The Rattletrap...
My new-to-me 955K arrived! (for a little background on how I got to this point, check http://ift.tt/2irIZQr )
I've had the worst case of buyer's doubts I've ever had with this machine! I lay awake nights worrying about what I might have missed, how many horrible things might need fixing....and reading horror stories on HEF makes me quiver. But it's mine, now, and my leaks and .... So it came home on a removable neck trailer, which I was very glad to see! The last two trailers I unloaded and loaded were flatbed deck-overs. I didn't find it much fun loading a JD 555 with a backhoe attachment AND a Cat 112 motor grader on the same trailer! I wish I had a photo of that..... Anyhow, it was a cold (cool to some of you) 40 F out (with a meddlesome, biting wind), but the 955 started right up after about 90 seconds of preheat. Off the trailer and down the hard-packed gravel road to the driveway. And that's where I became very glad it had triple grousers instead of a single grouser bar! That cage and ROPS and every access panel and my teeth and brain jelly rattled with more clangs and clanks than anything I've ever driven! Or heard, for that matter! And with the ROPS cage looking an awful lot like a trap--I couldn't help but think of the ol' yeller caterpillar as a rattletrap.
I didn't want to start-stop-start-stop the engine, so I left it idle while paying the man and helping him back out of the road, then it was time to drive the 1/3 mile drive to the shed. Now the previous owner had reported the 955 overheating, so I watched the gauges carefully being already more than half-paranoid and fearful of throwing a rod before getting her settled for the night. Ah, that gauge on the lower right, it's creeping up, higher and higher! Oh, my! What have I done! After a half-hour of idling and running 3/4 throttle the water pressure gauge has creeped into the yellow! Wracking my brain (or what's left of it) about what could be causing a high water pressure, I jump to the conclusion that the head is cracked and all hope is lost. Later that night, a web search reinforces my conclusion. A fretful night follows......
My new-to-me 955K arrived! (for a little background on how I got to this point, check http://ift.tt/2irIZQr )
I've had the worst case of buyer's doubts I've ever had with this machine! I lay awake nights worrying about what I might have missed, how many horrible things might need fixing....and reading horror stories on HEF makes me quiver. But it's mine, now, and my leaks and .... So it came home on a removable neck trailer, which I was very glad to see! The last two trailers I unloaded and loaded were flatbed deck-overs. I didn't find it much fun loading a JD 555 with a backhoe attachment AND a Cat 112 motor grader on the same trailer! I wish I had a photo of that..... Anyhow, it was a cold (cool to some of you) 40 F out (with a meddlesome, biting wind), but the 955 started right up after about 90 seconds of preheat. Off the trailer and down the hard-packed gravel road to the driveway. And that's where I became very glad it had triple grousers instead of a single grouser bar! That cage and ROPS and every access panel and my teeth and brain jelly rattled with more clangs and clanks than anything I've ever driven! Or heard, for that matter! And with the ROPS cage looking an awful lot like a trap--I couldn't help but think of the ol' yeller caterpillar as a rattletrap.
I didn't want to start-stop-start-stop the engine, so I left it idle while paying the man and helping him back out of the road, then it was time to drive the 1/3 mile drive to the shed. Now the previous owner had reported the 955 overheating, so I watched the gauges carefully being already more than half-paranoid and fearful of throwing a rod before getting her settled for the night. Ah, that gauge on the lower right, it's creeping up, higher and higher! Oh, my! What have I done! After a half-hour of idling and running 3/4 throttle the water pressure gauge has creeped into the yellow! Wracking my brain (or what's left of it) about what could be causing a high water pressure, I jump to the conclusion that the head is cracked and all hope is lost. Later that night, a web search reinforces my conclusion. A fretful night follows......
My 955K Rattletrap Adventure
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