Making it through another year '21-'23

[bitternut]

Happy Birthday young fella. We survived the past year so the future should be easier. Keep grinning and plodding along, it will keep you young for a long time.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well first, thanks, I am truly overwhelmed with all the responses. I never anticipated that for sure. Our flag pole is down for painting otherwise I would have had the Norwegian flag flying today, that means as much or more to me than my birthday which is just a reminder of aging. None the less, good wishes from friends always gives one fuel, does it not? So thank you all.
 Funny how a day can go along and change quickly, this time it was my own fault. I mentioned just last night on the other thread that adding a boom crane to the trailer might be a helpful idea, but would be down the road. Even when I started this thread this morning it was a back burner thing. But I thunk on it some more and decided to take the plunge. We ran up to Harbor freight and picked one up that I checked out. Now I read most of the reviews on this one and attributed the major complaints to operator error and a lack of basic engineering knowledge during install. I looked at videos and even saw the results, but all problems were related to getting it installed solid, not in sheet metal of flimsy frame parts. I decided to take the plunge for $160 bucks. I have made bigger mistakes, besides, I have a welder.
 So we got it home by 1:30 and it took me about 2.5 hours to install (it was hot in the sun). I drilled through the outside rail for two screws and caught a full length cross rail for the third and the forth is just through wood and the supplied angle iron. Looks like this on top. I added a piece of 7/4 RO underneath to spread the load out and squeezed it between the supplied angle iron and the deck. This, I hoped, would spread the load. It did.


 

Looks like this underneath. 


 

Then I gave it a test. First with one log.



 

 then with 3 firewood logs.



 

Ugly install, no trimming or cleaning up. I am thinking I will yank this off here and use it on the new trailer when that day comes so I didn't want to start cutting things yet. Note in that last photo that the crane column is at full load for those logs and is still dead square to the bed. Also the boom is at full extent. The bed flexes before the crane does. I should add a drop jack on that corner the firm things up, but for now it just peachy. I am glad I made the decision and went ahead. I think this is going to make life a lot easier on my legs if I can get the rest of the process to comply with this system. The crane is rated for 1,000 pounds in the shortest boom position, 500 at the longest. No issues with the workmanship, but I didn't have time to look it over real well. The hand winch came with pre-frayed wire rope.  They did a lousy job spooling it and I pulled it all out and started over with a tighter lay. I believe this thing is strong enough to drag 12" and under logs up on the trailer too. All in all I am pretty dang happy with it. I also got some 6' double  eye slings so I can bundle and lift loads. I spent some time brainstorming with NYBHH this morning and looking at bundling options that won't break the bank. We came up with a couple. More work on that when I earn some cash.
 Gotta run because my daughter came over to cook us a birthday dinner, some kind of special pork chops, I'm told. It's a secret.
 All in all not a bad day. Thanks again for all the good wishes, they caught me off guard but set my day aright.
 Tomorrow I test load the mule to see how this all fits. I did make one mistake and meant to put the crane on the other side so Mule loading was easier. Tomorrow we find out just how much of a mistake I made.  It should be fine, but.....
 Anyway, that's for another day.

[Tacotodd]

And another one and another one....

Just hope that they go on as long as you do 😄

[Walnut Beast]

Happy Birthday 🎂 Hope your Birthday dinner is a good one 👍

[trimguy]

Happy birthday and hope your pork chops were awesome!!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well dinner was, as Trimguy said "AWESOME". I have never had pork chops like that, over an inch thick and as tender as could be! After dinner we had Birthday Apple pie (my preference) and ice cream. I was stuffed, still am, I think.
 After dinner I got a call from an old buddy who always calls me on my Birthday in recent years. He is a Luthier and part time musician. His business is busting out and has been for over a year and all the pros being stuck at home taking advantage of the time off to get repairs done, and the semi-pros doing the same or ordering new instruments. He gave up trying to keep up with the workload a long time ago and just plugs along as he can. ANyway we had a really nice chat for an hour or so about everything from the pandemic to wood selection, raising kids, the influx of city folks driving up land prices well beyond reasonable and the effect on our community. I haven't enjoyed a visit like that in a long time. I miss seeing them, and especially his little girl and is growing so fast and learning even faster. She's about 8 now, going on 15.   I finally hit the rack around 10:30. 

Today I will test load the Mule for fit, but I also have to screw down some flat bunks on the trailer so that when loaded I can get a strap under them for picking. The trick is to make sure that the bunk locations don't interfere with the Mule position on the trailer. I don't mind if the tire is on top of the bunk, but I do want to make sure it is either fully on, or fully off the bunk so it won't be on the corner and maybe move when it is not 'desired' or get jammed against the head rack or tailgate. I am just going to take some HW boards I had been culling from the lumber rack and cutting for firewood. Its a better use. Just a couple of deck screws should hold them in place. Then I really should get the lawn mowed and finally remove the barrier around the new grass and cut that. some of it is going to seed. I could rototill too, but I am not sure I am up for that yet. Supposed to be the warmest day so far this year (mid 70's) so I will play it by ear. Trying to rest the legs but get things ready. I also have that chimney repair to do and all the parts are here, so if it gets really hot I can do that in the cool(er) shop.
 Time to get at it.

