Broken farm equipment
2 November 2009
Sometimes farming Kona coffee is cool, other times it really sucks. My
latest headache is all the broken equipment. Even though much of the
farm work and all of the coffee picking is done by hand, there's still plenty
of equipment to break and it always seems to break at once.
The list of farm equipment that is currently broken includes the
tractor, the mower, the manure spreader, the weed whacker, all the
trailers and my truck.
The tractor being broken is nothing new. I
got the tractor working after the last overhaul then tried to sell it but apparently
I've complained about it too much on this website so nobody wants to buy
it. It was all clean and shiny too. At least it was until I had to
use it again. And now it's broken again.
I was moving some rocks and mulch around when the steering gave out.
In order to drive in a straight line I have to slowly turn the steering
wheel constantly to the right. It's the hydraulic steering cylinder
that's bad. A new cylinder is $220. A rebuild kit, containing a
couple little o-rings, is $25. I'm going to try the rebuild kit first
and hopefully I won't need a whole new cylinder. The rebuild kit
should arrive in a couple days.
The mower still works but only sometimes. It's the starter that is
causing problems on the mower. Occasionally it will spin without
cranking the motor. I can't get at the starter enough to see exactly
what's going on and if I remove the starter that's a guarantee that it
will work fine. So I'm going to wait until it breaks a little more
before I try to fix it. Hopefully it just needs to be cleaned.
Hopefully.
The manure spreader is what I'm working on now. We just had the
largest round of harvesting that we've ever had. The harvest wasn't
all that big, it was actually depressingly small, what made it seem big is
the number of pickers we had. We normally only have five or six
pickers here at a time and that limits how much coffee cherry we get per
day. This time the local mill was closed and since I pulp my own coffee,
all the pickers showed up here. It was like a giant party with cars
parked everywhere. They picked almost the entire farm in a single day.
All that coffee went into my pulper and all the discarded pulp went into the
manure spreader. I was careful to not get it too full because I didn't
want the axle to bend or break. The axle held up fine, instead it was
the chain drive that broke. Of course it snapped when totally full,
it's not like it would break when sitting there empty. Luckily I had a
couple helpers that day, John and Matt. They both got shovels while I
drove the truck. Good deal!
After emptying and cleaning out the manure spreader I disassembled it so I
could get at the broken part. The chain snapped not just because
it was old and rusty but because it was attached to gear that was so
old and rusty that it had seized in place. Penetrating oil, pipe
wrenches, pry bar, heating it with a torch, pounding it repeatedly with
a sledge hammer... nothing worked. Finally I cut the thing off and
took it down to the local machine shop to get a new one fabricated.
When it's ready, hopefully soon, I'll weld it back on then reassemble
everything. If all goes well the trailer will be working in time for
the next round of harvesting. Hopefully.
Next on the list is the weed whacker. Little two cycle engines are
almost always temperamental and this one is no exception. Lately it's
been refusing to start. Sometimes it will start but not have any
power. I think it just needs a good cleaning. Instead, I decided to
set it in the barn and hope that it cleans itself. That's worked
before. A little time out will sometimes correct its attitude problems.
I own several different trailers and they're all broken in one way or
another. Most of the trailers need some welding before they can be
used again. They're sitting out back waiting for them to weld
themselves. In addition to needing some welding, the little ATV
trailer also has two flat tires. They're so flat they came off the
rims so I can't simply inflate them again. Rather than haul the trailer
to a garage to remount the tires, I've decided to let it sit there and
rust. That'll teach it.
My big trailer still works fine, I just have to shovel out its load of dirt
so I can take it to be registered. Renewing the registration costs
$57.25 plus the inspection fee and all the hassle. A ticket for no
registration costs $70. It's tempting to risk the ticket.
The scariest item on the list is my truck. I need the truck so I have
to keep it running. Recently it has started acting up at odd times,
like it's going to stutter and die. I'd suspect something simple like
a fuel filter or condensation in the tank except that the check engine
light is also on. I looked up the error code and it says "Internal
Control Module Memory Check Sum Error." Unplugging the battery to
reset the computer didn't help. I checked at the dealership and the price of a new
control module is more than $1000. Stupid truck.
You can help fix all my farm equipment. The best way to help is to buy
some of our Kona coffee. Buy lots and lots of coffee. Then go buy
some more coffee for your friends. The holidays are coming up soon,
I'm sure you know someone that would like some fresh 100% Kona coffee.
If not, maybe you know someone that would like to buy a used Chinese
tractor.
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