East Texas land purchase

[skfullgun]

We are practically neighbors.

 

[andre3k]

Made a bit of progress on the land. I took advantage of the crazy prices used vehicles are going for and sold an extra vehicle I had. Freed up some money for projects around the property.

Found a guy on FB market place to weld up a 20x40 shed for my tractor, trailers and implements. It's not a barn but it keeps them out of the sun and rain.

Saved a bit of money by buying the materials myself. If you need steel in Houston, Surplus Steel on Eastex Freeway is the place to go.

Between the deer corn, bags of concrete, my trailer and the steel I was hauling, I was probably towing about 12k lbs. My truck is sitting at 218k miles and apparently didn't care to tow all of that weight. The tranny promptly shit the bed and I had to call the wife to pick me up. That will eat some funds I planned to use for drainage issues around the property. Eventually I'll start working on getting a berm built so I can start working on a range. That will have to wait until the summer.

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[EZ-E]

Looking good my brutha. I need to get my 2 connex boxes leveled & get a roof to span across the 2 of them so I have a place for the tractor & buggy.


If you can, try to get as much of the hard work done to the range before dead of summer. If you got some trees to take down get it done now. Especially if they are hardwoods... all the leaves are off & bucking limbs is easier on bare trees.

 

[Rhino]

Between the deer corn, bags of concrete, my trailer and the steel I was hauling, I was probably towing about 12k lbs. My truck is sitting at 218k miles and apparently didn't care to tow all of that weight. The tranny promptly shit the bed and I had to call the wife to pick me up. That will eat some funds I planned to use for drainage issues around the property.

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I know that feeling. My F-250 decided to have a transmission problem when I was bringing a tractor home this summer. Still haven't gotten her running again. Sigh.

 

[andre3k]

Looking good my brutha. I need to get my 2 connex boxes leveled & get a roof to span across the 2 of them so I have a place for the tractor & buggy.


If you can, try to get as much of the hard work done to the range before dead of summer. If you got some trees to take down get it done now. Especially if they are hardwoods... all the leaves are off & bucking limbs is easier on bare trees.

I'm fixing some drainage issues on my road which will require some dirt work. Whatever my dirt guy digs up will be used as the base for the berm. I'll add to it as time goes on. I'm trying to get as much as I can done now while its cool. I wish a 20 ft connex was in the budget now, prices are crazy.

I know that feeling. My F-250 decided to have a transmission problem when I was bringing a tractor home this summer. Still haven't gotten her running again. Sigh.

I was stuck until the wife could drive 2.5 hrs to get me. Glad it didn't break on a dark road at 4 in the morning while I was driving there. Not a cheap fix.

 

[andre3k]

The F-350 is still down awaiting a torque converter for the transmission rebuild. I went out today to check on some dirt work I had a contractor complete. My road is still pretty rough. This is a pic of the entrance. I cemented in a couple of posts to hang a gate.

The biggest obstacle was a low spot that always held water. I wanted to tackle that first. He cleaned out a ditch and installed a culvert. 15 tons of rock and a few truckloads of dirt later and I can get to the interior of the property much easier.

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[pronstar]

The F-350 is still down awaiting a torque converter for the transmission rebuild.

I’m taking my Silverado to the shop tomorrow for a torque converter.

Mine is starting to slip, and on the 6L80 if you don’t catch the torque converter in time, it’ll become a glitter-bomb and take the rest of the tranny out with it.

Typical for GM…let’s design a good transmission and saddle it with a garbage torque converter.

It’s a matter of when, not if, I’ll have to repeat this on Mrs Pronstar’s Suburban.

YAY ME


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[TEXAS "All or nothing"]

I’m taking my Silverado to the shop tomorrow for a torque converter.

Mine is starting to slip, and on the 6L80 if you don’t catch the torque converter in time, it’ll become a glitter-bomb and take the rest of the tranny out with it.

Typical for GM…let’s design a good transmission and saddle it with a garbage torque converter.

It’s a matter of when, not if, I’ll have to repeat this on Mrs Pronstar’s Suburban.

YAY ME


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If it doesn't take the tranny out it will push the crank forward and ruin the mains. It happened too me. The tranny would've been cheaper to fix. The stator welds break and lets the converter balloon.

 

[andre3k]

I’m taking my Silverado to the shop tomorrow for a torque converter.

Mine is starting to slip, and on the 6L80 if you don’t catch the torque converter in time, it’ll become a glitter-bomb and take the rest of the tranny out with it.

Typical for GM…let’s design a good transmission and saddle it with a garbage torque converter.

It’s a matter of when, not if, I’ll have to repeat this on Mrs Pronstar’s Suburban.

YAY ME


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Good thing about those transmissions is there is so many of them out there. I was originally looking for a 2500HD with 6.0 LS motor prior to getting the F350.

