Copy that. Is there any one thing the machine does better than other machines, like the MB 94? Sounding like the machine is an absolute orphan red headed step child begging to be kicked out of the orphanage onto the cold street! Nonetheless, I'm still determined to learn, adapt and overcome. That I have heavy fabricating ability is looking like a real plus here.
So I'm stuck in Kandahar at the moment for another 30 days until I can get to my machine and do some digging. I've bought a couple things for it. Driving it up the 600 miles from Barstow to Northern California, I blew out the right front tire. Moderately exciting, but not a problem from my experience, I had it swapped out in very short order using the loader as the jack and used the good spare it came with, but I also damaged the wheel some.
Today after confirming the condition of sidewalls with additional images, I sprang for a set of four used Michelin XL tires mounted on 6 hole FLU419 wheels for $800. After the dude calculated the shipping, the set came out just shy of $1000. Figuring I'm still not plugged into the network of dudes who have tons of this common crap that they want to get rid of, I resolved to buy the set, and I'm pretty confident I did alright. Like most 419 tires, the treads are seemingly new with zero cupping. Some might ask why pay for the wheels too? Well, the first job I've got back home has a super-low ceiling carport I need access through, and I'm planning on sacrificing the rims, wrapping and welding a plate around the rims, shodding them with 20" diameter tire caps, and thereby granting the 419 a drastically reduced -site use only- elevation -I've already removed the "FOPS" over the cab.
The other thing I bought is badazz but it's gonna' require a lot of Plasma work. I scored a 1300 Ambulance Box from the Adrift In The Green Room dude Brian in Santa Cruz, 50 miles south of my shop. Anybody who's seen it knows he cut the front of the box out for a "walk through" as he hacked the same enormous hole in his bulkhead. So it's a damaged box. Yeah, I can already hear you guys screaming... "Dude, that box is 10 feet long!" Yeah it currently is, too, and it's also about 12" too wide too. Yeah, we're talking about a lot of work, understood, but again, the plasma cutter is gonna' make an otherwise very difficult job, a lot easier and a lot faster. Cutting 3-4 feet off the length, and at least a foot out of the center... slice and dice. The three point mount system is something I'm gonna' have to see as to whether it'll even remotely adapt. Wish me luck with that, but in the mean time, I'm gonna' be stuck in THIS box with you guys, so let's chat it up... who's got the coffee?
So yeah, I'm intending on making the shorty Ambulance Box a removable tool carrier, camper, you name it, insodoing, learning how to remove some of the tanks and bed mounted hydro apparatus. It's also possible that I may just move the tanks some, and "French" the most necessary items directly into the structure of the box, boxing them from inside the box as well, and sealing them out of the interior space.
So that's what we're smoking in Northern California -er, Kandahar! How about YOU! What are YOU smoking? Don't lie!
Brian