My Slice of the Pie, a long build towards a small farm

[Wheelin66bronco]

Yep.
My 1 mi shared driveway is dirt/road base. My GA native neighbor moved in, and wants to work towards chip seal. I suggested he move back to GA 😁
It's hilarious when they want to cheap out on snowplowing to save for road construction, then in the spring the mini vans all get stuck when the 12" of ice base falls out.
I'd rather have the potholes, keeps looky loos out. And my Thuren suspension needs to do its job....

 

[Firstram]

And my Thuren suspension needs to do its job....

Some of the best money I have ever spent

 

[Provience]

alright, going to consolidate some stuff in here.

Last time we were at the place, we wanted a shed. Shed's are useful for helping store stuff when not in use, they provide a nice home base. Shed prices have gone insane, just like everything else. For years we've been price shopping them.

Finally decided that it's got to be possible to just build our own for cheaper.

Can't build a shed with the wifes car and that's all we use to flat tow behind the motor home. So we scooped up an old farm truck and got that back to running order

Goal was about $3k, probably ended up $3.5k to be running and driving, and probably $4k all said and done.

1980 F350 Farm Truck Re-Build

Not sure if this should be here or in newb, wanting to take pictures so that I can keep track of various things. Feel free to move it if need be or flame the shit out of this thread and i'll move it myself :flipoff2: This just might be the worst truck ever and prices are so high, I've...

irate4x4.com

Now that there was a fullsize truck without a lumber rack, we'd need the trailer up there as well.

RV was already at it's limit with just the tow behind, did some asking about and settled on a 4.88 gear swap. Not real happy with how I did it, but it was successful and does seem to have helped significantly.

Helpful hints for newbies doing Dana 60 gear setup

Title kind of states the purpose of this thread: gathering helpful/expert hints for newbies that are attempting a Dana 60 gear setup. I've got a few areas I'm hoping to cover. I'm not intending to cover step by step how to do it. Needed tools outside of normal sockets and wrenches: micrometer...

irate4x4.com

Tow rig gear ratio

Not seeing anything in search. Curious what people are running, if you made changes etc Engine Trans Axle Tire Pretty much minimum standards for any post :flipoff2: Contemplating going from 4.1 to 4.8 in my class c, not sure if that's too aggressive compared to 4.5. Target weight is about...

irate4x4.com

Got loaded up, ultimately just unplugged the rear ABS tone ring/speedo and it helped significantly. Made the E4OD more of a manual shift, but that's fine.

Just a little overloaded is all.

Of course, need to verify i'm not planning to go down some screwball route.

Best place to cross the rocky mountains

Going from the bottom to the top, need to get from the east to the west of the continental divide. Plan currently is to use the antique motorhome pulling the cobbled trailer with the barely functioning truck on it. What is the easiest option on brakes and engine to get across? Central Texas...

irate4x4.com

Once everything had arrived, progress began on learning how to build a shed, turned out to be a pole barn style-esque shed

Cheap bastard TinyHome design, need some direction

Looking for some thoughts and feedback on a TinyHouse for the pickup to live in. Garage sort of thing, carport that attempts to keep the mice out. Pickup is about 8' wide and 19' long, so i'm thinking 16' wide and 24' long is a reasonable size. Is that too short for 20' of pickup? Trying to be...

irate4x4.com

and now i'm going to toss together some other pictures that I had on my phone.

This is looking back along the road, pretty sure we were the first ones to get this far along this season. this is on my neighbors, neighbors property. had to get out and walk a couple times to find the tracks in all the leafy greens. Clearly, I wasn't the only person to not send in $200 for "road maintenance"

playing around with the "wide angle" lens on my telephone. the 3 areas we cleared out with the chain last time were still well defined.

Parking lot, truck and trailer
Camp site, for the motorhome
Shed spot, next picture down

shed spot, really glad we had this cleared out already. Saved a significant amount of time. Just about none of the sage or chokecherry grew back.

first or second night, this Doe was curious about the RV and walked up to us. the next day, or so, when we were coming back up there was ~4 more mule deer up there. Always nice to see the animals out and about.

