Above 1200 Sq/FT The Salvage Garage

[Strouty]

Found some bolts local, but not everything.

 

[Strouty]

I went to the Freightliner dealership, the dash and trim panels (except one at $500) were reasonably priced, so I ordered new ones, the passenger side seat was added after the fact (originally a jump seat) and was missing proper seat belt brackets and seat mounting plate. I am ordering all new, then I will swap the original driver side stuff to the passenger side and put all the new stuff on the driver side. Still need to find the bracket for the tilt telescoping steering column, they wanted $1400 for just the bracket. I think I have a line on one used, but not sure yet, just sent them the parts break down so they know what I am looking for.

I need to mount the seat and put the bolts and screws back in, when I get all my parts together, I will swap everything else, also be nice to do it when I have help, trying to hold the bolts under the cab and in the truck at the same time is a bit of a stretch for me.

 

[Strouty]

Almost have the Perk back together, one more interior panel and it will be ready to roll. I need to get the bolts from the knuckle boom all freed up and ready for tomorrow. I just hope we have enough room to clear the fifth wheel, part of me says I should pull it off now, but the guy has equipment, so if we have to remove it, we can do it tomorrow. You guys may laugh, but I tucked the 20' rods under the cab along the frame rail, fits pretty well and everything seems tight. The plan is to drop of the rods first thing, then to go and get the knuckle boom on the way home, weather looks good, wish the truck went faster than 62 MPH, can't have everything. I am going to pay attention to miles driven so I can figure out what I get for MPG, this will be a "worst case" as I will be on the governor essentially the entire time. Later, I will be able to change the gears and make things much better, still not sure if I am using the L10 Cummins or if I am going to swap motors to something else.

 

[Strouty]

Cleaning up the bolts for the knuckle boom has been a bit more trouble than I wanted. Had to bust out the torch and heat up a few so far. Two more to go, looks like torch for the too. A lot better to get it done now than messing with stuck bolts at the yard where the boom is.

Tonight the GF and I are going to get the giant tacos (2 pounds!), local place offers them every October and they are cheap ($12.95), seems like we have made it a tradition now, been doing it for five or so years. I will update tomorrow with the knuckle boom loading and other pictures.

 

[harley jim]

Giant Taco sounds cool.
We had a place here that had a 9 lb burrito called the chupacabra.
Free if you eat it in an hour or so.
Dont think anyone ever claimed victory.

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[Strouty]

Taco tamed, should have taken a picture, but it looked so good I forgot. Supposed to meet there with a friend Wednesday night, will take pics then.

Seat position is good in Perk, but shifting is weird now, have to almost relearn, I am in a totally different position, I just need more time driving the truck. The steering wheel is not so good, it actually ***** ***, can’t wait to get the tilt and telescoping column installed, that should make things a lot better still. The only thing I forgot to do was get the EZ pass setup, I have till money, but I really wanted to just breeze through, not have to stop and pay the toll.

 

[xtremek]

I'll bite, what the heck are those things sticking out the back. Guessing it's tower stuff.

 

[harley jim]

Those are the turnbuckles he and his brother made.
Stroudy
What trans do you have in that truck

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[Strouty]

It is a 13 speed road ranger. The thing is fairly new, or low use, so it is hard to get into gear still. Everyone has complained that it isn't broken in yet. I am having the most trouble with 2nd gear (third if you count lo), it almost seems like the synchros are damaged. I can come to a complete stop, but it won't go into gear no matter what I do, at least not easily, it either grinds or jumps into gear. While driving, I can downshift into that gear with no issue, but I really don't want to be downshifting through every gear, especially in low range. The way I normally would shift would be to downshift through high range, then use the brakes until almost at the stop sign, then clutch, range shift to low, then pull down into 2nd gear low range, that is the one that will allow me to take of reasonable no matter what, with a load it would be different, but right now I am running near empty. When I try and pull it into 2nd gear at the stop light, it doesn't cooperate, it goes into first or lo easier. I don't remember it being this bad prior to moving the seat, so it may just be that I am pulling the shifter to the side or something dumb.

 

[Strouty]

I'll bite, what the heck are those things sticking out the back. Guessing it's tower stuff.

Jim is correct, these are essentially a cross between a turnbuckle/jack and a leg splint. The tower has one section where the legs are not up to snuff, so adding these along with a bunch of clamps allows it to carry more load in both compression and tension, at least that is what the engineer says.

