Wow, I've been side-tracked for over three months by summer. Summer is pretty well gone now, and I'm sidetracked by getting ready for winter, which is just around the corner.
The problem with my wife's Subaru turned out to be a loose cam belt pulley on the end of the crank, which allowed the keyway to get wallered out, and the pulley-cam alignment was randomly drifting by about 30 degrees. The machine shop says there is no fixing that, and no machine shop will touch bottom end work on a Subaru. So, I bought a rebuilt short block from the dealer and I'm having a local mechanic put it in. I'm learning that I have to delegate everything I can, and this is something I can delegate.
The garden has been expanded, fenced, and refenced after the moose broke through, and there is still some work to do on the fence. The final configuration will be 8 foot tall 2-1/2" heavywall boiler tube posts with high-tensile wire mesh on them, then an electric wire at waist level on separate posts about 3 feet outside. Then I fired up the loader and cleared some new garden area outside the fence as well, and ran the rototiller over it, and pulled up roots. I'll have about half an acre ready to plant next summer.
I turned that old pickup frame into a trailer. I stripped everything but the bed and fuel tanks off the frame, put a Sterling axle under it, and chopped the frame off short and bent the ends in to meet a new tongue. I have bolted on a hydraulic surge brake hitch, and I'll eventually put new brakes, seals and wheel bearings on that Sterling and have a trailer with fancy brakes.
The trailer matches the red truck: it's old and it's red!
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I had a friend come over Friday, and he did the welding. He's a far better welder than I. I told him he saved me two or three grinding wheels. I looked over his shoulder and handed him rods, and I learned a bit.
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We put a piece of channel between the frame rails, then supported the tongue while we welded it onto the front of the channel. Then we notched and scored the frame rails in front of the channel and bent them in, and welded them to the tongue.
Meanwhile, enough diesel had leaked out of the tanks that the welding set the ground on fire. It was a windy day, and we couldn't smell the fumes, but we felt the heat and started madly scraping dry gravel over the flames. No harm done, except to the wiring harness. After that, I scrounged up enough hose to reach and soaked everything down. Those creosote soaked timbers were smoking, and ready to catch.
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We are using this as a trash shed, to keep our trash in and the dogs and ravens out of it. Now we'll be able to hitch it up and drag it to the dumpster.
I left plenty of room on the front for a 100 gallon fuel tank, or a tool box, or both. Some day I'd like to take a trip up the Dalton to Prudhoe Bay, and last time I was up there fuel was double what it cost in Fairbanks. Coldfoot is the only gas station between here and there, so having 100 gallons of fuel and a set of spare tires would be a good idea.
Before I can do anything cool like that I need to finish this red truck project. I guess I better get back onto that one.