This picture pretty well sums up my wife the whole trip some people can't understand why we'd take a month long "vacation" and just work the whole time

mid/end of june weather was pretty awesome

10 file limit

 

[Wheelin66bronco]

If'n you ever need a hand, I'd come help you for a day here and there, or if there's tools you need but don't have.

 

[subybaja]

What are this? Not the wife, the posthole-drilling lawnmower. Am I missing the seat, or is it missing a seat?

 

[Provience]

did take some time off for things like laundry day in Soda Springs

and the Jr Rodeo at the newly updated Paris Rodeo Grounds

and of course, had to take some time to wander the property and see how green everything was during the green season. Everybody around the area was cutting and bundling hay while we were there.

If I were smarter, i'd find and use the DSLR camera, it makes pictures more fun than the telephone

and just barely able to see a waxing crescent moon

...

 

[Provience]

If'n you ever need a hand, I'd come help you for a day here and there, or if there's tools you need but don't have.

Thanks, I appreciate the offer! we ended up having all 3 sets of the kids grandparents come out and visit, variously. Made a little bit extra chaos to the whole event

What are this? Not the wife, the posthole-drilling lawnmower. Am I missing the seat, or is it missing a seat?

walk-behind gas powered auger. easier than a hand held style. 30" deep bit only netted my a little over 24" until the handles were on the ground. It worked okay/fine. saved some time, next time I need to make some holes i'm going to just use the breaker hammer with the spade bit and a manual post hole digger.

or a powered auger than can be forced down. skid steer/tractor style.

 

[Provience]

Solar stuff always generates some questions.

bought the panel in advance and used it as a battery tender for my truck while I was gone for most of 2023.

Renogy 50w solar battery tender install

Figured I'd put up a thread separate as there is a little bitt more general interest in the solar stuff. Bought a 50w renogy single panel kit with controller for $100. Prices have gone up on these, but it comes with everything ya need. Rkit59dst part number Controller and panels mounts and...

irate4x4.com

it worked well enough for that to fully justify the desired goal of having it be the battery tender for the truck at the property.

50W is pretty much "trickle charge" at it's best, the idea is that it will possibly help the battery survive, but not attempt to push too much juice to kill it it when it freezes during winter. Not sure how well it will all go, but it's a good new battery with as near zero draw so we'll find out in a year or two.

Wanted to mount the panel as close to the winter solstice zenith as I could figure. Thought I was at 40* north (actually at 42*) and figured the Tropics are at +/- 20* (actually 23*) which gave me 20* angle for summer sun and 60* for winter. Beings it was just the summer solstice, the quick 20* check was pretty close. Being within 5* going off memory, i'm happy with that. Why 60*? well, it really just needs a trickle charge, so no point in optimizing during the summer when the weather is decent. Sun and weather will be much worse in the winter, idea is to give it as much juice as possible for the short window.

with that angle set, needed to find South. My wife, in a strange episode of anxiety, decided it was intolerable chaos to have the building oriented N and S, so it's cattywampus to "the road" a little bit. Needed to figure out how much.

Ladder conveniently cast a clean line of a shadow. Didn't have a compass, so used a speed square aligned to the building and my watch. An analog watch makes an expensive and mostly accurate compass, with slight effort.

step 1) create a clear straight shadow

step 2) align the shadow with the current HOUR hand. Here i've got the center of the clock aligned with the pivot of the square, because I need numbers and not just direction.

