Hello everyone! I hope this day finds ya’ll healthy and happy. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks around here, so it’s been a minute since my last post. I promise to do better! 🙂
Just to catch ya’ll up on what’s been happening on the Ranch, it’s been a whirlwind around here, lol.
For the past three weeks, we’ve been trying to get our 2nd hay cutting done and put up for the winter. We were hoping to possibly cut three times this year, since this is the second season we have been able to do it ourselves. Mother Nature had other plans though, and it has rained almost every day to some degree. Not ideal for hay harvesting!
In the past we didn’t have our own hay equipment, so we were kind of at the mercy of someone else’s time and schedule to get it cut, raked and baled. It seems it gets a little harder and harder to find folks with equipment who are willing to bale for you. We have been VERY Blessed in that regard.
We are very blessed to have great neighbors, a commodity, if you will, that the news and some of society wants us to believe is becoming extinct! It has been our experience, so far, that what the news feeds us is not even CLOSE to the truth. Get out into your neighborhoods, meet your neighbors, and build healthy relationships with them! If hard times come around, you will be more likely to have a support system right there close to you! It is a real thing folks! Help your neighbors when you can!
Just a little side note there. So, back to the hay. Unfortunately, while I was on my way to the hayfield to cut (three weeks ago), the cutter decided to spring a hydraulic leak! NO! It was in the transport position, which is straight up, so you don’t hit anything on your way to your destination, and just before I crossed over to the hayfield, it started to descend to the ground. Ughh, the disappointment that ran over me! I knew at that moment it was trouble. I just didn’t know how much trouble!
Since my experience working on this equipment is limited at this point, the next step, for ME, is usually the Owner’s Manual. I know, I know. I’m just anal like that. My hubby kids me about the ‘Owner’s Manual’, for anything we purchase. I read them, or at least scan them for important information, and I refer to them OFTEN. We try to save money whenever we can, so in order to do that, you have to learn how to work on it yourself. Labor costs for someone else to do it, can ultimately break you!
So, I referred to the owner’s manual first, pinpointed the problem, which was pretty obvious to me, I had a hydraulic leak out of the cylinder that raises and lowers the cutter bar. So ladies, lesson 1: break the problem down in the easiest terms possible, first. What’s the obvious problem?
The only advantage I probably have, being a woman, is I did hang out with my Dad in the shop growing up, and helped him work on mostly vehicles, but some equipment here and there. Not hay equipment, but it helps when you are trying to figure out problems on other things. Like, I knew, or was pretty sure, when I saw the hydraulic fluid spewing out of the cylinder, that it was the oil seals inside. They are either broken, or just so worn out that they won’t contain the oil enough to let the pressure build to operate the cylinder. So there ya have it! Easy fix, right!!??
So, next step was to get it taken apart to put new seals in it! Gather some tools, it’s about to get real! Lol.
Honestly, MY next step on something I’m not totally familiar with, is, yep, you guessed it! YOUTUBE! (youtube.com) Youtube is an awesome tool at most of our fingertips these days. You can pretty much search anything you’re trying to do, and be specific on your model of equipment. Something will probably come up on that very thing, or something very close to at least give you an idea on how to go about fixing your problem.
I did find a video on a model close to mine, so I at least knew how to go about taking it apart and fixing it. Problem was, first of all, actually getting it off the cutter. In the video, he undid a couple bolts, took out a snap ring, and pulled the shaft out of the cylinder, thereby, making it possible to change the seals, put it back in, hook everything back up and off we go!
We bought our cutter used, and I’m unsure as to whether it had ever been rebuilt before….my vote is No! Once I got the bolts out, the shaft would NOT come out! I worked on it a couple days trying to get it out, it just wouldn’t come out! Once my hubby came home, he tried to help too. Wouldn’t budge! So, I finally had to call in the ‘Big Guns’ (someone who works on this kind of equipment often), he finally had to take the entire cylinder off the cutter. And that was not an easy task either.
Once we got that off, we had to literally hook it between two trucks (not recommended, but we tried everything else :/ ) to pull the shaft out! Finally! So, then all we had to do was pull the head off the shaft that houses the seals. And, it wouldn’t come off! At this point, we are sure something is definitely wrong with this whole thing. So, my fellow helping me took it home where he could use some of his tools to get it off, change the seals and bring it back to put it on.
Fast forward, three weeks later, after finally taking it to a couple hydraulic shops, he brought it back. No one could fix it! Ughhhh.
So this morning, I have ordered a new cylinder. $715.00! Not what we wanted to end up doing, but sometimes, you just have to ‘Bite the Bullet’ and quit messin’ around! Hay has to get cut, as soon as we have a few days break in the rain.
I’ll let ya’ll know how it all turns out. We’re just waiting on the part to come in, then hopefully it will be a fairly quick fix at that point. Although, it is 2020, right!?
Until next time! Be safe and be Blessed!