Road Trip DFW to Chester IL DEC 26-JAN 9

[OPCOM]

Alcon: Have you been able to resolve the following problems you'd mentioned in your 10 January posting? I've inserted questions/thoughts (which may or may not be plausible) for a couple of your questions.

• "Running - the truck ran OK coming home, plenty of power. But there is something wrong with the throttle/governor/injection."
• Opcom: Not yet. It is going to go to the diesel shop. First we have to unload the box except for some tools and the spare. That will happen tomorrow unless the rain is too hard for moving the goods.
  
• "Starting - I am not so sure we got the suspected air leak fixed because after the truck has been off for 30 minutes to an hour, it has to crank forever to start. It is cranking like a mad dog now that the temp is warmer."
• Opcom: I think this has the same cause as the running.
  
• "Driving - one or more wheel/tire assemblies is either out of round (suspected) or out of balance. The truck does the bouncy thing at low speeds and this smooths out at 50+ MPH. For all I know this may be normal."
  • Alcon: Could this be due to a tire being under or over inflated?
  • Opcom: All are inlfated to 100PSI. Maybe that is too much, but it is within the rating of 110PSI at which each tire can take 17500 lbs at 55 MPH.
  • If the problem went away once you'd traveled some miles or when you'd finally reached warmer weather, and if you found that one of the tires had been under-inflated, could the problem have been due to a temporary flat spot on the tread or a bulge in the sidewall of the tire, which, due to the cold temps we'd been experiencing during the re-buiild had formed a temporary "set" of those physical conditions(flat spot, bulge) of the tire until such time as the tire had warmed up and was properly inflated?
  • Opcom: It appears that there was no change in the behavior even when close to home where it was 50 degrees and the tires were as warm as they might get. Pulling off the hghway, stopping, and pulling back on repeated the problem. The tires did not overheat at all.
    
• "Steering - it is pretty touchy and wants to over-steer itself. It's as though the chassis moves then the truck tilts and follows it in such a way that the original steering movement is increased. Maybe a toe adjustment? too much tire pressure? I don't know. It is very exciting when the road is narrow and a 18 wheeler is passing. If it were a van or big car I would think "sway bars" but I don't think that can be done on straight axles."
  • Alcon:Could this be due to the increased height of the larger tires' sidewalls?
  • Opcom: Maybe. I will ask the tire shop gurus.
    
• "The generator covering and mount."
• Opcom: No progress yet.
  
• "The RADAR."
• Opcom: No progress yet. The weather here has not been cooperative. Rain mostly. The box does not appear to have major leaks as in dripping on the goods, but it will be dealt with this summer after it is good and dried out.
  
• "Loading an ATV."
  • Alcon: Brian and I are working on the problem of how to safely load and unload your spare tire and 4-wheeler utilizing the lift gate. I'll keep you posted on what we come up with.
  • Opcom: I am grateful going forward!
    

 

[OPCOM]

Good to see you posting Al! I had a great time working with everyone. It always takes some time to "learn" a new vehicle. I suspect one that is THIS custom will take a little longer. I would experiment with different tire pressures. That seemed to help alot with my 395s. Getting them balanced should help alot too. Can they balance 53" tall tires?

The guys at the tire shop that have been handling the 11.00x20's on the deuce seem to think they can deal with these big 'uns, even after i told them they are 500 lbs each. $50 per tire, I think they said, to dismount, break down, retube, reassemble, replace. Plus a few bucks most likely for material. I am going to ask them to check them for round, and also to balance the assemblies. A test of the "blank look generator". To check round, I assume one jacks up the axle and spins the tire with a measuring tool at the tread. Round should not be too hard to do with the fronts. For the rears they will have to jack up the 4 points. Maybe there is a different way on the big stuff.

 

[OPCOM]

Yesterday I cleaned out some space in the Bunker. It was very cold, 25 and windy. Sorry but that -is- cold. So we did not clear out the 109 box. That was done today. Today was supposed to be partly sunny and 47. Hah! no such luck, it is 38 and overcast but at least that is not bad. The only things left are the spare, the towbar, some tools, and the sheetmetal for the rest of the generator housing. Next weekend I will take it to the Die$el $hop and drop it off.

I also want to say that liftgate is working great! Man alive that is going to save my back and knees vs. the boarding ladder. I already scheming on how to add a control so I can operate the gate solo. Up is easy electrically. Down has to be mechanical.

I'm thinking about the spare and how to handle it safely because a time may come when I have to change it myself. The words "overhead crane" come to mind.

There are small pickup truck bed cranes that are basically a pipe on a flange and some engine hoise parts added. Most of these are rather short in height. The thing that makles sense with one of these is for the boom to be out at 90 degrees over the load.

Something like a rotating boom that has a fixed angle, with a small winch on it, might be best.

There is also the possibility of an overhead I-beam supported on two posts. A winch could run on rollers on the I-beam.

