Howdy!

Dougster said:

Hey Jeremy - I'll be doing the sandblasting myself... and a quick test run last fall showed that the powdercoat could be removed... albeit with a lot of work, material and a resulting roughened surface of the bucket. I stopped further work until the reinforcement steel could all be added... but once again, you are the expert here and I trust your judgement! If you tell me not to sandblast and to simply paint over the powdercoat, I shall do so!

Dougster

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You can do either really. For the sake of rust protection, u might be better off leaving the powder on. Liquid will never stay on like powder whether you blast or not. We shoot liquid over the powder for touch up. I would rough up the powder and shoot the liquid over it and save yourself some headache.

Bindian said:

Dougster,
When you or someone else welds the bucket stiffers on, have your paint ready to spray on the hot/warm metal so the paint can bake on.
hugs, Brandi

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Cool idea... but probably not practical unless I find a powerful enough MIG welder than I can BOTH afford and use without outright embarrassing results! Otherwise, it's gonna be a case of "Pay the old retired welder two towns over" and paint it once I can get it back home.

Dougster

rback33 said:

I would rough up the powder and shoot the liquid over it and save yourself some headache.

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Sounds like a plan! I really don't care if the paint comes off. I mean... it's gonna anyway. Rustoleum is cheap and very fast to go on after a quick pressurewash and drip-drying. I've already done that several times on my grapple, CAT digging bucket and the 78" KMW HD bucket.

It ain't exactly the Bill6 Standard... but it's good enough for my purposes.

Dougster

One of the things that I don't understand about you guys that give us who keep our tractors clean is why don't you understand? I assume that you all like to drive a nice clean and shiny new car or truck? Not saying weather you do or not, but how many of us would go to a new car lot and buy a vehicle covered in dirt and mud? None of us , especially at 20-50k. We all enjoy driving a new clean vehicle. So why not try to keep your vehicle or tractor in that condition? Now I'm not saying to keep to the Bill6 Standard, just clean. I don't get new stuff all that often, and I work hard for the money that they cost and keep most a minimum of 10 years. Why in the world would I not take care of it? Now I know that you can keep something in good mechanical condition without keeping it in good looking shape, but why would you only go half way in maintaining something?

My everyday truck is 20 years old and I continually have people that are not truck people ask me how I like my truck. As if it was a newer one, because it looks new to them. My 7520 cost me a lot of money, I don't baby it, it is scratched up in a bad way, the paint is scraped off of my attachments and implements and I do not or should I say have not re-painted them since I started to use them, but I keep them washed clean and I wash and dry the tractor. Heck, sometimes I will wash the tractor just before I go and use it, just because I prefer to look out over a clean hood and fenders. A few months ago I unloaded some stuff for a neighbor down the road from me. I was asked when did I get a new tractor? I asked "how old do you think it is?", and the response was, "maybe a year old, looks new to me." Does that make me odd, maybe, but I have good clean equipment that I am proud of.

My brother is the same way MtnViewRanch. He's always washing his car, truck or tractor.
Nothing wrong with that. As for buying new of course I want it new and shiny. I buy my tennis shoes new and clean also. But I truely hate really clean white tennis shoes. I feel much better once they are broken in a bit and a little dirty. Not mud from heel to toe, but not bright white either.

That's how I like my tractor to. Shiny is okay, but I've never washed it before going out and working it. I wash it once sometimes twice a year. Unless I get stuck in a muddy mess then I clean her as soon as we get back to the pole barn. Maybe I should have cleaned it up before the pic I use for my avatar ... but honestly, that is how I like it. A little dusty but none the worse for the wear. Both ways work. Different strokes for different folks. Cheers:

MtnViewRanch said:

One of the things that I don't understand about you guys that give us who keep our tractors clean is why don't you understand? I assume that you all like to drive a nice clean and shiny new car or truck? Not saying weather you do or not, but how many of us would go to a new car lot and buy a vehicle covered in dirt and mud? None of us , especially at 20-50k. We all enjoy driving a new clean vehicle. So why not try to keep your vehicle or tractor in that condition? Now I'm not saying to keep to the Bill6 Standard, just clean. I don't get new stuff all that often, and I work hard for the money that they cost and keep most a minimum of 10 years. Why in the world would I not take care of it? Now I know that you can keep something in good mechanical condition without keeping it in good looking shape, but why would you only go half way in maintaining something?

