Using The LS Tractor To Move 2300 Tons Of Gravel

This video is about relocating 2300 tons of gravel and clay from the flood of 2015 to a hillside where it can be later utilized. The material is relocated with dump trucks and then managed in place with a 57 hp LS tractor.

[@Dutch_off_grid_homesteading]

Heya, that's a lot of gravel/ground to move great work

[@user-vs8wg2lg3q]

Like the video I own a 40 hp. Ls cab tractor I enjoy the tractor love AC in this louisiana heat.

[@scottstucky2377]

The authentic definition of a smooth operator with an even keel disposition

[@jacklabloom635]

Nice tractor.

[@jamesbsa6450]

Watched to the end. Never know when information might be applicable to me. Thanks for sharing. Looks like it really couldn't have hurt to have another tractor there to help!

[@bobarsenault1]

Another interesting video. Doesn't really matter what the subject is, your process and descriptions are educational. Thanks!

[@keithcress1335]

After a hectic day this was good fun and educational. Thanks Ray!

[@randy.vickery]

Thanks again for a great video. Looking forward to buying the exact same tractor.

[@FutureSystem738]

Thanks Ray, g’day again from Oz 🇦🇺

[@markk4285]

Very interesting Ray. I always learn from your videos. Many thanks. Mark (Dublin, Ireland)

[@johnelliff8298]

I hope things are going well for you and I’m looking forward to your follow up video. Thanks Ray :-)

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

Thanks so much. I’m doing fine but I did finally let my guard down and got the plague. Mostly better now. I did a video about refurbishing and repairing used solar panels but the microphone failed so there was no sound. I’m taking up welding and I’m about to build some ground based panel mounts so that is coming up. I just had a lot to catch up on on the ranch and y’all don’t want to watch videos about working and hauling cattle and repairing roads and mowing brush and cleaning up flood debris and building trails and fixing pumps and burning brush and so on and so forth. I feel terrible about neglecting the channel. I think people would have liked the panel repair video if I hadn’t messed it up. 😂😂

[@markstipulkoski1389]

Just curious, not trying to pinpoint your location, but my sister and her husband live in Houston and a few years back, they built their dream home in Weimar, TX, east of Schulenburg. They had several acres like you, an old style Texas house with metal roof , a separate garage/workshop, and a great view of the hill country from the hill that the house set on. He also had a tractor and did some work on a mostly dry creek. This video reminds me of them, though I've only seen pictures of their place. He was going to get some kind of a grant or tax break for his creek work that was going to create wetlands. Ultimately, they ended up moving back to Houston to be closer to kids and grandkids. I'll be forwarding this video to them. Thanks for sharing all your endeavors.

[@MistaTerps]

Boys & their toys 😜 just kidding, good job, well done. Will you be putting in an invoice with Mother Nature?

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

LOL

[@patrickmckowen2999]

You haven't grown up, still playing in the sand box 😂 Cheers

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

I don’t remember being so exhausted after a day playing in the dirt. Rona never runs out of energy but I fall asleep at my desk every night. Lol

[@madtater5948]

love seeing the ls tractor put to work, why aren't you using a Gannon bucket on the back? you can push a lot of dirt with a Gannon

[@davidchristensen1219]

Nice video. I think it would be helpful if you walked the pile location to explain why you're relocating the ground from the creek to where you're spreading it. Talk about objectives like what you did in the previous video at the creek.

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

That’s a good idea. When I am completely finished I will do that when I make a video that shows the final results. It is looking really nice at this point and we are almost finished hauling the final load. We just have fine-tuning left.

[@chuxxsss]

Jay can you take some of this rain back. Still raining cats and dogs here in Victoria Australia All dams full. No more needed.

[@CET675]

BTW, this is an extra comment.lol

[@tastiger91]

A lot of work, but looks fun.

[@allan80supra]

When you said LS tractor I was waiting to see a V8 tractor...

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

LOL

[@davepartlow6430]

🤙

[@CET675]

Another question, lately, the price such as slide into "computer rack" do you still recommend to build from scratch? I know you are very busy so I can wait, cheers wear gloves

[@MistaTerps]

💯 build it yourself if you feel you’ve got it in you to do a solid job. You will end up with more amp hours for your money for sure.

[@CET675]

@@MistaTerps thank you

[@onthelake9554]

Rack batteries are still double the price of DIY . And unknow quality , but with a warranty , maybe.

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

They said what I would have said but I will add that I don't like the choices of components with the prebuilt batteries. I also don't like the small size. Trying to get sufficient storage out of 5 Kwh batteries means using too many of them. I have a list of about 12 reasons that I still prefer DIY.

