Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[jblnut]

Mike, I love your thread and even though I'll never have to do a lot of what you do, I am often inspired. Now I'm wondering if I can put a giant Variable Gate Turbo on my PT Cruiser. My granddaughter is impressed by the '87 Corvette but blown away by the Cadillac CTS-V. The PT Cruiser has been upgraded but that don't impress her much.

Just when I thought I had enough rivet tools, you go and show me that.

Thank you for the kind words Bob !! I often perspire, sometimes conspire but rarely inspire !!

Your local CNH dealer can supply you with some rivets and the tool. I can get you part numbers if you want me to be an enabler

I'd imagine if your PT was similar to this one your granddaughter would soil herself

 

[Bob Heine]

Thank you for the kind words Bob !! I often perspire, sometimes conspire but rarely inspire !!

Your local CNH dealer can supply you with some rivets and the tool. I can get you part numbers if you want me to be an enabler

I'd imagine if your PT was similar to this one your granddaughter would soil herself

Mike, for today, I'm going to pass on the rivets and tool. Be sure I know where to come when I do need them. I ended up with the pneumatic riveter after I bought some 1/4" stainless pop rivets. Those are a workout with a hand tool.

Thanks for pointing me to that video. Looks like I have some work to do. Hmmmm, nitrous oxide to chill the intercooler and 34 pounds of boost. My wife loves the car now -- she'll be over the moon when I'm done.

 

[XJSuperman]

....

 

[Farmall450]

I hear computers love pumping sh!t through them...lol

Must be an older fella (the farmer who took the cover off)

 

[WheelsNT]

I’m impressed with all you do on the farming side and your day job. Through the thread I see you’ve run enough ethernet and equipment outdoors that you must have a good answer to this question:

When you run ethernet outdoors up a pole, do you use any surge protection, or is that worthless?

Thanks!

 

[jblnut]

Mike, for today, I'm going to pass on the rivets and tool. Be sure I know where to come when I do need them. I ended up with the pneumatic riveter after I bought some 1/4" stainless pop rivets. Those are a workout with a hand tool.

Thanks for pointing me to that video. Looks like I have some work to do. Hmmmm, nitrous oxide to chill the intercooler and 34 pounds of boost. My wife loves the car now -- she'll be over the moon when I'm done.

I've done some SS pop rivets at work and they are terrible to do with a hand rivet gun !!

Be sure to post some pictures of that PT when you get done with it

....

....

I hear computers love pumping sh!t through them...lol

Must be an older fella (the farmer who took the cover off)

Three bachelors in their 60's. "If it is overheating let it breath more!!" Haha !!

I’m impressed with all you do on the farming side and your day job. Through the thread I see you’ve run enough ethernet and equipment outdoors that you must have a good answer to this question:

When you run ethernet outdoors up a pole, do you use any surge protection, or is that worthless?

Thanks!

Thanks !! I sure do not do it alone, my Dad is here and keeps things rolling when I am at work

I've used dozens of the Ubiquiti ETH-SP-G2 surge protectors and they seem to keep the devices from resetting as often. When most Ubiquiti devices detect voltage on the data pairs they reset to factor defaults. It's a good and a bad thing by design. The power bricks have a built in reset button so the device can be reset to factory defaults without taking it down or climbing up to wherever it is located. It ***** though because if voltage makes it's way onto the line it'll reset without you knowing about it right away. I use one surge protector at each end of the line going to the device.

 

[jblnut]

Since I live in the great frozen north everything with water in it needs to be drained so it doesn't destroy itself. I started taking the cool cell apart. The water needs to be drained and the pumps and some plumbing will be brought into the control room so they don't freeze and explode.


Custom built header trailer just like the big boys have


Back at it !!!


It's not all that visible here but the stems in this field were fairly green but the beans themselves were dry. Green stems don't go through the combine very well and end up plugging it all up from time to time.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Plugged combine, I do know what that means. Do you have to crawl through yours to clean it?

Nice header trailer. One of my favorite memories was Buffalo, OK, we were starting out on vacation and at dusk were driving southt hrought eh town and met five BIG combines with 30 ft or so headers, headers up, lights flashing all over, weaving back and forth to avoid signs and trees on the sides of the road. I had a good foot clearance from my Honda Prelude so I'd pull up in front of a combine, stop, let him drive over me and my wife squeal, and go to the next one. Great fun but I imagine the operators weren't too thrilled.

