Saved a friend a Ton of Money

[bigcountrysg]

Well yesterday I went down to my buddies house. He has a small farm and cuts and bales hay.

Well he has not started yet. Kept telling me his rear main is leaking like crazy on his tractor.

So I head down there to his house and say alright man lets get your tractor running. Let's get your hay bine up and running. Let's start cutting hay. He is like my rear main is leaking. Dude we will get it taken care of but we need to get cutting hay.

So we get the tractor fired up running for about 5 minutes and then the oil started leaking. I start looking around and what do I find. Well I noticed the oil pressure gauge does not work. I notice the oil is leaking way to high for it to be a rear main. So I climb down off the tractor and start poking my head around near the engine. What I find is the line for the oil pressure gauge pouring oil out.

So we run up to napa. Get a 50 cent plug actually got two because we didn't know what size he needed. But one of the plugs we got was the correct size. Installed the plug. No more oil leak, hooked the tractor up to the hay bine. Get out into the field and get about half of it cut. Then the belt on the hay bine started slipping. My buddy as smart as he is. Said it will be ok I will finish this half of the field. DUDE wait a minute. Your willing to risk your money maker hay bine. Over what a 50 dollar belt ( I don't know how much the belt costs but I know it is less then other parts). So I talk him into getting the hay bine up to the barn. Then we get to working on the baler.

He says I wish this baler was up and running it is the best one I got. I asked what is wrong with it. He tells me the needles broke. They are cast steel. Well I am not much for welding cast. I make a call to my buddy with the nextel. My buddy says bring them by and I will see what I can do. I ask for a cost. He says no cost, take them to my buddy. He says he will take them to work and tig them.

These needles cost about 250 dollars each. He needs two of them. So I just saved my buddy 500 dollars, plus the cost of doing a rear main on the tractor, plus causing more damage to his hay bine.

I really hate to see things done half ***ed. Which this buddy does frequently. He has this mantallity to just run it till it don't work at all. Instead of fixing a simple problem. I mean today he can run up to TSC get a new belt for the hay bine finish cutting his field. Then on monday I can get his needles for the baler back. Get that up and running. Then he will be able to bale hay by middle of the week.

The way I see it my buddy owes me a good deer hunting season on his property again this year.

[03-blue-Powerstroke]

Everytime you want to do something on the farm equipment breaks or it rains . We were trying to combine yesterday and the thermostat blew and spewed coolant everywhere. We just tore it out and ran it without it.

[bigcountrysg]

What were you pulling out of the field this time of year. The wheat around me is still green as grass. Looks to be a late harvest on the wheat around me. Usually pulling that out around July 4th.

I know what you mean about breaks and rain. But if you maintain your equipment it won't break as often.

My buddy, has me come down at least 3 times in the summer to fix something for him. I don't deal with hay equipment to much. But I know how to fix a broken item.

lucky for us we are pretty anal about maintence of the equipment. i am a strong believer of spending a penny today and save a dime tomorrow. we are possibly gonna be baleing hay today if it drys out enough, if not it will be on monday.

[bigcountrysg]

Originally Posted by wriott

lucky for us we are pretty anal about maintence of the equipment. i am a strong believer of spending a penny today and save a dime tomorrow. we are possibly gonna be baleing hay today if it drys out enough, if not it will be on monday.

Get out there and rake it. Which is another thing I have to look at. Is my buddy's hay rakes he says they are broke too. I will take a look at them maybe today when I get off work. Or I will tomorrow when I pick up the parts for his baler.

ohhh its been raked and sprayed with acid, our alfalfa fields are so thick that they are slow drying, besides i wont bale them until its under 6% moisture

[bigcountrysg]

Originally Posted by wriott

ohhh its been raked and sprayed with acid, our alfalfa fields are so thick that they are slow drying, besides i wont bale them until its under 6% moisture

I see yeah barn burner hay is not good either.

[03-blue-Powerstroke]

Originally Posted by bigcountrysg

What were you pulling out of the field this time of year. The wheat around me is still green as grass. Looks to be a late harvest on the wheat around me. Usually pulling that out around July 4th.

I know what you mean about breaks and rain. But if you maintain your equipment it won't break as often.

My buddy, has me come down at least 3 times in the summer to fix something for him. I don't deal with hay equipment to much. But I know how to fix a broken item.

We were harvesting barley. We mix our own feed so we use it for the small heifers and the steers. The funny thing is though that that combine doesn't usually break. I guess the cummins isn't that great after all .

[JakeLewis79]

Originally Posted by bigcountrysg

The way I see it my buddy owes me a good deer hunting season on his property again this year.

Yeah, at the least, but you may need to fix the deer stand first. Sounds like you're a good friend to have around.

[bigcountrysg]

Originally Posted by JakeLewis79

Yeah, at the least, but you may need to fix the deer stand first. Sounds like you're a good friend to have around.

My treestand has been in the same tree on his property since 2004. I will be inspecting it this fall before I step on it.