July 31, 2009

View of the day-The General in position as a dock to do some repairs on the combine as the clouds and rain threaten.

We had big plans for the day, the biggest being to change the oil cooler rad on the combine. The rad is bolted to another smaller rad and both of them swing out to reveal the engine rad. The weld that holds the side bracket of the oil cooler rad had broken away at the top and bottom...this is the third time this has happened...hopefully it's the last.

Al had unhooked the cart from the tractor and he drove it down to the local repair shop to get the A/C fixed...although we haven't needed it very much this month. We left it their then went out to have lunch at the sale barn then we stopped to chat a bit with a fellow Canadian harvester that had his rigs parked in the sale barn lot.

We got out to the field and figured the best way to change the rad out was to back the General right up against the combine and work out of the box, so we wouldn't have to lift the 2ft x 3ft radiator any more than we had to. We got everything lined up and had all the tools in the back of the General...we were ready to tackle the messy job. We drained two five gallon pails of transmission oil out of the reservoir and were just going to take the old rad out but we noticed the sky getting darker and the hills disappearing as the forecasted rain was blowing closer. We decided to put the tools away and head back for Gettysburg...good thing...the rain hit just as we turned on the highway.

We sat in the camper for a while, then finally the rain quit and the sun came out so we figured we would go out and finish the rad job. It went better than we expected, we were done in an hour, cleaned up and back in town before the sun went down.

Marilyn did the laundry one load at a time at the campground...hanging them on the line made for a quick dry with the 25 mph winds.

At this rate it will be another late night...