 

[XJSuperman]

Looks like you're off to a good start JB. I drove by again last night but was too late to catch you with decent warning. I also was 40 miles past before I finally remembered what town...

Maybe next time... meanwhile it looks like Ill get to go play with the big green machines today at work. I've spent months in a test field so running crop though a machine is something I've been missing. An S770 and 8370 are the machines we're running this week.

 

[Lunker]

I see you run mostly gravity wagons do you run a grain cart & Semi combo as well or is everything binned at the home farm? Are all your fields close by?

I have a good friend who “part-time” farms 3500 acres and they are running 2 grain carts and usually at least 2 semis and the combine is idle sometimes due to the 12 row corn head the semis can’t keep up

 

[ABSTIFFGS]

I see you run mostly gravity wagons do you run a grain cart & Semi combo as well or is everything binned at the home farm? Are all your fields close by?

I have a good friend who “part-time” farms 3500 acres and they are running 2 grain carts and usually at least 2 semis and the combine is idle sometimes due to the 12 row corn head the semis can’t keep up

Holy smokes! Part time and 3500 acres do not belong in the same sentance!

 

[XJSuperman]

Holy smokes! Part time and 3500 acres do not belong in the same sentence!

It does when guys are doing 25,000 acres full time. All depends on the equipment you have and how deep your pockets were when you started.

 

[oldironfarmer]

It does when guys are doing 25,000 acres full time. All depends on the equipment you have and how deep your pockets were when you started.

 

[jblnut]

Plugged combine, I do know what that means. Do you have to crawl through yours to clean it?

Nice header trailer. One of my favorite memories was Buffalo, OK,........

No need to climb through the combine to unplug it. We can reverse the feederhouse and that usually clears the most of it out so it'll boar it's way though. If not, the concaves can be opened up all the way to make as much room as possible for whatever is in there to get though. Beyond that, well, there's a large wrench hanging up above the drive belt for the rotor that we very rarely need to use to force it through or back out manually. That's less than pleasant.

The header trailer works great for what we do with it. It started life as a John Deere wagon and got painted red after the rest was built above it

I can just see that operator starting to pray your heads were up a little too high after the first few times you did that

Looks like you're off to a good start JB. I drove by again last night but was too late to catch you with decent warning. I also was 40 miles past before I finally remembered what town...

Maybe next time... meanwhile it looks like Ill get to go play with the big green machines today at work. I've spent months in a test field so running crop though a machine is something I've been missing. An S770 and 8370 are the machines we're running this week.

We've got a little under 100 acres of beans in already. Off to a decent start but the only ones ready are a pretty early maturity date. We spaced them out a little better this year because we have more beans than past years and didn't want them all ready at once. We'll meet up sometime.

What are you doing with the S770 and 8370 while testing if you're not running crop through them ??? Cruising around a track somewhere getting dizzy ??

I see you run mostly gravity wagons do you run a grain cart & Semi combo as well or is everything binned at the home farm? Are all your fields close by?

I have a good friend who “part-time” farms 3500 acres and they are running 2 grain carts and usually at least 2 semis and the combine is idle sometimes due to the 12 row corn head the semis can’t keep up

We run a pair of Brent 644 wagons and can easily keep up with our little 2144 combine. We've talked many times about getting a semi but the cost vs the benefit isn't there unless we start using it to haul other peoples stuff around as well.

Two 12r combines should easily keep ahead of two semis if they have to haul it any farther than across the road

Holy smokes! Part time and 3500 acres do not belong in the same sentence!

Oh you'd be surprised how much work farmers can cram into their spare time in between other jobs

It does when guys are doing 25,000 acres full time. All depends on the equipment you have and how deep your pockets were when you started.

Well I don't know .... I've always had REALLY deep pockets, they happen to be empty, but they're deep and waiting to be filled somehow someday !!!!

Unfortunately there is more truth to that than one realizes. You'd think that with the poor commodity prices we've been seeing lately eventually the old money will dry up but it doesn't seem too. The same guys have new equipment and drive flashy farm trucks year after year.

 

[XJSuperman]

What are you doing with the S770 and 8370 while testing if you're not running crop through them ??? Cruising around a track somewhere getting dizzy ??

Actually, thats exactly what I did all day Wednesday/Thursday this week. I work in software. I probably can't say anymore on here.

