towing company. Cost $65 to tow it about 9 miles down the road. Which wasn’t terrible. But luckily my insurance agent was able to get me reimbursed since the road side assistance failed at their job.

 

[Sifan]

And, no one seems to be talking about the acres that were yielded 15-25% less than the last 5 year average??

Of course, I'm an old farm boy, I understand how this works … was in a Deere dealership, nephew asked me to check out a used tractor … couldn't help hearing farmer telling salesman that crops were worst he's had in several years, didn't make any money, was going to have to borrow $$$$$$ to put in 2020 crop. Was working on deal for new tractor and wanted to finalize the deal for 2019 taxes. When my turn came, the tractor I was supposed to look at, the tractor they had listed for sale on their internet site, was not at the dealership and even though theirs, the farmer was still using it until his new one arrived sometime in 2020. Another 2019 tax deal. Glad I only drove 30 minutes to scope it out and not the 3 hours that nephew would have driven in semi/lowboy.

Another way to check fuel pump, tspray injector cleaner into throttle body while cranking over. Should run as long as you're spraying and die when you quit. Then you know either relay or pump. And of course, it's always over half full! You can borrow tool to disconnect GM fuel lines from Oreilys Auto Part Store

 

[Farmall450]

And, no one seems to be talking about the acres that were yielded 15-25% less than the last 5 year average??

Of course, I'm an old farm boy, I understand how this works … was in a Deere dealership, nephew asked me to check out a used tractor … couldn't help hearing farmer telling salesman that crops were worst he's had in several years, didn't make any money, was going to have to borrow $$$$$$ to put in 2020 crop. Was working on deal for new tractor and wanted to finalize the deal for 2019 taxes. When my turn came, the tractor I was supposed to look at, the tractor they had listed for sale on their internet site, was not at the dealership and even though theirs, the farmer was still using it until his new one arrived sometime in 2020. Another 2019 tax deal. Glad I only drove 30 minutes to scope it out and not the 3 hours that nephew would have driven in semi/lowboy.

Another way to check fuel pump, tspray injector cleaner into throttle body while cranking over. Should run as long as you're spraying and die when you quit. Then you know either relay or pump. And of course, it's always over half full! You can borrow tool to disconnect GM fuel lines from Oreilys Auto Part Store

Everyone wants to play the game. BTO out by me got burned for lying to the bank/feds about $21 million in assets.