Well the good news is that everything I've fixed on that truck so far is awesome.
And that's all for good news.
Something's broke in the front diff. Probably spider gears, I don't know. But what I do know is a plow truck is no good in 2WD.
So, Weezy and I along with ricky bob the puppy walk about 3/4 mile, hard walking on crusted deep snow back to the cabin. Temp inside the cabin was zero. We lit the wood stove, I grabbed some tools and a propane torch, and the camp shotgun and headed back out to the truck in the dark (past all the timberwolf tracks & yellow snow signposts).
My thoughts were that the lockouts could be frozen so I put some heat to the hubs. No good, hubs were engaged, front driveshaft spinning, it was all getting lost in the front diff somewhere.
Well Pam and the boys come up the trail about then. Trail is narrow and crappy, impossible to turn around on and the plow truck is blocking the trail. So, I tried blasting a bipass trail around the plow truck so we could get in to the cabin to pick up weezy and get turned around & head back out.
Well I socked it into 2 feet of hard crusted snow very securely.
So, once again I take off walking, this time the tractor back at the cabin is our last hope. If I can get it started I'll use the loader to dig a bipass lane around the plow truck.
It started, I let it warm up while I went inside the cabin to check on weezy & the pup. Temp inside the cabin was now 40 and the first load of firewood was about used up. So I reloaded the stove, had a beer while the tractor warmed up, then headed back out into the cold.
I got on the tractor and pulled the 3 point lever to lift the heavy box blade off the ground, then I grabbed the loader controls & pulled back to lift the bucket off the ground.
Nothing happened.
Hydraulics were froze. I had a running tractor that couldn't move because it had a grounded loader and box blade.
Yes I rocked it forward and back to break the loader and box blade from the ground, but the hydraulics were froze, no lift at all.
Well by now it's been a while and I know Pam and the boys sitting back in the truck 3/4 mile away through the woods are starting to get worried.
So I decide to shed the little tractor of the box blade and loader by myself without hydraulics basically as fast as I can.
The box blade, I had to un-pin and flip the box blade out of the way. It weighs 600 pounds....
So with the box blade flipped out of the way I can go backwards and let the loader bucket drag. Not very well but it went just barely. Typically you detach the loader with the assistance of the hydraulics, my plan was to back it under the meat pole and use a pulley and a rope
Loader has to weigh 800lbs..
Yeah well, I got off there and drove the tractor out to the burried truck and pulled it out after about 20 hard pulls with a strap.
Then I packed a bipass lane past the plow truck and we snuck the red truck through. We got back in to the cabin, got everybody loaded up, put the tractor away and headed home. Got home after 11PM.
Thinking about a recon mission to drag a 2WD plow truck through a 1/2 mile of crusted snow trail.