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Well said Brian!!! The Bill6 Standard may be unachievable in a practical sense for most of us, but it does show us all what is possible. If I could, I'd pressure-wash my machine every evening after work... or, alternatively, every morning before I start work. I certainly do wash, dry and grease it every time that it returns home before it goes back into it's garage bay. I touch-up scratches so that they don't rust and spray paint my buckets unless that particular bucket is going right back out on another job. I do the same with my trailers.

My concern is not just corrosion and the detrimental effects of dirt & dust. My truck & tractor are my business and I believe it pays to keep my equipment looking and operating as good as reasonably possible.

Dougster

Doc said:

A little dusty but none the worse for the wear. Both ways work. Different strokes for different folks. Cheers:

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I agree 100%, I don't care if anybody else has a dirty tractor, that's their doing. I just don't get some people that do not keep their machine clean, yet obsess with those of us that do.

Rustoleum is cheap and very fast to go on after a quick pressurewash and drip-drying

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Brandi
And then the Dougster takes pictures.

One of the things that I don't understand about you guys that give us who keep our tractors clean is why don't you understand? I assume that you all like to drive a nice clean and shiny new car or truck? Not saying weather you do or not, but how many of us would go to a new car lot and buy a vehicle covered in dirt and mud? None of us , especially at 20-50k. We all enjoy driving a new clean vehicle. So why not try to keep your vehicle or tractor in that condition?

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Brian

I too like a clean tractor and it gets washed often but I stop at the bucket. Buckets go into the dirt. Dirt is dirty so buckets get dirty. This happens almost every time the tractor comes out of the garage... where I might add, it lives. I have a two bay garage. The wife's car gets one bay , the tractor gets the other bay and my truck lives outdoors.
The way it should be

Note clean tractor - dirty bucket




However, I now feel I must rethink my thinking.

Doc said:

My brother is the same way MtnViewRanch. He's always washing his car, truck or tractor.
Nothing wrong with that. As for buying new of course I want it new and shiny. I buy my tennis shoes new and clean also. But I truely hate really clean white tennis shoes. I feel much better once they are broken in a bit and a little dirty. Not mud from heel to toe, but not bright white either.

That's how I like my tractor to. Shiny is okay, but I've never washed it before going out and working it. I wash it once sometimes twice a year. Unless I get stuck in a muddy mess then I clean her as soon as we get back to the pole barn. Maybe I should have cleaned it up before the pic I use for my avatar ... but honestly, that is how I like it. A little dusty but none the worse for the wear. Both ways work. Different strokes for different folks. Cheers:

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Well said Doc.

That is exactly the life my tractor lives. Most of the time it looks really good, maybe a little dust, but good.
But then, most of the time it only mows and snow blows.

But sometimes it becomes a real tractor and plows and harrows and works in the dirt. On those occasions it gets washed after a hard day.

GreenMtns said:

And then the Dougster takes pictures.

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Well... yes! It's true! Why take pictures when everything's a mess???

Folks have occasionally criticized me for not taking enough deep-in-the-mud "action shots" of my work... but almost all of that work occurs on other people's property, usually while they are participating or at least looking on. Folks today don't like paying you umpteen dollars an hour to take pictures of: a) your equipment OR b) their homes, property and projects-in-progress... especially when they figure that many of those pix could end up on the Internet. Personal privacy is apparently considered very cool these days.

So yes... many clean pix... very few filthy dirty pix.

Dougster

Dougster said:

Okay... but don't say I didn't warn you!!! That will be a meeting I'd pay money to see!!!

Dougster

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In your dreams. I guess I could load her up and take her down to the detailers! I pamper the truck with that once in a blue moon.
hugs, Brandi

Dougster said:

Cool idea... but probably not practical unless I find a powerful enough MIG welder than I can BOTH afford and use without outright embarrassing results! Otherwise, it's gonna be a case of "Pay the old retired welder two towns over" and paint it once I can get it back home.

Dougster

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Dougster,
Take your spray bombs with you to the welding shop. You might feel silly doing it there. You can always take it home and warm it up and paint it when you are ready. But get a coat on right after welding to beat the rust. Also, do like we do on an aircraft if it is not stripped before painting. Clean it real good, sand it enough just to rough up the paint. Tack it off and paint.
hugs, Brandi

Bindian said:

In your dreams. I guess I could load her up and take her down to the detailers! I pamper the truck with that once in a blue moon.
hugs, Brandi

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Nah... but I do hope you get a lot of pictures while out there at the World Ag Expo! Be sure to take your camera!!!

