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Above 1200 Sq/FT The Salvage Garage

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xtremek

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Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
Place your bets now. Strouty is off...........

1. Buying a new Burb
2. Buying a new trailer
3. Dealing with more drama from Dad
4. Stuck in the shower with his GF
5. Playing with new Lista cabinets
6. Cleaning the office
7. ?

Step right up and place your bets.
 
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legenddc

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 19, 2012
Messages
1,072
I don't understand why he doesn't put some Lista cabinets on a trailer behind a Burb and come up with a way to make a water heater powered by a Burb.

Maybe he could use some of his dad's hot air to heat up water.
 
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casmurbax

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Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
2,758
Location
Wilton, NY
9. He is ignoring his own thread.

attachment.php



Strouty said:
It is all about the trailer brakes, do you think that a semi towing 100k pounds weighs more than the load? I am not saying it would be a smooth situation, but I have seen far worse things, that picture is just a funny thing, not a WTF.
Click to expand...
 

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Strouty

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Mar 21, 2010
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Southern Maine
Oh, I haven’t showered since all this started.

;)

Last night I moved some things around to make some room at the Hill, today I am working on trash duty, then we may be able to move some stuff around in the upstairs office so the contractor can start on the front half of the space.

I also have been working on another Burb purchase, so far I have struck out three time with most likely a fourth today. :(

Nothing is close by, so I don’t find them quick enough to make arrangements for them. Really *****, the fourth one is a nice black GMC that would be perfect for the OGMC revival, plus it is a daily already so I could use it all summer before tearing into it. There is a Tahoe sport (2 door) that I have been eyeballing, but it is white, so not super into it for that reason. Then in June there will be the opportunity to buy a low mileage diesel Burb, again it is the wrong color, but I would live with it for the fact that it is in great shape.

If the fourth deal goes south, I think I am just out for a while. I need to get other things done anyways. I did figure buying a fully functioning Burb that needs no work would be smart, apparently I am just not able to make it happen for a reasonable price. These trucks are getting more and more out of reach when they are in good shape. :(
 
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Strouty

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Mar 21, 2010
Messages
38,218
Location
Southern Maine
I am counting the fourth deal as out, they took someone else’s deposit, doubt it will fall through. :(

Been cleaning up trash and other **** around the yard at the Hill, previous tenant/employee just threw things outside, old plastic plant pots, old tarps, lots of PVC pipe pieces, just junk everywhere. I also trimmed a couple trees and I am starting to devise a plan for what I am going to do to make more space up top. It is really tight up here! I have a bunch of things that need to go away, some will go to the Salvage Garage while other things are going to the scrap yard. I have to find the Title for Bev, so I can register and use her. ***** because I know the paperwork was set aside, before I moved the office, at this point I have no clue where it is. :(
 
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Strouty

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Mar 21, 2010
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38,218
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Southern Maine
I am partial to the 1995 to 1999 style, been trying to stay as close to 1999 as I can when it comes to diesels, but gas jobs I wouldn’t mind 1995 as they are TBI instead of vortec. Barn doors and as loaded as I can find, really been looking for a black one more than anything. I am really only after the body, so it doesn’t matter if it is a 1500, 2500, or even a 2wd. If it had maroon interior it would be a bonus, but I am not as worried about that. I have found four black ones this year and every one was sold the day I found the listing. Been frustrating for me. :( First world problems. ;)

Right now I am trying to figure out how I am going to proceed with my trailer endeavors. I need to sell some, build some, and buy some. Would like to sell first, if I just say eff it and sell most all of them, I could probably afford to buy a couple really nice ones that would cover what I do almost completely. I just have to figure out what makes sense. I know I would like to have a Burb sized dump trailer, deck over tilt, and short 2 axle trailer with sides. As for Perk (or my bigger trucks), I really want to have a nice 20 ton tilt deck, decent flatbed, and a short dump trailer. I currently own most of these, but they all need a lot of work and I don’t have the time, paying someone else makes it not worth the effort.

I also would like to build a trailer setup to work with the Tru-Hitch, this could be my lowboy detachable neck trailer for hauling just about anything.

I have the hydraulic tilt tail trailer as well, it is in need of a lot of work, but it will be a nice trailer when done. I always figured it would be the “long term” project, so I do not mind it hanging around.

As far as selling, I have three 20 ton trailers, the gooseneck tilt that I was thinking of shortening, another gooseneck deck over, the big dump trailer, two small dump trailers, and a small two axle trailer. Then I have the Kentucky box trailer that was the saddle shop, it needs some live, then needs to be marketed as a business or tiny house. Plus we have the toy hauling camper, I don’t have a title for that one yet.
 
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harley jim

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Dec 6, 2013
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Location
Cleveland Tn..........out in the sticks
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Strouty

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Mar 21, 2010
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Location
Southern Maine
They are all over the place, $1500 to $15,000, all depends on the seller and the condition. Good ones sell very quickly. Finding them without rust is really hard around here, when they get imported from out of the rust belt they generally do a lot more money.
 
