October 2021 - 28

NOTES FROM THE FARM
Machine maintenance proceeds amid world's woes
JERRY MILLS
Mills Apple Farm
jerry@millsapplefarm.com
6. The track came off by blocking it
up and sliding the track over the
top of the sprocket hub. The rest of
the track followed.
These are strange times. Too hot
everywhere, too dry in many places,
too wet some places, bumper crops here,
no crops there, huge fires, floods, cyclones
and hurricanes, ice melting, oceans rising.
Not just here, but all over the world.
All while the medics fight a worldwide
pandemic with millions of people sick
and hundreds of thousands dying.
History tells us we have had plagues
and floods, and certainly fires, but all at
the same time? There was a plague in
the Dark Ages that wiped out half the
population of Europe, and there were
400 years of cooler than normal
temperature when the atmosphere was
clouded with smoke or debris from
a meteor strike, or a volcano, but we
survived.
The difference, I guess, is that the early
calamities happened spontaneously one at
a time, and people had no big machines
to make them worse. It is not quite the
same now, and there are many more of us.
Old track loader tracks replaced, a DIY project at Mills Apple Farm, Marine, Illinois. Not
hard if you know what you are doing. Photo: Jerry Mills
Speaking of machines, I think I have
found the perfect tool for leveling ruts
and filling mud holes in the orchards.
Quick Attach is a small company in
Minnesota that makes implements
for skid loaders. My newest is a slick
bulldozer blade with leveling wheels on
the front. The blade turns from side to
side with controls inside the cab. This
allows moving material from one side of
a road to the other.
The wheels extending on the front
work the same as a road grader, allowing
the blade to grade perfectly level. I had
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16 | VegetableGrowersNews.com
Danville Industries
124 West Main, Harper, KS 67058
620-896-7126 * Fax (620) 896-7192
View other products at
www.danvillenodrift.com
Email: danvilleind20@gmail.com
never before been able to do this.
My procedure is to level the ruts as
much as possible with a rototiller on the
front of the track loader, then bring in
a mixture of rocks and soil and dump
it, then grade back and forth with the
bulldozer, moving and packing the
mixture until there is a firm level base.
A sprinkle of 1.5-inch rock over the top
should do it.
I hope to cobble up a homemade
picking platform for picking fruit and
pruning fruit trees. If people are going to
work on it, that aisle will have to be level
and solid. Stay tuned.
Have you ever wondered how to
change the tracks on a track loader? This
is how my son and I did it. (Mostly son.)
Our loader tracks wore out at 2,500
hours. It seems as if I had just purchased
that loader new. Track people say 2,000
hours is normal, so we did get an extra
500 hours. Fortunately, the new tracks
were less expensive than a new set of
wheels with foam in them. Cost was just
over $2,000.
This is how we changed the tracks on a
Caterpillar track loader. First, you should
know that a cylinder full of grease on
each side keeps the tracks tight.
The first thing is to loosen the tracks,
and this is how we did it.
1. Blocked up the machine so the
tracks were several inches above
the floor.
2. Opened small plates on the beams
between each side wheel to access
the grease fitting on the cylinder
inside the beam. Unscrewing the
grease fitting allows grease to
escape before the fitting is off. Do
not remove the fitting entirely.
3. An easy way to compress the
tracks is to fasten a nylon strap
around them and tighten it using
the strap wind-up mechanism.
Grease will squirt out as the
cylinder is compressed. The front
wheel will retract about 2 inches.
4. Elevate and block the track off the
drive sprocket.
5. We used penetrating oil and a large
impact wrench to unscrew the
bolts on the sprocket. A few blows
from a heavy hammer loosened
the sprocket. It almost dropped off.
7. Switched the sprockets from one
side to the other at this time, so we
did not forget. Switching evens out
the wear on the sprocket from the
new track.
8. To install the new track, we
slid it over and under the track
rails, blocked up the track to
allow replacing the opposite side
sprocket, and removed blocks to
lower track onto the sprocket.
9. Scooped out excess grease,
tightened grease fittings, refilled
cylinder with grease until tracks
were tight.
10. Lowered loader, started engine
and ran a short distance to set the
tracks. Used more grease to tighten
again. Ran a second time to attain
the sag in the track specified in the
operators' manual, and we were
finished. We just saved a bunch of
money by not having a technician
come out to do it for us.
Ominous news from the Atlantic
Ocean. In September climate scientists
warned there is a serious threat that
the Atlantic Ocean Gulf Stream, which
pumps warm water from the Gulf of
Mexico up our East Coast, east past
Greenland and Iceland, and then south
offshore from Ireland, Great Britain and
France, may be diverted or slowed due to
changes in water temperatures.
This would affect weather and
temperatures drastically over all
of northwestern Europe, as well as
northeastern U.S. and Canada, and
probably much of the rest of the world.
Even more reason to get after climate
change.
Gulf diversion not the first time. The
first time this has happened was in early
1944, during World War II. The German
Nazis secretly built an underwater dam
off our East Coast and diverted the Gulf
Stream in an effort to hamper the Allied
war effort.
Within six weeks, snow completely
buried Ireland, Great Britain had heavy
snow and blizzards, the English Channel
almost froze solid, France came to a stop
with ice and snow, and all canals froze,
and Spaniards and Portuguese people
were suffering from lack of warm clothing.
Something drastic had to be done.
In desperation, the Allies called in
Superman and he saved the world. He
flew through the air, scanning the ocean
with his X-ray eyes, spotted the problem,
took a deep breath, dove into the water,
destroyed the dam and then braced
himself and single-handedly diverted the
Gulf Stream back to its original course.
I have wondered to this day, what does
one push against when in water, pushing
against water, and how does one person
move so much water without a bucket.
However, this part is all true. I read it in
the comics. VGN

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October 2021

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