Bindian said:

Dougster,
Take your spray bombs with you to the welding shop. You might feel silly doing it there. You can always take it home and warm it up and paint it when you are ready. But get a coat on right after welding to beat the rust. Also, do like we do on an aircraft if it is not stripped before painting. Clean it real good, sand it enough just to rough up the paint. Tack it off and paint.
hugs, Brandi

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I'll talk to the old man and see what he says. He works in the back of his son's hardware store. It is not exactly a customer-friendly location... but who knows? Ya don't know unless you ask!

Dougster

I like my tractor to be clean afterwards, but I'm not afraid to take "TANK" in the mud either. As I said in an earlier post, my pressure washer is on the brink. I've ordered a carb kit for it. All I have to rinse off my tractor with is a hose. Having water supplied by a well, my water pressure is not very strong on red clay. So after a long day on Tank, sometimes this is how "he" sleeps.......

Mud

Dougster said:

Brandi - I just re-read the rules and I do not believe that your bucket conforms to the Bill6 Standard of Excellence in tractor care and maintenance!

You may wish to reconsider your position before you meet him in person at the 41st annual World Ag Expo in Tulare!

Dougster

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Dougster,
Here is my bucket before the rinse off. The black areas are soot from working burn piles. Notice the shiny cutting edge. The top of the loader bucket shows how much it bowed working large logs and stumps on the burn pile. I will have to take the reciever hitch off and do the "MtnViewRanch" mod of adding a 3/8 X 2 X 2 X 82 angle on top and 3/8" side plates. The BH bucket is showing a lot of shine on the side, as are the teeth. The thumb could use a coat of black and new Bradco placards, as they are starting to look ragged. The lite colored scuffs on the boom where caused by pinning stumps up against the boom by the bucket and carried to the burn pile. As you may also notice, that photo ham, Booger, got his mug in the photo. The third photo shows how I can wash the mud off of the bottom of the tires. That one has always stumped me.
hugs, Brandi

Brandi:

Thanks for the pictures, I like the looks of a well used tractor. Now I have another reason to justify the purchase of a backhoe. Dogs always have a way of getting in the picture . I believe Samantha was commenting on my plow job. Jay

MUDONTHETIRES said:

I like my tractor to be clean afterwards, but I'm not afraid to take "TANK" in the mud either. As I said in an earlier post, my pressure washer is on the brink. I've ordered a carb kit for it. All I have to rinse off my tractor with is a hose. Having water supplied by a well, my water pressure is not very strong on red clay. So after a long day on Tank, sometimes this is how "he" sleeps.......

Mud

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I do not believe that conforms to the Bill6 Standard, but maybe you can apply for a temporary waiver based on the broken pressure washer.

Dougster

Bindian said:

The third photo shows how I can wash the mud off of the bottom of the tires. That one has always stumped me.
hugs, Brandi

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Consult your Bill6 Service Bulletin. I believe the correct method is to remove each of your wheels and tires (one or two at a time) for a complete off-tractor wash and waxing/ArmorAll of both sides!

And that bowed bucket has definitely got to go! Consult your local CAT dealer for something that won't bend like spaghetti the first time you use it!

And yes, that Bradco thumb ends up showing an awful lot of wear and tear VERY fast.

Dougster

Dougster said:

Consult your Bill6 Service Bulletin. I believe the correct method is to remove each of your wheels and tires (one or two at a time) for a complete off-tractor wash and waxing/ArmorAll of both sides!

And that bowed bucket has definitely got to go! Consult your local CAT dealer for something that won't bend like spaghetti the first time you use it!

And yes, that Bradco thumb ends up showing an awful lot of wear and tear VERY fast.

Dougster

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Dougster,
Well, taking the tires on and off is fine on little tractors like y'alls. If I could swing the BH around that far it would be easy for me too. At least I got the built in jacks already installed. I only take stuff apart when it doesn't work. Those tires are working fine right where they are. Cat bucket? If I had wanted a Cat, I would have bought a Caterpillar. Where is your BRAND loyalty? Ya gotta buy through Mahinra so my stock will go up.
Happy New Year hugs, Brandi

Bindian said:

Dougster,
Well, taking the tires on and off is fine on little tractors like y'alls. If I could swing the BH around that far it would be easy for me too. At least I got the built in jacks already installed. I only take stuff apart when it doesn't work. Those tires are working fine right where they are. Cat bucket? If I had wanted a Cat, I would have bought a Caterpillar. Where is your BRAND loyalty? Ya gotta buy through Mahinra so my stock will go up.
Happy New Year hugs, Brandi

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woo, woo, woo

You hit poor o'l Dougster HARD


He is probably out plowing snow right now.