New Transporter Truck

[beardedone]

That is a great looking job you are doing and certainly reflects a lot of skill. Some of the guys are talking older trucks. Well my dad had a little trucking company in Victoria and he had Austin trucks, 2 & 3 tons only, which were used for furniture moving. There never were a lot of them in Canada.

 

[pmmjarrett]

Thanks all.

Man I'd love to mate an old restored truck cab on this chassis. That would be cool. I love the look of old iron.


Ramps I ain't quite figured out yet. Will be some muscle involved. I plan to stow them between the frame rails. Sliding them off the frame is the easy part, putting them away is the hard part.

I do have an extra 2000 lb winch I'm going to mount on the chassis to help unload the trailers, just use it enough to pull it off the flat and onto the beavertail and get it started down hill where the big winch takes over to lower it the rest of the way.

Can use this winch to help muscle them back up.

One problem is the shear length needed to load trailers, because of their overhang and stuff like steps on models with rear doors, the ramps on these trucks need to be 12' - 16' long

I'd love to be able to push a button and have the ramps telescope out like a ladder on a fire truck.

 

[CrazyScotsman]

pmmj.. Are you having a day of rest from the wee project ?
Merry Christmas..... Ken

 

[Niles]

You ought to go to Nick Russell's blog, he meet with a guy that restored a old drop deck trailer into a camper and pulls it with a White semi, single axle from the 50 t's.

 

[pmmjarrett]

Been taking a few days rest from the wee project.

Have the dually hooked to the 5vr to see my FIL, oldest daughter and grandbaby.

Gonna have to thrash on it hard for 3 weeks to finish it on time when I get back.

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Well, enjoy your visit with the family. I've had all 3 daughters and grand daughter here for Christmas, first time in 5 years we have all been together for the holidays. It has been really nice, expensive, but nice.
Enjoy........ all the best. Ken

 

[jbeletti]

Travel safe Mike. You deserve the break. Hope to see you in January.

 

[pmmjarrett]

I'm BAAAAACK...... Was a good trip. Time to get back to work.

Scored a nice Milemarker SI9500 winch off craigslist locally this morning.
Specs - rated for 9500 lbs and has 100' of 3/8" cable. Good match for dragging 4000 - 6000 lb trailers onto the bed without killing the winch.

This guy spent a lot of money on accessories too. Got the wireless remote, neoprene cover, some extra big honkin' hook, work lights and a 2" receiver mount too.

All for $400

Time to get my butt back in the shop and get busy now.... so Jim gets fed at least once in January LOL.

 

[pmmjarrett]

Took everything the guy had so carefully assembled apart to fit it to my application. Glad I did too. He said he had used it 3 times but I'd bet it wasn't on any hard pull. The welds that were on there looked like they used a 90 amp flux core welder and had no penetration. I was able to basicly knock the base completely apart with a 4 lb sledge and minor cutting of the welds. That would be ugly with a trailer half way up the ramp because gravity sugs.

Fabricated a new mount. winch is mounted curb side with easy access and close to the battery box. Cable will run under the sleeper to a pully and then come back down the center channel.

Mounted the winch.

Opened the cover to the solenoid. Several loose screws here and I need to re route the small wires for the remote as the way they were routed, occassional contact with the cable had chaffed them. Will push them through the grommets for the big cables when I finish wiring it up. One reason I took this picture is so I know which small wire goes where when I redo the small wiring properly.

Started work on the mounts for the center channel. They will be bolted to the frame crossmembers through exisiting holes. This design will keep the channel as low as possible down in the frame and I won't be welding on the frame crossmembers. You ain't supposed to weld on the crossmembers either.

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Do me a favour Mike, can you bottle up some of that energy that you have doing all these projects, and send me some. LOL
Heck if things go the way they are going, I may have to start hauling RV's ( That is if anyone has a job to buy them ) for a living. Big change coming in March at work, looks like a lot of us drivers will on the unemployment line. It's great, we had to vote on a 10% wage decrease, now they spring this on us.
Mike, that Curt Q5 hitch you have, is it any good ? I saw a good price on Evil-Bay and at J C Whitney on them.
Happy New year and keep up the good work.. Ken.....

 

[irvin56]

Ramps how you loading

I remembered in you post that you needed around 12 foot or more ramp lenght??

How you loading, Along side truck, on bed under trailers axles??