It will make more sense once I get them on the tower, probably the first part of November.

 

[harley jim]

Yes I know what you are saying the road ranger is my favorite of all. We have had to heat the shift lever and put a dog leg in them before to get it where a driver can handle it.
Had some single axle GMC Brigadiers with big cummins and RR trans GM made a 6" offset stub to move the stick forward. so it would not be so far behind you.

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[Strouty]

Truck rode a lot better with the weight of the boom on it.



One more thing that is off my list, except it starts an entirely new list, maybe that is a bad thing?


Seat position was terrible, only due to the steering wheel being fixed. As soon as I get the tilt setup installed it should be much better, but my back and shoulders hurt from being in such an awkward position for 6 hours.

 

[Strouty]

I need to take Perk to get a health checkup, there are some grumbly noises coming from the transmission at idle, not sure what it is, but I don’t like it. On a good note, even on the governor, 10.2 MPG, that is an unexpected surprise, might end up keeping this engine instead of swapping it out. Would still love to have a automatic trans though.

 

[casmurbax]

Strouty, looking good. The mpg is surprising, my 8.1 2500hd didn't get much better, 11 mpg empty.

 

[Strouty]

I was a bit surprised myself, truck weighed about 20k on the way down and at least 25k on the way back.

 

[kent_323is]

Truck rode a lot better with the weight of the boom on it.



One more thing that is off my list, except it starts an entirely new list, maybe that is a bad thing?


Seat position was terrible, only due to the steering wheel being fixed. As soon as I get the tilt setup installed it should be much better, but my back and shoulders hurt from being in such an awkward position for 6 hours.

Looks good with the knuckleboom on it, any more pics of it?

 

[Strouty]

Not a lot of pics yet, still have to plumb the PTO and move the knuckle boom a bit. Still not sure if I am setting this boom up on the truck or a different one. I feel like I am in limbo.

Definitely need to get my act together and pick a direction, I have a goal, but Perk and OMO essentially split that goal in two. I think I either need to merge things or mothball one and move on with the other. It has dented my budget in a big way, now I can't tell if I even want to move forward with Perk, to be fair I will wait until I get the tilt/telescoping column installed, then I can see how bad or good it is to drive with the seat back and steering wheel in reach. If I had to decide right now, I would dump Perk and move on with OMO as that truck has the drivetrain I ultimately want. I have learned a lot about what I like and what I don't like, that is for certain.

 

[jakemac]

Seems to me that Perk will be a working truck faster than OMO.
Especially if you’re willing to live with imperfection until next summer. Park OMO, get Perk to a usable state, then move on to other winter projects that fit in the shop.

This way you have a working truck, can move on to other projects, and can formulate a solid plan for OMO and stockpile parts to work on it once mud season is over.

Once OMO is up and running the way you want it, you can refit Perk to sell and get back some money to fund the next big project.


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[Horror Business]

Seems to me that Perk will be a working truck faster than OMO.
Especially if you’re willing to live with imperfection until next summer. Park OMO, get Perk to a usable state, then move on to other winter projects that fit in the shop.

This way you have a working truck, can move on to other projects, and can formulate a solid plan for OMO and stockpile parts to work on it once mud season is over.

Once OMO is up and running the way you want it, you can refit Perk to sell and get back some money to fund the next big project.


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This.

 

[Strouty]

But with Perk operational, what will I have to ***** about?

Seems like a solid plan, but I think OMO could actually be finished sooner now that I know that due to DOT limitations I won’t be able to do all the crazy **** I wanted to do.

 

[jakemac]

What is DOT saying no to ?
It’s not like you were planning on going all Mad Max on it, just turning it into a Do Everything truck.

I bet it was the rocket launcher and mortar batteries that had them spooked.


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[Muzzy]

I forget which post but I believe they objected to the stripper pole!

 

[Strouty]

They probably would have liked that. Maine follows the "bridge standard" for trucks, so a two axle truck can't weigh more that 34,000 ever, that includes, truck, payload, and trailer tongue weight. OMO weighs 30,660 right now and I expect that even after losing some of the weight, it is going to be gained back by things I wanted installed and gear I want to carry. This means no way can add the front axle or some of the other cool things I wanted to do, at least not without adding the tag axle or making the truck into a twin screw. I am still in the not sure what the fack I am doing stage.

