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48 Ford 8N earning its keep - with photos

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docmirror

Well-known Member
I've purchased a nice lot in Timberon NM about 75 NE of El Paso TX in the Sacramento Mtns. I'm building a 30x40x10 aircraft hangar, and the old Ford 8N has become a full-fledged member of the build team.

In the following pictures, the tractor has a pair of fork boom extensions on the front of the FEL ends, with a angle iron triangle support to the bucket tip pintle. The fork boom ext are 14' long and are being used to lift the roof trusses from the truss crossbar and set them on the base frame for welding. I also used the boom to lift two 40 foot long 8"x12Lb steel I beams into place across the width of the door, and center to set the truss vertical supports.

Not pictured, but all the holes for the base frame were augered with the 8N down at least 40", and all the base corner beams were lifted and set by the FEL. I also used it to brush hog the entire acre of pretty heavy brush, and it's drug trailers, and welders, and the water tender, plus other tools.

Before you comment, yes a newer tractor would be more comfy, yes a newer tractor would maybe be faster, yes a newer tractor could do everything better, deeper, harder, wetter, etc. But this little tool has met each match, and delivered.
mvphoto22245.jpg
 
Standing on a 6ft ladder, mounted to my 9ft truck overhead platform welding in the angle braces as the Ford holds the truss steady.
mvphoto22247.jpg
 
View from my deck of the approaching storm back in Dec. The large white segments are the golf fairways. No tractor content though.
mvphoto22248.jpg
 
This was my first test of lifting the truss using the boom. I was exceptionally cautious to get the truss right in the center. I also designed the truss so that the weight would be 75% below the mean chord-line of the cross bar so that it would not swing upside down. It took very close work with the FEL hyd control because everything is amplified by 14 extra feet. Clutch work was also critical to set the ends of the truss on the beam for welding.

I've burned at least 30Lbs of stick welding. I have a MIG unit, but it's only 180 amp, and only 20% duty cycle so it would not give me good penetration that I wanted. I'm using all used drill stem pipe of 2-7/8" dia, and it is very hard steel. Each 30' section weighs about 140Lbs.

mvphoto22249.jpg
 
Nice use of an classic tractor.

I see where you get snow. Are you sure that your pipe trusses will be heavy enough for much of a snow load???
 
If one looks carefully at the first picture, the truss on the far left appears higher than the others at the peak. This is not an optical delusion(haha). I built the trusses on the ground in a custom jig. When I made number 5, on the far left the jig had been moved about 4" away from the base, and I didn't catch it until I set the truss in place. You can also see the angle brace is bent under truss 4. The left truss has to come down and be re-sized. Dumb mistake which will cost me at least a day of extra work, cutting, shaping, and raising.
 
(quoted from post at 20:36:39 08/26/18) Nice use of an classic tractor.

I see where you get snow. Are you sure that your pipe trusses will be heavy enough for much of a snow load???
Click to expand...

When the vertical supports are put in from the mid-point of the truss, down to the I beam and end beams, on a 5-12 pitch with 26Ga R-panel, I calculated a snow load of 40". We are fairly far south and don't really get a lot of snow, and what we do get is melted in a few days. I'm using 2x4" steel purlins on 3' centers.

Here we are welding in the angle brace to the front pillion post. The rear pillion posts will have angle braces in both lateral directions.
mvphoto22252.jpg
 
The red lines represent the truss vertical supports. One straight down, and one angled into the cent of the back brace on each side of center. The center and front trusses will have the same supports down to the large I-beams that go across the entire width.
mvphoto22253.jpg
 
Everybody gives a hard time about the N Fords ("What are they good for?" "Well, they're good for going down to get the mail. If you don't have a lot of mail."), but they've done a lot of work for a lot of folks over the years. The only tractor dad ever had was a 1951 8N, and it did all the work on our 45 cow dairy through the '50's and into the '60's.
 
(quoted from post at 21:29:31 08/26/18) I see now. Your building the trusses in place. So the bottom is not complete. Good job.
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Thank you. I was going to try to put the down supports on the truss before lifting, but I wasn't sure the boom would handle the added weight of the truss with four supports in place, plus, I would have to line them all up on the cross bar at the bottom, so I'll be cutting and reinforcing each end and one center truss with 4 stiffeners before putting on the purlins and then the R panel.

I'm using 30' continuous section C purlins, and will modify the boom so I can feed them in from each side, up to the truss roof-line, and weld in place from below. I'm getting my MIG unit up there to do the purlins as they are lighter weight, and upside down welding with MIG is easier than stick.

Here's another pic of me up on the ladder welding in the angle truss support. Of course, it will all be much stiffer once the purlins and R-panel is up and screwed on. Then, I'm thinking of T1-11 eight foot walls with a wainscoat, and some kind of faux brick along the bottom to the ground. Stained red cedar, and I'm thinking of copper or burgundy R-panel roof sections.
mvphoto22265.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 22:01:48 08/26/18) Everybody gives a hard time about the N Fords ("What are they good for?" "Well, they're good for going down to get the mail. If you don't have a lot of mail."), but they've done a lot of work for a lot of folks over the years. The only tractor dad ever had was a 1951 8N, and it did all the work on our 45 cow dairy through the '50's and into the '60's.
Click to expand...

