40 The Business of Prairie Agriculture Better Farming | January 2024 Tractors, Trucks & Growing Grain and found the block heater wasn’t working. It turns out that when I picked up the cord the broken wire in the cord reconnected. Lesson learned. The cost is about $25 to $30 but they can be hard to find. Laser thermometer This is a real handy gadget. Just point it and the thermometer will tell you the temperature of the spot where the laser beam contacts the object. This is great for checking for dragging brakes or hot wheel bearings on vehicles. Check all four wheels and compare temperatures. We use this in the fire department for looking for hot spots on machines or buildings. Some custom combiners check their bearings daily to see if any of them are warming up above their normal temperatures and need replacement. The cost is $40 to $100. Relay tester As we get to more electric parts on vehicles and equipment, we have more relays and fuses. I have the father-in-law’s manual for the John Deere Model AR tractor. It says that if you have the model with the headlights, you need to know where the fuse is located. My, how things have changed. Newer vehicles haves 50 or more relays and fuses. The relay checker is a handy device to check relays. Just plug the relay in and push the button and the tester will check the relay multiple times, letting you know if it’s good or bad. Cost is $60 to $100. Vacuum coolant filler Years ago, this device wasn’t needed. Most vehicles had the radiator cap higher than the cooling system and it was easy to bleed the air out of the system. Now a lot of vehicles have the rad filler lower than many parts of the cooling system. Without this device, it takes a while to bleed the air out. To use this tool, you must hook it up to the top of the radiator. Then use an air line to create a vacuum in the cooling system. When the vacuum gauge is at the right spot, flip a valve, then unhook the air line and hook up the suction line. Drop the suction line into the antifreeze, flip the valve open and the antifreeze 'schlorks' up into the radiator. This saves a lot of time bleeding the air out of the Vacuum coolant filler Laser thermometer Relay tester Trailer plug tester
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