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cbacres

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Joined
May 28, 2010
Messages
5,998
Location
SW Florida
I’ll try to find you one down here.

I know if you’ll come down for a Astro, you’ll damn sure come for a burb.

I’ll buy ya a Cuban sandwich!:lol_hitti
 
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Strouty

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Mar 21, 2010
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Southern Maine
In a way yes, but I don’t think I will make any real progress until I start to get the mental mess cleared out of my head. I hardly slept last night, I really need to figure out the truck and trailer situation, knowing that OMO is going to be a waste of time is really hurting, then reality with my trailers is that none of them will do what I need without lots of work is setting in. There is just a lot going on up there (both the Hill and my brain).
 
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Strouty

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Mar 21, 2010
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Southern Maine
What is really killing me is the fact that Perk is really almost useless the way I have it set up. With the truck weighing 23k pounds, the most I can have for total weight is 34k, so that leaves 11k pounds. The Tru-Hitch weighs about 7k pounds, so that leaves 4k pounds for “tongue weight” and I am pretty sure I far exceed that when towing another truck. Even when I am towing a trailer I am probably close to the limit just with the Mitsu. I also know that I am overweight (12.5k) on the front axle to start with and when the 18 speed gets installed with the new hydraulics and pump, I will increase that weight as well as decreasing my 11k pound total capacity. :(

My only choice is to build a bigger tandem rear axle truck, but I can’t use OMO due to the weight on the front axle, basically I am back to square one with a massive amount of parts that won’t work with each other to make what I need.

The easy solution would be to lose the knuckle boom, but that was the reason for this entire process to begin with. As you can see this is a stressful situation for me, probably much more than it should be, but I haven’t figured out how to deal with it yet. Every solution creates another unique set of problems, of course lots of money would solve the problem entirely, so it may end up being I have to liquidate a ton of stuff to make this happen. In my head I had figured I would be working on OMO at this point and the fact that I can’t is screwing me up. I know I can buy/build a replacement truck, but I was excited about the fact that OMO would be totally unique and it would stand out, at least more than just a regular truck would.
 
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xtremek

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Apr 13, 2012
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St. Johns, Mi
2 tons isn't jack. Sounds like you know what you have to do, just hate to have to start from the beginning. Ponder it a little more then rip the band-aid off?
 
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Strouty

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Southern Maine
I did work with the weight calculator that Tru-Hitch offers, I used a bunch of different numbers to try and figure out the weights that get transferred and it isn't as bad as expected. Even with that, my margin of error or safety factor (at least DOT ticket wise) is too close for comfort. Basically if I don't have the knuckle boom Perk is fine, once the knuckle boom is there, it is not. I really don't want to get rid of the knuckle boom or put a smaller one on it, I feel I am already not where I want to be lifting capacity wise.

If I want to still use OMO, I would have to add tandem rears (was going to do this anyways) and mount the knuckle boom on the back of the truck, this makes it impossible to haul a fifth wheel or goose neck trailer and I am not sure I want to be limited to tag trailers only. I could rework Perk, but in the end it becomes a big truck, I was trying to avoid making another big truck, Perk is very maneuverable right now and adding length to the chassis and another axle is going to take that away. Before you say to sell Perk, I have a very good reason to use Perk in some way, my registration is almost $400 a year cheaper than any other comparable truck due to the fact that Perk was a "glider kit" and cost a fraction of the cost of a new truck ($50k versus $125K), this is real world savings that over the long term will add up to a lot of money. This doesn't mean I can't change or reconfigure Perk, it just means that I should use the cab, VIN, and title to keep realizing these savings. Plus Perk has less than 9000 miles on it, so the cab is essentially new.

I am sort of thinking it may be time to admit defeat and just build Perk into what I need and send OMO away. Of course that gets me to the point that if I am going to essentially start from scratch and build an entirely new frame, I might as well make Perk a 6x6 so that I have full offroad abilities as well as on highway. No matter what happens I am probably looking at another $20k to do this, plus time. I see trucks that fit the bill from time to time, but they are generally $60k to $100k and I know I would still have to do some work to make it what I need. It is pretty crazy when I stop and think about all this, but I know I can't recoup much of my money invested so far without doing a lot more work.

The other option for Perk would be to remove the knuckle boom and set things up as a dedicated single axle tractor, I could also make it a 4x4 for a reasonable price since I already have the setup in the Diamond REO with the bad frame. If I did that Perk would weigh quite a bit less, opening things up to being able to haul a heavy truck with the Tru-Hitch while being legal. I do need to figure out how much weight would be added by the 4x4 versus the savings from the knuckle boom. I think the knuckle boom is about 7000 pounds, the transfer case will be a thousand pounds, front axle and driveshafts will be 2500, that would give my a couple more tons of capacity and fro the charts that would be about all I need. I just don't know if it will be worth it in the end, although I could actually shorten Perk even more if the knuckle boom was gone, that would add some extra abilities too.

As you can see, I have a complicated mess and the simple answer isn't so simple.
 
