Some days.............

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Good looking truck, Harv! That Allison is the future of trucking. In the class 8 trucks they increase fuel economy 1/2 to 3/4 mpg over what the best driver in a standard transmission equipped truck can accomplish. When you're driving something that gets 6-7 mpg and fuel is your largest single variable expense, that difference is huge over a year.

I couldn't help picture how nice a new Jerr-Dan roll back and wheel lift would look on those frame rails (sigh).

 

[bgott]

Nice truck! Are you going to use the flatbed off of Moby, too, or build a new one?

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Morning guys,

I'm glad you like her.

Since Moby is kaput I have had to run for parts etc using Lucy. The transmission is a dream. She's smooth and she holds the proper gear for the speed. If I'm doing thirty she sets in third, well, just like riding with a gearhead who loves to hear the motor just where it should be.

Bgott, I'm using the old bed. Originally she had a hundred and twenty six inches center of axle to cab. I had them shorten it to Moby's one oh eight.

The tool box came off without a hitch. I got real lucky. I must have been smarter back then when I build it in place. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

The bed is another story. The big fly in the syrup is behind the axle is a box that runs from side to side. That's where I keep the shovels, digging bars, post hole diggers, brooms, etc. The fenders are full one eighties and part of the bed itself. So the bed has to be lifted straight up and Moby pulled out from under it. Then Lucy has to be backed under and the bed lowered to fit.

So yesterday afternoon I was under there cutting the expanded metal and tubing frame of the tool box to allow the bed to be lifted up. Also the pintle hitch and receiver assembly is attached to the frame big time. So that had to be cut to separate it from the bed. I'm a firm believer that hitch assemblies always be independent of the bed and an integral part of the frame.

I'm about two hours of detail work away from welding a cross piece at the front of the bed where I will set up a couple of jacks. Jacks at the front and Iris at the back and the bed should come up and off of Moby. Then I'll pull the exactomundo measurements for trimming Lucy's frame and she'll be backed under.

Once the new bed is on, the hitch assembly is made in place, and the fuel inlet fabricated and in place. I'll paint the bed on the truck and the toolbox on stands. The toolbox will then be installed between the bed and the cab. Then it'll be time hopefully sometime tomorrow afternoon to start putting all the tools, drawers, and welder back in place so Lucy can hook up to the trailer with Iris and next week be earning her keep.

I'm excited. But it is a lot of work. I'm doing it all by myself. I've found I have fewer employee problems when I work that way.

 

[Von]

Harv, Sounds great,... but we need more photos!!!!!!!! Show us everything step by step, even the painting! Looks great!

 

[wallysue]

Wow, looks nice Harv.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Darn Von, you're gonna get me in trouble with Mohammed burning up all the bandwidth with my photos!/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

This evening as it was getting dusk I took a couple of photos to mark what I had accomplished today.

The bed is made out of three sixteenths plate. I'd guess it's weight in the twenty five hundred plus area. I know Iris wanted to stand on her nose lifting up either end.

So after I got all the bolts out and the welds cut I started lifting her up. I used blocks and a twenty ton bottle jack going front to back doing about four inches at a time. Things like this make me nervous. I understand all it would take would be an "oops" and I could be pinned until help came by. Might hurt a bit. And I do have some folks believe it or not who would be a bit put out if'n I did something stupid like getting hurt.

I had to get the boxes thirty four inches off the ground so the duals could get by.

I used strand reels and eight by cedar blocks with two by four shims at the back. In the front I welded two and a half inch eleven gauge square tubing across the bed at the headache rack. The way I welded it was I used gussets that I welded one side to the headache rack and one side to the tubing.

When I'm done it will take just a couple of smacks with a hammer and the gussets will come right off. It goes back to working the weld where it's strong one way but weak another. That way the strong way does the job and the working against the weak way makes removal a snap.

I measured three times and then cut the end of the frame off the new truck. If I'm lucky I will be able to build the hitch assembly, pintle, receiver, three light plugs, and tie down rings to the chassis. Then I will put the bed on to the chassis and after welding up the seams you should never know it ever happened. If I'm lucky......../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif If I'm not I'll adjust this and that no one will know the difference./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Remember, the difference between a weldor and a machinist is simple. Let's use a gap as an example. A weldor looks at a quarter of an inch gap and says, "it's nothing, just a quarter of an inch, watch your eyes."

The machinist looks at the gap, almosts has a coronary, and screams, "THAT'S TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY FREAKIN' THOUSANDTHS!!!!"

 

[wroughtn_harv]

The old boy who's buying Moby looked at the angled way I cut out the receiver--pintle hitch plate on the bed and wondered why I would cut it like that all angled and such.

I explained to him that if I'd cut it straight up and down sometimes things hang up etc. But if you cut it at an angle then that's almost impossible.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Tomorrow I'll have my son in law over to help me. He's about the only one I'd allow to do some things that normally I'd insist on doing myself. He'll wire in the electric brake controller. I also hope to have him wire in the rocker switches on the dash for the bed lights and the tool box lights.

He's not bad help. I watch him and realize that the hazard of having a daddy's girl is that sometimes they marry someone close enough to being like you to keep you up nights worrying./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

The pictures aren't the best. Heck, I make things, just don't take good pictures or do well at describing.......

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I'll try to do better tomorrow.

What is important to me in things like this is to get across the little points that might help someone else in their project.

You take like cutting that plate at an angle so when the bed is lifted the chances of a hangup are minimized. Hangups can cause one to do something that might get them hurt.

But probably what's the most important thing about sharing stuff like this is to spread the belief that there is no magic. Anyone can do it. It just takes a little confidence and some preparation and then it's like dominoes falling in place.

Confidence is sorta like getting a job where they only want folks who are experienced and you have none. To get it you have to do it. But to do it you have to have it.

Ain't life grand?

I hope you can tell I'm enjoying myself.