Rebirth of Monster Mudder

What Energy Bar

I was wandering what hot spring you frequent or energy bar you eat. It just astounds me how you continue to produce with such vigor and stamina. I've been getting up at 4:00 A.M. and going to bed at 8:00 P.M. It takes at least 1.5hrs in the day to take care of animals and go to the bathroom. No way I could hang with ya.

poster board, it's not just for whiny protesting snowflakes

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That is golden and all original right there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bodacious said:

I was wandering what hot spring you frequent or energy bar you eat. It just astounds me how you continue to produce with such vigor and stamina. I've been getting up at 4:00 A.M. and going to bed at 8:00 P.M. It takes at least 1.5hrs in the day to take care of animals and go to the bathroom. No way I could hang with ya.

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x2!
Wake up at 5am, to bed by 10-10:30pm. 8-10 hrs of work with a one hour drive on each side, then go home, spend some family time, then work on things. I feel like I'd need another 8 hours in the day to get done what he gets done!

lol, I'm actually limiting calorie intake to 1600 calories a day or trying to atleast, want to drop another 60lbs and get down to 200lbs. Lost about 10 of those lbs so far. I get up about 6am or so and overslept this morning till 6:45, I don't have a set work time at work, but when I go into the office (50 minute drive), I get there usually between 7 and 7:30 unless I wake up on my own earlier which I do at times, if no driving then I brew a pot of coffee at the house and start working after a few sips of go juice. Usually work my day job till 4pm and leave Tulsa so I miss rush hour. If I'm home, and it's a night my wife works, I quit at 3:30 and spend some time with her while she's getting around to head to work. So the nights my wife works, I can do pretty much whatever I need to till I'm too tired to do it any more and then crash. I normally fall asleep around midnight.

Kids are all adults now and have jobs and go to college, etc... I made it mandatory for them all to be here Saturday though, we have a lot of crap filled dirt to move. Soaker hose zones to setup and establish, mulch to put down.... plants started and put into the little green house.

I don't like sitting still, never have. I can't just sit in front of the TV and do nothing. I'm always on the puter researching or doing something on it or reading a book or on my phone doing something. Used to drive my wife nuts, but I think she's finally gotten used to it. Worst times for me was the 8 years I lived out in South Carolina in town in a rental house... bored out of my gord till I hauled my 69 camero out there and started dismantling it and sand blasting it in my little 2 car garage and coating it in epoxy primer or building stuff with the little 110 mig I bought. Still remember using my sawsall and about 100 blades cutting 3/8" plate steel for my workbench top. That kept me busy for a while cutting a 4x8 piece down to 3x6.

I always have projects lined up a mile long to do out at the house and I'm trying to get the american legion post I'm a member of website built for them. Also have 2 other people that want me to build and host websites for them... I need to clone myself.

My son and I made a new tool last night, needs a little fine tuning but think it will work till I can get me a real bead roller one of these days. Should be able to get a workable bead around all that aluminum tubing so the clamps don't slip off.

NakeDiesel said:

So the nights my wife works, I can do pretty much whatever I need to till I'm too tired to do it any more and then crash.

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You know, not that you say that. My wife used to work opposite hours to me and I got a LOT more done. Now days she wants to hang out, or watch a TV show, or have a few drinks. Not a bad thing, but I definitely have less time. :lolly:

Yeah, when she's off, I only spend maybe an hour out in the shop and spend more time with her or we go do something.

Tonight, got the boards cut for the center braces for all 5 boxes and we got the 4th box built and supports in the 4 completed planters, that took us to darkness then went out to the shop and put my new home made tool to work making some beads around aluminum pipe for my water lines. Cut the last few pieces I needed for the supply side and then removed each piece and made a bead around each end and then put it together and clamped them down. Hopefully I got enough of a bead and clamped tight enough they won't leak. Out of 24' of aluminum tubing, I had a 2' piece left over.

Didn't get much accomplished on the truck tonight, at least not as much as I wanted too. Was outside from 4:30 till dark working on the planters, got 3 of them lined on the inside walls with plastic to help retain moisture and protect the boards a little bit. Also got the 5th box all cut and put together. Renting a dump trailer tomorrow, picking up 4 yards of mulch in the bed and then 5 or so yards of garden soil for the first trip and then making a second trip to pick up another load in the trailer. Going to have to dump them in the yard tomorrow, then after I haul the two loads from an hour away each trip, going up to my area I feed the cows hay and digging up hopefully 3 trailers full of crappy dirt. Saturday will use my front end loader to hopefully fill all of the boxes up.

