Dan & Ned's Weekend Project

Dan traded for this truck way back before Christmas....It needed a "little" work. Three months later we finally got it home. Dan and Ned have spent endless hours discussing their plans for their truck. Weekly phone calls to our mechanic...anticipating the big day...Well the big day finally got here last week. That means that this past weekend was the first weekend of many projects. Saturday afternoon I was a "helper". Not much time to take photos. Sunday was different, with camera in hand I chronicled the days events.


The "truck" .....


First order of business was to take the box bed off....

Many years ago Dan bought a 'box bed' that came off a truck and we used it for our feed/tack room in the barn. It was 14' long. It worked out nicely....there were no complaints...but then Dan bought a truck with a 24' box....time to expand! The area where the box set was exactly the right size! 2" bigger and it wouldn't have worked.....Taking it off was interesting! It involved a chain hoist, jacks and a lot of holding my breath hoping it didn't crash to the ground.

It's off and the chain hoist has been used to pull it into place...with only about six feet to go we must now move to Plan A. This involved using a beam placed behind the truck and pushing the box into place. Dan's driving, Ned's directing....Come on back...

Okay Ned get out of the way....

Okay, lets give her a try...


Nothing! Nada! Nil! With no weight on the back end of the truck the tires just spun in the arena dirt....

Okay, lets come up with plan B....How about putting the beam on the front bumper and pushing it?



Front bumper looks strong enough....

Let's give it a try....



It would have been simple to pull the truck outside and turn around and come back in....but Kelly missed the manuever on Saturday night when the only way to get the big truck out was to inch it forward and back with Ned on one end yelling WHOA and me on the other end yelling WHOA and Dan in the driver's seat barely paying attention to either of us. So Dan thought he would show her how he did it.....

Up and back, up and back...


15 minutes later and we're almost there....


Preparing for Plan B.....

So far, so good...




The dove that has taken up residence in our barn decided not to watch....


She was wise...now we're on to Plan C!

This involves taking tin off the back of the barn and pulling it in with the truck....

Hurry up Ned....here comes the truck.....

Got to get the truck in just the right spot....

Finish getting the tin off....



Back the truck up and hook onto the chain....

talking it over one more time....


ready for action.....





so far so good.....

hold it.....



it's pulling too much toward the wall....but we're almost there....



unimpressed bystanders.....


FINALLY!!! Right where we wanted it....


Perfect...


Good job guys...let's nap!


Gotta put the tin back on....

Just like it was....



Nap? Did somebody say nap?

Don't you just love watching other people work?