You are absolutely spot on. There's a lot of things I don't have on the 8N, like power steering with that big boom, it's hard to move in tight spots, but I manage. And getting the PTO swinging takes practice because it's not independent of the trans, but no matter, I make it work.

My one complaint if I had any would be the lack of HP at 8000' elevation. I've got it tuned as well as I can, and have the spark advanced to the best effort, but with the brush hog on in first, sometimes it does bog down and has died a couple times. I just restart it, lift the 3 pt and get another pass at it. Eventually it all gets done. My neighbor has a little Cub, and so far it's done what needs doing, but the 8N is better for most jobs.
 
My sweetie is always on my case about doing stunts like this. Glad to see others do what needs to be done too. Really like the picture with the fire truck
present as fire was my first thought when I saw you up there and the grass below. I was doing some fence welding one day and just happen to feel
something funny. Popped the hood and looked down and I was on fire.......... grass was on fire below me. Glad I got it put out and didn't get hurt.

I have to go to town today and after showing this to her she reminded me that I said I was going to buy a new ladder to replace an old one I use frequently
before it collapses and I break my neck......thanks for reminding her-us. Grin.

Nice job of making do with what you have. Good luck and "be safe".
 
Awesome pics of your project- not too sure about the "standing on top of the step ladder and welding" idea? Good job!
 
Enjoyed seeing the pics and the old N Ford working, just goes
to show you don?t need a $20,000+ tractor to get chores done
 
(quoted from post at 05:32:09 08/27/18) My sweetie is always on my case about doing stunts like this. Glad to see others do what needs to be done too. Really like the picture with the fire truck
present as fire was my first thought when I saw you up there and the grass below. I was doing some fence welding one day and just happen to feel
something funny. Popped the hood and looked down and I was on fire.......... grass was on fire below me. Glad I got it put out and didn't get hurt.

I have to go to town today and after showing this to her she reminded me that I said I was going to buy a new ladder to replace an old one I use frequently
before it collapses and I break my neck......thanks for reminding her-us. Grin.

Nice job of making do with what you have. Good luck and "be safe".
Click to expand...

Well, I'm completely worried about fire all the time. In 2016 summer, Timberon had a devastating fire break out and we lost 41 structures. This summer has been very dry. In some of the pics, you may see a silver/white trailer with a tank on it. That is the water tender, and it's always running, and always watering the ground before and during any arc welding. I usually have the fire dept stage a brush truck with tank just in case. We have had red stage conditions since about early May though mid Aug this year which means no outside burning at all. finally got some rain so I could go up and work.

I'm done with standing on the ladder on the platform. It's just too unstable. I had to do that with the trusses to get them braced, but next weekend I'm building a work platform on the I beams which will be up over 10' and 16x6' to work from. I have a lot of high work to do, and I can't do it safely from a ladder on the platform. Get a good ladder, and take your time when on it.
 
(quoted from post at 06:50:27 08/27/18) I am curious what kind of aircraft is going into this hanger
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Right now I have an old V35 Beech Bonanza. However I'm looking at a different plane soon. It will fit nearly all of the gen aviation planes up through some modest twin engine models.
 
This is what we started with. After the first pass on the hangar floor with the brush hog, we switched to a hand mower for a final cut of the hangar floor. I'm standing on the edge of the runway surface pointed almost straight north taking the pic. There is a tank farm of propane in the upper center of the picture. Blue slab on far left is my neighbor hangar door.
mvphoto22273.jpg
 
Built a large hay shed about 20 years ago using my home brew gin poles and old Farmall and what I see that I particularly like is the way you need not chain and remove chain at poles to truss. Nice!
 
I bolted a scaffold frame to a hay wagon, and have two additional sections of scaffolding so it can provide a platform 18 feet above ground. I made my own scaffold sections out of 2x2 quarter-inch wall square tubing. Commercial sections would work fine as well, but I saw "spreader" bars in a junk yard, and built the sections around them. Been very useful over the years.
 
Little update on Hangar. I took two 10" tall 40 foot long I beams up to the site on my trailer which was a heck of a job just to get there. The beams hung over the end of my truck bed almost 5'. I also have the purlins on the trailer, and a couple of pipes. The welder is on the cart on the left. It's about 1500' of steel headed to the hills.

BTW, in the bed of the truck is a Gleaner E engine for my Allis road grader. It's going to be installed this fall, hope to be running by Nov.
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Once I got there, getting the beams up on the header of the hangar was quite a job. First because I had already put up the roof trusses, so I had to angle the I beams into place, and lift then jog and back and fill before setting. The 8N did yeoman work again as I hung them from the center of the beam and the front of the FEL.

I was able to get them lifted and set in place on the header bars. I put a couple of plates vertical on the ends so they wouldn't slip off.

Now all the framing is done, and the next step is to build my platform across the beams, and put the purlins in, then the R panel.
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Here we are putting up a airport storage shed. I lifted the wood beams with the forks on the loader. Those forks are becoming real bonus tool for moving heavy and awkward stuff around. I also augered all the holes for the posts with the 8N. Once we got the roof beams up, I used the forks to put up the crossbeams, and also lifted the R panel in to place. It was good practice for when I do my hangar next month.

It's a 10x24' shed, about 14' high. The airport tractor and brush hog is going in there, and some shelves for hardware we use and some tools. Took us a long wknd to put it up,
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