Mr. Plow: Part 2

I won’t plow with my truck because it’s a Dodge and product of Detroit. It’s hard enough keeping the steering straight. Plus, plows for a dually ain’t cheap. I could easily drop many grand on a plow only to beat my truck to death. In the timeline where I live right now, the truck is irreplaceable. Financing a new truck under current inflation rates and paying it off with Bidenbucks might sink me financially.

It’ll be my tractor or nothing. I didn’t plan on being a plow guy. What would I need to turn it into a side gig? Long term I’d need to get to more customers, which means a trailer I can’t afford. Short term I can lumber down the road to a few nearby potential customers. That’s legal if annoying. I’d need flashing lights to avoid getting creamed by highway speed vehicles. And I’d like a radio so I could monitor weather and (hopefully) not get too bored.

Installing a radio:

My tractor is a Kioti and it’s a fine tractor. It has a few quirks. First of all, they rigged the world’s most inconvenient terminal access onto an otherwise decent battery position. It’s the first time I’ve used a 12mm short combination wrench. What a weird setup.

Tractor cabs are brilliant. So much better than freezing my ass off! And look here, it’s already setup for a radio!

And what’s this? A tiny little antenna! (Note, having tested it a while, it doesn’t get the best reception. It works and it’s small enough I haven’t smashed it into a tree yet, but it’s sub-par.)

I popped off the cover and spent a few brain cells analyzing this ridiculous wiring harness.

Then I bought a radio off Amazon. I tried very hard to get exactly what my tractor needed. This whole “wiring harness” thing seems excessive. The last radio I installed, in a Buick, was from before CDs. It had power / antenna / speaker. No harness at all.

They used to be so universal I could just buy one and jam it in. I think I got one from K-Mart (before Walmart even existed). Does that date me?

Bad moments in engineering, the fuse is in the back of the radio. I’d have to pull the whole damn unit to replace a fuse?

Great moments in engineering. The rear of the radio has a generic wiring harness and there’s an adaptor to match the vehicle I requested. I expected something like that. The radio came with a “pigtail” converting directly to my tractor’s wiring harness. There must be a factory somewhere with a bunch of people creating “pigtails” (possibly on demand, as they are ordered) for every conceivable harness system.

The vinyl (?) on my roof was too tight to allow the mounting hardware. I trimmed it with care you’d associate with defusing a bomb. I really don’t want to fuck up my almost new tractor!

Now the “receptacle box” is installed. Once I figured out the little press fittings it worked out nicely.

It doesn’t look like a gorilla installed it!

I don’t like the six exposed screws. I paid a few bucks extra for the “face plate” and I think it was worth it. To my dismay I had to drill it to fit. Luckily, I didn’t screw that up either.

Not bad eh?

There is even a snap on bezel to really “clean it up”.

I was reluctant to tweak my tractor, given that it was so very damn expensive to buy it. But the install is complete. I like it.

If the world goes to hell, I’ll plow driveways for anyone who can pay more than the cost of diesel. I’ll probably need the money.

If the world doesn’t go to hell, I can happily listen to books on CD while I plow my own driveway.

Win, win!

P.S. The tractor came with a “slow moving vehicle” placard. I kept bending it against tree branches so I removed it. I can re-install if needed. Legally, that’s all I’m required to do. (The tractor came with headlights and all that!) Realistically, I’m not leaving my property without a blinking light. I haven’t yet installed a blinking light. There’s time. Winter is coming, it ain’t here yet.