 

[jblnut]

Actually, that's exactly what I did all day Wednesday/Thursday this week. I work in software. I probably can't say anymore on here.

Well some may think that is boring but I think you have the job I'd love to do one day. Play with software on new green iron. Mmmmmm.

 

[jblnut]

Yesterday I went to start the 7400 and as soon as I turned the key it sounded like a shotgun went off under the tractor and smoke started coming out from the battery compartment. I guess this one has been overlooked a few times on the annual battery water level check


Pretty much got to disassemble the entire tractor to get them out. Good grief.


Just annihilated it. It could have been much worse though. I've heard stories about batteries actually exploding and causing much more damage than this one did.


All cleaned up and washed out to get the acid off.


Once they were out and cleaned up I headed out with the wagons to meet Dad in the field.


Dry and dusty whoohoo !!!


First load of the day going in about 4:30pm. It takes a while for the bean plants to dry off from the dew and then a little while for the beans to dry down again and is usually about 2pm before we can combine again.


Getting empty !!!


There are two little peek-a-boo windows in the sides of the boxes so we can see how much is left or if anything is bridged up.


"Combinin' into the night" .38 Special would have had great success with a song name like that


The combine is in dire need of a lighting upgrade. Can't see **** about sums it up .....

 

[jblnut]

I put new pipes on the stove chimney this morning and they smoked a bit once they got hot !! "You burning stuff you're not suppose to in there?" "Nope. I was going to put in an LP heater but decided a Cummins was a better fit"


I scavenged some neat brackets at work "a while ago" and they needed to go somewhere or get scrapped so I decided to put them on the side of the shop to hold some scrap. Haha. I think longish term they will store cutoff pieces of steel I don't want to keep in the shop.


I also put some hooks up to hang stuff up in the skid loader shed. I'm tired of everything on the floor all the time !!


I hung an old piece of plywood up to keep the grease gun goober off the wall and an old Power-aid bottle to keep the tip in. Should work ok.

 

[C_F]

Glad the exploding battery didn't do more damage! I'm sure the tractor's charging system appreciates it's new batteries.

 

[jblnut]

Glad the exploding battery didn't do more damage! I'm sure the tractor's charging system appreciates it's new batteries.

Dad got the new batteries in but we haven't run it yet. I'm sure it'll be happier !!!

 

[jblnut]

Selfie with the girls in the 7630 !!! I'm going to wait about 10yrs and show them this picture everyday and remind them how much they used to like hanging out with me.


They rode with for a few loads to our other farm and spend a few hours with me in the tractor


Lily - Dad look how BIG this tire is !!!
Alyssa - (looks at Lily, runs flat out to get to a tire) Dad THIS one is HUGE too !!
Good grief kids. You make me smile


Really made the ol' 7630 grunt on the way home. There was about 1,000bu of soybeans total plus the weight of the two wagons which puts this train around 74,000lbs.


This bin has a grain powered spinner spreader. The grain hits it and it spins to help even the grain out so we don't have to shovel so much at the end

 

[Sifan]

As an old farm boy, I enjoy your posts and hate to report your 10 years is overly optimistic Enjoy!

 

[mudcat]

Those grain spreaders are worth their weight in gold. Can't tell you how many times I leveled a bin only to find out it could hold more.

 

[jblnut]

As an old farm boy, I enjoy your posts and hate to report your 10 years is overly optimistic Enjoy!

Thanks for following along

I'm sure the 10 years is optimistic. Lily will be almost 16 and Alyssa almost 14 The time sure does go by fast !! I look at the kids once in a while and it hits me how big they are and I always ask them "When did you get so big??" They reply "I grow when I sleep Dad .... duh." Sassy little things ....

Those grain spreaders are worth their weight in gold. Can't tell you how many times I leveled a bin only to find out it could hold more.

Any spreader is better than a human spreader

I prefer this one to the electric one we have in the other bin. It seems to do a more even job and the only maintenance it ever needs is a shot of grease once a year. The other one has that stupid wheel on the motor that friction drives the spreader. What a PITA. Better than the belt drive ones but not much.

 

[Sifan]

Give you an idea how old I am ... any spreader, even human is better than spreading ear corn in a crib! My Dad farmed and custom corn shelled with a Minneapolis Moline corn sheller, I was #1 shovel.

