Saturday, October 24, 2009

Tractor's giving me fits

10/24/09 Saturday
Having trouble with the tractor. Been out running the disc and things were fine but all of a sudden it doesn’t want to pull well. The rear tire on the left spins and digs a hole. I’ve tried this and that but to no avail. Here’s where having no background with tractors at all becomes a problem. There are all kinds of adjustments to turn and move but I don’t have a clue what they do, or even if I do I don’t know if that’s needed. So it’s frustrating to say the least. I’m halfway through and everything has been fine till now. I greased all the bearings again but everything was spinning just fine. There’s something called a “Draft control” on the tractor next to the control that lifts the three point hitch. What’s a draft control? Do I need it?

I’m tired. Been on the tractor for about five hours. Just want to take a nap but won’t. There’s five gallons of gas, well a lot less now, but I want to run it till it runs out of gas because otherwise it all leaks out anyway. And I hate to waste. So came in to grab a drink and think this through as I write. Thinking’s done and haven’t figured anything out. This laptops bothering me. It’s been turning itself on by itself. Ran spyware but haven’t found anything.
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I went out to take some pictures and saw that the bucket was full of dirt on the tractor. That made me feel pretty dumb. I’ve been fighting this tractor for hours wondering why the rear wheels no longer got traction and would just spin. You can’t see the inside of the bucket when you’re driving it so I had no idea it was full. There’s a few hundred pounds of dirt there that lightens up the rear of the tractor. So odds are that was the source of my problem, at least I hope so. It’s dark out now so I’ll have to find out tomorrow after church. Tomorrow will be a busy day. There’s a presentation on radical Islam at the church tomorrow night that we definitely want to attend.

Had a busy day today too. Ran to the farmers market to pay for the other disc we are getting. On the way home I got a call from the old man. His wife called to let him know about a fair amount of firewood that was being given away. She knows we heat the house with wood so wanted to let us know about it. I went on home to grab a pair of gloves and let Cherie know about it. She went with me to get the wood. There’s a lot of it but some of it is in pretty bad shape having been out in the weather for years. It’s all elm wood, which isn’t the best wood for a wood burner as it smells bad and causes a lot of creosote buildup in the chimney, but it burns and makes heat. So we loaded up Cherie’s truck with the wood. It’s so nice when people do things like that, simple things like remember we heat with wood and give us a call when they see some we can have.

There was a great sunset tonight. Took a bunch of pictures. The hard part is deciding which one to post. So here’s the winner.

7 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Hello Bob,

I wanted to thank you for your kind comment on my page :)

I enjoyed looking at your pages and your story. I think you should think about writing a book. :)

Many blessings to you from Ohio!

God bless!!

Bob Westbrook said...

Thanks Elizabeth. Take care of that little baby you're carrying. We pray for your husband too. (He's a soldier, who's stationed overseas I think. Not totally clear. visited her blog and was touched by it)

Amy E said...

Good idea about the bucket full of dirt. My FIL recommended putting weights on the back by using cinder blocks or taking bags of cement, wetting them down, and letting them dry, then placing in the middle of the disc. Supposed to help with traction. Of course getting rid of the weight of the dirt in the bucket might help. ;-)

Nate~ said...

putting weight on the disc wont give traction, it will make it harder to pull thus complicating his problem, any weight that you put on the tractor needs to be over the rear wheels.

also the draft controls the amount of travel up and down the 3 point will travel, there should be a different lever for raising and lowering the disc, the draft can be used to control the depth of the disc

Bob Westbrook said...

Thanks Nate. Wondered about that but am not sure if the draft control works at all so I'll play with it and see. Emptying the dirt out of the bucket did the trick. I just didn't know it was full at all for hours as I struggled with the thing till I had my "DUH" moment.

Amy E said...

I'm not a farmer by any means ;-) but I generally accept what my FIL tells me he's been a farmer for 70 years..., but whatever works to get the tractor going...

it was cold here today all day and started raining in the early a.m., before it was light..we received 3 1/2 inches of rain today

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