Horror Fright

as it is around that time of year, figured this would be appropriate.

as is obvious, I am a tool guy, and I guess that means I should be a tool snob, but I am not.  There are tools that I buy "name brand" tools for their quality, reliability, etc.  But there are also tools that I am fine with getting them from Horror Fright and for what I need out of them, they are fine.

Over the past month or so, I have gotten a few things from them,  one was a tongue box for my trailer.

one of those things where I decided I was tired of hauling straps and such around in the back of my truck.  The box is built very well and fit my trailer perfectly.  Someone even thought enough to notch the top where the lid doesnt run into the front bar on the trailer.    Overall it has been a good purchase, mounted to my trailer very easily, and I have been very happy with it.

The other thing I have been working on, is my mule.  It had a couple of issues when I bought it (issues I knew about when I bought it)

One was, it did not have a winch on it.  As much as I will probably never use it, I could not just shrug that off.  I knew if I did not put a winch on it, I would end up being stuck somewhere and smacking myself for not installing it.

so yet again, trip to Horror Fright,  bought a winch,  a badlands 3500 winch.

Took me some work to get all the parts of the winch mounted,

and then a lot of work to get wiring around, through the system and to the various spots it needed (relay, controls, batteries)

but after the requisite 3 trips to the store to buy things needed, finally did get it installed and working.

Now, on to actual problems.

Biggest one was the "hood" on the mule had broken mounts in the front and would not latch down.  This caused it to continually flop around.

First, remove the hood, you can see the broken mounts

I made a template for where the holes needed to be, and then ground down all the plastic that was used as a mounting plate before.

I then fabricated a aluminum piece that had the mounting holes and fit the contours of the hood

Above is part of the way through betting the plate fit to the hood

and below is the hood fit back on the mule

here is what you see from the outside,  just the rivets I used to hold the aluminum on

getting the hood back on and bolted in was definitely not a 1 person job, luckily I had a helper

and by helping I mean he was dropping his squeaky toy on my face any time I was laying on the floor

but anyway, did get the hood back on, adjusted correctly and it now hinges up and down, and latches in place when down (score!)

and the last repair I took care of was the seat, you see the seat had the seam torn out in one corner, so through the efforts of my beautiful bride, that seat is now sealed back with fishing line to make sure it will hold

and to make sure there isnt any place for critters to go hide, I covered the air holes in the bottom with window screen.

still have a couple of other "mods" I am thinking about for the mule, we will see how important those are vs all the other projects going on right now.  I imagine it will be awhile before they get done.

Cherry Pie

DD