Working the National 1300A

Bearings are a mess anymore, used to be a timken/ national/ Chicago rawhide, were all made here. Now it could be mexico, southeast asia, taiwan, china, maybe usa- you don't know until you get the box. Two of the same bearing may be two different countries.

And Theweldor is right- OEM is just whatever is available, with their markup.

The JD dealer used to claim JD got the best bearings and the 2nd's went to the bearing houses. Know another mechanic who used to work for a heavy equipment dealer. They got bearings locally but put them in OEM boxes to pass them off as coming from Italy.

Natman said:

typo, it will be 1/8", already have it rolled, and the pipe going thru it should stiffen it, keep it from collapsing. Hey, I'm making this up as I go! No rental yards here with crane buckets or anything else that'd work.

I do have to admit, though I have hauled a lot of concrete in 5 gallon buckets, and not that long ago, I was still surprised to see it weighs that much more then water. I would have guessed double, I think any shortcomings in the design can be solved by light enough loads 1/3 of a drum, 1/2 at most, beta testing will tell the story.

Hold on...a major math/ reading comprehension error: One cubic foot of water contains 7.48052 gallons. The weight of one cubic foot of water is 7.48052 gallons times 8.3453 pounds, which equals 62. I misread this earlier, and no one here caught it! So, concrete all in all, weighs around 2.4 times as much as water, the first way I stated it, it would weigh 17 times as much! That what I intuitively knew was off, and what I get for just googling the info, then mis reading it, instead of penciling it out myself. Garbage in and out.

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We did our little 3 yard pour today, and the mixer driver managed just barely to reach the holes, and the mud just barely flowed enough (a very low slump) down the almost level chute, to make my neat little 55 gallon drum concrete bucket look pretty dumb. This is a project I'm helping a neighbor with, at my cost, but also meaning I'm not driving the National up the mountain from town and back just for grins, NOBODY rides for free, so he will be getting billed, 30 bucks ought to cover my diesel. He still doesn't have a sense of what a clusterwonk it would have been if we had planned on the chute dumping working, meaning no crane bucket, and it didn't, now what? Another 1' further away, and another 4" in elevation difference, it wouldn't, it was that close, and the driver was already concerned about rolling over to the side slope he was dealing with. My neighbor, with no construction experience, against what I and other full time concrete guys told him, insisted a truck dump would work, and darn it he was right.

I hate it when someone that knows nothing gets lucky and there too dumb to know how lucky they were.

The Peej said:

I hate it when someone that knows nothing gets lucky and there too dumb to know how lucky they were.

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how do I double-super-like this comment?

I made a rack for the spool of new winch line. it went pretty slick. As we spooled the old one off, the guys said it looked pretty good. I told them I knew that, but at 8 K hours of use I wanted to replace it anyway, "just because." Got my annual inspection done at the same time, from this new Idaho offshoot of a big Utah crane inspection and service biz. I was having my inspections done by guys traveling hundreds of miles previously, and even then having to schedule with others to make it worth their while to make the drive. This new place is 1/4 mile down the road from my crane yard! The first time I saw their new sign as I driving by, I thought I was hallucinating, "that's too good to be true!" They will fill a big gap for me: someone not only for inspections but (hopefully not) major repairs, all within a few minutes walk instead of a hours long drive to the big city. In BS'ing with the service manager, he casually mentioned more things about my past 4 boom trucks, that I knew were true by my own experiences, that really made me feel like my rig is in good hands. I don't pretend to be a real mechanic, and am perfectly willing to pay others to do what needs to be done, so their presence almost within shouting distance is a major load off my mind.

You just about need another crane just to work on your own crane. We bought a yard crane primarily for that reason. Its pretty handy for working on other equipment without having to set up out 35 ton.

Their shop doesn't have a bridge crane or a yard crane, if I ever need to pull my entire boom off, I'll run down the road a mile to the big CAT equipment yard and rent their 15 ton (may be bigger) National boom truck for a couple hours or as long as needed, before I'd call any of my competition and give them the business! Being a big AG area, we have, besides CAT, a couple of good hydraulic hose shops also. CAT is always my last resort, as they are always very high dollar.

