What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

[Biker1mike]

I did a search looking for reports of deaths from drinking bad water. The EPA mentions children less than 6 months old in this paragraph.

"Nitrate and nitrite are present in chemical fertilizers, human sewage, and animal waste and fertilizers. They can contaminate a private well through groundwater movement and surface water seepage and water run-off. Once taken into the body, nitrates are converted into nitrites. High levels of nitrate and nitrite are most serious for infants. High levels of nitrate/nitrite in drinking water can cause methemoglobinemia or "blue baby syndrome". These substances reduce the blood's ability to carry oxygen. This acute condition can occur rapidly over a period of days. Symptoms include shortness of breath and blueness of the skin. Infants below six months who drink water with high levels of nitrate can become seriously ill and die."

I was interested because the well at my farm is 6' in dia. laced with flat rock from top to bottom, 25' deep, and lover 100 years old . I had it tested by the EPA because I was concerned about run off from pasture and oil wells mis-managed. I can't remember the exact numbers, but when I got back to the man at the EPA he apologized for not getting back to sooner. He said "the number" was so low (in parts/ million) he justleft it on his desk.

I put a pump at the top of the well right next to the hand pump and ran water lines up to a corral with two hydrants and an automatic waterer. The water is crystal clear. I clean out the inside of the waterer every few weeks. I am sure the inside of that waterer has more :stuff" than the well. The cattle often add some slobber and grass remnants!!!

Have a friend who hauls his water and buys his drinking water. He comes with several gallon containers and fills for his drinking usage. He's been doing this for 5 years and declares it's the best water he's ever drank. Suggested I bottle and sell it!

I do have concern about safety of water. Can you point me to articles of human death caused by bad water coming directly from the ground (not lead pipes)?

Direct water to death numbers are vague and very hard to find. Industrial chemicals in ground water and cancer groups are well known but not well documented. Cover up and great lawyers.
I find your EPA guy saying results in low parts per million to laughable. When I left the groundwater analysis field I was looking at low part per billion and mid parts per trillion concentrations of industrial chemicals. But then again I was in industry and we could afford to have much better equipment as we wanted to stay ahead of any issues and track what damage had already been done. That was over a decade ago.
Try a search on groundwater and cancer. Some common chemicals trichloroethylene, tetrachlorethylene, benzene etc.
Check out the 80's movie Bitter Harvest. Based on a true story.

 

[Old_Paint]

Hi - Trying to understand your t-post puller, as it might help me with an upcoming project. After doing what you can to cut surrounding roots, you're putting the chain around the root ball, then somehow running the chain over the t-post as a fulcrum before attaching the chain to the drawbar? If so, I assume the t part of the post is on the ground and maybe the chain wraps around the 4x? I'm looking at the pictures - now I guess I need (hopefully less than) 1,000 words.

Correct, the chain goes over the top (bottom) of the upside down tee. Look closer, and you’ll see a steel ’crown’ on the straight end that I made to keep the post from splintering and lock the chain by its links. Roots are designed (by nature) to prevent the tree from going sideways, so pulling sideways makes it a lot harder to pull them out Since they also taper going down, pulling up on the stump works a lot better, especially in clay soil. It normally works even better if you pull after a long span of wet weather. The bottom (top) of the tee keeps the fulcrum from sinking as well as stabilizes the tension in the direction you want it. This lets you have some small angular pull if necessary, but don’t get too carried away. It is wood and I’ve broken two which prompted some improvements to the bracing and gussets. Use at least 5/16 x 3 inch lag screws for assembly. I’ll try to take some more photos later today.
If you want something more, suited for a bigger tractor and bigger stumps, I would recommend some 2” box beam (or larger) with 1/4” wall thickness, but I used this scrap 4x4 which I can handle by myself without hurting my back. Whole thing weighs about 20-25 pounds. Just make sure to brace it sufficiently or you’ll break it pretty quickly if one side is on softer ground.
Most of the roots that make a stump hard to move are pretty close to the surface and run laterally from the stump. Some species, however, possibly have an identical tree sticking out in Australia. Elms typically have nearly as much tap root as they do trunk. Water oaks rarely go much deeper than a couple feet, even big ones. Sort of a crap shoot with pines or cedars, the main advantage with them being much softer wood
I still have a few that won’t budge (for now). I’d rather leave‘em tall enough to see than have ‘em sneak up high enough to find a mower blade. Stumps will raise up with time. Remember, they used to have a couple tons of tree sitting on them. Freezing ground will also heave them just like a foundation or post.

 

[dlsmith]

Did a mid-summer maintenance check on the BX. Checked all fluids, had to add some UDT2 to the trans since I had adapted the JD430 blade to it and the lift and angle cylinders were bone dry. Greased the mower deck, gauge wheels, drive shaft (it's a real bugger with the deck on the tractor), checked mower deck belt, still good condition, greased the FEL and HST pedal pivot. Mower blades are still look good for the rest of the season. Under the bonnet, coolant level was fine, fan belt felt properly tensioned, no visible leaks, air and fuel filters were in good shape and radiator screen was blown out. Also checked the pressure in the tires. the RF was a little low, so I pumped it up.
Should be good for the rest of the mowing season.