 

[jblnut]

Give you an idea how old I am ... any spreader, even human is better than spreading ear corn in a crib! My Dad farmed and custom corn shelled with a Minneapolis Moline corn sheller, I was #1 shovel.

I have heard many stories about ear corn in a crib from my pops. Not only did he have to level it out on the way in but he always seemed to be the one that had to shovel it into their grinder mixer that didn't have a loading auger.

I know he checks in here once in a while and I'm sure I'll hear that pitching it into the grinder mixer was better than shelling it and grinding it by hand which is what they used to do before the grinder .... or something like that


I've been on more than a handful of farms lately that still put up ear corn and grind it for the cattle. One farm in particular built a brand new corn crib just a few years ago. It was a 4 row crib that was 120' long. Wide enough in the center to fill it from the inside. I've seen hay and machinery in it as well so it's truly a multi-use building.

 

[Sifan]

120' Wow! We had 65' of drag line and only had a handful of places that we had to set on both ends of the crib. Worst was in the mid 60's bumper crop and low low demand, prices bottomed out and the government would pay you to seal your grain instead of taking it to market. Government sealed almost anything with 4 walls, no joke, we shelled out of some old 2 story farmhouses that they cut a hole in the roof and filled.

 

[skippydoo]

Selfie with the girls in the 7630 !!! I'm going to wait about 10yrs and show them this picture everyday and remind them how much they used to like hanging out with me.

They rode with for a few loads to our other farm and spend a few hours with me in the tractor

Lily - Dad look how BIG this tire is !!!
Alyssa - (looks at Lily, runs flat out to get to a tire) Dad THIS one is HUGE too !!You make me smile
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Good grief kids.

I used to plow after work in the spring and fall for a friend and my son would come with me for a few hours. He would always fall a sleep. I guess the 7810 was too quiet. I always loved plowing , sure do miss it, just too busy at work.

 

[jblnut]

120' Wow! We had 65' of drag line and only had a handful of places that we had to set on both ends of the crib. Worst was in the mid 60's bumper crop and low low demand, prices bottomed out and the government would pay you to seal your grain instead of taking it to market. Government sealed almost anything with 4 walls, no joke, we shelled out of some old 2 story farmhouses that they cut a hole in the roof and filled.

They literally filled old farmhouses with cob corn ?!?!

I used to plow after work in the spring and fall for a friend and my son would come with me for a few hours. He would always fall a sleep. I guess the 7810 was too quiet. I always loved plowing , sure do miss it, just too busy at work.

We also have a 7810 and it is a relatively quiet tractor compared to the earlier 55 and 60 series Deere's. Alyssa was asleep in the corner when we got back to the bin site and Lily was pretty floppy up on the buddy seat

 

[oldironfarmer]

I never heard of corn in old houses but we sure put square bales in them. Windows all boarded up with tin, just pinholes of light coming in and you had to pack it up stairs which were too narrow and had occasional missing treads, then around the corners and start in the farthest room and fill to the ceiling. You can put a lot of hay in a two story eight room house. I don't ever want to do it again but enjoy the memories.

 

[Sifan]

Yes, cob corn in old houses, used chain saw to cut hole in roof and holes in 2nd story floor.
Left the walls in, no tunnels for drag lines, what a mess. Dad had subcontracted with the General Mills Cereal plant to shell what they bought. The look on our face when we pulled up to the first one had to be horrific Contract price was 2.5 cents/bushel. We were half way through the first one, and Dad sent a note with one of the trucks and said no more houses and no sheds without drag tunnels. Cereal Manager came out and was threatened to sue if we didn't shell. After throwing 4-5 large, LARGE RATS in his direction, he thought 7.5 cents/bushel might be a more fair number for houses and sheds. I believe we did over 15 houses that summer.

 

[Sifan]

Baling clover hay and farmer ran out of barn space. Talked a neighbor into letting him use barn. Had to throw all bales from rack to mound and stack. Stuffed it almost full and farmer asked me to wire door shut and climb down the inside ladder. Got the door wired shut, turned to the ladder and next thing I knew, I heard people calling my name and I was buried in hay. Hay mound floor broke and I ended up under ~20 bales Ah, the good ole days

 

[jblnut]

Today started off like most days ... something broken that needed fixing
Since I "repaired" that skid loader tire it's continued to go flat, which is the opposite of what I was going for. So I threw on the spare and brought the tire in to get fixed. Meanwhile, I should have lots of traction in reverse


I hooked three boxes together to bring them out to the field to start corn today.
It made quite the grain train


Dad went a few hundred feet and we noticed more corn on the ground then there should be so we investigated. This is the rock trap access door and the hinges are worn off. The corn is sneaking out of the cracks.