[Cedarman]

Happy belated birthday Tom.  Enjoyed the read.  As Ross Perot once said, just do it. And you did.
I can tell you see life as a journey and are enjoying the trip.  Have another good year.

[Old Greenhorn]

......  As Ross Perot once said, just do it. And you did.
I can tell you see life as a journey and are enjoying the trip.  Have another good year.

Well, no doubt I tend to over think things like this because most of the time when you buy something like this and expect it to perform as advertised, you will be disappointed. I expect this to happen, and that is OK, IF one has time to correct and improve the issues with design corrections. In this case I did not want to add another project this week, but the research I did gave me a feeling it would work OK if I just added more support from the get-go. The function of the crane itself was another question but I watched a video of a guy using that unit to lift a V-6 from with ground onto his truck bed, with the engine stand attached. Except for his diamond plate bed flexing, he did it just fine and got 4' of lift with that little pump jack. SO I took a chance. I am very pleased with the way it works and it lifts much more than I really believed it would.
 But I am trying to run a business, or at least pretend to, so the cost has to be justified or else I am just playing with a new gadget. SO the cost of that gizmo, all in, is about 50 mushroom logs or 1/3 of my first trip. I know it's small potatoes but the point is if I watch the small stuff and make careful decisions, the big stuff never shows up. Again, this might seem like a lot of thought over a small thing, but I try to do that on everything, that is, relate it to how much work I have to do to pay for something, or more often, get it to pay for itself in productivity improvement. This should be saving a lot of wear and tear on my leg muscles and that has value in that I can work a longer day. Being able to use it for firewood unloading is a bonus I didn't expect. I will at some point need to add a drop jack on that one corner to reduce the twist load on the trailer frame, but that can wait for now. Maybe just put it on the next trailer. For under 200 bucks, this worked out pretty good and I remain surprised at my luck.
 Thank you for the good wishes. I hope the coming year brings us all better days, I think we have earned them.

[Ed_K]

 What a great birthday present   . I hauled a lot of 8' cordwood home for a couple yrs with the same setup tho mine was mounted to the front center of a 4' x 8' repurposed boat trailer. Next Sunday Rita will turn 67 and I get to call her an old lady   till end of June when I turn 68 and she goes back to being a spring chicky bab'e   . Hope you have another great day today too.

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   If permanent bunks are in the way why not just make slots/brackets out of angle iron or wood that your bunks (I assume something like 2X4 or 2X6) slip between, cut the bunk boards to length, stack them up and ratchet strap them down where convenient during transport then lay them in the predetermined slots when you want to use them.

   You know what is fun about your thread is we can all respond with totally insane suggestions that take lots of work and cost plenty of money and we never have to do any work or spend any money in the process.

[Old Greenhorn]

You know what is fun about your thread is we can all respond with totally insane suggestions that take lots of work and cost plenty of money and we never have to do any work or spend any money in the process.  

  Well, maybe for you..... but for me what's fun about this thread is that people get to throw out insane ideas  and they lead me into thinking of something useful that solves my issues and I can figure out a way to do it without spending lots of money. There is quite the brain trust here.
------------------
Now to the task at hand. This morning I pulled a bunch of junk boards off the rack, mostly live edge and cut up the bunks and laid them on the trailer about pretty much where they go. Then I tried to drive the Mule up. Tried. But that post and crane were impeding on the Mule just a little bit. Apparently when I did my measuring, I measured the distance between the outside of the tires. I didn't notice that the doors and cab are just a tiny bit wider, maybe an inch.
 So I reconsidered. I took the crane off the mast, that gave me 1/2" or so. Then I took another run at it and scooched the Mule as far to the left as I could. I got it on.  Still I was rubbing the crane mast on one side.


 
And it was pretty tight on the other side.


 
It fits, and I think on the next attempt I can get it tighter without the mast touching the window. But it fits and I can work with that. It is a 'bit' harrowing to drive it up there so I am not doing it on a whim more than i have to. A bigger trailer will make this a non-issue. I checked the bunk locations and they were all good except the one that the rear tires fell dead on. I don't want the Mule like that for transport, so I cut that one up. When I get on site and dismount the mule I can run the screws and for the sectioned pieces. So I screwed everything else down.


