Tow and Haul RV transporter build
- Thread starter tonkadoctor
- Start date
tonkadoctor
Full Access Member
Allison AT 545
While the PO did good *** with oil changes at 5000 miles and I have all of the records since new..... They did some poor repairs on oil leaks like dabbing silicone at the bottom of the timing gear case seal which were coming undone on me. Also I have a bad feeling this engine was badly overheated at one time, one of the first problems I discovered on the very first trip was a broken thermostat which was hung open and broke in 2... prolly at one time it hung closed. and the fan clutch wasn't working properly and ended up locking up on me........Then the coolant leak which turned out to be a craked head that the machine shop didn't catch when I told them to pressure test and magnaflux it. I doubt they did either, just said it looked OK and machined it
That really blew to be down for 10 days for an improper repair.I'm just sick and tired of ******* around with this oil slobbering pig of an engine and it's faster to simply swap it out vs rebuild it. The new engine looks to be in a heck of a lot better condition and seems to run smoother.
Yes we got the fire lit in her tonight. Thank you GEO, now you can take a vacation.
I'll finish buttoning it up tomorrow and throw some new shocks and tires on the front also.Oh yea, when I had an alignment done a few weeks ago, it was toed out 13/32"
, King pins are OK and toe is now in 1/32" Hopefully she quits chewing steer tires up too.Dang, This just sucks! All that work you've put into that beast already, you should be out there raking in some cash with it now instead of having to keep wet nursing the blamed thing. I feel for you. I've been in that boat before and it's not any fun.
tonkadoctor
Full Access Member
This has been a year of breaking stuff
Let's see
- Lost clutch in dually
- Broken aux tank mounts in dually
- Gelled fuel and plugged fuel filter in dually in -38F
- blew air line to air bags on dually
- Stuck in deep snow drift in the middle of BFE that slung me sideways 90 degrees and set me straddling a the middle of a set of rail road tracks with a front tire stuck between the wood crossing and a rail.
- Also ripped the air dam off front bumper in same snow bank
Now for the F-800
- Thermostat stuck open - no heat in truck
- 2 used steer tires (first set of brand spanking new tires lasted 2 months) $225
- 2 more used steer tires $200
- Front axle alignment $116
- AC problems with pressure switches, have to still fix them, hot wired for now.
- Hail damage to 4 units in York Nebraska enroute to Salt Lake and had to return to Indiana (yea, I was running with another haul and tow truck..... Ironicly it was the same guy I ran with in our pickups to Yellowknife.
- Front seal blew dumping 3 gallons of oil on the 2 units I was hauling $350 to was them...... lost dispatch that paid about $2500 to limp home.
- Timing gear case seals bad
- Fan clutch froze up $500 for the new "revised fan and clutch" had to buy a $350 fan blade because they changed the design of the clutch slightly.
- Lost injector $500 to fix it on the road
- R&R set of 6 injectors when home $200
- Machine shop machining a cracked head for me to put back on the truck. Priceless.... cost me $400 at the machine shop and 10 days of down time which is about $8k in lost revenue to the truck.
- Lost brakes in Dallas TX...... $1425 to replace just the left rear brake assembly on these flipping Lucas Girling brakes... That part alone was $850 (Ford stealer wanted $1300 for the same assembly)...... The service manager looked scared to even hand me the estimate when he found out how expensive it was. When he handed it to me I told him he might want to move the truck out of the shop because I was fixin to throw a match in it and walk away.
- Now this engine have roughly $2500 - $3k tied up into this so far.
sle2115
NRA LIFE MEMBER
Then the coolant leak which turned out to be a craked head that the machine shop didn't catch when I told them to pressure test and magnaflux it. I doubt they did either, just said it looked OK and machined it
That amazes me as we wouldn't touch a head without magnafluxing it and believe me, we had a good idea where to look. We would also recommend pressure testing, but it wasn't free, magnafluxing was. Some would opt for it, some wouldn't.
tonkadoctor
Full Access Member
I specificly ordered pressure testing AND magnaflux then tell me the results so I could decide to either order a new head or have that one machined. Told them even where to look around the 5th and 6th exhaust ports and that I couldn't tell if I had a bad head gasket in that area or a cracked head.