Old vs New. The new one is designed and built way better. We shouldn't have to replace this one for a few thousand hours of use !!



3hrs and $370 later the new door is installed !!


Off and running again !!


20.1% and running just over 200bu/acre. Not bad so far !!


First hopper full of corn of the season !!



I hooked a 250bu wagon behind the big ones to give a little extra capacity so cut down on some trips over the road.


The new auger sure eats corn well !! Where the swing hopper dumps into the main auger is much larger on this new auger vs the old one. Because of this, the corn flows into the main auger much nicer and I can feed it in faster.


The little wagon in the rear needs to be closer than the front wagon and I just barely made it the first trip !!


Moisture tester is reading low 20's so we will certainly keep going !!


Once there is about 1,000bu in the wet bin I start the dryer. The VFD runs the 15hp motor on the fan and the box on the right is the touchscreen control for the dryer itself.


Steaming away drying corn !!


There is a pretty nice view from the top of the wet bin


The dryer is discharging corn at 15.5-16% which is almost perfect. It'll dry down a little more in the storage bins and end up around 14% moisture.


Just as it was getting dark we started on another field. I usually have to follow Dad around because he can't get all the way around the field without emptying.


We don't usually go too late at night combining corn because we have to stop when we get the wet bin full. Towards the end of harvest we can get more done because the dryer is able to run more corn through since it starts out dryer coming out of the field.


Just about as full as it can be !! Eight trips with around 750bu per trip fills up the 4,200bu wet bin. The math works because the dryer was running and taking corn out all day

 

[oldironfarmer]

Pretty exciting stuff!

You have a really nice setup.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Good to see you were able to get in the fields

 

[jblnut]

Pretty exciting stuff!

You have a really nice setup.

It is very exciting as I've been quite antsy to get in the field again !!

We all have nice setups in the areas we spend our time. You have a very nice shop setup and I stake claim to everything I can at home

Good to see you were able to get in the fields.

Feels good to be started on corn. Now if only it would dry up and the sun would shine we could keep going on the beans !!!

 

[jblnut]

Today started off great. I got to the farm and the dryer was still working on the corn from yesterday. Good deal.


When I brought one of the first loads home I noticed one of the tires looked low. It was down to 50 PSI so I pumped it back up to 85 without giving it much thought. The other three were within a few PSI so all seemed fine ...


I dropped the box off and Dad started filling it and something started leaking faster. Well ****.


We have a spare tire and rim but it was flat and the beads had broken loose over summer. Well **** again. I used the Bead Cheetah to set them in a hurry and leak checked the bead once it was up to pressure. If you've never used a Bead Cheetah I highly recommend it.


The "service body" needs some work on the ol' farm truck


Once we had the weight off the wheel I noticed the ball joint was very loose so we tightened that up quick fast and in a hurry !!


Pry down with a crowbar to hold it from spinning and I reefed on it with the 3/4" breaker bar and a 1 5/16" socket. It's nice and tight now !!


Nothing to see here, just playing with my lug nuts ....


Ryobi impact for the win. The 3/4" breaker bar and 4' cheater pipe tightened them a little more but not nearly as much as I expected. I don't think I tightened them more than an additional 1/2 turn with the breaker bar after the impact was done.


I decided to look over the rest of the tires when we were done for the day. There are a few racing slicks on the one smaller box ...


Quite sure that'd be worn right though in another day .... or get poked with a corn stalk and it'd all be over.


I mixed a batch of feed for the steers today because it's suppose to rain for the next three days and mixing feed in the rain is no fun. The steers will like the wet corn fresh out of the field


The tractor that runs the auger to bring the corn to the wet bin is in the way to get pellets so I had to improvise. Three buckets full and I have the 350lbs I need. It wasn't that big a deal really.

 

[Farmall450]

Don't you hate it when that happens lol?

Good tires are hard to find.

 

[Lunker]

Great Pics! How do you move the grain to market? Are you pulling the wagons to the elevator or custom trucking? Are you done with beans?

 

[Toothaker]

How do you set the brakes on the box when it's unhitched and full? Or do you chock the wheels?