Really cool idea, but I think several of his parts are too thin steel. I think He’ll have problems with a little use. Those welds are really new. But I’m impressed witht he ingenuity. Gatehring loose hay with machinery. …Beats a team of draft horses and a fork…Maybe I need to take one of these old trucks and do something like that. Jakob has an old 1950 something International Scout. Maybe that’d be a good project for him to work on. Adding a dump bed and some kind of front end equipment attachment.???
2 Likes
I would suggest a winch, but I watched “Truck night in America” the other night. An excavator arm would do just as well. I believe “shifting gears with aaron kaufman” actually modded a scout on like their first episode for off-roading. They seem to be kind of popular, I would at least throw a tarp over it to keep it from rusting away, if not an off frame repaint to knock the rust off it, that is mostly labor.
A dump box is almost priceless though. 
However, if you are doing loose hay, the a baler is also almost priceless too.
2 Likes
I always wanted to put a cordwood saw and a wood splitter on a truck so you could saw and split directly into it where the tree fell. But now I think I will just make a dump trailer for my tractor to do the same thing. When you work alone you try to find a way to only have to drive one thing somewhere.
2 Likes
That Cat 955 is a very impressive machine. DON’T get it stuck. First thing that I would do is; crack open the oil drain plug to make sure that the pan isn’t full of water / condensation.
As far as the clutches go, I’ve changed them on a D-8. They were slipping because they were worn thin. I just shoved in an extra friction plate and , they worked well. Check the fuel tank for accumulated GUNK. When you do an oil change, keep in mind that old Cats had drain plugs on the tubes running to the oil cooler.
You’re very lucky that the tractors both have a wide front end. You can still tip them over if you do a hard pull off at an angle.
It sounds like the Ford has a 3-speed intermediate box. Often called a Brownie. You put it in “under” for the slow hills and, “Over” for empty highway. You normally don’t shft on the fly. The Ford probably has a Cat 3208 V8 engine. Great engine with no particular problems.
I know some guys who spent a whole month trying to start an old Detroit in a grader. When they got desperate, they called me. I tried for 10 minutes and the, gave up. there was no possible way AS -IS.
I just heated the block with a proipane torch and it lit off instantly. Diesels are a different animal. I’ve got 30 years on them and have learned a few tricks.
Too bad that the 955 doesn’t have rear rippers. You can put the bucket and rippers down and lift the whole machine to service the track rollers.
Most of these machines tensioned the tracks by pumping grease into a certain fitting that filled a chamber and pushed the front idler forward. Do not just indiscriminately grease everything that you see.
The Cat is what you will use when the roads wash out or, the hills slide down.
Rock and Dirt is a good place to look for parts.
https://www.rockanddirt.com/
9 Likes
Where is the gasifier going to be ?
1 Like
I’m not sure this one will get a gasifier. Big Caterpillar diesel… If I need to fire up this truck, I probably need some serious power.
We always put oak dump beds on our farm trucks. That bed will last about 25 years with nothing at all done to persevere it. I love oak for outdoors stuff.
1 Like
If you have a farm down there you can probably drive that with your normal operators licence that is how it is here in NH anyway farmers can drive anything for farm business just make sure you check the details because here you cant deliver fire wood with farm plates.
3 Likes
That Oak Flat Bed looks heavy duty and so very nice on your truck.
Bob
Hey Chris .
If the bed is white oak it will be with you for a while !!
After I floor a trailer and the wood is well dried I put a couple coats of used motor oil on it on a hot day .
If you will not be hauling with the truck for a week or so you can coat the bed with gasifier tar and it may out last the truck 
You are going to add stake pockets ?
7 Likes
Good question on the pockets. We always ran a heavy iron down the sides of the bed with angle iron at the front corners with a diagonal brace to the bottom iron that held the headboard in place. That allowed us to have removable sides and a tailgate. We had short 2 bord high maybe 18 inch sides and high 6 foot sides. I forget what the short sides where used for. I do remember changing them out was a bear. Once we got a dump trailer that went behind the chopper we just left the high sides on all the time.
I have been thinking about building a dump trailer with the same design. It is somewhere near the bottom of my project list.
Oh on the oil treatment we never did that always figured it would get into anything we hauled and just using them to haul corn polished the bed to a point where it was slippery enough you could hardly walk on it.
I use cooking oil on my pickup s wooden floor …
2 Likes
Hey WayneK used motor oil is free and wood preservative works alright.
I once knew a fellow who bored a right-sized hole in the center top of his wooden fence posts and would then up-end insert old gallon milk jugs of motor oil to seep in and down to preserve them and get rid of his used motor oil.
Sadly out here in the far-west coast states visibly using old motor oil any more is a big no-no. Fines - not warnings.
Woodgas tar now would fall between the regulations cracks. Hey! “It’s organic. Local grown and made.”
Regards
tree-farmer Steve unruh
8 Likes
Steve you will probably get a better return by running the oil through your gasifer first anyway… 
I like the tar idea it makes use of your final waste product.
2 Likes
Drill the hole, pour in the “wood preservative”, Then put a wooden “Cork” in the top of the hole. 
1 Like
One more walkthrough on the house. They cleaned up inside a LOT.
I’ll be stripping it down and redoing a bunch of the interior, moving a couple walls, and fun stuff like that.
14 Likes
Hello Chris,
How did all that water get into the house/basement? I’ve been fighting water getting into my basement for over 30 years. We did build the house with drains in the floors, so the water can run out. It took us a while to discover that caulking needs to be replaced every ten years or so, and our water was actually getting in from second story porches and balconies. This usually only happens if we get ten inches or more in just a few hours, but when it does, we activate the wet-dry vacuums, towels, buckets, and blowers to get the wet stuff out as soon as possible. We built a very extensive French drain system with tons of rock and Bentonite Clay panels attached to the concrete walls. If the water in your house is due to sheet flooding, you may need to install some serious swales to route the water around the dwelling. Mold allergies are serious stuff!
1 Like
Ray, I am not sure where the water is coming from, I haven’t been out there yet during a rainstorm. I know the land lays pretty wet in general. I’ll be doing some serious water flow analysis and yes I intend to keep the basement dry and clean.
1 Like
Chris wash it out with bleach it will kill any mold that is starting.
Here is the specs on your ford.
http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/2/7/273-ford-7000.html
The MF
http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/7/4/744-massey-ferguson-150.html
I would suggest adding some serious weight to the flat bed until it dries. It looks to me like the wood is just green and drying without weight is allowing it to curl. I have forced wood down to a steal frame with wretch straps as well with decent luck. But if you leave it without weight it will probably curl more. I would probably soak it and then add weight or straps to pull it back down.
Sharpen the brush hog before you start that MF is a little smaller then my d15 it will do well with the brush hog but if it is dull it will eat alot more power.
That Ford is a nice size it will do everything you could want. Those two trucks are gold. I could really use one of them here with a dump body.
Looks like a great place and some really useful tools.
3 Likes