A cabin job on a mountain side overlooking the Palisades reservoir, which is fed by Yellowstone Park's lakes. The mountains around it are 10K +'. 3 hrs work, 5 hours driving!

Palisades was always my favorite part of heading home at the end of wheat harvest.

The kind of things I do on my days off, a dual pick of this 47' railroad signal tower I got for free as part of a recent job. I will sell it for a flag pole, is the idea. Once off the flatbed, and with the center of gravity determined, the mini X was able to walk off with it. I don't keep the National where I live, in case anyone was wondering.

I had a mountain top job Saturday, setting 3 high cube 40' containers on piers. The owner is going to make a vacation home out of them. 1200' above the valley floor, and invisible from any roads, the owner was quite surprised that I instantly knew the location and didn't need any directions to get there. My airstrip is 8 miles down the same ridge and I fly over this area often so once again the plane comes in handy.

A real windy day, 25-30+ mph, but what made it safe enough was the direction of the wind, more or less away from me as I was lifting. Plus, he had a small tractor and a mini X on site, which we used as a deadman to keep things under control. Just him, no other help, and the guy was a "tech engineer", whatever that means these days. At the end of the job I complimented him (I think), as he was as sharp to work with as any full time construction guy, especially with being short handed and with the wind. I never had more then 50' of stick out, and all in all it was a safe operation from what I could feel in the op seat.

This "boom truck" was built up by a crop duster buddy, to lift 500 pound bags of fertilizer up high enough to dump in the plane's hopper. Powered by the original power steering pump! Pretty ingenious.

Power steering pumps can do many things.
Neat old building, love old aviation buildings, and old planes. Only an hour away from where they have the annual Stearman fly in so go there about every year. Love the sound of those round motors!

Yes, the old sign work on the front of the hangar is pretty historically significant, and I have been keeping an eye on it. I would try and salvage it if the hangar fell down. I like home made lifting devices of any sort, this one takes advantage of the long bus chassis as a counter weight I guess!

Yesterday I get set up as the carpenters go behind the house to tool up. 10 minutes go by, and after I started getting bored I got out of the warm cab and went back to see what the holdup was. The genset wouldn't start, so no air compressor. "No problem" I told them, "I brought an air compressor with me." I of course was referring to the Mack's air system, and I have a air line fitting on one of my tanks, and I carry various reducers and bushings to adapt any of the commonly used fittings to it. A few minutes later and they were nailing away, when asked how the PSI was, I was told it was plenty good, as I knew from previous times I've done this, about 135. IF I was really feeling generous, I'd also get a 4 KW high quality inverter, to also supply a crew with plenty of juice, but that ain't going to happen. This was a crew I like, and I was happy to help out, and only added 5 bucks an hour to my bill. Kidding....

Natman said:

Yesterday I get set up as the carpenters go behind the house to tool up. 10 minutes go by, and after I started getting bored I got out of the warm cab and went back to see what the holdup was. The genset wouldn't start, so no air compressor. "No problem" I told them, "I brought an air compressor with me." I of course was referring to the Mack's air system, and I have a air line fitting on one of my tanks, and I carry various reducers and bushings to adapt any of the commonly used fittings to it. A few minutes later and they were nailing away, when asked how the PSI was, I was told it was plenty good, as I knew from previous times I've done this, about 135. IF I was really feeling generous, I'd also get a 4 KW high quality inverter, to also supply a crew with plenty of juice, but that ain't going to happen. This was a crew I like, and I was happy to help out, and only added 5 bucks an hour to my bill. Kidding....

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get that inverter you can 9.50

At one point, while I was still building, I had a remote for my 17 ton Terex, and would often be wearing my tool belt and the remote both, and also have a nailer gun in one hand. It also had a 2500 watt sine wave inverter, enough for a worm gear saw, plus the air setup. Kind of like a one man band! Then I wised up, and started doing nothing but boom truck work for others and after 30 some years, totally got out of pounding nails myself, now I just watch others do it.

I love having onboard air and a hose and chucks for my tires.

Monday morning, re-setting the trusses I put up Friday. A good crew, and we did have 50+ mph winds, so I charged them half price, and told them if I had to come back again, I'd charge them double my usual rate.