[Mark Cowdrey]

Let me be the first to correct my spelling: “Displayed”. Oops.

[Mark Cowdrey]

Donn,

Does adding the dolly wheel make the whole rig longer? How is it on roughish ground & hills?

Thanks,
Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

I use a ring in the buckle. I actually have it under the loop of the main line that goes through the buckle so it is held snuggly in place.

Although it does not directly address this issue, using a butt rope helps keep the horses walking up together, reducing the risk of a buckle passing through.

Donn, I know a fellow who has a set of those long cross checks & they drive me crazy. They are forever getting down around the butt when I try to use them. Just my perspective.

Larry, stop by if you ever get over Andover way.

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

Thanks all. Jean, check your private messages.

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

try this address:
http://www.howellfarm.org/

[Mark Cowdrey]

Are the lengths of the straps from the D-ring to the britchen the same on each side of the animal? How about the length of your pole straps? If not, the britchen could be being pulled around. Just a thought.

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

Can others see these photos? I get to a page but am not able to link to any photos. Using both Opera & Mozilla browsers.

Thanks for any help.

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

I went out to Indiana as a vendor, demo-ing & pitching my PiggyBack FireWood Arch. Everyone I dealt with was helpful & supportive, particularly Equipment organizer Ben Graber and the announcer & teamster for the logging demos. As I understand it, for whatever reason other arch manufacturers were not able to attend. The folks running the “logging” demos did the best they could to fill in with the material they had. The lack of other arches gave quite a bit of focus to mine, which went well I believe, even though I would have preferred to have seen it demonstrated in a comparative situation.

All of the folks at Pioneer were very helpful, letting me use 2 of their forecarts to demo & showcase my arch.

I got a lot of positive feedback but brought home the three I hauled out. I’m not sure where I will go with it from here. I may yet get some orders out of the exposure I got last weekend.

I was fortunate to be set up in the booth adjacent to Doc Hammill’s and enjoyed visiting with him & his associates. I saw part of his second round pen session with a young mare and was impressed at the way he proceeded at the pace he thought was beneficial to the horse regardless of the clock.

It is unfortunate that we got washed out most of Saturday, but all of us involved with APFD know that issue.

One of the most impressive pieces of equipment was an advanced prototype of a new ground drive PTO forecart by I&J. This is heavier & was demo-ed with a 9′ haybine. The four horses (good sized Belgians)on it were working but not excessively. The power transmission started essentially immediately when the cart did. Projected price $3800. Very impressive. The 4 horse power by Athens with a rope & pulley wiffle-tree set up was also well thought out, designed & executed. They also had several one horse powers set up operating a variety of machines.

All in all it was a good trip. Next year will be in Topeka, Indiana, a little east of South Bend.

[Mark Cowdrey]

I had no idea they made a High Gear #7.

[Mark Cowdrey]

Congrats George.

Is your baler PTO driven? Is your Kubota in the 30HP range? I wonder if your day1 /day2 difference was loosing just that much of the edge off your knives?

I hope to begin my first effort around the first of July. Still no rake or tedder (BTW).

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

The too generalized but helpful to me rule of thumb for conditioning: You shouldn’t be able to see the ribs but you should be able to easily feel them when you run your hand along the horses side. That said, my horses are usually a little thinner than that. I try to void “dishing” in the rump. I rotationally graze my horses (ideally 2 hours twice a day) when i have grass & it does wonders for their condition.

[Mark Cowdrey]

George,
I went at it from the bottom. To get access you neeed to remove the height adjusting feet or skid plates or shoes or whatever they are called. Center punch the rivets and carefully drill out w incrementally bigger bits. Ideally you will just have to drill off the head or peening and then drive out the rivet shaft w a straight punch. If it is seized, you may have to drill the shaft some to relieve some pressure. be careful because I rarely manage to drill the exact center so you risk distorting your hole. I messed mine up a little & it was still OK.

Good Luck.

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

George,
When I rebuilt my cutter bar I replaced the knives I believe you are referring to, located on the “inner shoe” and the “outer shoe”. Instead of using rivets to hold the knew ones in, I went to the hardware & got 28 or 32 gauge machine screws w flat heads & tapered shoulders, configured like what I know as a “stove bolt”. I put them on W self locking nuts. That way, regardless of what you use to shim (lead or aluminum flashing come to mind as possibilities), if you don’t get it the way you want it the first try, its not too big a production to make an adjustment.
Good luck, let us know how that fancy system works!

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

If I am tooting my own horn in a way that bothers anyone I apologize. Thanks for your comments Jason.

I started skidding logs W a Pioneer forecart, dragging them on the ground behind, and I knew there had to be a better way. I went to a Forest Mfg Arch, which was well built & effective but had the mount/dismount & high center of gravity issues already mentioned by Carl & others. I saw Les’ cart with its ease of entry, tool storage, evener on a horizontal line w/ choker hitch points, no moving parts & effective log hitching arrangement, and knew he was onto something. (And yes you can cradle hitch a log on it.)

The Piggyback FireWood Arch I came up with mounts directly to a Pioneer forecart, with pole or shaves. In deep snow, the forecart can be fitted with skis so you can still back up to a log. The Arch can be made to work on any flat deck forecart. It addresses all of the pertinent issues mentioned above. The tool storage is more limited than the Barden cart. My idea was that if you already have a fore cart, buying the Barden cart was somewhat redundant. If you don’t already have a forecart, go with the Barden cart & you have an excellent multi-purpose tool.

As always, I am happy to hear anyone’s comments or critiques.

Respectfully,

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

Taycook,

I don’t know if what I have would work for you, but you can check it out on my website if you want. http://www.raggedviewfarm.com.
Let me know if you have any questions.

Mark

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