fabrication and 97/99 plow truck on a hot-dip galvanized frame

I've been in a lifelong battle against corrosion and I didn't even think about galvanizing as a possibility until a friend of mine mentioned his plan to have his Land Rover frame done. Big time light bulb moment.

 

There’s just so much awesome in this thread

A TDI flatbed SASed Tacoma would be sweet

Huh didn’t know those F650s had a Cummins engine in it. Is that a common thing?

 

Yup. You could spec the F650/750 a million different ways to meet your needs as a fleet buyer. They had the typical range of medium duty truck drivetrain options - Cat C7/3126, Cummins ISB, Powerstroke (7.3, 6.0, or 6.7 depending on the year,) 6.8 gas V10, various Allison and manual trans options, single and 2-speed rear ends, either air or hydraulic brakes, etc. It's basically an International 4300/4400 with a Super Duty cab.

Medium- and heavy-duty trucks are very modular and tend to use a lot of the same components from Bendix, Dana, Wabco, etc. Beneath the skin, there's not much difference between a Paccar (Kenworth/Peterbilt,) an International, and a Freightliner. Even some Hino, Volvo, larger Isuzu etc. They're all built on a 34 inch wide ladder frame with solid axles front and rear, like they've been building trucks for 100 years. It would probably be relatively simple to swap a DT466, Detroit 50-series, or other truck engine if you had access to a donor truck in a salvage yard (and a mag-base drill.)

If I were going to build another one, I'd get an Allison MD3060 and a Cummins C8.3 or ISL9. The 6.7 is fine, but it's not a ton of power for a truck this size. A 9-10 liter wet sleeve engine would get the same fuel economy and last longer between overhauls, while holding more speed uphill. Commercial truck engines are typically derated so you can stick an idiot employee in them and have him hammer up the rocky mountains all day long at full GVWR with the pedal on the floor and never burn it down, and do that for 350k miles with only routine maintence. Usually a 7 liter engine will be rated around 250hp and a 9 liter is 300-350hp. Pickups are spec'd a lot hotter IMO because the manufacturers know that most people only use them to haul their family to Texas Roadhouse and pull a bass boat every third weekend.

 

Your "sloppy mig action" welds are better than my best welds.

More off topic threads to enjoy:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/anything-welding.113957/

THere was a fabrication one once I think but I think everyone just hangs out in the welding thread.

 

Damn thats wild. Sub'd to read the full thread next week

 

I'm just gonna post all my junk right here. If nobody outside the 1st gen subforum sees it, I don't really care.

More galvanized stuff... I spec'd this Supreme 'Kold King XL' body for a Freightliner M2 in 2016, they built a really trashy ICC bumper out of C channel, and then put dense rubber bumpers on the open stainless extrusions on either side of the door opening. Of course, with the flush-mounted ICC bumper, all the force of bumping docks was concentrated into the door frame and the whole ass end got smooshed. I got on my CAD program and drew up some 3/16 stainless patch panels to repair the damaged door frame, burned them out on the plasma table and bent them on the press brake, then cut out the damaged material and TIG welded the patches onto the body. I made a new ICC bumper out of thick-walled 4x4 tubing, and built flanges to transmit the force directly into the truck's frame rails. I welded a 2" receiver tube and chain bracket to the bottom so I can flat-tow my VW on a tow bar when I drop the truck off for dealer service (got sick of waiting for a ride after all these years, I'll do it my damned self.) I put expanded mesh on the bottom steps for traction. I thought the mesh would be likely to tear someone's shin to the bone if he slipped and caught the edge, so I used grip tape on the top section. I welded some little pieces of flat bar to the top in order to protect the grip tape from being scraped off by a dock leveling plate upon retraction. Still gets messed up by forklift forks at some of our street-level delivery stops, unfortunately.

I built a second identical ICC bumper for our Kenworth T270, after I spec'd a new Johnson refrigerated body for it this last year.

 

Bonus: VW on the aforementioned tow bar, and a little night flight with my girl to get dinner at Holman's Table in St. Paul.







"Cleared into the Minneapolis-St. Paul bravo; maintain VFR at or below 3,500. Traffic five miles to your seven o'clock is an Airbus heavy."






Final approach to KSTP runway 14 is cool... takes you right next to downtown St. Paul and south over the river.

 

Looks like WY-28 between Farson and South Pass.

 

Did you know that 80% of all Fords made in the last 20 years are still on the road......the other 20% actually made it all the way home.

 

That's probably what it is. I'm usually able to stay on the interstates until Gillette or Casper, and then I have to take some hilly 2-lane diagonally to the southwest of the state. Been a couple years, I don't recall the exact route. Beautiful country.

i actually took a trip out there after the Tacoma trip, I found a deal on a 16x54 American Pacemaker in Ogden, UT, and dragged it home. Took the GS again, rode to West Wendover NV, did some wheelies on the salt flats, etc.

 

Any more pics of the vw

 

Good thread, I like it

 

You know I come heavy with the pics




Pike's Peak... my tune was pretty upset about the density altitude up there.
Many, many moons ago, before building square tubing rockers. Stock engine back then.



That one time I got a little rowdy and blew a hole through a stock piston. Rebuilt the bottom end with ceramic coated BRM pistons with improved oil cooling under the crowns and more beef. Painted the new block GM 'Ladies and Magenta-man' basecoat/clearcoat because it's a girly Beetle.

 

Damn, galvanizing that could not have been cheap

You’re like a mad scientist, pretty frikkin baddass

 

It's incredibly cheap, like 45¢/lb. The labor to disassemble and reassemble a truck would be the expensive part.

All the flatbed parts for the F650 cost about $740. The Tacoma parts didn't even meet the minimum weight where they begin to bill by the pound, so they charged me the base fee of $309 out the door. I even threw in a few extra items, like a big steel column and frame for our business' road sign:

 

April 1st. 53' trailer full of organic portabella is inbound in 1 hour... what a stupid place to live.

 

Wheeeewwwwwwww





Gotta wrap this up quick, I have a Cessna 172 booked at 2pm, gonna chug down to Iowa with a safety pilot and log some simulated IMC time under the foggles.

 

How do you feel about beans in chili?

 

Chili without beans is hot dog sauce.

 

Nose wheel tire on the Cessna became flat somewhere over southwest Minnesota. Landed at KSUX (lol) and it was shimmying like crazy when I slowed down, almost understeered into the grass when I took the taxiway. Told the tower what was up and they said "say intentions" so I told them I was gonna ride a wheelie to the FBO. Did that, got an A&P mechanic to come out and replace the tube, stole a granola bar and a crew car from the FBO and took a tour of scenic Sioux City, Iowa, and then flew home.