[TBigLug]

Here’s a shot of the lettering Heather did on the side.

And here’s a shot of the unfinished rear. First new SMV sign we’ve had in 10 years! The other horse shoe was drying and the snaffle was in the dog’s mouth! lol

Here it is finished.

[TBigLug]

I put on a short rear standard. It’s only 4′ tall but works plenty good for a people mover. I also capped off the sides with 2×6’s. I think it gives it a cleaner look than seeing the ends of the 4×4’s.

[TBigLug]

I got the deck screwed down. Next time I do this though I’ll build some pipe clamps so I can dra the boards together so I can eliminate the gap between them. Lowe’s doesn’t sell 14’ers so I had to rip down the 16’s.

[TBigLug]

Here’s the eveners and neck yoke after paint.

[TBigLug]

Here’s a shot of the new ash tongue we picked up, all painted up and ready to go.

Here’s the new 42″ neck yoke, tongue hardware set and a used set of eveners before they got painted.

[TBigLug]

Here’s a walkaround of it after I got the main beams together and painted and the 4×4’s mocked up. BTW, all the lumber was painted on all four sides before assembly (minus the inside of the beams that were glued together).

[TBigLug]

Well after stripping the running gear down and throwing two coats of John Deere Green on it was off to Lowe’s for a load of lumber. Lumber needed…

4- 2x10x16′
5- 4x4x8
17- 2x6x16′
7- 2x4x8′

Every stitch of it is treated for long durability.

I built the main beams by gluing two 2×12’s together, deck screwing them every two feet and bolting the braces through them. Here’s the braces after a coat of paint. They’re 2″ angle iron, about 3/8″ thick 11″ long. Can you guess by the brand placement what type of paint I was using?

[TBigLug]

@cousin jack 11557 wrote:

Great stuff, keep them coming, How many dogs and cats do you have, there seems to be a different one in each picture 🙂

Let’s see, 12 cats, 2 dogs. All uber friendly and forever underfoot!

[TBigLug]

I discovered why the tongue wasn’t going up and down. The bolt that it pivots on was seized up tighter than a drum. Once we got the little lock bolt out, applied a HUGE amount of heat to it and used several 36″ pipe wrenches to pull the bolt out, I wire wheeled it down, applied a liberal coating of anti-seize to it and it worked out great.

So now, at the end of day one, this is how she sat. Miserable still, but stripped of her parts! More tomorrow.

[TBigLug]

And the tires, did I mention the tires!!!

So, being the proper redneck I am, out comes the BOBCAT!!! Little jostle here, little lift there and she’s ready to give up her deck.

Now, manhandle off the old saggy beams and crosspieces and we’re ready to get to work.

[TBigLug]

[TBigLug]

Here’s what we started with, an OLD John Deere running gear with a decrepid old flatbed rack on it. We bought it years ago because it had a really nice gravity box on it. Once the box went on a differant running gear this poor little wagon just sat in the treeline. It always steered great even though it hadn’t been greased in decades. The tongue never did go up and down so that needed some attention.

[TBigLug]

Wow, I just got done reading this topic and it took a turn for the intense there towards the end. I learned alot from everyone’s back and forth debate though. Man I love this place.

Anyways, returning to the original post.

I currently live in a lifestyle that is one foot off the grid and one foot on. My g/f and I live in a camper at my grandfathers farm. As such, our heat, refrigerator, stove and hot water are all propane. All of our lights are 12V. The only 120V appliances we have are the microwave and AC. We have the option of electric hot water but we don’t use it. I had to laugh because of an earlier post someone made about not wanting to unplug the microwave everyday. Ours is actually on a switch so it either powers the microwave, water heater or OFF. The two 12V batteries that power the furnace blower and lights are charged by an inverter. Now, in a perfect world I’d love to have the entire roof coated with solar panels to keep our batteries charged and install an inverter for occasional use of the television and computer but I just don’t posess that kind of income right now. Maybe someday. As far as the farm goes, our biggest contribution is by trying to use the horses to rake as much hay ad plow as much ground as possible.

[TBigLug]

What area of the country are you in? 10 cuttings a year seem pretty extreme. We get 3 at best in MI.

[TBigLug]

Just wanteds to put up a reminder for the people who are gonna be around the area!

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