OK, we are still here and in one piece. Been spending most of the time I am online lookin for work so I'd suffer internet burnout and never even get around to looking at the Bolt, nevermind posting. Kinda sucks as now I have months of posts to sift through for nice tidbits, see who's out there since I've been out fartin around!
It's been over 6 mos, but I have a job now, start next week. Gonna be workin as a Janitor on the Navy base near the house. Not the best pay, but I wont be blowing the difference in gas like with the other options I was lookin at.
In stovebolt related businessAs far as Tater goes, and the hauling business, it's been dead. Had a few calls from locals, but even tho I charge next to nothing they never seem to want to part with the money & never call back. I did nail down a trailer, a nice 6x16 dovetail with a drop gate, side rails, and a tool rack, made for hauling gear for lawn care really, but I can fit a decent sized tractor on it. Been lookin at a New Holland 4WD with a quick change bucket and a ripper with grapple for clearing and loading brush/branches. Just have to offload the house in CA and unscrew my credit,…
I did finally get a solid bite this last weekend, job was 40 miles away and involved moving a large pile of dirt a mere 4 mile round trip. I figured 10-15 loads (I was WAY off!). However,... 1 mile of the trip was a gravel/dirt driveway that averaged
30 degree incline, and was steeper than that in a couple places.
So yesterday I get up early and head to the site to start haulin at 8am. They had someone at the pickup site with a Cat 622 excavator that
loaded me in 3-3/4 scoops, so loading was fast. Longest part of the job was that durned hill! I took the 1st trip slowly and figured out all I could manage was 2-Low for most of the drive, with a couple stints in 2-Hi if I didn't miss a shift. I am glad I never got the bug to get a bigger engine, I think I’d have blown the gearbox or snapped an axle on this one.
I kept the box topped off until we got some drizzle and I started tearing up the driveway and slipping a bit, leaving off that last 3/4 scoop of dirt for 3 trips took care of that till it dried up a bit. All in all I made 22 trips up that hill with a heaped 5-yard box.
THAT was a serious amount of dirt!
Was a very long day for me, My leg was killin me from messin with the brake and throttle all the time, thankfully the clutch on Tater is smooth as butter tho. I made a couple hundred bucks off the deal, but after the fact I realized I should have added a fuel charge because I burned a LOT of gas goin up that hill 3 times an hour. Ah well, live & learn, have ta remember to factor that in when hauling uphill.
Now I need to get the truck into the shop and pull the right rear spring off and have the pins and U-bolts redone, it was flexing enough that the springs started to rotate out of the stack.
cant have that, not when I’m hauling max capacity up 30+ degree inclines on a hillside! Also need to adjust the brakes and eyeball the pads, might be time to reline the shoes. The bummer is I made less than half what the spring will cost, and I have no idea what the shoes are gonna run,… Fun times!
