Beautiful day here in WNY on saturday. Low to mid 50's, full sun, and almost no wind. Had to take advantage of it to give my truck it's annual gas up and put on the plow. Putting on the plow turned out to be a much larger operation than it should have been. The last couple of years it has gone pretty smooth but this time it was a bear. Nothing would line up to get the pins in. Pry it this way and that and it would be either too high, too forward, or too much back. Finally got the main pins in but the side plates would not line up. After a bunch of wasted effort, I realized that the lift cylinder was not compressed far enough and that was the hold up. That bugger is so stiff that even if I stand on it, it will not go down. Got a 18" monkey wrench from the tool box and hooked it on the arm. With the truck key on and the MRS. holding the spring loaded control switch in the down position, the extra leverage from the wrench did the trick. Well at least it was a nice day outside. I was trying to work a sweat there. Parked the truck and just before I shut it off, tried to angle the plow back and forth. No move. Jump a little, but no move. Acted like a hydraulic lock. Checked the center pivot pin and it seemed loose enough. Long story short, found the hose to one angle cylinder uncoupled. Now, that would do it all right. Cleaned things up, hooked it back up, and all works fine. Because I was not able to keep things string trimmed this past summer, some tough weeds had grown up around the plow. My only guess is that they were wrapped around that hyd. coupling and released it when I raised the plow.
Sunday brought even warmer temps than Saturday. but some wind and rain as well. Not a terrible day but not another Saturday for sure. Heard the wind a few times overnight and maybe a little rain shower early, but dry and windy so far today. A couple of peeks of sun with Temp. now at 49, so not too bad.
Charlie V.