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Bob Heine

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Oct 24, 2009
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Knowing nothing about trucks, axles, weight limits means this is probably a stupid idea. Can you add a lift tag or pusher axle to Perk? Seems like that would add capacity and let you keep the equipment.
 
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Strouty

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Southern Maine
Bob the answer to your suggestion is maybe, leaning towards most likely not. My wheelbase is already short, so it may not be enough to make it worth the effort, plus I really don’t have enough room for the axle with the knuckle boom there. It *****, but I think I have to essentially build from the ground up. I have to decide what truck and how I will be doing it.
 
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Strouty

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Mar 21, 2010
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This morning I spoke with the Maine State Police Department that handles commercial enforcement, technically once Perk is hooked to a trailer, then it gets treated different than it does as a a truck without a trailer. As a standalone unit, Perk can weigh 34,000 total, the weight still needs to be distributed so that the rear has no more than 22,400 pounds on it and the tires must be rated properly to handle the weight that I haul. Technically right now my front is over capacity, but I plan on changing that for sure. Once I hook the trailer up, Perk would be able to handle the full rated capacity (not determined yet) up to 22,400 pounds on the front axle and the rear axle can handle 22,400, but the total of the two axles can't exceed 40,000. With a single axle trailer I can haul a total of 54,000 and with a tandem axle trailer I can haul a total of 69,000 (what I am currently registered for). In this scenario Perk is limited by the rear axle as well as the front axle. I need to figure out if a balance can be made for a reasonable sacrifice or if things are going to be a problem no matter how much time and money I spend trying to fix it. Current weight distribution of Perk is roughly 12,500 on the front axle and 10,500 on the rear axle (had to review my notes), so 23k overall. If I up the rating of the front axle to 20k, that would allow me to run the rear at the 22,400 and still have the ability to have 17,600 on the front end while being legal (hooked to the trailer). So this gives me a "work backwards" number not to exceed for the front end of 17,600 pounds. That is a good place to start, not that it helps my decision yet, but it is better than nothing. Now I have to look at what I can do to save some weight or transfer the weight around when hauling with the Tru-Hitch, most of the calculations I did would put a lot more weight on the rear axle than expected, so I have to run some scenarios.
 
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Strouty

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Southern Maine
They are rated at 18k, this is probably good enough for this particular combination, the real issue is the gearing. I haven't priced out what it will cost, but they have 5.40 final gears in them and I would want to be closer to a 4.30 ratio to keep RPMs down at highway speeds.
 
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xtremek

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Apr 13, 2012
Messages
11,603
Location
St. Johns, Mi
So I get there are issues, but it seems like you have all the info. You have to do is some calculations, buy a few parts, and start the fabbing, right? Is this something you have top do, or can it be farmed out to get where you need to be in a timely fashion?
 
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Strouty

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Mar 21, 2010
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38,218
Location
Southern Maine
Nothing is going to get farmed out, I think the best way for me to do this would be to just say eff it and take Perk off the road, then start ripping and tearing.

I will have most of this figured out later this week, but right now it appears that the placement of the knuckle boom and the fifth wheel will make adding a lift axle a no go. I could extend the frame to make it work (absolutely an option I am considering), the rules with any set of tandem axles is that neither axle can take more than 60% of the total weight applied to them and since the knuckle boom is close to the fifth wheel, I have to move the fifth wheel all the way to the back of truck. This means the fifth wheel is now centered behind the axle and most all the weight would stay on the rear axle. I am not sure exactly how I can calculate things, but I am going to make an attempt. If I add some length to the frame, I know I can make it work, BUT --- the front of the frame is not doubled all the way to the front, it stops at the back of the engine (might be a bit further, but not to the front of the truck), so I would still have an issue with the frame. I need to figure out how to get heavy leaf springs and steering system onto the truck, this will most likely involve buying another truck that already has what I need on it. Basically I will need the heavy suspension, heavy steering box with auxiliary ports along with the steering ram and linkage for the passenger side.

I have been investigating various engines sizes to see what I can stuff into Perk (wanted to hot rod it), but I think my best solution is my original intention of putting the 50 series Detroit into Perk with the 18 speed transmission. I would make the truck a 4x4 with lift axle or a 6x6, just not sure about that yet. Also I would make up frame rails (have them made) and the do any and all modifications to them, then galvanize things before final assembly. This would allow the double frame without the worry of rust jacking. Even Perk has some rust between the rails, not bad and I can most likely keep it at bay, but it is still there.
 
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Strouty

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Mar 21, 2010
Messages
38,218
Location
Southern Maine
I am thinking that Bev could be the interim truck, I could keep Perk operational for a while, but not sure I really need to use it. I don't see needing the Mitsu to be moved and if I work out the kinks in Bev, I can move Clark with Bev and the tilt deck gooseneck trailer, I still want to rework this trailer a bit as it is really too long (I do technically have help to make this happen). Lots of food for thought, especially turning OMO into a flatbed crane, still not sure that is what I want to do, but it is an option, of course OMO has the heavy steering box and auxiliary ram that I will need.........
 
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