Above 1200 Sq/FT The Warthog Hidey Hole

[jbmatth]

Why only a half shop?

Wishing you well with the new employ.

Now that you mention it that is a very good point, I'll have to give him some **** next time I'm up there. lol

Thanks a ton, only time will tell.

Congratulations on the new job JB!

I just did the same thing 2 months ago after 6.5 years. Although I went from Automotive to Animal Feed Manufacturing and my drive went from 13 miles to 6. All this to say that it has been a great change for my mental health and my family overall. Best of luck on Monday!

Thank you sir, I'm looking forward to the job and excited to what it may lead to. Glad to hear your new one is going well too, now you have time to update your thread?

Congrats with the new job and all the best on Monday!

Congrats on the new job JB!! I wish you all the best.

All the best in the next chapter!

JB,
Congrats on the new job!
I hope it goes well for you!

All the best on the new job!

All,
I truly appreciate it, I'm blown away by the support guys, maybe this will lead to a new bigger and badder shop too.

JB

 

[LutzTD]

congrats on the move and good luck.

 

[zmotorsports]

Best of luck in the new job JB.

 

[86turbodsl]

Whatever you do, you will do great JB. Best wishes on the new job.

 

[jbmatth]

Best of luck in the new job JB.

Thank you very much Mike.

Whatever you do, you will do great JB. Best wishes on the new job.

Thank you sir, I'll do my best, now if only I can get free gas cards for all my GJ friends to come visit and have a barn..er..garage raisin' party.

JB

 

[Mr.zippy]

Thank you very much Mike.

Thank you sir, I'll do my best, now if only I can get free gas cards for all my GJ friends to come visit and have a barn..er..garage raisin' party.

JB

Date and time? I'll be there!

Best of luck JB, and thanks for sharing with us....

 

[bowtiguy]

Sounds like your LONG overdue or some fiscal appreciation. Always amazed how you would be gone for weeks+ between posts. Hard on the family im sure. How are the belts working on that crazy SxS?

One of these days i heed to start a thread. Jus too busy to document & post on a new platform.

 

[jbmatth]

Date and time? I'll be there!

Best of luck JB, and thanks for sharing with us....

I'll be sure to post here if the time comes, it would be nice to be able to design and build a shop from scratch after everything I've learned on here. I'll keep posting on this thread, the Warthog Hidey Hole will live on as I'm still using it and have a ton of projects I'll need to get to.

Sounds like your LONG overdue or some fiscal appreciation. Always amazed how you would be gone for weeks+ between posts. Hard on the family im sure. How are the belts working on that crazy SxS?

One of these days i heed to start a thread. Jus too busy to document & post on a new platform.

I am sure I'll appreciate it, there have been a lot of times where I would be working those 95ish hour weeks for 6-10 weeks in a row, sometimes on day shift, sometimes on nights, it is rough at times. What SxS are you referring to, the Festiva that was lifted with 4 wheeler tires or the go cart I put the 600 cc motorcycle engine in? Neither of those used a belt other than for the accessory drive on the car.

No better time to start than now, just toss it up and get to sharing.

 

[Grizz1963]

I trust all of this will play into your hands.

 

[jbmatth]

I trust all of this will play into your hands.

I sure hope so, but have to believe it will.

JB

 

[zanyad]

Congrats and good luck!

 

[Redwolf947]

Congratulations JB, I wish you well! I'm sure it will all go well!!

I wish I could get up the gumption to do the same..

 

[jbmatth]

Congrats and good luck!

Thank you sir.

Congratulations JB, I wish you well! I'm sure it will all go well!!

I wish I could get up the gumption to do the same..

So far so good, I'm staying busy with all the introductory training, paperwork, etc.

As for getting the gumption to make a move a previous co-worker gave me some great advice. Summarized it was that you can't be scared of a move and delay it, all that will do is cost you years before you know it and potentially a ton of lost money as well. It likely won't get any easier, just give it a shot and see how it goes.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

Well a few things to share but some of the photos haven't uploaded just yet so I'm skipping ahead a little. I headed to the St. Louis area for a good friends wedding this weekend, on the way I stopped by to see @Grizz1963 at Dennis's house, I didn't get many photos but got to see his monster of a creation, the photos I've seen don't do it justice:


Here is a shot of the engine, absolutely splendid:


After getting home the hay had been baled so I went out to get it put up and found the newest member of the herd:


The longhorn Jackie is his mama, Jackie is terrible about showing pregnant, barely has a belly and her utter doesn't really seem to grow until the calf is born. The girls named him Bob, yep another boy, there have been 5 calves born since I started keeping cattle and all 5 have been bull calves, I guess that is how you make money, but not how you grow your herd for "cheap".