I also have been thinking that if a support for a crane or hoist was right behild the tire, it would be helpful for mounting. Such a solution would also entail, besides the floor mount, a mount to the wall, as I intend to repair and replace the "L" section of steel material that was part of the wall before, with all the bolts going through. It is likely that there should be another such run of the material near the ceiling.

Some drawings are here. If an I-beam overhead was used, it could be run diagonal so as the wheel were moved, it would be closer to the door. Alternately the I-beam could just run from one side to the other.

The close-up drawing of an idea for securing the spare to the wall could be done with either an overhead or an enginehoise type crane. I still wish to use an electric winch. This would make it easier if the tire is to be lowered to the ground sans lift gate, or in other situations. It could be any cheap 12V ATV bumper winch, they are rated 1000+ lbs. What do yall think of this plot?

 

[OPCOM]

road trip, build, pictures and all details posted

Opcom's SS Road Trip 2009

 

[lstmate]

Hey how about one of those wheel trays with rollers like you can put under a car to roll it around (Northern Hydraulics)? A small piece of plywood to put down on the ground, place the roll around tray on the plywood, roll the tire on the tray, roll the tray with the tire on it into position over the studs. If the tire needs to rotate to line up put some small pipes under it on the tray will allow it to turn in place. With your lift gate you can get it to the ground and then it is just rolling it around.

 

[lstmate]

Recently there were some (pnuematic I think) mast on GL...guess you missed them huh?

 

[OPCOM]

I saw those, but I don't have the equipment necessary to fabricate the rest of the system.

The wheel will be OK to handle outside, just flop it down on the gate. The idea for the hoist is to pick up up the wheel and handle the tire inside the box, as well as (with a lengthy winch cable) have an assist to pick it up should it fall over outside. It is very difficult to pick it up when laying flat, partly the weight and partly no easy way to grab it. A long prybar and a come along can be carried in case it falls over in a place where the winch cable can't reach. I also need to find a 300 FT LB torque wrench/ bar for the studs.

I am now looking at the 1000 LB pickup truck hoist at harbor freight. There is one from Northern Tool seems exactly the same item.
- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

There is also the somewhat taller T-Max 1000-Lb. Capacity Pickup Truck Crane from Northern Tool. It has better and worse points. The one from harbor freight holds 500 lbs when extended. the T-max manual says 150 lbs. huh.
T-Max 1000-Lb. Capacity Pickup Truck Crane | Truck Cranes | Northern Tool + Equipment

The reason for that is after making some height meaurements, it's doubtful a safely workable overhead crane can be easily made up from existing parts, most of the more or less ready made stuff that could be used for this is too big and the hoist block would hang too low.

If the pickup truck hoist was mounted in the corner of the box (top left in the above pictures), it would be easy to pick up the tire off the gate and swing it over to the wall. The only problem is the hoist is not very tall (column is about 36" tall). It would need to be about a 18" taller for the arm to be straight when the tire is upright and off the floor. I might replace or augment the hand winch with an electric ATV style one so I can rig a remote.

For the height, I wonder if a 5-sided 1/4" steel box 12"x12"x18" could be bolted through the floor to a 12x12" steel plate and be rigid enough to support the hoist. This would also gain me a place to put a bottle jack large enough to be used to change a tire on the 5T. I can weld the box I believe with my little sears 120V 80A stick welder. T can order the steel from a surplus metal dealer and have it cut to length there beforehand. See the PDF file - -the base - item 01. It might alternately be possible to replace this item with a taller one especially if it were made from good steel pipe. Then I could make the base 12x12 and add gussets.

just some thought anyway going forward.

The truck is in the shop right now to fix the starting and fuel issue, it is sucking air very badly somewhere and losing prime. They replaced the fuel supply line and filter and it still had a leak, but they think it was the line they made up (bubbles showing up in a clear substituted piece of line) so they are doing it over. Not to worry much they know the NHC250 well and understand about the prime. The good news is that the rought idling and missing is fixed. Was sucking air real bad before due to a hairline crack in the fuel line near the pump.

 

[OPCOM]

News of the weird - - The pressure-time pump (injection pump for the non-cummins folks) is destroyed. Inside was found all the components chewed up very badly and the pump shop says it is full of what looks like copper or brass debris. Apparently something was left inside when the pump was rebuilt by Uncle Sam. A shaving of copper line? a crust from a brass fitting? an aircraft (screw securing) wire? Over the 7000 miles the truck was used, whatever it was took a tour of the pump and visited the gears, governor, etc. I told them put the pieces in a bag because inquiring minds want to know. Pictures at 11.

 

[54reo]

That really stinks!

Any more info?

 

[gimpyrobb]

Is it 11 yet?

 

[OPCOM]

It is now precisely 11:00 somewhere.

The tale of the pump is posted in its own topic so more people will find it in a search:
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/5-ton-...tion-punp-wores-pt-pump-ruins.html#post559264