This will be an interesting thread moving forward......

[Vetech63]

Ahh...the great horse adventure. Wife and daughters (and grandkids) are dying to have a horse and have bugged me for the last 2 years. I have been around horses but have never owned one..........my parents on the other hand, raised and sold paints for years after us kids left home, and I helped out some. ALOT of work in their operation. I made an agreement with the wife that they could try this for 6-12 months and if they can handle the load then I'm good. If not, they will go to the nearest glue factory (I did tell her that, but I was joking) ..........I actually have 2 horse sanctuaries near me that would take them because I checked first LOL. SO......we have 3 retired trail ride horses coming here in 2 weeks to live out their lives grazing on my lush prairie grass until they are no more. These horses are coming from friends of mine in the southern part of the state that own a ranch that offers trail rides through the Kiamichi mountains here. The horses are free and will be delivered here for free........so my only out of pocket has been for a site here on my property to keep them.

Everyone, except the men of the property here, seems extremely excited......us guys are "meh". I know there will be costs involved and I'm ok with that as long as the women here are doing 90% of the work. We will see how this goes. I don't have the time to do a lot with these and don't foresee that changing anytime soon.

Here is a pic of the stable this family has built together over the last 7-8 weekends. It's not quite finished in a few spots, but I will get those things done this next weekend. Not too bad for a bunch of amateurs huh!

Now I'm going back to work that actually pays the bills.

 

[AllDodge]

Looks good

 

[DMiller]

Does look good, where's the heater?

 

[hosspuller]

Some of my horse education over 35 years.
1. There is no free horse.
2. Hoof care is critical & expensive. Shoes are changed every 6-8 weeks. Even barefoot horses need to be trimmed.
3. Feeding a horse is expensive. Feed the wrong stuff, horse gets sick & dies. Feed too much of the right stuff, horse gets sick & dies.
4. Horses are suicidal. They will hurt themselves on anything. (do get post toppers on your tee posts. the sharp top will slice horse flesh like a knife. Avoid the vet bill.)
5. Proper fencing is critical. They like to scratch, push, & rub on stuff. Your fence can't stand up to 1000 pounds of stupid rubbing on it. Get an electric fencer to charge a line on top of the fence. Then teach the horse, the fence bites so stay away from it.
6. Horses are less expensive than psychotherapy or a divorce.
7. See # 1

 

[JD955SC]

Wife wants a horse I told her same thing my daddy told me when I wanted a horse: get a fourwheeler. Fourwheelers don’t get scared of their own shadow and buck you off and don’t require daily care nor vet bills

 

[mitch504]

fourwheelers don't eat except when you are riding them, either!

 

[Delmer]

Some of my horse education over 35 years.
1. There is no free horse.
2. Hoof care is critical & expensive. Shoes are changed every 6-8 weeks. Even barefoot horses need to be trimmed.
3. Feeding a horse is expensive. Feed the wrong stuff, horse gets sick & dies. Feed too much of the right stuff, horse gets sick & dies.
4. Horses are suicidal. They will hurt themselves on anything. (do get post toppers on your tee posts. the sharp top will slice horse flesh like a knife. Avoid the vet bill.)
5. Proper fencing is critical. They like to scratch, push, & rub on stuff. Your fence can't stand up to 1000 pounds of stupid rubbing on it. Get an electric fencer to charge a line on top of the fence. Then teach the horse, the fence bites so stay away from it.
6. Horses are less expensive than psychotherapy or a divorce.
7. See # 1

1. yes
2. enthusiastic women should be able to trim a horses hooves, if the horse is trouble, glue factory.
3. yes, tricky balance between all the nutrition ailments and too fat,although getting sick and dying isn't the worst outcome.
4. yes
5. yes, electric fences are wonderful, as every man knows, women, especially horsey women often disagree?
6. I don't know.
At least it sounds like these have come from a place that will hopefully have weeded out most of the most common problems. The best thing you can do for them is to keep them at the same level of consistent activity and everybody stays happy. Hard to keep three horses exercised for most people.

 

[AllDodge]

With 3 and enough room to run they will keep themselves exercised. Buddy has 3 retired race horses and they do fine. Electric fence is best, matter of fact that's all they have is 3 strain electrobraid

 

[Vetech63]

All good points fellas. I informed wifey and she can modify things if she desires. I had the old man call me yesterday wanting to know if I could do the repair on the CB64 with the burned-up eccentric. I told him I could, but I would need something from him first. The 30-day terms I have are normally ok, but with the volume of work that is thrown on me daily it's not working for me right now. I'm spending more than I am getting in return during the 30-day term and I am constantly playing keep up. He said he understood, uttered "Welcome to my world!", said "You know they call this extortion right!?" and a few other things we laughed about, and I told him if I could change those terms to 15 days it would help tremendously. He said He was on it, and within 45 minutes of that phone call, I had a check waiting on me for every invoice over 15 days out. Got to love the old timers.......they know what it takes to get things done and aren't afraid to do what it takes.

All kinds of equipment is showing up at the yard right now, most havent been here for who knows how long............mostly needing PM service. Alot of repairs are either started and waiting on parts.............or waiting to get started because it is waiting on me. With more showing up now....................it's overwhelming me at the moment. I got to get my second wind!

 

[DMiller]

Just don't drive yourself to exhaustion. REALLY Bad place to go visit, been there done that.

 

[Nige]

Got to love the old timers.......they know what it takes to get things done and aren't afraid to do what it takes.

I know what you mean. Had a customer at the last dealer that bought all his mining machines, so we’re talking $1-3m a copy and often multiple machines at the same time, on nothing more than a handshake. Great guy, I had a lot of time for him.

