March 6th, 2010
The new kingpin and assorted parts arrived this Friday and I put them together this morning. I drove the tractor out of the paddock, dropped its bucket-load of soil a the top of the paddock where I’m raising the level and around onto the new concrete pad.
4100 Tractor parked on its new pad.
The old stub axle was bent and cracked so it must have had knock at some time in the distant past. The kingpin bushes were OK and I replaced the wheel bearings. I stripped down the other kingpin and found it worn and its bottom thrust bearing breaking down. I’ll be back on Monday for some more parts I guess.
Tags: kingpin wheel-bearing
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March 1st, 2010
You’ve probably all seen this photo in emails:
well that’s my 4100 today after a stub axle broke and a front wheel fell off.
I’ve taken the broken part around to the local dealer - it being the Saturday morning of a long weekend - typical, just when I had so much work planned - and they will ring me with prices on Tuesday. Of course it’s not just the stub-axle i.e. kingpin, there will be new bearings, wheel bearings and a stabilizer rod bolt and end-cap to replace.
Tags: kingpin stub-axle wheel
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February 8th, 2010
.. When you finally get rid of the latest self-obsessed, loser girlfriend? Well I’ve no idea what you do, but I take the money I’d been saving to do something with in ‘our future’ and spend it on tractor toys!! Hence my 4100 has the following new playmates:
a 2 blade mouldboard plough
and, as of this weekend,
a shiney new AGMAX VT-3 backhoe to replace the broken one. Oh the joy and fun I’m having!!!
Tags: plough mouldboard backhoe AGMAX
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January 4th, 2010
Had to spend a day in Perth today shopping, registering my bee hive and other wonderful tasks, so I decided to sling the damaged backhoe arm in the back of the ute.
However when we got to Welshpool I had an unpleasant surprise. The Tractorama yard is all closed up, not a tractor or implement in sight. One end of the yard has some oil drums, a pile of wheels and some shipping crates leant up against the fence - but it is very much the look of a company that has stopped trading. 
I’ve tried emailing and tomorrow, now I’ve found their phone number, I’ll give them a ring. It could be they have just relocated, let’s hope so - but if they have, it might have been an idea to put a sign on the gate.
Might be I end up fixing the backhoe myself - where’s the welder!!
Note added 03/03/2010: Following a hint noted below I emailed Tractorama again last night and got a reply - moves are a foot to get the backhoe fixed - see comments below.
Tags: backhoe Tractorama
Posted in Attachments, Backhoe | 5 Comments »
January 1st, 2010
I was spending my Xmas break excavating a new lake at the bottom of the paddock. Yesterday I took time out to clean and check fluid and lube levels on the tractor and grease all the back-hoe’s pivot points. Today it broke!
It must be said that here is some room for improvement in the design in that the central pivot point that allows the arm to become completely straight, the ram then pushes down the length rather than immediately causing the joint to articulate. Normally this isn’t much of an issue but when you are working to the maximum reach it is easy to slip and apply pressure where it won’t do any good. When you do, this is what happens:
Buckled arm of backhoe.
I’ve stripped it down and will take the damaged link up to Perth and Tractorama. Hopefully next week when WA gets back to work after the Xmas break. Until then my digging days are over.
Tags: Backhoe, broken, buckled
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November 11th, 2009
A man just has to have his toys and I’ve got a new one. Last weekend I bought a post-hole borer attachment for the tractor. With a 9″ auger it works like a dream and produces metre deep hole in paddock soil now so dry and hard that a pick-axe bounces off! I did have concern that it might not actually be able to cut into the concrete like surface but I shouldn’t of worried - in less than half a minute it cuts its’ hole.
I’ll be using it to give tree plantings a good start in a deep hole filled with compost and potting mix. It is also going to be very useful for putting up fence posts.
New 9 inch post-hole borer.
Tags: new, post hole borer, toy
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October 8th, 2009
Yes after just a few short days the backhoe is back to work. The new pump arrived today - thank you Tractorama, brilliant service - and took slightly less long to fit than it took me to get the backhoe re-coupled to the 3PL. I am definitely getting better at this hooking-up lark!
So I was straight off into the paddock to test it out on the new water feature area. The new pump has the same markings as the old one but the backhoe certainly has more grunt - and a great deal of earth was excavated - and very hard, clay at that.
Backhoe back at work.
I’m happy again!!
Tags: Backhoe, Tractorama
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October 4th, 2009
On the middle of a three-day weekend I decided to do some small jobs with the tractor, pulling out rocks and cut-off posts the JD mower kept hitting. That done I went down the bottom of the paddock to see if it was dry enough to start digging out. No is the answer as the front end took an instant dive downwards! However I lifted it up with the FEL, put some ramps over the bog holes and drove off. No problem. As the paddock is all mown now, as of the yesterday morning, I started to drive straight back to the backgarden. Now I skirted the area around where I’m going to dig the lake - that’s still pretty damp but obviously my skirting was not wide enough and …..
Bogged again!!!
yup - bogged again. Within seconds the backhoe was into the ground and the back wheels were vanishing in a sea of mud slurry! I gave up and left it for a few hours.
Later that evening I detached the backhoe, stuck ramps into the holes and walked it out using the FEL bucket to pull it forward 2 feet at at time. It left a trail 10 yards long and two trenches that are at least knee deep and rapidly filling with water! Perhaps I’ll modify where the lake is going!
The really bad news is that when the back end sank, the 3PL came up and the chain that holds the two arms together caught on the hydraulic pump for the backhoe and snapped the input shaft like a carrot. I hope tomorrow I can get the shaft repaired or pump exchanged. Hopefully its not a new pump time. Anyway, I bet it’s going to hurt the back pocket!
Tags: tractor Ford 4100 bogged FEL backhoe hydraulic pump
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September 14th, 2009
Is that you can use them to pull out little tractors when they get bogged……….
Little JD bogged!!
It is so damp and boggy around here that even the little John Deere sank up to its back axle - luckily the Ford dragged it out easily with a long strap!!
Posted in Tractor Tales | 4 Comments »
August 31st, 2009
Newdegate Field Day Show’s (to which I’m going on Wednesday) website has a section called ‘Tractors in Pain‘ for photographs of tractors that are bogged or damaged. Mine is now one of the stars!
Tags: Newdegate bogged
Posted in Tractor Tales | 1 Comment »