SemiTruck hitch hook to campertype 5th wheel?

[davo727]

Thanks for the comments guys, and my wrist is starting to heal up nicely.

Got that thing hung!!! Yay for me. A few min with the grinder and I got the joints really nice. The pic is after it was heavily tacked and got the lift out of the way. I then did most of the first passes with 6011 before I quit for the evening.

Tomorrow I have to take a few measurements and go down to Triple S steel and get some channel for the neck X-members and see if they have some 1/4 in sheet in surplus maybe I can get half a sheet to do the big triangle gussets from the neck down to the uprights.

I think I can get this neck pretty much wrapped up by friday night.

Oh and dont worry bout that junkyard behind the trailer

 

[davo727]

These are the inboard sides of the neck joints. All DC +. 2 passes with 1/8 in 6011 at 130 amps and a pass with 1/8 7018 at 140 amps. The corners have a couple passes of 7018.

The 6011 sure does dig in with killer penetration.

Nobody will confuse me with a pro welder thats for sure but I dont think its gonna fall off

I bought an air needle scaler and that works great for quickly getting the 6011 slag gone.
I bought some 4 in and 6 in channel for crossmembers and a 3x5 foot pc of 1/4 in plate for the big gusetts under the neck. 30 cents a pound from Triple S steel surplus yard houston.

This is starting to resemble a lot of work. Maybe I will take a couple days off work and try to get more of it knocked out. I was looking the trailer over and found that I need to cut out and replace the front lower frame x-member. Left side is rusted to ****. Lots of work.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Looks good to me. I can weld nice with my Hobart Wire machine but have trouble with the Miller Stick.

Chris

 

[davo727]

I take it's not your first dance with heavy steel ?

This is the biggest steel project I have done and first time working with 12 in I beam.
Also decided to use my miller thunderbolt arc welder on DC for this and left the millermatic200 in the garage. Fun to do the arc for a change.
Also working over 100 feet from my power panel and the thunderbolt is happy with the 50 ft- 6 gauge and 60 ft -8 gauge cords I ran out there.

 

[allen in texas]

Nice!

Looks like a really long neck.

I recently bought a gooseneck dump and was considering building my own flatdeck gooseneck but when I figured the price of material, beams, axles, decking etc, it was as much as a new trailer and then I still had to put it together.

You started with a trailer already built. I'm looking for something like that.
Otherwise, I guess I'll just have to by new.
Used goosenecks are going pretty much for new prices around here.

 

[davo727]

Hey Allen,

Its only a foot longer than standard, its 9 ft. It looks longer because it doesnt have the big gussetts underneath it yet. I went a little longer because I may get a bigger truck in the future like a Kodiak or topkick and thought the length might come in handy.
I came across this trailer on craigslist and it was cheap cause it needed work, but it still was a deal since all the tires are like new and it has the big disc brake axles.

 

[davo727]

Well I cut out four 1/4 inch doublers for the neck joints and was about to start welding and the sky opened and started raining for the first time in a month

 

[Renze]

Davo, we usually doubled the horizontal flanges with flatbar, those welds have the biggest strain on them. The flatbar was around 2 foot long and welded only lightly, so the welds dont weaken the beam itself, just overlap the welds in the beam itself.

 

[davo727]

Cut out some more doublers to go over my upright I-beam splices. . The long ones are for the outboard sides of the uprights and at their bottom edge will be welded to the 1/2 inch plates that are under the Jacks.

And the shorter double bevel ones are for the inb sides of uprights.

Also spent about an hour grinding on the front of the uprights getting the remnants of the old gussets off them and ready for the new BIG 2.5 ftX 2.5 ft triangle gussets.

 

[davo727]

Davo, we usually doubled the horizontal flanges with flatbar, those welds have the biggest strain on them. The flatbar was around 2 foot long and welded only lightly, so the welds dont weaken the beam itself, just overlap the welds in the beam itself.

So bend the bar and lay it on top and bottom over the joints?