Monday, Nov. 5, 2012, Guerneville, CA.
Today was the day to get some road work done with the Dozer.
Today was the day to get the Bulldozer going, cross the highway and work on the family ranch roads a bit. Of course, waking the beast is usually easier said than done. I put about six gallons of transmission fluid in the transmission and it looked like it said full on the stick.
Also had to adjust the track tension on both tracks as they were a bit loose. Luckily for me, that just means pumping up the adjusters with a grease gun. Got that done and was ready to try the key. Turned it and only a spark from the positive battery terminal. Cleaned that up and tried it again and it fired right up. Warmed it up and crossed the highway without incident. I’ve found that if I cross the highway when it’s not too hot, I don’t tear the asphalt up too much.
I noticed the tractor would stop going every once in awhile so, I figured I must have miss-read the oil gauge or something. I got to this point and it wouldn’t go anymore, so had to walk home, about a half mile and get one of my brothers to haul me and some transmission oil up to the tractor.
Below is a picture of the Bulldozer at the point where I had to add some more transmission oil.
After adding the oil, things worked much better and I worked my way up the hill. I took a little break at the point below. Too busy working most of the time to get pictures of me in action, and besides that isn’t so easy to do while running a bulldozer.
The below picture is a little dark, but it shows the Bulldozer just after I cleaned up a slide at a water spring on the hill side.
After cleaning up this spring I moved up the road a ways and cleaned up a big slide on the ridge road, which took me about an hour. I was egger to finish because I wanted to get the bulldozer back down the hill before it got too dark, which I just barely did.
That was a good start today, I still have another day or two to finish this job. Just a lot of little touch up here and there and pushing a lot of big down trees off the roads. It’s real scenic up there in the hills, so the work isn’t too bad.
Just got some dinner together and now resting up for the night to tackle the job again tomorrow.
Had a nice day.