The white bull in the foreground is Cocoa, a bull born to Jackie late May 2022, he will be for sale soon and is pretty good looking other than he hasn't filled out quite like his dad did, but also not full grown yet.

More to come,
JB

 

[Grizz1963]

It was good to have you over for a few hours at @djones1a house.

Dennis was super pleased you caught him between cars at the shop too.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Just a yearling bull JB, give him a minute

 

[jbmatth]

It was good to have you over for a few hours at @djones1a house.

Dennis was super pleased you caught him between cars at the shop too.

There it is, I couldn't for the life of me remember his username on here. I'm really glad it all worked out too, great to meet Dennis after talking to him a few times.

Just a yearling bull JB, give him a minute

I gave him that out haha. I have a friend interested in him as a potential breeding bull, so he may luck out and have a much better time in his new home. Lucky duck!

JB

 

[jbmatth]

While we are on the subject of the cattle the bailer the rancher uses out at my place borrows it from a neighbor of his but the rancher needed help transporting it, the Bandito to the rescue:


I think that was the first time the rancher had ever used cooled seats, he was impressed and I was comfortable.

Back to the Viper for a minute, I eventually got the power steering pulley off after stripping out the threads on the first puller, it was on there tight. Old pulley failure occurred right where the non-metallic pulley was pressed on the metal center. This is a common problem and they seemed to be a little time and a little use based, my car is 24 years old and has 72,000 miles on it now so it was due. I'd planned to replace it this winter with other front of the car work, but it didn't hold on long enough for me to do that. Broken:


All better:


Also while online I stumbled across some cookie cutters in car related shapes so I had to pick up a few:


I wanted to get some for my buddies Mustang, but they didn't have any, I suppose because of copywrite laws, the two MG ones were given to his grandfather though as he has an MG.

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

JB, I have baled A LOT of alfalfa hay with a JD 530. FYI there is no bale-kicker on a 530, so you have to stop, backup, and then dump the bale out....every, damn, time

 

[jbmatth]

JB, I have baled A LOT of alfalfa hay with a JD 530. FYI there is no bale-kicker on a 530, so you have to stop, backup, and then dump the bale out....every, damn, time

Outlaw, I've never been trusted to use a bailer, just the rake and of course my tractor with the spike/spear on both ends. So luckily I don't have to worry about backing up with the bailer. He had it all done by the time I got back from the wedding, I just had to move them into the holding pen, I think we got 19 round bales this year and he baled another 20-30 square bales, they haven't been moved yet. I hope I'm not around when he does want to load them, but I'm afraid I will be. haha

JB

 

[XJSuperman]

*baler

Aside from some small squares, I recently got to play with a new 461m and its pretty slick as far as making baling easy. Cooled seat, pressurized AC cab, ISObus controller, etc in the tractor, and bale documentation as well as auto eject on the baler. It was a new experience for me. Hard to imagine backing up to drop it, but then again some people probably can't imagine stacking small squares vs using stackers or kickers either.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

*baler

Aside from some small squares, I recently got to play with a new 461m and its pretty slick as far as making baling easy. Cooled seat, pressurized AC cab, ISObus controller, etc in the tractor, and bale documentation as well as auto eject on the baler. It was a new experience for me. Hard to imagine backing up to drop it, but then again some people probably can't imagine stacking small squares vs using stackers or kickers either.

I used to love small squares, great way to stay in shape, and when you got done you had a nice clean stack to show for your hard work(and hopefully a pocket full of cash). Jerry and I used to load an 18' car trailer with around 90 bales. He'd stack and I'd throw from both sides, we'd just put the wheels in a corrugation and put the xfercase in 4-lo and presto, no driver needed until the end to turn it and point it back down the next rows.

 

[Sifan]

The week I graduated college and got a "real job," was the week that the boss upgraded from a small square to a round baler

I couldn't help myself, I had to question "what happened to all the waste from round bales, according to you "no matter how you try to feed, the cows waste 15-20% of every bale". I got the finger

 

[jbmatth]

*baler

Aside from some small squares, I recently got to play with a new 461m and its pretty slick as far as making baling easy. Cooled seat, pressurized AC cab, ISObus controller, etc in the tractor, and bale documentation as well as auto eject on the baler. It was a new experience for me. Hard to imagine backing up to drop it, but then again some people probably can't imagine stacking small squares vs using stackers or kickers either.