 
 So that's pretty much as ready as it is going to get. I did some other little odds and ends on the trailer and parked it. Had a client come by for a vacuum machine I fixed for him with the oil it needed so we loaded that in and it works just fine. He is happy. He wants to know when I can start working on his place.  Well, I dunno just yet.
 I checked in up north to see if we were on schedule for this Friday/Saturday and it turns out we have to put it off about another week because of unforeseen circumstances. No big deal, this is our life. Weather, machine breakdowns, they own us. I just made a call or two to try and pull in some of the other clients I had put off and it will work out. This is the nature of the business and we have to roll with it.  I wouldn't have it any other way. I have SO much stuff to do that even if it didn't work for my clients I could work my butt off here every day doing things that I really need to get done. It's all good and not even a hiccup.
 So I mowed the lawn and got that new grass cut for the first time and it looks better. My shop compressor blew the breaker hard yesterday and I just ignored it. Today I started looking into it, got the covers off and found the motor and pump turn freely. That's as far as I got. I'll get into it tomorrow. I still have the woodstove to refit and get that done. That's a days work right there. So I have plenty to do.
 Tomorrow is another day and I'll just keep pulggin' along.

[nybhh]

Great thing about dead ash for firewood is it makes procrastinating on that big stack of btus a lot more forgiving 😉

[samandothers]

Could you weld a plate on the side of the trailer to the rear of the fender well outside the bed and use a bottle jack under it for support?  It would need to be braced so when the load swings into the trailer it does not bend the crane into the bed.  This might put the mast/crane on the outside of the bed area and make more room.

[nybhh]

I think the obvious answer here is to buy a narrower UTV 

[doc henderson]

not sure of all the applications and reach, but in line with what NYBHH just suggested, one of the front corners would be well braced as well

[Tacotodd]

I think the obvious answer here is to buy a narrower UTV  

not sure of all the applications and reach, but in line with what NYBHH just suggested, one of the front corners would be well braced as well

Or both 🤔

[Old Greenhorn]

Geez, some 'interesting ideas' once again. Actually Sam may be onto to something, but I am not planning on having this trailer too long, so I will wait. I think I would use a swing down jack instead of a bottle jack, but same idea. Brandon, we can discuss your idea tomorrow.  Doc, I hope you were referring to Sam's idea, not NYBHH's idea. 

Well I had forgotten today was the monthly food shopping trip, so there went half the day. When we got home and got it all stowed I went out and dug into that compressor issue. Thought it was the pressure switch/relay and bypassed that to confirm the motor worked. It did not. Motor turns fine by hand, but blows the breaker in an instant. I think it is the starting cap, but I am not going any further. Its a craftsman 6HP/30 Gallon and I can buy the same unit working for $150, so I am not going to put a lot of effort in it. That thing is a noisy screamer and I hate it. I'll deal with a replacement later. But I do have an oldie and goodie that I have been meaning to get back to working, now that one is worth my time.



 

You don't see these around much anymore.



 
When I moved this over from my Dad's house it wasn't developing much more than 30PSI and I had no time to get into it then. Today was the day. I figured the valve in the head needed cleaning, so I pulled the head off and cleaned all the pieces the best I could, put it all back together carefully and started it back up. As soon as it got up to 35psi it was building air a lot slower, if at all. Everything seemed fine in the head area and how it sounded. I looked elsewhere and finally thought of checking the bleeder cock on the bottom. Sure enough, it was leaking, the screw pulling in the taper was loose and is was bubbling away. DUH! So I tightened that and it began to build air again! Went up to 110PSI and shut off (Dad was always conservative on pressure). Now this thing was never a speed demon building air, but it makes air and holds it. I let it sit 2 hours and it dropped 5psi. I am pretty happy with that, at least I have compressed air.
 I did notice one thing, while it was building air, there was a constant leak from a bleeder vent on the pressure switch. In the photo below, it is the little open line going from the switch off to the right.



 

 That is an open line and I assume it is a pressure let off in the switch, but should that be venting when it is making air? When the unit hits pressure and shuts off, that line no longer leaks. Does anybody know if it should leak air while running? Inquiring minds need to know.
 Anyway, this will fill the bill for now. I will keep my eyes open for a newer unit as I have time, but for now I can run a temp line from the shed where this lives over to the shop and just tie it into the circuit. That will include the tank on the dead compressor and give me a little more reserve. I don't think this one will keep up with the water pump on my tank, but time will tell. It is a HECK of a lot quieter and that's funny to me, because when I was a little kid, I thought this was the nosiest thing in town.
 In the middle of all the compressor work, my son showed up with a rented stump grinder on it's way back to the rental place, He thought he would grind up a couple of stumps on our front lawn I have been mowing around for 5 or more years.


 

He made quick work of it. When I finished the compressors I went out and raked everything out and picked all the rocks he ground up. Nice little machine, works well.
 It was hot today, it hit 85! I am not used to that, for sure. A few days ago I was wishing for 60. Tomorrow I am back in the woods and I am also using this extra time to think through more of the details on log handling during the harvest work. Think I will make a beam with an eye bolt and a 4x4 to lift the slung logs from the mule to the trailer with. Something to play with anyway.
 Tomorrows another day, I'll figure it out then, if I have time.

[doc henderson]

yup, I just peaked back down below, and did not go far enough.     maybe admin will move this to did something dumb today!

[trimguy]

It’s quieter because it’s in the other shed.

[doc henderson]

and you cannot hear crap after years in the trades/industry.