Very nice! Now all you need is a dump truck and your are a serious earth mover!!!

Don't know if they do it in your neck of the woods, but the home depot has 2 ton trucks for rent by the hour, pretty cheap I hear. Dump beds and everything.

 

I rigged up my "homemade" trailer with a pole and a winch to dump the loads. I looked into hydraulics for a dump-bed, but it costs like $1500 for that. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img] I don't even have $100 in the rigged up trailer. It works, but only 1000lbs at a time. And that's about all my poor bayou will pull anyway.... up hills that is. Oh, and the trailer is made on top of a 230 swingarm and axle. You wouldn't believe the loads that thing has carried and still hasn't bent. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

I need something small to haul out the dirt for the pond too. I don't want to have to cut all my trees down to fit a bigass truck down there. My ranger will go, but it takes some maneuvering and its slow go squeezing around all the trees.

 

Just to remind you, I are a Cali redneck! My bud and I were digging a basement for his cabin in the sticks.. We rented the smallest bobcat possible, due to the trees.. We have this HUGE pile of dirt with only the bobcat and his rhino? or one of those golf cart on steroids looking things to get the dirt out. After about 15 trips, and the mountain never seeming to go down, I was pissed! We stopped for a while and I went into Enstein mode, in other words I leaned against equipment, drank beer, and "thought"![img]i/expressions/beer.gif[/img] His log cabin kit came on pallets, and between the logs and the pallets was sheets of this really thick AND slick plastic.........
I zip tied 8 of them together, dumped the dirt on them, and hauled em out with his whatever you call it, and the bobcat. Worked awesome!

 

It took some time.... But I slaved away and eventually turned this







into this

 

That was the first scoop. I'll have better pics tomorrow. It takes a little figuring out what those little sticks make it do. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

So far, I've managed to get a hole 3 or 4 feet deep dug out. But it was too late for good pics. I spent all day fixing leaks and figuring out where the best place to tie the hydraulic lines.

 

Awesome! i could tear some **** up!!

 

It has a thumb too for picking up logs n whatever. It was only $100 extra for the thumb, but I doubt I will ever use it. Now that I think about it, I'm not even sure what I did with it. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: PoolGod230

Just to remind you, I are a Cali redneck! My bud and I were digging a basement for his cabin in the sticks.. We rented the smallest bobcat possible, due to the trees.. We have this HUGE pile of dirt with only the bobcat and his rhino? or one of those golf cart on steroids looking things to get the dirt out. After about 15 trips, and the mountain never seeming to go down, I was pissed! We stopped for a while and I went into Enstein mode, in other words I leaned against equipment, drank beer, and "thought"![img][/img] His log cabin kit came on pallets, and between the logs and the pallets was sheets of this really thick AND slick plastic.........

I zip tied 8 of them together, dumped the dirt on them, and hauled em out with his whatever you call it, and the bobcat. Worked awesome!</end quote></div>

Didn't see this post... snuck it in on me. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

I used to do that with tarps for hauling out shingles after a tear-off. I think if I tried that here, I would get to the top with an empty tarp. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

hey guys, i should be picking up a 1986 lt230s tommorrow for $600. it needs swing arm bearings and a rear brake rebuild. can i replace the bearings with a heavy duty bearing so it will last longer? as long as the ID, OD and width are the same as the OEMs i should be fine right? also the headlight is missing. i beleive i read on this thread i can use any light rated under 45 watts? other than what i just stated this thing is ready to rock and get dirty. i did read 30 pages of this thread, and i just couldnt read any more for now. i know that all this has prolly been covered but any help would be great.

 

Yeah, you would have to be a pretty dedicated 230 fan (and a bit nuts) to read all,,, what,,, 155 pages! Although, there is some good stuff in there that I wish I had written down... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

You can use any bearing you want in the swingarm as long as you think it will hold up. I had a machine shop cut down and drill out a Ford 9inch axle and I'm going to weld that in place of the stock tube. Then going to use regular ole stock bearings. I don't think the bearings are really the problem. Its the tube that surrounds it. If the stock bearings were kept straight and didn't wiggle, it would take phenominal amounts of pressure to hurt them. The damage comes when the chain is too tight and you land a jump. The tube bends and distorts the bearing race and that's what kills your bearings. So, whatever you can do to beef up the tube wil help. Also, make sure your chain is loose. A spring-loaded chain tensioner will help too.

For mine, I had to order a new bolt... the big long one that goes thru the swingarm. Mine had grooves worn in from the bearing race rubbing it. You probably will have the same issue. All that stuff should be new if you want it to last. Its crucial that the needle bearings be kept flat and straight or they will fail no matter how big you make them.

I suppose any AC headlight that is under 45 watts should do. 50 watts if you don't use the taillight.

Oh, and welcome! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]