New Haul and Tow RV transporter build

[Freightrain]

Good looking truck. Glad it's working out so well(compared to the ol Ford). I know that feeling everytime I hop in the ol Mack. Sure would love to have some comfort. I am adding this though:

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Neway air ride will smooth the ol girl out. Taking some gear out too so I can run a bit faster too(current truck is 4.62, will be 4.10). Going to be all summer before I have it ready to install. Will be slipping it over my existing rails(perfect fit) and adding about 4ft to wheelbase for even more ride. Have a 42" walk in bunk given to me to add also. We'll be "large car'n" next year !

Basically stripped and ready to get blasted so I can paint it.

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Now if I can find me a 300 Mack motor to give her some push-push

BTW, not sure why, but NO ONE will let me drive their vehicles anymore Not sure what the reason is?

Had to laugh, a buddy made a comment that "if someone wrecked his truck, he'd get the drivetrain out and put it in something else". I told him..."just give it to me for a week"


Ya, couple weeks ago I had my buddy fix my truck. Insurance covered the most and I added a few bucks to have him touch up a few faded spots. Truck was a NC truck and typical 80's paint faded from the sun. It looks brand new now!

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You can eat of the frame, it's stupid nice. Hated to drive it last winter, but I oil sprayed it and the frame is still clean and black. You don't find an 80's Ford truck that the bedside ain't fallin off. Truck has ZERO rust, anyhere.

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[tonkadoctor]

Freightrain, you really need to start a build thread when you get to tweaking the ol' B model. That will be fun to watch. I love old trucks.


Some good news.

Just doing a little book work today and my average fuel mileage for the first 5020 miles loaded and empty is 10.96 MPG. Well into where we need to be to be profitable with a Haul and Tow truck. My worst number so far since the modifications was 10.23 and the best was 12.31.

That's a 3/4 mile per gallon improvement over the medium duty Ford F800 that had a 5.9 Cummins backed by an Allison Automatic.

The real crying shame is it's only a 1/2 mile per gallon worse than my 2006 Ford F350 with a 6.0h No and automatic was doing just pulling singles. That's sad.

 

[geonc]

Nice Mike Glad to see the numbers reflect the energy spent


...and it figgers...I'm home and your not I'll see that rig one day ...

 

[Freightrain]

I have a thread started on a couple other places that I frequent. Nothing much to add as of now. I got it totally stripped of everything including bags/shocks. I made some strut rods to fit where shocks were to hold it up. I also welded a hitch to the nose to be able to drag it around.

I'll be delivering it to the blaster next week. Told me he'd slip it in the next few weeks. When I get it back, I'll slap on some POR 15 til I can get it put on the truck. I need to finish up racing season before I can start taking truck apart.

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It is crazy how 866 ci of diesel and make better mileage then 400 ci with near twice the weight. Go figure.

 

[tonkadoctor]

Been pretty busy the last month and now I'm home. Truck has been running great.

I'm getting ready to start on some heavy modifications to the deck over the next week or 2 getting it set up to haul cars back. Just got back from picking up about $1200 worth of steel a few minutes ago.

Now it's time for Y'all to pull up an easy chair. sit back relax, watch the progress and have Mama fetch ya a cold one...... Or get up and get yer own when she hits you in the head for asking.

 

[tonkadoctor]

Now I know there may be a couple NBC TV "Friday Night Lights" fans here so here's a couple shots of "Tim's" Airstream trailer.

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And the last shot of it at the production studio in Austin Texas............ Yep a world famous trailer on a world famous truck on a perfect day.

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Don't ask me where it went or who bought it, I will ignore those questions. Just be happy it has a really nice peaceful home in the country with some stunning scenery.

 

[towcat]

how did you get picked to do that haul?

 

[tonkadoctor]

how did you get picked to do that haul?

Pure luck, timing and location. It was a non towable load we got from a Broker and I just happened to be in McKinney, TX visiting my folks. I had just left my parents place and was headed toward Indiana empty when I got the call.