 

[harley jim]

Wasnt that cascadia a twin screw

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[kent_323is]

Let's see if I understand this correctly, and can maybe add some clarity....
Perk is the International that you just got the white knucklboom crane for, right?
Seems like if you got that crane plumbed and attached, you'd at least have a crane truck that can pull a trailer and is fully operational... Sure, it can't do everything you want, but it can likely do enough to get the job done.

OMO is the firetruck that now also has a Knuckleboom crane on it... temporarily placed too far back because of the pump unit?
I seem to hear that you want a flatbed on it for hauling stuff, will it also have a 5th wheel?
Regulations aside, what weight limit can this truck actually operate at? And does that achieve what you want? If you added a "token" tag axle to satisfy regulations, but it could raise up for the rough terrain areas and be out of the way?
Besides the knuckleboom and flatbed, what are items are you planning to add that have significant weight?
A clear list of what you want this truck to do, and then compare to what it currently is now would help a lot. Actually writing it down will help understand what you have and where you want to go.
Some side by side pictures of the 2 trucks would also be a nice comparison as well.

 

[Strouty]

Cascadia is a twin screw, missing some components, but yes I know, have even thought about it.......

Perk is the truck you speak of, but a Freightliner, not an international and it could be a stop gap, problem is there are several unknowns and getting to the bottom of those could cost a chunk of change that I won't ever get back. I am going to investigate things more in the next week. As far as getting the hydraulics working, Perk is the quickest unit for that, so I will probably concentrate on that aspect of things next. I honestly don't even know what knuckle boom is going where, at least not until I find out more about the red boom on OMO and the bent cylinder.

OMO is supposed to be turned into a sleeper style cab, still not sure how I will be doing this, but the cascadia parts truck will be useful for this. As far as the rest of the truck, a list is in order for sure, need to do some brain storming so I can see what is really in my head.

 

[xtremek]

Different tools to do different jobs? Perk-OMO, 1/2" drive-1"drive?

 

[Strouty]

That was kind of the plan, but the twin screw adds a lot more tolls, tires costs, and red tape, not to mention the initial cost to set things up.

 

[PelicanPines]

So ... are you giving up? NO

 

[Strouty]

I think I gave up years ago.

Running around like a headless chicken, three tower sites that have generators, one site has two, all failed to start and we have a lot of power out. Fun stuff, I think I have two taken care of, off to try and figure out the next one.

 

[Strouty]

Still feeding generators, looks like it may be a while before power is back on, thankfully my house is not out, but the shop was, probably still will be tomorrow too.

 

[jack stand]

For the first time in a long while, we didn't loose power at the house. Kinda a bummer as I was ready with my new diesel generator that is sized properly instead of my small 3800w genny that I used on the job for power tools. I ended up having to "fool" with generators any way with my Mom and Aunt down on the coast being out.

 

[Strouty]

My house was not out either, not even a blip, kind of thankful as I was not ready for the house to lose power for days. Got a call from a customer that the generator was out at a site, drove there, generator is running fine, telco circuits were the issue, glad it wasn’t on my end.

Now I am trying to get a couple things done in the office at the house, then I am going to take a shower, been going straight out for a couple days and now I smell funny.

Maybe I will get lucky and the shop will have power again, if not, there are plenty of outside tasks to get done.

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Ok you guys gotta stop posting so much. I am trying to ready this whole monstrous thread.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

UW, this thread has actually been kind of slow lately.

 

[Strouty]

Sorry for posting too much and not enough at the same time.

 

[mybigwarwagon]

UW, this thread has actually been kind of slow lately.

Gives me hope that maybe one day I will catch up. Good thing scrap prices are down and I have plenty of time to read. LOL.

 

[Kev442]

Scrap prices are almost hard to believe. Aluminum use in cars and trucks is at an all time high and the price of scrap is the lowest I can remember.
I've got scrap piled everywhere waiting...

 

[Strouty]

Your memory must be bad, I can remember when scrap was less than $10 a ton. I have a really cool table I bought for $20 a ton, must have cost me like $15, has a 1 1/2” thick top. This would have been 1998.

 

[Kev442]

Talking about aluminum. Steel has always sucked except for those years china was building skyscrapers. Still pissed about those years, all my favorite junkyards for obscure parts crushed out.