 

[Vetech63]

I managed to get their newest 160G serviced yesterday. It had almost 1600 hours since its last service and not all of them had dates or hours marked. The ones that were marked were all over the place and inconsistent. The bucket teeth were worn badly, and the shank tips were just starting to show through the bottom of the teeth...........so new teeth and retainers were installed. 3 of 5 I had to torch off since the retainer pin heads had been stripped off.
I was informed yesterday that 2 of their CB34B's are going to be replaced. I am waiting to see what Cat here is giving for a trade value. They are in pretty good shape at this moment so they may be some good buys. If you're looking for a compaction roller or 2 then....... I might be able to pick them up on the cheap!
I had one of the haul truck drivers show up in the shop yesterday because he couldn't get a 650J dozer to start that he was supposed to haul. I walked out and sure enough, all it did was spin over with no fuel out the stack. I went to a fuel filter and started pulling it to see if there was any fuel in it. When the seal on the filter broke, there was 15 seconds of air rushing into it..........sounded like someone inhaling their last breath of life. Tightened it back up, removed the fuel cap, spun the engine over for a few seconds and she fired right up. Clogged vent in the cap...............no telling how long this has been going on.

 

[Old Doug]

Ahh...the great horse adventure. Wife and daughters (and grandkids) are dying to have a horse and have bugged me for the last 2 years. I have been around horses but have never owned one..........my parents on the other hand, raised and sold paints for years after us kids left home, and I helped out some. ALOT of work in their operation. I made an agreement with the wife that they could try this for 6-12 months and if they can handle the load then I'm good. If not, they will go to the nearest glue factory (I did tell her that, but I was joking) ..........I actually have 2 horse sanctuaries near me that would take them because I checked first LOL. SO......we have 3 retired trail ride horses coming here in 2 weeks to live out their lives grazing on my lush prairie grass until they are no more. These horses are coming from friends of mine in the southern part of the state that own a ranch that offers trail rides through the Kiamichi mountains here. The horses are free and will be delivered here for free........so my only out of pocket has been for a site here on my property to keep them.

Everyone, except the men of the property here, seems extremely excited......us guys are "meh". I know there will be costs involved and I'm ok with that as long as the women here are doing 90% of the work. We will see how this goes. I don't have the time to do a lot with these and don't foresee that changing anytime soon.

Here is a pic of the stable this family has built together over the last 7-8 weekends. It's not quite finished in a few spots, but I will get those things done this next weekend. Not too bad for a bunch of amateurs huh!
View attachment 269348
Now I'm going back to work that actually pays the bills.

I feel bad for you i guess it could be worse maybe some how it will work out. On the good side it makes me think how lucky i am.

 

[joe--h]

Tightened it back up, removed the fuel cap, spun the engine over for a few seconds and she fired right up. Clogged vent in the cap...............no telling how long this has been going on.

If not for the haul driver would have gone on until it needed a starter.

Joe H

 

[JD955SC]

I managed to get their newest 160G serviced yesterday. It had almost 1600 hours since its last service and not all of them had dates or hours marked. The ones that were marked were all over the place and inconsistent. The bucket teeth were worn badly, and the shank tips were just starting to show through the bottom of the teeth...........so new teeth and retainers were installed. 3 of 5 I had to torch off since the retainer pin heads had been stripped off.
I was informed yesterday that 2 of their CB34B's are going to be replaced. I am waiting to see what Cat here is giving for a trade value. They are in pretty good shape at this moment so they may be some good buys. If you're looking for a compaction roller or 2 then....... I might be able to pick them up on the cheap!
I had one of the haul truck drivers show up in the shop yesterday because he couldn't get a 650J dozer to start that he was supposed to haul. I walked out and sure enough, all it did was spin over with no fuel out the stack. I went to a fuel filter and started pulling it to see if there was any fuel in it. When the seal on the filter broke, there was 15 seconds of air rushing into it..........sounded like someone inhaling their last breath of life. Tightened it back up, removed the fuel cap, spun the engine over for a few seconds and she fired right up. Clogged vent in the cap...............no telling how long this has been going on.

modern Cat machines have a replaceable little breather on the fuel cap that gets ignored by many or worse broken off and not replaced, letting water and debris into the tank.

 

[kshansen]

modern Cat machines have a replaceable little breather on the fuel cap that gets ignored by many or worse broken off and not replaced, letting water and debris into the tank.

 

[Vetech63]

I spent most of last week doing PM's on stuff that was showing up that hadn't seen the equipment yard in forever. Everything was 1200 hr + overdue of course. I'll be hitting other repairs this week, I hope. It's been a challenge lately to keep up.

 

[Vetech63]

A couple of weeks ago I got started on a small 35G excavator with numerous things that needed attention. One of the issues was the a/c not blowing cold but I could hear the fan blowing on high. One of the louver vents was missing and I noticed a rag stuffed into the vent tunnel...........removed the rag but it didn't improve. I already figured I was going to have to pull the unit from under the floor, but then I got hammered with other primary stuff and just got back on this yesterday. I got the unit out and broke it down to find exactly what I was afraid of.........

a completely plugged up evaporator core. This is what happens when the cab filters get ignored...........4000+ hours of abuse.

 

[kshansen]

a completely plugged up evaporator core. This is what happens when the cab filters get ignored...........4000+ hours of abuse.

I don't know what you are talking about there is a open space for air to get through that core see the red circle!

 

[56wrench]

Running with the cab doors open on a machine with a/c doesn’t help either