New Transporter Truck

[jpmorgan37]

Mike,

You got me on that one. Just want to tell you how much I've enjoyed following your step by step progress description and especially the pictures (I read pictures a lot better than I read writing).

John

 

[irvin56]

fantastic

love the paint job.
Much much talent
YOU must to good at EVERYTHING None
Have to ask your wife

 

[pmmjarrett]

Thank you John. I enjoy sharing what I can with everybody here. Making a few good friends along the way too.




Irvin, ya gotta love photoshop........ Oh and I don't kiss and tell

 

[CrazyScotsman]

I'll better stay out of the Monfort lane then. Not heard that term used in a long time.
Don't even think that they are still in business.
That'll look good on the back of the sleeper, I really think you need to put a 120" sleeper on like the Reliable car haulers have.
Cheers Ken
Legacy Sleepers - ARI - American Reliance Industries, Co.
oem sleeper conversions, aftermarket truck sleepers, Indiana used sleepers for

 

[pmmjarrett]

I got my start in trucking hauling swinging beef in the 80's, used to run the Hunt's Point 500 every sunday night. Drove for Silvey Refrigerated Express..... Yep, I was a "Junior Meathauler" LOL. 1st truck was a '79 cabover cornbinder with a flying 290 and a 10 speed castrated to 58 mph.

When I bought my '85 Ford LTL 9000 with a 400 CAT, 13 over and 3.73's I could pass the Monfort and Abilene trucksNone They used to threaten to tell my boss my truck would go that fast..... He already knew and paid me handsomely for the really hot stuff nobody else could get delivered on time.

Of course it didn't too take long before a Montana trooper found out how fast it was either..... I was able to stop, grab my permits, log book, bingo card and registration and was standing at the back of the trailer waiting for him to catch up to me..... Hey when you know you are dead in the wrong ya might as well just stop and face the music....

He didn't even get out of the cruiser, just opened the window and said "ya got everything, have a seat"

I still have that ticket boxed up here somewhere.


I'll just say Tacoma, WA to Miles City, MT is a 10-1/2 hr drive and that I won't do that again.

 

[pmmjarrett]

We'll start these two posts with a smile.

Making lanyards with 1/16" coated cable and using 1/4-20 stainless nuts for swedges. These lanyard will help save me a from Murphy's law and my own poor memory. For these lanyards, using nuts is fine and I inherited a bunch of these SS 1/4" nuts so I gotta use them for something. I won't do something like this on winch cable. The welded on loops are a piece of chain link.

Fabricated the mount for the ICC identification marker lamps, these lights are required on trucks and trailers ofer 80" wide.

Also fabricated the mount for the center channel ramp.

To be continued.........

 

[pmmjarrett]

......... Continued

Fabricated the ramp pins from 1/2" steel rod

Drill and champher one end

90* bend on the other

In place

Yep, lanyard for that clip too. Can't put one on the rod. They have to be stowed.

Putting things into perspective. Frame is finally complete. Now it's time for wiring, brake lines, bed etc.................

 

[CrazyScotsman]

You got all that done today ? Only thing I got done today was make pancakes for breakfast, jump start one of my pickups so daughter who is up visiting can have a vehicle to use while she's here. It's amazing how 4 degree temps can drain a battery on a vehicle that was just used 2 days ago.
Can't forget getting dragged around the stores shopping for a bike for grand daughter's xmas pressie. Now we shall see if she forgets the bike like she does her violin and some other things, poor wee thing has " oldtimers " at the ripe old age of 11 LOL.
What you got done looks good, I really like that Smiley face. LOL
Cluck cluck rv truck. Cheers Ken.

 

[pmmjarrett]

LOL

I forgot to eat breakfast and lunch. I don't get hungry and I forget to eat until I get a headache from not eating.

I have an 11 y/o and she has a room full of stuff she forgets she has.

 

[pmmjarrett]

Brrrrrrrr cold today, hard to get motivated..... in the 30's LOL

I did mount the brake controller and have drawn up the wiring harness. Spent the rest of the day playing with my dogs, surfing the net and playing on Pogo.com



Wiring diagram. I'm putting the trailer running lights and ground on their own fused circuit vs drawing on the trucks original harness. This gives me a courtesy switch for the tail lights without shutting off the headlights and takes the extra load off the factory headlight switch and wiring.

 

[Bob&Patty]

Mike, I am just amazed at the work you are doing. After reading some of the latest posts, You, Crazyscot and I have somethings in common. I was at one time an owner/operator. Had a 72 Fruitcar, 86" cab, 290 cumalong, turned up to a 350 but pulled like a 400. Had a 3.73 rear, RTO915 trans. It was an old "Willis Shaw" tractor. I did have the clock at 90 several times but not many on bias-ply tires. Hauled alot of fruit and anything I could get in the ol' refer. Keep up the good work. Bob

 

[pmmjarrett]

Thanks Bob.