It is important to know some things for this step. I know that sunrise is about 5am and sunset is about 9pm, because I pay a little attention. More accurate rise/set times will give greater accuracy if you are in need of a compass for a map. That tells me that the sun hits Zenith at 1pm (thanks, daylight savings time). Halfway between the shadow hour hand line and zenith is South. (you've got a 50/50 shot if you are facing about north or about south, but it should be easy to determine which way is roughly which )

step 3) use another straight edge, pencil in this case, and make a line between the pivot, the south and the angles listed on the square. Easier with 2 hands to do, hard to take a picture that way. Result gave me about 15* of building cant.

step 4) made a scrap wood frame for the panel and cut the 15 and 60 angles into some wood

step 5) the two cut pieces above aren't exactly how angles work, I made another piece for 1 to account for the mounting angle/beam/whatever

anyways, now it's in place and set for best exposure winter solstice. also a good angle to drop off snow, hopefully.

ran the lines inside and across to be on the proper side for the truck

nailed the charge controller into place

made some nail hook mounts for the battery terminal leads when not in use

...

 

[Provience]

put as much fuel into both tanks as i could, added a bunch of fuel stabilizer and backed it into the shed. This is why I wanted a carb engine with manual choke, converted to hood prop so that it was mechanically open. Took apart the air cleaner in hopes that the rodents won't find it "safe" in there. "military" style battery terminals so that I can easily bolt/unbolt the solar leads.

and how it sits.

I'm pretty sure i've got $5 or $5.5k into the shed, for all the materials, hardware and probably $6k to include the couple extra tools I ended up buying.

if we call it $6k for the shed, $4k for the truck, $750 for trailer repairs, $1k for stuff for the RV.....$12k invested to get a 10x24 building on the place.

not too bad, considering. it's also rated for the 110 lb ground PSF snow load. as long as it doesn't fall over, it should hold up



didn't think the drive home would be eventful, wife and kid both had a fever ~102-103* for the last couple days so just planned on cruising the highway.

literally smoked a wheel bearing

irate to the rescue

Need a wheel bearing outside abililene TX? North of aspermont on 83 by 380

1993 ford e350 dual rear wheel...anybody got a front left outer and possibly inner wheel bearing? It's let the magic smoke out Or if anybody wants to give me a ride to town :rasta: I've probably got enough tools to change it on the side if the road....need to get 220 more miles in the next...

irate4x4.com

Many of my tools were on the trailer. Rather than deal with straps and a bunch of loose tools, I put them together, covered in the beat up tarp, and nailed a bunch of scrap wood to the edges worked really well, used a knife to cut the tarp and get to the adjustable wrench. Then used tape to close it up, also worked real well

The chained boondoggle on the back has a different purpose. I didn't think the tools would weigh very much, so I just tossed them on there. Turns out, it was far worse tongue load than when I was overloaded with the truck chains and generator are the heaviest and easiest thing to move, so I put them at the far back of the trailer instead of previous near the hitch.

The trailer is also in rough shape after this past month, the chains going from the front of the tires to the rear of the trailer are significantly bracing the rear of the trailer, it was very floppy.

and that's about that.


next week, going to get back in touch with the county and see what more research he needs to determine if we are or are not on an existing named road. Goal for next time will be to get out there and see if we can make some progress on setting up a perimeter fence.

Wife has decided the F350 isn't a great side x side, we will be on the lookout for an old jeep/tracker/4runner something small and closer to 4 seats.

Modern Doodlebug

Driving along today, thinking about things. Not a current day project, but possibly a couple years from now project. I'm wagering I could make a doodlebug to do small tractor things for cheaper than a small tractor. Something like a pickup, hack the bed off, run a decent pto hydraulic pump...

irate4x4.com

yall agree that the modern doodlebug still doesn't pencil out, will also be casually looking for a small tractor as well. 0

 

[[486]]

Took apart the air cleaner in hopes that the rodents won't find it "safe" in there.

seal off the openings with tin
when you want to run it, flip the lid over upside down to allow air in

 

[Provience]

seal off the openings with tin
when you want to run it, flip the lid over upside down to allow air in

i'd kept telling myself to remember to seal off the exhaust as well...forgot to do that one

good thought on the air cleaner sealing for a long term solution

 

[JR4X]

i'd kept telling myself to remember to seal off the exhaust as well...forgot to do that one

good thought on the air cleaner sealing for a long term solution

When is your next return trip?

