[RHClarke]

We have been busy at the barn, but mostly with the same old thing - preparing for winter and working on CMP things. As part of the winter prep, Bob put up a small snow shelter by Lucifer's outside chimney - see photos one and two above. The shelter is to prevent the build up of snow and ice around the chimney. In the past, ice has formed, melted when the furnace was on, and then, as the chimney cooled, built up more ice. This ice was pushing against the chimney and exposed a gap that allowed the weather in.

On a less-exciting note, the HUP in the Box problem was sorted out. The issue had to do with driver access when the truck is put away in the sea container. Recently, the HUP was driven front first into the box and egress was via the back door. This egress is no longer available with the installation of the full floor to wall divider.

Now, the HUP is backed up to the lip of the container and is hooked up to a winch system. A cable is secured to a cleat inside the container and this cable runs to a pulley block that is attached to the rear frame rail of the HUP. The cable continues to another pulley block on the same floor-mounted cleat and then runs outside the box under the HUP to a hand winch.

The hand winch is set up like a tow hitch, where it plugs into a receiver mounted on a purpose-built frame that attaches to the front bumper of the HUP. After the HUP is hooked in, it is reversed into the box to the point where the driver's door can still be opened. The engine is shut off and the truck is left out of gear with the front wheels chocked. The winching mount assembly is then attached to the front bumper. The hand winch is then fetched from underneath the truck and then placed into the receiver. The hand cranking begins.

The first attempt at this system proved a failure as the bar that was set between the frame rails parted company under the load put on it by the pulley block. Thus, the second attempt had the pulley block attached to the hole in the driver's side rear frame rail. The second attempt worked quite nicely. When the front wheels hit the frame of the sea container, there is some effort required during the winding, but once the wheels clear the threshold, the HUP moves quite effortlessly into position - there is a cleat nailed to the floor to stop the rear wheels at the correct location to allow the closing of the front doors.

I chose to go with the hand winch because I am not only a cheap son of a gun (I didn't want to pay for an electric winch), but I don't like running electrical extension cords in wet environments. The cost of materials was minimal: $25.00 for a 2500 lb rated hand winch, $20.00 for the steel, $30.00 for supplies etc...

Photos:
1 - General set up
2 - More of the same
3 - Shot of the hand winch
4 - Clearance achieved