Thanks for the catch there XJ, sometimes I hate English, but my English is better than any other language I know. I remember riding in some tractors and a combine with AC but have no experience using one myself. The new setups are way more complicated than I would have ever imagined in the early 90's.

I used to love small squares, great way to stay in shape, and when you got done you had a nice clean stack to show for your hard work(and hopefully a pocket full of cash). Jerry and I used to load an 18' car trailer with around 90 bales. He'd stack and I'd throw from both sides, we'd just put the wheels in a corrugation and put the xfercase in 4-lo and presto, no driver needed until the end to turn it and point it back down the next rows.

I first pitched hay for my cousin I think I was around 12-13 at the time, my brother and I made $2/hr each. My family moved about 200 miles away so we couldn't help him the next summer but a friend of mine started a hay moving business with his family. My cousin paid them I think $0.25/bale, he paid a lot more that year than the year before.

When I first started working on the neighbors cattle farm I was 14, he baled 20 acres of alfalfa, I made $25/day, the next year I was up to $50/day but he then had 80 acres of alfalfa all square bales. The following summer he bought a stacker attachment for the baler and hook setup for the other tractor with a FEL. Cheating I tell ya.

The week I graduated college and got a "real job," was the week that the boss upgraded from a small square to a round baler

I couldn't help myself, I had to question "what happened to all the waste from round bales, according to you "no matter how you try to feed, the cows waste 15-20% of every bale". I got the finger

With the size of some of these operations and the lack of cheap labor there is no other way than round bales now. The girls do still feed horses with small squares, and seeing them pay $10-$15/bale really has be wondering if I hate pitching hay as much as I remember, I kinda don't think so. haha

I feel like a lot of farmer/ranchers had to make that decision around the late 90's to early 00's and I'm sure the same questions and responses happened.

JB

 

[zmotorsports]

JB, I don't think the power steering pulley failing during removal is isolated to the Vipers. I have had so many of those composite pulleys fail upon removal I now just include those in the price of any job I am quoting because there is a very high probability that the pulley will crack during removal. Speaking to my local Mopar dealership a few years ago when I needed one for a Jeep and he said he had one in stock. I was surprised and he said they sell a lot of them.

 

[jbmatth]

JB, I don't think the power steering pulley failing during removal is isolated to the Vipers. I have had so many of those composite pulleys fail upon removal I now just include those in the price of any job I am quoting because there is a very high probability that the pulley will crack during removal. Speaking to my local Mopar dealership a few years ago when I needed one for a Jeep and he said he had one in stock. I was surprised and he said they sell a lot of them.

I know the Viper used a lot of "off the shelf" parts from other products in their catalog and suspect the same for the pulley. I wish it had failed during removal but sadly failed while driving it. It was on a trip I had done to Wichita for a group event, while there I noticed the power steering lagged a couple times in tight maneuvering, I suspected it was due to low idle and turning while stopped. I was wrong and it tossed the belt 10 miles from where I keep it stored, luckily I was a bit over a mile from a friends house who let me store it there until the new pulley came in. I'll add it to my list of parts to replace on a regular basis from here on.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

Last week while driving home from work I saw something I don't recall ever seeing before a Mark IV Supra being towed on a car dolly behind an RV. Yes I need to clean the windshield:


I attended a small Cars N Coffee event just north of home, it was a pretty small turnout with only about 20 cars, but I got to talk to the others quite a bit more than at bigger events. One of them shared this photo they got of my car:


The rest of Saturday and Sunday was spent mowing, moving around implements for the tractor, making a quick pass around the fenceline with the tractor and mower and changing the tires on Grandpa's old truck. I opted for a little more AT type tire this time, likely they will dry rot before I can even tell there is any tread being used:


Mounted and balanced at home in about an hour, pretty much the same time it would have taken a shop, but I didn't have an hour of driving. The old tires were way too old and needed to be changed. Old vs. new:


That's all for now, have a great day ya'll.

JB

 

[jbrentd]

Just catching up on your thread...

Sorry to hear the news about the P66 job, but hopefully it will be better for you and your family in the long run. I work in the the oil & gas industry too and my company has some assets in your area. If there's anything I can do for you, just let me know.

 

[jbmatth]

Just catching up on your thread...

Sorry to hear the news about the P66 job, but hopefully it will be better for you and your family in the long run. I work in the the oil & gas industry too and my company has some assets in your area. If there's anything I can do for you, just let me know.

In the end it is all good, I was pretty down about the entire way things shook out but I had to made a decision and I'm going to stick with it for a while. I guess I didn't realize you were in Oil & Gas for some reason, if you have a minute to shoot me a PM I'd be curious what and where if you don't want to share too publicly.