On the truck, got the radiator system filled up with water/antifreeze, only leak I found was the front cap at the top of the return on the engine, the gasket had gotten bent where it wasn't sealing. Once I fixed that, went to turn on the water pump and it was blowing fuses. After some gently persuasion from a BFH, it started working again. Still sounds like it's grinding marbles when it runs, but it still works.

Filled up the fuel cell and ran the fuel pumps getting the whole system filled and pressurized. Found a leak on a return fitting up at the engine after the pressure regulator, it just hadn't been tightened.

Finally broke down and labeled my switch panel.

The last thing I accomplished was taking the rear main brake line loose, routing it over the transmission crossmember and tying it to the big bundle of hoses. Across the back, used wire clamps and tied it to the c channel. Still need to zip tie it to the u bolts at each end then it will be done.

Didn't realize how off center or crooked some of those labels were till I looked at the picture. Maybe I'll break out my engraver and engrave the labels under each switch.

Well, I leave in a month for Indy and still not finished with the truck or my taxes or my garden.... Didn't work on the truck a whole lot over the last 4 or 5 days since I've been concentrating on getting the new garden boxes together, filled with dirt and planted. I was off friday, so I rented a 7x14 bumper pull dump trailer and bought 8 yards of "garden soil", wasn't impressed with it. I then hauled another 5 loads from my hay feeding area. Saturday we had all the kids on hand and we filled all 5 new boxes and topped off the old ones with dirt. Out of 48 or so yards, I have maybe 2 left. We then spead 3 yards of cedar mulch in the area and today I picked up another 2 yards of cedar mulch and finished up all of the area to give them a good covering. Yesterday, got potatoes, onions, garlic, green beans, peas and corn planted in the new boxes.

On the truck front, got the shifter bracket installed and cable, both drive shafts are now in the truck, sanded, cleaned and washed will metal prep them tomorrow and paint them tomorrow night. 4x4 shifter is installed, and driveline speed sensor is installed too. The water lines are clamped with rubber covered cable clamps to the frame, more wires and lines tied up with zip ties and organized. Dug out one bedside tonight and cleaned it front and back getting all the mud and dirt off of it.

Gave my granddaughter turbo her first tractor rid saturday

Have you thought about AN line for the radiator?

Did you build your own traction bars or buy a kit and weld them up? Yours look similar to ruffstuffs diy kit i was looking at

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yes, I thought about an line for the radiator lines, but think the route I went might be just a little lighter than all hose. But who knows.

I bought my traction bar kit from Chassis Unlimited, It's their Universal HD traction bar kit. Came with everything but the DOM tubing. I bought the DOM locally. I was able to buy full lengths of DOM cheaper than it was going to cost to buy just what I needed for the traction bars and have it shipped. I welded it all together myself.

That's awesome. I'm planning on making some raised beds this year. I want to have them completely off the ground though, that way there's less chance of weeds and anything I don't want in there getting in.
Also, I'm going to do about 1/4 of what you did.

I like the 'H' design though!

I like the H design too, but I was crunched for time and having my son build them, so it was just easier and fewer cuts to make the rectangular boxes. With the weed mat down, we don't get anything coming up through the ground in the boxes, we do get a bit of grass that we pluck out as it grows, but that's from the dirt I used in the boxes. They are easy to keep grass/weed free though. Those 5 new boxes was 900.00 in lumber, screws, plastic, staples and weed matting. But they should last a long time.

NakeDiesel said:

I like the H design too, but I was crunched for time and having my son build them, so it was just easier and fewer cuts to make the rectangular boxes. With the weed mat down, we don't get anything coming up through the ground in the boxes, we do get a bit of grass that we pluck out as it grows, but that's from the dirt I used in the boxes. They are easy to keep grass/weed free though. Those 5 new boxes was 900.00 in lumber, screws, plastic, staples and weed matting. But they should last a long time.

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$900 is actually less than I was thinking. I was going to tear up the ground, put some coregated tubing for drainage, fill, weed mat, mulch (with a 6x6 barrier around it all). Then do 4x4 posts, 2x12 wallls, and 2x6 floors with metal supports. Spray the inside with a rubber and drill holes to let it drain slowly.

Got any advice now that you've gone through it all?

Man, you are way over thinking this in my opinion. I used some cheap railroad ties I picked up at an auction for a buck apiece for my border around the garden. Put weed mat down and set the open boxes on top of that. no floors in the boxes. I lined the sides of the boxes with some 4 mil plastic sheeting that I stapled on the sides and then trimmed at the top. I still have to put the top rail over the new boxes. I just cut 2x4's at 45 degree angles to create a rail you could comfortably sit on while working or picking.