Just asking as The gin pole and bed trucks had some setups to load skid shacks and trailers. for the oil patch rig moves and camp jobs
just wondering if I could give you a few ideas they used for ramps and how they useded their winchs to load.
CONSIDERING you are mounting one, and prefabing you own unit. any mods will be best know with open frame.

Are you putting on a flat bed or just rails for axles to ride on??

 

[pmmjarrett]

Do me a favour Mike, can you bottle up some of that energy that you have doing all these projects, and send me some. LOL
Heck if things go the way they are going, I may have to start hauling RV's ( That is if anyone has a job to buy them ) for a living. Big change coming in March at work, looks like a lot of us drivers will on the unemployment line. It's great, we had to vote on a 10% wage decrease, now they spring this on us.
Mike, that Curt Q5 hitch you have, is it any good ? I saw a good price on Evil-Bay and at J C Whitney on them.
Happy New year and keep up the good work.. Ken.....

I'm running out of steam faster than I can make it.

Don't like to hear of people losing their jobs, I sincerely hope you dodge the bullet. Worst time ever to get into hauling RVs right now. Many guys losing their hindparts in this business as slow as it is right now, especially doing the single tow with a pickup or driveaway division.

I like my Curt Q5, it's a good hitch and very, very popular with RV transporters like myself. Bought mine off etrailer.com

 

[pmmjarrett]

I remembered in you post that you needed around 12 foot or more ramp lenght??

How you loading, Along side truck, on bed under trailers axles??

Just asking as The gin pole and bed trucks had some setups to load skid shacks and trailers. for the oil patch rig moves and camp jobs
just wondering if I could give you a few ideas they used for ramps and how they useded their winchs to load.
CONSIDERING you are mounting one, and prefabing you own unit. any mods will be best know with open frame.

Are you putting on a flat bed or just rails for axles to ride on??

Trailer will be winched up the back of the truck. ramps for the wheels and a center track ramp for the tounge jack with a wheel placed on it.

Loading them on a skid and winching them up like a camp shack would be slick but I wouldn't be able to keep the bed height low enough as some travel trailers are over 11' tall.

My next few posts will start to clear things up as I started building the bed today.

 

[pmmjarrett]

Wiring harness is pretty much done. All wires in looms and looms are taped up just like the factory did it. Best part is it all worked when I tested it.

Blunt wire ends for the trailer plug that will be installed after I paint the chassis and bed.

Getting busy building the bed and monts for fenders over the rear tires. The bed itself is 98" wide and when I add the rub rails it will be 102". When loaded, the trailer tires will be just behind the trucks tires. Needed to do this for trailers that are over 10'6" tall as most of the longer trailers I can load are over 10'6"

Just enough clearance for the tires to move their 3" of suspension travel which is all there is on this truck.

 

[irvin56]

WOW what did you run over??



Thats a mean chunk of iron sticking in that tire LOLLLLL

Hope you got a warranty for it

your modification is looking good

 

[pmmjarrett]

That does look nasty LOL. That's the last thing I need to do is destroy a really good $300 tire..... already have to replace both steers to pass inspection, rears are like new.

That's all thats left of one of the 20' sticks of 4.1 lb 3" channel, was using it for a template to notch the bed crossmember channels to fit the into the bed sides.

 

[CrazyScotsman]

How easy or difficult is that going to be to change a tyre with that metal around it .

 

[pmmjarrett]

How easy or difficult is that going to be to change a tyre with that metal around it .

Not hard at all. The bottom of the channel over the tire is about even with the tread on top of the tire.

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Not hard at all. The bottom of the channel over the tire is about even with the tread on top of the tire.

I see, I guess the angle the photo was taking from, makes it look like the metal was lower.

 

[pmmjarrett]

Here's a good side shot of the tire straight on. When I eventually replace these tires I will be putting on 225/70R-19.5 which is one size smaller and gives me a little more clearance.

Put in a good days work on the bed today.


Got all the crossmembers in and welded up

Welded all the 14 gauge diamond deck plate on.

Used the leftover deck plate for steel fenders to contain a blowout. If you've ever driven a big truck you know it's gonna happen, it's not a matter of "if" you'll have a blowout, it's a matter of "when" it'll happen and Murphy's Law says it'll happen when you are loaded, in the worst possible weather, in the middle of nowhere and when nobody is open to fix it..... Didn't want to waste an ounce of that gold plated stuff either.

This side is almost done. Need one more piece of angle to stiffen the deck plate on the beavertail and the rub rail.