Nonetheless, I set out to do this with the help of several friends and Alice, my road grader.
It wasn't off to a good strat when I was re-torqueing a few track frame bolts and I felt one snap off. Granted, I was putting 200ft. lbs on it, but it should have handled lots more than that. A minute later, Terry showed up. I thought we were done for the day, but Terry said "Why don't we head up to your shop and see if we can find something to make a new one." Well, we did and we did.
The first attempt didn't work out and I had to back down the road after 4 hours and only 400 ft. But I learned a lot. I found out that the crane cannot pull travel herself up the road and that the grader cannot pull her--the grader tires just start slipping. We did find out that what did work was paying out the wire rope off the drum that is used for lifting objects (She is a crane) and attaching that the the grader. Then I have a buddy drive the grader up the road a ways, set the brakes and blade down i nthe dirt and then I winch myself up to the grader. And then repeat. Many times. Here's us coming up....
Unfortunately, when the road gets steep, the winch is not strong enough to pull the entire machine. Terry, my best idea man had a good one: use a snatch block pully on the grader which would set up a 2:1 mechanical advantage when winching. And here's us going back down...
Our second attempt, several weeks later, used this approach. Worked like a charm. Got up the road, up thru the steepest parts, round the switchback corners and were just about to crest out up top when I happened to notice some metal fragments in the road. I stopped to check. Luckily, because it turns out that the pully block was just about to come apart as the bearing had failed.
We were just about up--and really wanting to get up after working on this all day out in the 100 degree heat without hardly any water--so, we tired to winch me the last stretch without the 2:1 mechanical advantage. I wasn't paying close enoug attention and I drifted too close to the edge of the road. The soft shouldler sucked me down and my right track started sinking and the entire crane house began listing over the edge. There's a big steep drop-off there and the crane was way too close for comfort.
Here you can see how she is itching to pop a wheelie. Notice how the track frame is lifting....
We began wrestling with options and strategies and ideas. All I could visualize was a quart of ice water. I listened to that little voice in me saying "Martin, time to shut it down. Now, before things totally come unraveled..." I surprised myself by listening to that voice this time. SO, now Mille sits--almost home--for several weeks until I can get a new pulley block and a plan for getting her off of the soft shoulder.
