2011 at the Hammond Barn

[RHClarke]

Saturday morning saw our first frost, and we have not yet reached the end of summer! It took a few minutes to find the snow scraper/brush in my garage, but it is now a necessity. After removing the frost on my car I headed to the barn for some early morning metal work. Upon arrival I noted with interest that the annual migration of the geese has started already. Winter is not that far off it seems - the temp hit -3 oC just north of us last night. What a country.

The first task this morning was to clean up the alternator mounting bracket that Bob and I fabbed up. After some careful grinding and sandblasting I painted the bracket and hung it outside in the sun to dry. The temp had risen enough and would eventually hit 14 oC by noon. Bob arrived at the barn a little later in the morning sporting a turkey feather in his hat. We decided to do a little clean up near the metal scrap pile. Useable CMP parts were loaded into Bob's trailer and taken to the winter storage area. The Marsden Matting was also moved to a more convenient location.

After that fun, I pulled the wheels off the HUP to check for rust. As expected there was some rust on the rims but nothing that a quick sanding and repaint didn't fix. Once the paint dried, the wheels went back on the truck. The alternator bracket had dried by this time so Bob and I adjusted the bracket and mounted the alternator. The fan belt was lengthened to accept the alternator and we test ran the engine.

Photos:
1 - Frost!
2 - Geese migrating early
3 - The Chief
4 - Alternator finally in place

[RHClarke]

Bob drove his truck out of its storage container and attached his home made radiator strut. It took some adjustment, but Bob got it in place. The next challenge was to stop the leaking fuel bowl. It seems that the cork gasket dries if not in use, so a new gasket was found and installed. After letting the trucks warm up a bit, we decided to go for a spin in our trucks. We drove to the large field for some fun - a short trip of about 500 meters. On the way there we got some interesting stares from the local traffic.

At the field we tested out the 2 and 4 wheel drive features of our trucks. Bob took a tour of the back 40 and returned with a better appreciation for seat belts. After a few attempts to reach the top of the wood chip pile, we headed back to the barn for some clean up. The trip back was very quick. I had just shifted into third gear and had to brake fairly hard to make the turn into Bob's driveway. Bob was able to get up to fourth gear before braking for the turn. I have no idea of how fast we went, but the roar of the engine, the sound of the gears whining and the wind made the experience quite exciting. Bob and I parked the trucks and after a few moments we managed to settled down enough to get back to work on various projects.

Later in the day Grant arrived to work on setting up his radiator. I pulled out my tool kit from a storage tent only to find that the rain had somehow made its way into the tool box. It should be noted that the tool box was covered by a tarp. How it got into the box is beyond me, but I shouldn't have been surprised as the rain in this part of the country sometimes falls sideways. The water left most of my tools with a nice rusty coating. So the next hour was spent sorting tools to be cleaned and those to be tossed. Fortunately, most of the tools were salvageable. After an hour at the wire brush the tools were oiled and stored for more cleaning at the next visit. By this time it was getting late and I headed for home. It was a good drive home but not as fun as driving the HUP. I'm still smiling!

Photos:

1 - Strut installed on Bob's truck (just behind the rad)
2 - The wood chip pile at the Hammond CMP Testing Establishment
3 - Hammond rain has several effects - rusty tools
4 - Tools after a quick brushing

[RHClarke]

The weather this morning was more seasonal than the last few mornings, so with nothing better to do, I spent the morning at the Hammond Barn. The tasks this morning included finish cleaning up my rusty tools, and to install the rear fender to running board connector plates (that's what I call them anyway). The plates attach to the end rail of the running board and to the fender itself. A quick check of the Prototype HUP surprised me - both the front and rear fenders attach directly to the running boards. The 45 HUP only has the rear fenders attached to the running boards. I guess this gives the 45 a little more flexibility going cross country.

Back to the job - the fenders were not too cooperative. Not surprising as they were bent, twisted and torn up when I got the HUP. They now look good, but there was some twisting when they got repaired that made the installation of the plates more of a challenge.

The trick to installing the plates was to use force. The fenders were unbolted from the frame to allow for some movement. The plates were attached to the running board by four bolts and nuts. The running board was raised by using a jack and this generally lined up the screw holes in the top of the plate and on the fender. Four large slotted round headed machine screws were attached through the fender and then through the plate by four nuts. This made the plate draw the fender to it and the fender actually looks properly lined up.

Once the jack was removed, the fender bolts were retightened, and the job was complete.

Photos:
1- The plate
2- The fender layout
3- Front view
4- Back view
5- New artwork at the Barn (part of the Hammond Art Appreciation Program)

[Bob Carriere]

Grant finaly mated his the cab 13 to his frame......

We pushed the rolling frame out of the barn....... brought the tractor with the bottom half of the cab with the tractor bucket...... laid it on the floor...hoisted it with the overhead crane..... pushed the frame back under and lowered.....voila...... well it did take a little longer than that...... Grant will have it running in no time.....

Ooops forgot the pics....

[Bob Carriere]

.....alwasy better with pcis...

[Bob Carriere]

We get the odd visitors at the Hammond barn..... some are nice others are real turkeys......

They had a lot of balls a week before Thanksgiving weekend


...... granted we had corn on the ground but even with the nosie we made they came back 3 or four times after being scrared away by our activities....

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Bob

That looks like feed on the ground in front of them, are you try to get them to hang around?

Cheers Phil

2nd read I spotted the foot note about the corn