JB

 

[jbrentd]

In the end it is all good, I was pretty down about the entire way things shook out but I had to made a decision and I'm going to stick with it for a while. I guess I didn't realize you were in Oil & Gas for some reason, if you have a minute to shoot me a PM I'd be curious what and where if you don't want to share too publicly.

JB

Sent you a PM on FB messenger.

 

[jbmatth]

There are a couple of Gambler 500 events coming up in the next few months, one of them is the key swap so I needed something for that at least. What I found was this:

2007 Toyota Camry hybrid, heated leather seat, automatic, and already decorated. It was involved in a rear end collision that was previously "fixed":


First thing I wanted to work on was pulling the sheet metal back little to get more clearance for the rear tires, before:


After:



Not a huge difference, but much better, here is the setup I used to pull it out using the winch on Lever Action:


With the weather cooling down it is making it easier to get some work done outside, I trimmed some limbs and took down a dozen or so small trees. New burn pile is almost as big as the last one in this same location:


While I had the tractor out I decided to try to pull some vegetation out of the pond with the bucket, I went a little too far in and every attempt to get out made it worse so I stopped and got off of the tractor:

Yeah, that isn't what I had planned at all, I should have quite trying long before I got this deep into it. The mower is just there, I wasn't using it at all but didn't want to take it off. Anyway using the farm truck, Lever Action I hooked up to it with a winch, I had my wife hold the brakes and push the winch button while I was on the tractor trying to back it up. It came out but was a struggle for sure.

Besides the obvious lessons I also learned the way I mounted the winch bumper to L.A. wasn't the best plan. I used the stock bumper mount points rather than modifying the frame, those mount points were not meant for that much force to be applied in this manner:


You can see where the bracket is bent, a couple of bumps against a tree and it is back in shape:


I'll have to pull it off and rework the mounting and brackets, but will work for now. lots of learned lessons this weekend but did get quite a bit accomplished.

Keep moving forward,
JB

 

[nadogail]

Trees are used for changing the looks of cars; sometimes to advantage other times not so much.

 

[jbmatth]

Trees are used for changing the looks of cars; sometimes to advantage other times not so much.

That is one way to look at it, and I think I'll have to use that line in the future, thanks for that.

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

JB we used to use a backhoe and a tree/12" heavy wall pipe 30ish' in the ground and filled with cement to do frame work on vehicles

Getting a tractor stuck is a great learning experience, as is getting one unstuck.

Sometimes a higher gear and less throttle is your friend...but that one was STUCK. Did you try to use the bucket to push yourself backwards? Sometimes a curl and roll can get you moving in one direction or another.

 

[jbmatth]

JB we used to use a backhoe and a tree/12" heavy wall pipe 30ish' in the ground and filled with cement to do frame work on vehicles

Getting a tractor stuck is a great learning experience, as is getting one unstuck.

Sometimes a higher gear and less throttle is your friend...but that one was STUCK. Did you try to use the bucket to push yourself backwards? Sometimes a curl and roll can get you moving in one direction or another.

I'm just glad I didn't have to do any digging with a shovel, it was about as bad stuck as I've ever had anything. Luckily I wasn't up to the frame/axle so I still had hope. I did try to used the bucket, but wasn't able to get it out that way on this occasion. A couple minutes later I was partially stuck again, not nearly as bad and the bucket did the trick that time.

I'm just glad I didn't have to resort to chaining a giant log to the tire to get it out like some clips I've seen online. Also a great part of having the mower on the back is I didn't even get my feet wet.

JB

 

[Grizz1963]

All of this report made me smile.

Especially correcting the front end on LA.

Result !!

 

[jbmatth]

All of this report made me smile.

Especially correcting the front end on LA.

Result !!

Lots of work and correcting mistakes, it was a pretty successful weekend all around. I'm glad I could return to work and recover a bit, I'm beat now.

JB

 

[Grizz1963]

I want to post the Camry on Retrorides.

is that acceptable

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Hmmm - seems like you might have killed 2 birds with one stone if you had hooked the back of the demo derby car to the tractor to tow it out!

 

[jbmatth]

I want to post the Camry on Retrorides.

is that acceptable

By all means, share away.

Hmmm - seems like you might have killed 2 birds with one stone if you had hooked the back of the demo derby car to the tractor to tow it out!

Haha that would have been a sight to see, if only I had one more driver available, well the older daughter is tall enough to reach the pedals and would be tied off so couldn't really hit anything. lol

JB