[@CET675]

@@RayBuildsCoolStuff i thank you from the bottom of my heart

[@RJ-cc1fz]

Hey Ray. How ya been? Hey once you got actual copper busbars, did that drill and tap bit from Amazon still work well on the copper. My apologies for asking on this video. But I wanted to make sure I’d ask on a recent video in case you wouldn’t see the question on an old video. Thanks for your time

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

It worked great on the copper busbars. I monitor comments on all videos and try to respond.

[@dama054]

Hi Ray you know you had to change the diodes on the seplos BMS what did the failure of the diode mean did it stop working or affect how it works I have a seplos BMS it was working great but now the state of charge is drifting the battery is at 85% but the BMS says its at 14%

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

I have not had one fail. I just asked them to address the issue for my subscribers in the event of a known issue that has failed for others.

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

I have not had one fail. I just asked them to address the issue for my subscribers in the event of a known issue that has failed for others.

[@dama054]

@@RayBuildsCoolStuff ok thanks for your help

[@nb117]

Was it cost prohibitive just to rent a dozer for a couple of days? Seems like a lot of work for that small tractor.

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

The project ran over a 17 day period. A month of dozer rental with haul fees would have been close to 2,000$. This is why we own this tractor. I really appreciate the air conditioned cab as well.

[@CET675]

Question? do you still recommend jenny wu for sourcing batteries? thank you in advance

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

Absolutely

[@CET675]

@@RayBuildsCoolStuff thank you, I will let them know you referred me

[@peterking1134]

Where have you disappeared to?

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

Sorry my friend. Sometimes I get swallowed by projects that aren’t worth sharing with my friends here. I m at 98% on the creek cleanup but I want to finish before I do the final video on that. I had some cow stuff to do at both ranches. I had lots of errands to run and most exciting is that after all these years, I’m finally getting equipped to weld again. I am tired of being powerless when I need to work with metal. All the welders are overwhelmed and have been for years so I’m going to solve that problem by getting equipped. That means lots of wiring and making room for equipment not to mention the education of what to buy and how to use it well. I feel really bad about leaving the subscribers hanging.😥

[@peterking1134]

@@RayBuildsCoolStuff - I’m looking forward to hear all about your welding endeavors!!

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

I need to extend the ground mount for my solar array and build a second ground mount with a little different angle. I priced the steel yesterday and should get it next week. I have to fix a cattle guard on the ranch of my friend and there are some railings to build on the back of the garden shed. I can't keep waiting for welders to be available.

[@peanutman6593]

2300 tons?? I think your math is a little fuzzy. That’s 115 20 ton tri axle dump loads.

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

170 14 ton dump loads rounded down.

[@skipwilson5086]

on another topic, why do you/ did you you use LiPo batteries?

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

I didn’t. LiPo is lithium polymer. I use Lifepo4 which is lithium iron phosphate because it is safer and will last many many years. I also really like its charge curve. Lots to like about it but safety is the most important to me.

[@skipwilson5086]

@@RayBuildsCoolStuff Safety is one of my top priorities too. I have 3 inverters on 1 "solar" generator, then one on a 10,000 Watt and 1 on a 20,000 Watt, probably

[@skipwilson5086]

use the same type, size on the 40K unit I'm fixin' to build. Take care now, skip.

[@typxxilps]