 

[dirtydeed]

sewer line action today with the U-27. was supposed to be 5 feet deep....well, I used all that the little U-27 had and was definitely down 9.5 feet! Fortunately, the soil was conducive and I dug some fairly deep benches. All in all it went fine.

dig:

Pipe:

backfill:

Tomorrow, we are heading around the corner to this clients dad's place to replace his line as well. I'm told I'll be digging a little over 10 feet plus up at the curb. We have a rented KX080 mule showing up for that one...but I'm bringing the B2650 to assist with the backfill (supposed to be 90 plus degrees). It was hot enough today at about 90 as well.

I think if I get time left at the end of the day, I'll pop over to this job and give it a touch up with the box blade as well.

It was a long 14 hour day and I'm recovering with an ice cold T-N-T as a type this. It's starting to hit now.

 

[6869704x4]

BendPak is a great lift. I am certain that you will get a lifetime of trouble-free use from it. I have had mine for over 20 years and never a problem.

Well, I'm kinda pissed. When did BendPak start being made in China? I guess we'll see how this one does>

 

[leveraddict]

sewer line action today with the U-27. was supposed to be 5 feet deep....well, I used all that the little U-27 had and was definitely down 9.5 feet! Fortunately, the soil was conducive and I dug some fairly deep benches. All in all it went fine.

dig:

View attachment 108140

Pipe:

View attachment 108141

View attachment 108142

View attachment 108143

backfill:

View attachment 108145

View attachment 108146

View attachment 108147

Tomorrow, we are heading around the corner to this clients dad's place to replace his line as well. I'm told I'll be digging a little over 10 feet plus up at the curb. We have a rented KX080 mule showing up for that one...but I'm bringing the B2650 to assist with the backfill (supposed to be 90 plus degrees). It was hot enough today at about 90 as well.

I think if I get time left at the end of the day, I'll pop over to this job and give it a touch up with the box blade as well.

It was a long 14 hour day and I'm recovering with an ice cold T-N-T as a type this. It's starting to hit now.

Hey Dirty! How about the price of that 4" pvc! Its through the roof!

 

[Kennyd4110]

Well, I'm kinda pissed. When did BendPak start being made in China? I guess we'll see how this one does>

A LONG time ago as far as I know. There are better options, but BP has the marketing down to a science by giving them to all the TV show guys.

Just my opinion, worth what you paid for it.

 

[DustyRusty]

Well, I'm kinda pissed. When did BendPak start being made in China? I guess we'll see how this one does>

Probably sometime in the early 1990s they built a manufacturing plant in China. All of the lifts that I have from them were made in China, however, I don't know what the present situation in China is, since a lot has changed over there. I do know that the facility was run by Americans that were responsible for quality control in China. Like many items coming from China, some are good quality, and others are just plain junk. A lot of our pharmaceuticals are now made in China, and like it or not, China controls many pharmaceutical ingredients today. I don't want to get into the discussion of the politics of China for obvious reasons.

 

[fried1765]

Probably sometime in the early 1990s they built a manufacturing plant in China. All of the lifts that I have from them were made in China, however, I don't know what the present situation in China is, since a lot has changed over there. I do know that the facility was run by Americans that were responsible for quality control in China. Like many items coming from China, some are good quality, and others are just plain junk. A lot of our pharmaceuticals are now made in China, and like it or not, China controls many pharmaceutical ingredients today. I don't want to get into the discussion of the politics of China for obvious reasons.

Companies in China, with US supervision on site, do produce good products.

 

[Fordtech86]

I’m on my 2nd bend pak lift at work… have bent both of the longer rear arms (asymmetrical) on both lifts (10,000 lbs rated) and the biggest thing that goes on them are expeditions/navigators/f150s….

 

[lynnmor]

Companies in China, with US supervision on site, do produce good products.

Trouble is that China is becoming the only producer of products.

 

[dirtydeed]

today's festivities...90+ degrees, 10 feet plus down with rented mule (KX-080 with 30" bucket). These machines are capable of moving quite a bit of dirt. We had one heck of a pile...

I'm not going to provide much detail here as it's pretty much the same story. Homeowner hired a handyman years ago to install a new basement bath and repair the house trap. Ha. Shoddy workmanship and the homeowner had a rain leader from the driveway dump water pretty much on top the the house trap. That's a recipe for disaster. You can see where we extended the rain leader discharge past the trap in the last pic (4" pvc on right side of pic).

dig

Backfill - major assist from B2650 and box blade (not pictured, unfortunately). It was too hot, I was too tired that I just forgot to get a decent pic with the tractor...but it really did take the cleanup from a total mess to tolerable.

Done. Well I had to call it done.

 

[DustyRusty]

today's festivities...90+ degrees, 10 feet plus down with rented mule (KX-080 with 30" bucket). These machines are capable of moving quite a bit of dirt. We had one heck of a pile...

