OK you truckers...
- Thread starter 300rag
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has2bmopar
Senior Member
Thought a few of you might find my way of replacing a 5th wheel plate on an aluminum trailer interesting.
They initially told me to pull the deck off of it to get at the huck bolts. The head broke off of 1st deck screw and the second one broke the Torx driver. I told them no way they could remove the deck and it's not like a wooden deck where you can just move the screw over if you hit an original broken off bolt. They have one spot in their groove in the decking where it meets the crossmember.
I made the structure out of 1/4" material and the original was 3/16" and badly rusted because it couldn't drain. Also had to build it in sections because the crossmembers overlap and the huck bolts were all decent and tight, so I didn't want to mess with them. I used masking tape and clamped the side rails level with the bottom of the I beam to transfer the bolt locations. The radius in the rails fit the beams perfectly as well. The original structure depended on the bolts for upward shock.
They initially told me to pull the deck off of it to get at the huck bolts. The head broke off of 1st deck screw and the second one broke the Torx driver. I told them no way they could remove the deck and it's not like a wooden deck where you can just move the screw over if you hit an original broken off bolt. They have one spot in their groove in the decking where it meets the crossmember.
I made the structure out of 1/4" material and the original was 3/16" and badly rusted because it couldn't drain. Also had to build it in sections because the crossmembers overlap and the huck bolts were all decent and tight, so I didn't want to mess with them. I used masking tape and clamped the side rails level with the bottom of the I beam to transfer the bolt locations. The radius in the rails fit the beams perfectly as well. The original structure depended on the bolts for upward shock.
has2bmopar
Senior Member
The blue lines represent where water can enter and exit. The water and snow pretty much boils behind the drive axles and there are dozens of open grooves where moisture can blow in. I could't believe how badly rusted the original structure was in about a 10 year old trailer. I left about 3/8" gaps between the angle iron cross pieces that I put on for a plug weld base, so all the compartments could drain.
I painted all the contact surfaces between the steel and aluminum with Eck. Some black goowey crud somewhat resembling cosmoline.
View attachment 394080
I drew up a detailed pattern for our drafters and had the 3/8" plate cut out on the plas table, then took it over to the hydraulic press brake. The original plate was 5/16" and was bent badly from driving the truck on it's side. Also messed up the holes and sheared off some bolts and tweaked the frame where the front axle mounted. They had a bunch of weird ideas how to shim and do a bunch of office engineering to align it. They finally took my advice and just moved the axle back I believe 20" where everything was straight and true. It was a spread axle and think they were originally about 8-10 feet apart. We mostly just haul mono pole sections and other cell tower structure, so weight capacity wouldn't be an issue moving the axles together a bit. Just had to add a few unions and some air line.
The mill scale is always removed and the plug welding was done with a Miller 452 with .052" wire, so it doesn't take long to fill in all the slots.
I painted all the contact surfaces between the steel and aluminum with Eck. Some black goowey crud somewhat resembling cosmoline.
View attachment 394080
I drew up a detailed pattern for our drafters and had the 3/8" plate cut out on the plas table, then took it over to the hydraulic press brake. The original plate was 5/16" and was bent badly from driving the truck on it's side. Also messed up the holes and sheared off some bolts and tweaked the frame where the front axle mounted. They had a bunch of weird ideas how to shim and do a bunch of office engineering to align it. They finally took my advice and just moved the axle back I believe 20" where everything was straight and true. It was a spread axle and think they were originally about 8-10 feet apart. We mostly just haul mono pole sections and other cell tower structure, so weight capacity wouldn't be an issue moving the axles together a bit. Just had to add a few unions and some air line.
The mill scale is always removed and the plug welding was done with a Miller 452 with .052" wire, so it doesn't take long to fill in all the slots.
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commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Ummmm... How does one flip a trailer over onto it's back?
Outstanding DIY deck repair, btw.
Outstanding DIY deck repair, btw.
twostick
Senior Member
Pretty easy to flip one if you have a larger (much) version of your Kubota or an overhead crane in the shop.
Sling it on one side, pick it up and back up at the same time until it's on its side and continue to back up and lower it until the wheels are pointing up.
Kevin
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
Looks good. It's always great when they use steel hardware to screw the deck access down. Most of the time the plate has to come off anyway so the deck access does not matter.
And I used to think it waz pretty cool when I could steer with my left knee with that foot waz on the fire extinguisher and fillin' the gatorade wide mouth while Ratchet Jawin' on the 2-way while buzzin' Black Ice at speed. Glad I hung up my spurz.
Rapidtrans777
Well-Known Member
@has2bmopar, just curious, what make trailer? My aluminium decks on my Easts are welded, my Chaparral and Wilson are bolted. Who uses torx? I've gotta replace my plate on the Wilson, luckily the bolts are on the outside of the main beam. That's some serious fab work! Nice skills!
Any of you truckers use one of these or know someone who would?
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
A Manac would be my guess, with the bolts through the webbing.
No, they usually fall out when you tighten the cover to the fly wheel. Of course my way is probably not the correct way.
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bigmoparjeff
Senior Member
Very nice work, and also very smart to go through the bottom and avoid the problems of removing the deck. I'm sure your repair will last longer than the rest of the trailer.
Jeff
bigmoparjeff
Senior Member
I agree. Not sure why you would want to remove the wood blocks unless for some reason you needed to take the clutch apart before installing it on the engine. Probably explains why the tool is still in the package. It has some unusual and obscure purpose.
I put a clutch in my truck a few years ago, and the blocks fell out as I tightened the pressure plate bolts.
Jeff
bigmoparjeff
Senior Member
I came across these while I was cleaning up the other day.
It's sad to say that you'll never see advertising like this again.
Jeff
It's sad to say that you'll never see advertising like this again.
Jeff
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
I could see using it to release the clutch to reposition the alignment tool or old input shaft, but other than that?
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
I have no idea wtf you guys are talking about.
I'd leave my tractor at the fleet maintenance garage with a red tag on the steering wheel saying, "CLUTCH NO WORKEE".
We'll never see a Big Cam 350 or 3 1/4 or 4 1/4 Cat that all got 'bout 3 MPG goin' down hill with ah tail wind. Nor will we talk about .19 cent ah gallon #2 either, Jer
bigmoparjeff
Senior Member
Believe it or not, the big cam is making a big comeback. Not for OTR, but for local stuff. Pittsburgh Power has seen a huge increase in demand for big cam parts the last few years. People are tired of dealing with the emission and electronic problems with the newer trucks, and going back to the simple mechanical setups.
Jeff
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
I'll keep putting my N14 back together as.long as the block is okay. I can have it inframed for what a Cat or ISX Cummins cost in parts.
Seriously looking at a glider, using my old block from my 94 379
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
isn't the gummint cracking down on gliders making it harder to stay with the grandfathered engines?
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