Nobody had a clue as to what it really was, just knew it was a 25' Airstream.

I met the producer and transportation director there and they even gave me a really nice embroidered shirt.

Just another one I can add to the cool stuff I've hauled and people I have met over the years of trucking.

 

[towcat]

Pure luck, timing and location. It was a non towable load we got from a Broker and I just happened to be in McKinney, TX visiting my folks. I had just left my parents place and was headed toward Indiana empty when I got the call.

Nobody had a clue as to what it really was, just knew it was a 25' Airstream.

I met the producer and transportation director there and they even gave me a really nice embroidered shirt.

Just another one I can add to the cool stuff I've hauled and people I have met over the years of trucking.

betcha their jaws dropped when you pulled it up onto the rig
kinda cool every now and then to be semi famous.

 

[maniac]

Now it's time for Y'all to pull up an easy chair. sit back relax, watch the progress

It's been kinda quiet since you went back to work

 

[tonkadoctor]

OK, lets get down to business.

I started stripping the truck yesterday and finished the de-construction today. Removed the lights, moved wiring, scraped off reflexive tape, cut out the 5 forward crossmembers that will be replaced and cut off all of the deck plate. Everything is ground down smooth and ready to start fabricating the new upper deck tomorrow to get this thing ready to haul cars and trucks as well as trailers.

The rebuild of the deck will only take a couple days and I have purchased a Hobart 187 MIG welder to help make it happen. I'll be running flux core this time around as almost everything I do will be outside. Looking at the weather also tells me I am good for 9 days of sunshine, 80's - 90's and all with a 0% chance of precipitation so It's time to get busy.

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[The Warden]

Forgive me if I missed something, but why did this rebuild turn out to be necessary?

 

[tonkadoctor]

Forgive me if I missed something, but why did this rebuild turn out to be necessary?

$$$$$$ and a lot of them. I now have the opportunity for backhauls 90% of the time with cars.

I will be leasing on to a different company in about a week that pays $0.05 a mile more for outbound freight delivering in the US and $0.15 a mile more when delivering in Canada + they get off the *** and find cars and trucks coming back.

I'm just adding 10' of deck forward, adding ramps from the lower deck to the upper deck and widening the deck plate in the rear to accomodate cars.

 

[The Warden]

Ah, okay, cool! And, forgive the dumb question since I don't know the business well, but are you switching to a different company, or are you allowed to lease to two companies at once and you'll be working for both?

Sounds like a good opportunity in any event the less time you can deadhead, the better...

 

[tonkadoctor]

Ah, okay, cool! And, forgive the dumb question since I don't know the business well, but are you switching to a different company, or are you allowed to lease to two companies at once and you'll be working for both?

Sounds like a good opportunity in any event the less time you can deadhead, the better...

Not a dumb question Warden, you ain't bothering me a bit, fire away.

I'm changing companies after over 2-1/2 years here. This is a fairly new and strong company that is growing and is swamped with freight from the fastest growing RV manufacturer.

When we "lease" a truck on to a company it is a permanent lease and can only pull for that one company because you have actually leased them equipment, now with your companies blessing you can do a "trip lease" with another company but that is very rare anymore and involves even covering you door signs with their signs and running under their authority.

The drivers that do drivaway operations can work for as many companies as they want too, they have no equipment leased to any company.


Making progress.

Got the framework for the upper deck all tacked and clamped together and have the stake pockets tacked on. I am leaaving the front 2' of the bed open to so it's easier to load trailers and keeps it as easy access to get on the bed from the battery box steps. I may put a couple flips up front.

I have to run into town for a 10lb spool of flux core wire, some contact tips and a new chop saw tomorrow and weld everything solid. My old chop saw is so shot now it would have a hard time cutting warm butter.

Here's a welding tip for you. When using flux core or aluminum wire I use one size oversize tip for the welder. Flux cor wire is soft and the rollers easily deform it slightly making it stick in the tip and aluminum wire tends to swell when hot and sticks in the tip. When I use oversize tips it greaatly reduces this headache.

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