Voice your opinion please .

What would you do ?

  • Continue to unload equipment that won't fit into my available space .

    Votes: 2 5.7%

  • Purchase enclosed trailer to store 4 wheelers , Kubota FEL , zero turns , etc , etc , etc .

    Votes: 5 14.3%

  • Build 4 car garage on my small rancher and enjoy life .

    Votes: 33 94.3%
  • Total voters
    35
Yeah, do it. All my hobbies are machines, engines, books, tools, that are at least 50 years old and you can't get anymore. If I don't get it while I can and tarp it until I can build a decent garage, I won't ever get one. You got the means and you deserve it, run with that. The one thing I would change is considering is a 4 car garage enough. I helped a man build a garage once that figured out what he had to put in there, where it would go, nothing was out of place. It was too small even as we were building it
 
51cub said:
Yeah, do it. All my hobbies are machines, engines, books, tools, that are at least 50 years old and you can't get anymore. If I don't get it while I can and tarp it until I can build a decent garage, I won't ever get one. You got the means and you deserve it, run with that. The one thing I would change is considering is a 4 car garage enough. I helped a man build a garage once that figured out what he had to put in there, where it would go, nothing was out of place. It was too small even as we were building it
Click to expand...

Well , I sure won't argue anyone that has old Cubbies ! :encourage: You over on the OCC site ?
 
I would build the garage so it keeps me active (better than excercise) and save medical money, enjoy life.

But I would also sell stuff, so I can be realistic with what I will use and what not, and so I can buy another good one that comes along.
 
Another tip that was given to me by several people when I built my shop. Make sure you build it big enough. I thought I did LOL but stuff keeps following me home and now I have no room in my shop :(
 
Your situation sounds 'marginally' similar to mine. We have lived on a farm for the past 25 years. Over time, space issues have expanded as my interests have progressed from maintenance on my equipment and vehicles, to street rods, and now into machining. I learned many years ago, NEVER get rid of tooling or machines. You almost always immediately regret it and, in my experience, it's not out of the realm of likelihood you'll end up re-purchasing it in the future. So if your circumstances allow it, go for the space.

We had a 24 x 48 pole barn with a dirt floor that I ended up converting into a shop. A few years later, I put a 16 x 24 addition on the back which is now exclusively the machine shop area. I've never looked back on those modifications, other than wishing I'd made the addition larger.

If you decide to build the garage, and based on experience, I'll offer two suggestions. First, if your terrain allows it, put a pit in one bay. I do all my oil changes and quite a bit of maintenance work over mine. It makes life much easier than crawling under equipment, and you'd be surprised how handy it will be for other applications. If you do that, make sure you stub in air for impact tools and electricity for lighting and electrical tools. Second, if you can manage it, make the ceiling clearance over another bay tall enough to add a lift. Just like the pit, it facilitates maintenance and other, more challenging, repairs. If you allow for height clearance, MAKE SURE you also allow for foundation integrity. My recollection is that for passenger vehicles and light duty trucks, you need a six inch concrete base (probably 3,000 wt. concrete, but that's a bit of a guess). Lifts are not nearly as expensive as you may think. I don't remember the orders of magnitude, but I was surprised at how affordable they were after seeing one in a friend's shop.

I've done both, and I can tell you from experience - they're well-worth the investment. Especially as you get older. There's no way I could continue to do the crawling around, over and under equipment that I did ten years ago. And like they say, you can't take it with you.

Regards,
Terry
 
Not on OCC, but only because I was already on too many before I found it. I'm on one forum or another for near about any hobby you can think of. That's the biggest reason I'm not on here too much. I have a bad habit of letting life get in the way. I'm working on fixing that
 
Yep Terry . Everything above has been considered , and I'm with you . Age sure changes your abilities .
 
  • Like
Reactions: tjb
51cub said:
Not on OCC, but only because I was already on too many before I found it. I'm on one forum or another for near about any hobby you can think of. That's the biggest reason I'm not on here too much. I have a bad habit of letting life get in the way. I'm working on fixing that
Click to expand...

Yep , OK . If you ever get on , I'm CCSuperMan on there . I've done 100s of IHs and Cubs over the years , mostly SGTs . :)
 
tjb said:
We had a 24 x 48 pole barn with a dirt floor that I ended up converting into a shop. A few years later, I put a 16 x 24 addition on the back which is now exclusively the machine shop area. I've never looked back on those modifications, other than wishing I'd made the addition larger.
Click to expand...
A coworker recently put in a 20X30 shop. He immediately wished he built it bigger. He has the room, it was just a matter of money.
On the other hand, I know a guy that has a huge shop. He tends to hoard stuff he'll never use and the flow just doesn't work due to the large size and the way it's laid out.
There is always someone with a bigger, better ______ and there is always someone with less. I need to convince myself what we have is good enough. Any upgrade would consist of a move and more money. We can afford what we have now. It's good enough, I think.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top