I bought bulk cedar mulch this year. 35.00 a yard and used 5 yards to cover the whole large area. The old area had cypress mulch and so I put a thinner layer over that area and filled in where it was gone or thinned out. The problem I see with letting the boxes drain slowly, is that if you get a gully washer rain like we can get here (2 inches or more at a time), those boxes are going to be a swamp and that will kill off the plants. With them being elevated, not sure of a good way to regulate water levels in them. You might put a large drain pipe halfway up with the ability to keep them from being full of sitting water. You would need some kind of filter media over the drain holes and pipes to keep from plugging them and loosing soil.

As a side note, was doing some searching on the interweb and came across the Three sisters... The indians used to plant corn, and a climbing bean. The beans would climb up the corn and then they planted squash on the ground around them for ground cover. Think I'm going to try that in the raised bed I planted the corn in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(agriculture)

Very nice work on those raised beds. They look very nice!

Thanks.

Busy day and evening. Spent about 4 hours today getting the soaker hoses setup for the old and new boxes. Got them all done and all the boxes watered. I still have a ton of soaker parts left, including 4 new 100' rolls of soaker hose I bought. Think I will attempt to rig up soaker hoses for my wifes flower bed at the front of the house at some point.

On the truck, got the driveshafts painted and brake calipers. Then worked on cleaning the inside and outside of the bed sides and got them bolted on tonight. It's starting to look like a truck again.

Late getting home tonight, so I planted a few things out in the garden, ate supper and then headed to the shop. Finally got around to changing the oil on the truck and added oil to the injection pump. Then I started making new rear bed cross braces out of 1" x 1/4" aluminum strap instead of the 1 1/2" x 1/4" steel bars. Should shave a few more lbs off the truck. Got the new bars cut to size, ends rounded and holes drilled. Then sanded them some with 400 grit and shot some clear coat on them to see if that keeps them from staining. Also got the front loop / ujoint shield bolts in, just need to space it and tighten it down.

NakeDiesel said:

Man, you are way over thinking this in my opinion. I used some cheap railroad ties I picked up at an auction for a buck apiece for my border around the garden. Put weed mat down and set the open boxes on top of that. no floors in the boxes. I lined the sides of the boxes with some 4 mil plastic sheeting that I stapled on the sides and then trimmed at the top. I still have to put the top rail over the new boxes. I just cut 2x4's at 45 degree angles to create a rail you could comfortably sit on while working or picking.

I bought bulk cedar mulch this year. 35.00 a yard and used 5 yards to cover the whole large area. The old area had cypress mulch and so I put a thinner layer over that area and filled in where it was gone or thinned out. The problem I see with letting the boxes drain slowly, is that if you get a gully washer rain like we can get here (2 inches or more at a time), those boxes are going to be a swamp and that will kill off the plants. With them being elevated, not sure of a good way to regulate water levels in them. You might put a large drain pipe halfway up with the ability to keep them from being full of sitting water. You would need some kind of filter media over the drain holes and pipes to keep from plugging them and loosing soil.

As a side note, was doing some searching on the interweb and came across the Three sisters... The indians used to plant corn, and a climbing bean. The beans would climb up the corn and then they planted squash on the ground around them for ground cover. Think I'm going to try that in the raised bed I planted the corn in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(agriculture)

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Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll go that route and see if I can get some ties for cheap. I actually have quite a few, but they're old and ugly and I was going to use them for a 'floating' gun target!

Maybe I'll make a few small test setups with different drainage to get it right. Maybe some gravel, a 1" opening between wood floor, and some corrugated tubing with sleeve over it. I really like the idea of not having to rebuild these for 10+ years.

My evening of working on the truck started off with us loosing power for an hour or more, so I worked on the truck under power of an led light till the power came back on.

Got the traction bars on the truck, still loose, won't tighten them up till I get the truck done and can start taking weights and can adjust them. Found I was missing one of the mis alignment spacers for the large heim joint on one of the traction bars. Will order a new one tomorrow.

Had to sand the back bed supports as we got runs with the clear coat and repainted them. Also finished up putting the front ujoint shield and driveshaft loop on and then installed the rear ujoint shield as well. Changed the oil in the transfer case and added 2 gallons to the transmission. Will add more once I get the truck started to finish filling it up.

Installed the rear tires on the truck and ready to drop the back onto the tires so I can raise the front up and get the location for the limit strap mounts I measured from again and then I can get those on the truck.

Once the clear coat dried, I mounted the rear cross bed brace onto the truck. Also removed all the tape and paper off of everything I'd covered on the truck to protect them while I was putting things together