New shoes and a thumb that works!

[AKfish]

Finally got my new R1's and rims mounted on my JD 970. After some trials and tribulations finding the right wheel bolts --- I'm ready to turn some dirt over!

Also got some great seat time wrestling a few stumps into submission and had a chance to test out my "home brewed" mechanical thumb. Worked like a champ!

(Only thing that could make me happier would be .... hydraulic thumb!!) Have to convince the CEO that it's imperative that I get a hydraulic thumb in order that her horses can live a better life!!

AKfish

 

[RoyJackson]

Great pics!!!
Thank you!

 

[AKfish]

Thanks Roy. That stump was one of the bigger ones on my property.

I'm 5'10" and 175lbs. and I'm guessing that it was close to 10' wide where I chainsawed the biggest roots. It was big enough that the boom couldn't pull it closer to the back of the tractor. I could pick it up (a little...) with the dipper but that was as good as it got!

Ended up dragging-skidding the thing out of the hole with the thumb and onto a level spot to load it onto a trailer. Still haven't quite figured out how I'm gonna get it off the trailer...

AKfish

 

[RoyJackson]

Definitely cool though!

I really envy you guys who live in the northern states (south central PA here)...you, in Alaska...Scott in Vermont.
Unfortunately, my profession doesn't have much going for it in those states...well, Vermont on occasion.

 

[Chris2520]

AKfish , that is a cool looking tractor. and clean to
did you repaint it. or do you just keep it that nice...
I love the stump pics. nothing like action shots....

Chris

 

[AKfish]

Well... Roy, it would sure be OK to live where you could get 2-3 hay cutting's, though!

And where you didn't have to worry that the electric fence around the chickens and pigs was working right and you had the strips just so -- that any bear that happened thru the neighborhood would think better of pig's ears and eggs for supper!

Though, most of the time, I'm greatful to be here -- in this particular spot on the big, blue ball.

Thanks Chris. It's a pretty clean tractor, overall. I touched up some of the rust spots (salt on the roads up here and I plow a mile, mile and a half on either side of my place) but the tractor was always shedded before I got it and only had a shade over 400 hours on it. (And I do wash and WAX it!)

Fellow that owned it was a building contractor that used it to build a quaint, little, 2nd home in the woods. Well, it's a big, beautiful house on the bluff overlooking Cook Inlet... and on a clear day you can see the Chigmit Mountains across the Inlet with 4 active volcanos, three of which are over 10,000 feet.

He gave me a pretty good deal on the package, and I've been enjoying "working" every day around the place since.

AKfish

 

[dtd24]

Wow, That thumb works well. I think I may have a customization post coming soon!!! Nice tractor by the way!

 

[Grizz]

Very nice

 

[tuolumne]

That thumb looks very useful. Smart to wear safety glasses when using the backhoe...I got rapped smarly upside the head with a stone when popping stumps on friday.