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[pronstar]

If it doesn't take the tranny out it will push the crank forward and ruin the mains. It happened too me. The tranny would've been cheaper to fix. The stator welds break and lets the converter balloon.

Yeah I’m driving it like a grandma…the shop said last month, guy in a similar situation as me, his torque converter let go as he was driving to their shop.

So it went from a torque converter replacement, to a torque converter replacement and a tranny rebuild.


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[pronstar]

Good thing about those transmissions is there is so many of them out there. I was originally looking for a 2500HD with 6.0 LS motor prior to getting the F350.

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I think the issue is, a boneyard tranny is still gonna have the crappy factory JMBX torque converter.


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[Axxe55]

I think the issue is, a boneyard tranny is still gonna have the crappy factory JMBX torque converter.


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You could always replace it with a better quality aftermarket converter.

 

[pronstar]

You could always replace it with a better quality aftermarket converter.

100%

That’s exactly what I’m doing, only with my current tranny as we don’t believe it’s been damaged yet


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[andre3k]

Got the truck back with a freshly rebuilt trans and put it to work. Towed the travel trailer to a KOA camp ground near Sam Rayburn for spring break with the kids. They had a blast. It was about 30 mins from the property so I snuck in a few hours to hang a couple of 12ft ranch gates at the entrance. I was so busy working I didn't take any pics.

But I did pick up a few more toys to use. Got a Modern Ag 6 ft cutter for the tractor. I'll keep this one on the Bobcat and I'm getting the old one rebuilt and it will stay with the Ford 3000 to cut down the nasty stuff.

The Ford tractor is almost done. I installed new battery cables, battery, front wheel bearings, tie rod ends and drag links, valve cover gasket, steering wheel, fuel injectors, fluid change and flushed out and cleaned the radiator. This should get it caught up on non-existent preventative maintenance from the previous owner.

My newest acquisition to the fleet will be a Sany SY26U mini excavator. I cheaped out and got the open cab but added a hydraulic thumb, 12 inch bucket for trenching and a 24 inch bucket for general grading and digging.
This one should be ready for pickup early next week. I plan on using this to trench my 1200ft water line and to take out a bunch of small pines that need to be thinned out.

I've been looking at mini ex's for the past 8 months and the used market is crazy expensive. I picked up the new Sany with a 5 year 5k hour warranty for what a used Cats and JD's were going for. Has a Yanmar engine and Kawasaki hydraulics. Its 20 HP so no emissions add ons. We'll see how well it works out for me.

"SY26U Mini Excavator | SANY America" https://www.sanyamerica.com/products/excavators/mini/sy26u/


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[Haystack]

I'm jealous of your excavator.

 

[baboon]

I'm jealous of your excavator.

Seems like a guy with on could make some easy money if folks knew he had one of those

 

[popper]

Daughter had 70 ac of mixed hardwood cleared, payed decent but what is left is pretty messy. Didn't get pine planted this yr and trying to get all the stumps out of where he wants to seed for erosion. Big machine cutters take what they want and leave everything else for land owner to clean up. Lots of burn piles. That culvert won't last long with heavy equip rolling over it. Put water pipes (usually shallow plastic lines ) in drill pipe under any roads. Timber guys had to fix her pipe several times and the meter keeps running. Takes a lot of rock to make a decent road. Timber exemption has a lot of tricks to it, what is grown, etc. but state ag guy will tell you what. She got the creek dammed and now has a lake, state just put in fish and duckweed. He just dug 24 holes for pecan and another couple dz for fruit. Now to get rid of the gophers. Lots of work.

 

[andre3k]

Seems like a guy with on could make some easy money if folks knew he had one of those

I'm already on it sir. That was part of the reason I purchased it.

That tractor and bush hog has already put a few dollars in my pocket since I've owned it. The bush hog has almost paid for itself.

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[Eli]

Daughter had 70 ac of mixed hardwood cleared, payed decent but what is left is pretty messy. Didn't get pine planted this yr and trying to get all the stumps out of where he wants to seed for erosion. Big machine cutters take what they want and leave everything else for land owner to clean up. Lots of burn piles. That culvert won't last long with heavy equip rolling over it. Put water pipes (usually shallow plastic lines ) in drill pipe under any roads. Timber guys had to fix her pipe several times and the meter keeps running. Takes a lot of rock to make a decent road. Timber exemption has a lot of tricks to it, what is grown, etc. but state ag guy will tell you what. She got the creek dammed and now has a lake, state just put in fish and duckweed. He just dug 24 holes for pecan and another couple dz for fruit. Now to get rid of the gophers. Lots of work.

I was going to ask why you'd plant pine - there's a decades-long glut from fed.gov pushing it back in the '70s and '80s - then saw you're after a timber exemption. Any reason y'all didn't look into other exemptions?

Eli

 

[andre3k]

Finally had time to pickup the Sany. Thumb is installed which will make clearing out small trees and Yaupon much easier.

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