off topic just here, because this is your latest video and youi might follow the comments. I have purchased unusual cells from Jenny Wu, not the usual 280 Ah size but one that fitted our needs cause a battery to 2 kWh too big means that these 2 kWh more or too much save about 20 kWh a year from the supplier max. So we were searching for a 125 to 200 Ah battery. We got them from china and did the tests you usually do too like qr codes which meant they were not all from this year as promised. Half of them older which made me sceptical as you would be too. Some cells were damaged in a minor way some would call scratches others call a serious issue cause the blue foil was open showing the metal case below. Being sceptical I started a longer investigation you might find interestingly as well and that is about a kind of cell behaviour cause I checked each of the 16 cells by average 4 times, some just 3 times and the weakest even 3 single times and then a 3 full cycles in 1 day operation of 27 hours. What I observed is a kind of awakening of the cells or retraining effect others might call this. My initial goal was the usual 1 discharge cycle and live with that. But somewhere in the middle I got a bad cell, youi know, a terrible cell compared to the others and that felt to me like terrible as it would for others if you get a performance below the Ah promised and below the average of the first 8 or 10 cells tested. Being also old you might think what kind of scam you have to expect in the last 6 of those. Instead to rush on with testing I thought when I found another of these bad cells with underperformance (ZKE Tech A40 BL Tester with 40 A up to 14A cut off, 1 hour break and then discharging - in a room with 25°C as required by EVE) that I should investigate this nightmare further and did another single duty cycle test with a better result and relief, then did a 3 cycle in 27 hours test just in desperate hope of a not too bad result or at least capable of 1xx Ah. In the end I recogniced a pattern of about 1 Ah increase with the second test and sometimes in case of weaker cells even 2 Ah or more. After these 2 bad cells that turned out to be quite good after being well treated I felt to return and follow my previous routine just to get 1 test result for the 16 cells to open a claim. When new bad cells appeared in the second half I also tested them once again to check for improvements and in most cases I also started the 3 cycle in 27 hours tests. Similiar results and behaviour. Now close to have finished at least 3 single cycles and for 6 or 8 weakest out of the 16 cells I even did a 3 cycle test just to make sure that they would deliver. Overall I strongly suggest to check these disappointing cells over and over again if you can find improvents cause most likely you can train them a bit some how cause my cells are now roughly 2,1 Ah about the promise of 16x Ah and they are now all pretty close to each other which means a bandwith of 1,5 Ah instead of 2,75 Ah in the first round between best and worse. Some of the worst from round 1 ended now in the top quarter or best 4 cells. This is a pretty time consuming test procedure for all the 280 Ah guys and I am not sure if that might be EVE LF (3500 cycles) specific, not the EVE LF K with 6000 cycles or for all brands and cells. But is is worth to consider to have a test pattern in case of worser cells just to get behind how worse they really are or if they are even quite good and strong ones - better to find your peace of mind and continue a week later with your built then building it with doubts in your mind. I have done more than 60 tests with these 16 cells and at the end I am quite happy for the moment. But could have been a lot better with 2022 cells only and not these older ones which gain the attention and alert from the buyers pov. Yes, a gmail initiated first time purchase with the message from ray builds school stuff. It will need some time to write it up together with the sheets and weird test cycle pattern cause I followed my gut and throwed the plan overboard when a cell got my attention. This means that there could be 10 days between one and the other test of 1 cell, while others had been tested 2 days apart ot even 3 times in 27 hours. If you do not know about the background it the order of the cell test woiuld look pretty strange and let you raise your eyes browse but if I look at it now (the result sheet and the order of the cells) I can instantly tell you why I changed the previous plan or pattern. Finally : over all good sales experience - testing is part of the game and lottery once you decide to buy not from the manufacturer grade A. And I write this here just for being this the latest and not that I am only battery or solar power intestested cause I like the big variety of content you release on your channel. I usually watch all these non battery or non solar power stuff even twice or let the Laptop due another loop to add weight for the algorithm

[@RayBuildsCoolStuff]

Hello Wolf I think I understand your message but not completely sure of the translation. First, I follow all the comments on all the videos and only miss some if they are follow on replies to older comments that are buried down the page. Thanks for your continued interest. I regret not posting a recent video. I made a good one about refurbishing used solar panels that I acquired for an expansion of my system but there was no audio because I failed to charge the microphone so the video was unusable and the activity was already complete. It would have been a good one. On the smaller capacity cells you bought, I don’t really understand why but when you discovered some were older what did Jenny Wu tell you about a resolution? It sounds like the testing that you do is done properly. It sounds like the cells performed well after a few cycles. Did the cost per AH work out favorably? Did you feel Jenny Wu worked hard and was honest with you as far as what she knew and told you? Would you buy from her next time? Finally, thanks for telling me that you enjoy and support the non-solar storage videos. I am hoping you like the building science content as that is the longer term direction I’d like to move toward with an emphasis on conservative sustainability and self sufficiency. Thanks again, Ray

[@typxxilps]

@@RayBuildsCoolStuff thanks for your reply. As you had mentioned before the sustainable part and architecture and structural design differences between europe and US are really great to watch so I can agree even though I am not a house builder, quite the opposite more or less. Jenny did her job and I am quite happy . What i wanted to point at that it feels that the cells mark b at least seems to need a few cycles to show their real capacity. I had done meanwhile 68 tests and for each cell at least 3 single measurements partly with days or even a week between the next measurement. I also did 3 cycles on the weakest ones in a row over 27 hours and they came back from below to above capacity. I experienced what you had sharted about 90% and the result is quite the same . 10% difference is based on the how old these mark b cells should have beeen since EVE had released them. EVE should have begun shipping laser mark b cells in 2nd quarter of 2022 which she agreed in that I was right - but I also got cells 1 yearr before from Q1 and Q2 2021 which should or could not exist. But at the end the results matter most. This was just an announcemnet that I would send you an email if you like to know about the topic how not the best cells in first test round became best in 2nd or 3rd cycle even though many will not check their cells multiple times, so they will never learn that they might have made the mistake.