Yea they don't make trucks like they used too....... Thank God.


You used to actually have to drive a truck and read a map and figure out what route you wanted to take instead of just holding the steering wheel waiting for the computer to tell you where to turn.

Me, I'd never go back to a reefer or dry van. Specialized freight is actually fun and people want the stuff and often are waiting for you when you get there....... unlike the 20th load of toilet paper to a grocery warehouse or another load of lettuce to the produce market where you get the pleasure of waiting 4 hrs past your appointment time to get unloaded.

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Cold in the 30's ???????? Get real, that is a heatwave, we were at 3 yesterday am, 24 for high. Freezing rain on the menu today. Thank god I'm off work till the 30TH, just wish I was old enough to retire., only 15 more years till I get a pension, that's if it's still there by then.
Bob I started out driving truck in 1978 in the UK. and Europe, started in a 1949 Bedford. Old crash box, gas engine, seat was a piece of foam on a metal box, back of seat was a curved piece of metal with foam about 4" wide. You missed a gear, you stopped and started over again. God help you if you were heavy and going up a hill. Ahhh the good old days. Please don't bring them back. lol
I must say though best truck I ever drove was the 1999 Volvo 770 I bought in Dec.98 It had a 500 Detroit, 13 over and 3:70 rears. It was like riding in a Cadillac. It had a dinette table and a couch either side that folded into a bed. I a regular house hold coffee pot sitting on the table, would have the pot on going down the road, and a drop would hardly get spilt. Smooth riding truck. I put a team in that truck, as we used to haul fresh cut flowers out of Oxnard CA. They wanted a Large car, more chicken lights and chrome, so in 2000 I bought them a 2001 KW 900L same motor , rear ends and gears as the Volvo. What a piece of junk that was. First trip I took it out myself. I was laying in sleeper in a rain storm, I got soaked, it leaked everywhere. After that got repaired the team got their Large car and I took the Volvo. By the end of the first week they wanted the Volvo back.
If I ever go back to being an O/O again I will only drive the truck myself. Employees tend to tear stuff up,they don't give a rats ar** about how they treat the equipment.
Cheers Ken

 

[bill40]

Well guys I guess this might date me but on the day I got married my company we on strike. My grandad had a small freigt company and offered ne a drive. The old Autocar lack a few of the things you are all talking about. No air ride seats no split ****s and what was power anything. We did have a radio,AM.
Got to say picking up a load of furniture in NY was a real pleasure, OH Yes we had to load the stuff our selves. I must say Pop paid well and after eleven weeks of winter and the AutoCar I was in better shape than when Uncle Sam trained me.
Great Job on that rig Mike!!!
MERRY CHRITMAS TOO ALL
Bill

 

[bill40]

Sorry About The Miss Spells, Old Person Trying To Do Two Things At Once!!!

 

[Bob&Patty]

Well guys, I guess we have all "been there done that". The only truck I wish I still had was a 52 Sterling. I was going to put a glider kit under the cab and drive it. But money got tight in the early 80's so I sold it. It was really a cool truck. It still had the "rocking chair" drivers seat, 5 & 3 trans, page & page suspention, 160 cummins, and even still had the wood in the frame rails. I always thought it would looked good painted maroon with black fenders and roof, 13' straight stacks, and a double wide sleeper. Just a dream of years ago. Bob

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Bill40.. AM radio, you were riding first class. That old Bedford I drove was RAF ( Royal Air Force ) issue, so no AM radio in that, but it did have a turret cover on the roof that always seemed to blow off when traveling down the motorway in the good old British rain. Summer you sweated like a pig, winter time you about froze to death in it.
Cheers Ken

 

[pmmjarrett]

Glad to see this bring back some memories. Love a good story.


27 days left to finish pack out and head to Elkhart area.


Good start on the wiring today. All joints are being soldered and shrink wrapped, all wiring will be protected with a plastic split loom and then taped up like a factory harness. Also using the correct color wire where I can.

For electrical and electronic soldering use Rosin core solder, acid core solder is corrosive.

Big mess of spaggetti

Brake sensor is wired

Blunt wire ends soldered in for future Chicken lights

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Now i'm lost, there is no way in he** I can make sence of wiring, my electrical skills are changing a light bulb, even then I need 2 people to help, one to tell me which way to screw it in, the other to turn me. That way it gets done right.
looks good. Cheers Ken

 

[caddojay]

I am very impressed and now have truck envy as well as mechanical envy. How are the ramps going to be operated? Surely, not just muscled-up, you're too creative for that old technology. You're going to have to start a TV show for all of us "wannabe's".