 

[Provience]

When is your next return trip?

as early as next year, end of june/start of july

possibly as late as 3 years from now. mostly depends on what's going on with work and such.

2026 is supposed to be the year that we are moving, not sure where to though, so that'd be out of the cards.

 

[JR4X]

as early as next year, end of june/start of july

possibly as late as 3 years from now. mostly depends on what's going on with work and such.

2026 is supposed to be the year that we are moving, not sure where to though, so that'd be out of the cards.

Now the BullNose makes a little more sense. Is the little lady happy that ugly ol SOB is out of her sight at home?

 

[Provience]

Now the BullNose makes a little more sense. Is the little lady happy that ugly ol SOB is out of her sight at home?

after using it to bash down some cow trails and make u-turns on single tracks, she started to come around to it's utility

I'm pretty sure she is happy to have it out of the yard here. My kid started calling it the "ROT" after the first week

Rickety
Old
Truck



I should actually see if I can get the old Scout from the wifes parents place out here this fall/winter. for the ~$1000 in gas and whatever it takes to get it back into decent condition, it'd probably be a good runabout for up there

everybody likes the scout

 

[KDXSR5]

If you want someone to go over and seal up the exhaust/intake and check things over before winter, I could help out. I am on the western side of Wyoming a couple times a month (projects from Jackson down to Cokeville) with a 2 month hiatus starting now (we are having a baby next week, so I am not traveling for a couple months). Let me know and I'm sure we can get a trip arranged.

Kudos to you guys for taking on this adventure. My wife and I have been looking at land for the last couple years to develop. Just a matter of time, money, and finding the right property. I'm hesitant to pull the trigger due to the fact that if I move up any higher in my company, I'll probably have to move to Colorado. I don't want to get too deep into something here just to abandon it.

 

[Provience]

If you want someone to go over and seal up the exhaust/intake and check things over before winter, I could help out. I am on the western side of Wyoming a couple times a month (projects from Jackson down to Cokeville) with a 2 month hiatus starting now (we are having a baby next week, so I am not traveling for a couple months). Let me know and I'm sure we can get a trip arranged.

Kudos to you guys for taking on this adventure. My wife and I have been looking at land for the last couple years to develop. Just a matter of time, money, and finding the right property. I'm hesitant to pull the trigger due to the fact that if I move up any higher in my company, I'll probably have to move to Colorado. I don't want to get too deep into something here just to abandon it.

I appreciate the offer, I think I'll take the pandoras box option though and enjoy the mystery until we get up there next time.

It's been a huge benefit to my mental health and my dad's as well.

My dad came out and was in absolutely the worst shape I've ever seen him. He's got probably half a year before he is retired or forced retired or whatever done working. He rode one of his project bikes 2 days out no prep to get there. Looked bad first thing I said to him was "want me to take you to the hospital?"

Swollen all over, skin dried out and cracking. Hands looked near some of the worse ones from too much cement and no gloves, split and bleeding skin all over.

He was supposed to be out for a week and giving a hand with the shed, spent 2 days recovering and then ride back home I guess gout is the claim and he has some drugs for it now. I dunno, seemed severe whatever it is.

Anyways, if he hadn't come out, he probably would've had to fall over at work in front of somebody to get to the hospital. Even just a couple days gives a reason to see that there is other things and other people outside work and misery. Doing stuff like that makes you full aware you need to take care of yourself.

I've been using the shed build for the last few years to distract myself and stay focused on something. Most of the times, just need an anything to help out.


As for the truck, it's the worst f350 ever made, so I doubt anybody would steal it and joyride it any further than the property line. There isn't anything the mice can do to damage it that can't be fixed with the small tool set I left there with it and the roll of wire.

I'm pretty sure the heater core is leaking, according to the floorboards and inside of the window, which means there is a good chance that it is a giant poison trap

Throw out the sear covers and hose it down with bleach and the inside is back to show room