I'm not going to provide much detail here as it's pretty much the same story. Homeowner hired a handyman years ago to install a new basement bath and repair the house trap. Ha. Shoddy workmanship and the homeowner had a rain leader from the driveway dump water pretty much on top the the house trap. That's a recipe for disaster. You can see where we extended the rain leader discharge past the trap in the last pic (4" pvc on right side of pic).

dig
View attachment 108203

View attachment 108204

Backfill - major assist from B2650 and box blade (not pictured, unfortunately). It was too hot, I was too tired that I just forgot to get a decent pic with the tractor...but it really did take the cleanup from a total mess to tolerable.

View attachment 108205

Done. Well I had to call it done.

View attachment 108206

View attachment 108207

What does a job like this cost the homeowner?

 

[Flintknapper]

today's festivities...90+ degrees, 10 feet plus down with rented mule (KX-080 with 30" bucket). These machines are capable of moving quite a bit of dirt. We had one heck of a pile...

I'm not going to provide much detail here as it's pretty much the same story. Homeowner hired a handyman years ago to install a new basement bath and repair the house trap. Ha. Shoddy workmanship and the homeowner had a rain leader from the driveway dump water pretty much on top the the house trap. That's a recipe for disaster. You can see where we extended the rain leader discharge past the trap in the last pic (4" pvc on right side of pic).

dig
View attachment 108203

View attachment 108204

Backfill - major assist from B2650 and box blade (not pictured, unfortunately). It was too hot, I was too tired that I just forgot to get a decent pic with the tractor...but it really did take the cleanup from a total mess to tolerable.



Done. Well I had to call it done.

Great job as usual. I've noticed that the bulk of your work involves digging to depths of about 6'

Is that because of some 'code' that the plumbing is that deep? (below frost line or something)? Everything is much closer to the surface where I live.

 

[fried1765]

Great job as usual. I've noticed that the bulk of your work involves digging to depths of about 6'

Is that because of some 'code' that the plumbing is that deep? (below frost line or something)? Everything is much closer to the surface where I live.

Does the ground ever really freeze in East Texas?
Some parts of the USA require that piping be lower than 6'.
Under a driven over area, must be even deeper.
Vehicular traffic drives frost down!

 

[dirtydeed]

What does a job like this cost the homeowner?

This was a little over 8K. Wednesday was almost 10K (2-day job) with one day of inside work for two plumbers as well. Estimators are good at trying to get the work covered by home owners insurance but that doesn't always work.

 

[dirtydeed]

Great job as usual. I've noticed that the bulk of your work involves digging to depths of about 6'

Is that because of some 'code' that the plumbing is that deep? (below frost line or something)? Everything is much closer to the surface where I live.

No, it's really the luck of the draw. Most of the sewer line jobs are deeper because they are connected to a municipal sewer system. It really depends on where the line exits the dwelling (floor or wall). The difference here is that just about everyone here has a basement unlike in the south. There are some repairs need for conventional septic systems, but that isn't the norm.

Water service (municipal supply) require a 3 foot minimal depth (frost).

 

[Flintknapper]

Does the ground ever really freeze in East Texas?

On occasion.....but I can't imagine it is much more than 6" at most.

BUT.....more often, it is something like this:

 

[pokey1416]

Picked up a ssqa receiver to move my trailer around alongside my house without the pain of having to use my truck. I can back it in with a little effort but it'll be so much easier with a small tractor. View attachment 108045

Ok now weld a QH on it and you can move 3PH attachments easily. I had my fab shop add about 2" at the bottom so I have longer motion range. There are plenty of threads on this here on OTT.

I go backwards and rake leaves with the 3PH harrow.

 

[Old_Paint]

sewer line action today with the U-27. was supposed to be 5 feet deep....well, I used all that the little U-27 had and was definitely down 9.5 feet! Fortunately, the soil was conducive and I dug some fairly deep benches. All in all it went fine.

dig:

View attachment 108140

Pipe:

View attachment 108141

View attachment 108142

View attachment 108143

backfill:

View attachment 108145

View attachment 108146

View attachment 108147

Tomorrow, we are heading around the corner to this clients dad's place to replace his line as well. I'm told I'll be digging a little over 10 feet plus up at the curb. We have a rented KX080 mule showing up for that one...but I'm bringing the B2650 to assist with the backfill (supposed to be 90 plus degrees). It was hot enough today at about 90 as well.

I think if I get time left at the end of the day, I'll pop over to this job and give it a touch up with the box blade as well.

It was a long 14 hour day and I'm recovering with an ice cold T-N-T as a type this. It's starting to hit now.

I'm gonna plead ignorance here and ask why three standpipes at the house. Go easy on me, because that's just not something I see done around here. I've noticed that on all your work. Is that for two separate cleanouts that will allow inserting a snake in both directions, plus some kind of vent in between? I would think the LAST thing you'd want that close to the house is a vent. Why 3, and not just 2? Is that something that is required by code in your area? Around here, you're lucky to see ONE clean-out outside near the house, and luckier still if it isn't buried. There's usually one inside where the line comes out of the house, which is apparently good enough for the codes of the time when this house was built. Is that something of your own design that gets repeat customers/work? A side view of the whole thing would be interesting to see. Is that a series of Y-T-Y fittings? I can grasp why two Y's (directing a cleanout snake), but not sure what the T in the middle would be for.