When they said it was good I told them to do everything.... Surface it, valve guides, grind valves, surface the exhaust manifold side, valve stem seals and order me a head gasket set.
If the machinist was in my shop after I spent all night thrashing on it to get it going only to have the fresh cooland litterally pour out of a crack between the 5th and 6th exhaust ports I would have probably shot him
in the rage I was in. I cooled off for 2 hrs before calling the shop and they wanted me too tear it apart again and bring it down so they could pin it which I personally think is a BS way to fix stuff on an over the road truck that sees 15,000 miles a month and runs deep into the Arctic. They wouldn't refund my money or get me a new head and I prolly still havn't found all of the wrenches I threw across the shop.
After 10 days of down time, out of money and being at the end of the month when most RV shipping happens, it was time to dump Bars Leak block seal (the copper stuff) in it and go for broke.
Lemme tell ya, Bars leak block seal isn't what I consider a proper repair but it works, I now carry it as an emergency band aid in my tool box on the road
tonka-Lemme tell ya, Bars leak block seal isn't what I consider a proper repair but it works, I now carry it as an emergency band aid in my tool box on the road
I've learned one brutal lesson over the years. Doing things right is always good, but when your back is to the wall and you got to make revenue and you need to get home without a tow, anything you have to do will work.
sle2115
NRA LIFE MEMBER
I specificly ordered pressure testing AND magnaflux then tell me the results so I could decide to either order a new head or have that one machined. Told them even where to look around the 5th and 6th exhaust ports and that I couldn't tell if I had a bad head gasket in that area or a cracked head.
When they said it was good I told them to do everything.... Surface it, valve guides, grind valves, surface the exhaust manifold side, valve stem seals and order me a head gasket set.
If the machinist was in my shop after I spent all night thrashing on it to get it going only to have the fresh cooland litterally pour out of a crack between the 5th and 6th exhaust ports I would have probably shot him
They wouldn't refund my money or get me a new head and I prolly still havn't found all of the wrenches I threw across the shop.
After 10 days of down time, out of money and being at the end of the month when most RV shipping happens, it was time to dump Bars Leak block seal (the copper stuff) in it and go for broke.
Lemme tell ya, Bars leak block seal isn't what I consider a proper repair but it works, I now carry it as an emergency band aid in my tool box on the road
Yeah, I remember when you talked about taking it in. I don't doubt for a minute what you told them, and when I said I don't believe...I meant I can't believe a shop would do such shoddy work. When someone brought a head to us, it got magnafluxed while they were standing there in the obvious places. It then got torn down, baked, shot blasted and magnafluxed again. If they said to pressure test it, that was the next stop, then and only then did we proceed with any work. We also vacuum checked every valve job, each valve to be sure they were sealed, etc., etc., etc.
I guess that's the difference between a good shop and a not so good one. I know there is no one around here that can hold a candle to the work done in that shop, nor the service. If someone pulled in, they were greeted in the driveway and we handled everything from their car into the shop, then back to there car. The Napas around here, well your lucky if you can find someone to write your order!
geonc
SPIDER BAIT
tonkadoctor said:
Anytime Mike
And I thank you heeheehee...Mike calls laying me off after 2 days a vacation ;p
Guess I still got some chops ...done worked myself out of another job
Now quit fartin' around and get that thing back on the road making bank
spg
Big Red
Swapping the AT545 for the manual trans would probably help your mileage considerably. I have not been happy with the amount of converter slippage in mine when loaded at highway speeds. I am going to change over to a Fuller 6 speed and hope to pick up about 20% in fuel mileage.
tonkadoctor
Full Access Member
On to the continuation of this never ending story. Pretty much everything I do from here out will be able to be transferred easily to the next truck.
I am installing dual 150 gallon aluminum Freightliner fuel tanks, yep that's 300 gallons total fuel capacity. This will significantly increase my distance between fills, oftem most trips will be able to be done on one fill, it'll greatly reduce the amount of fees I pay for transactions with my Comdata fuel card and save me a lot of money on my fuel costs as I will now be able to purchase fuel in only the cheapest states to buy fuel. In short I should recoup what I paid to purchase and install these tanks in about a month.
I have decided to buid my next bed in modules that can be transferred to the next truck. The first module is this fuel tank module. The subframe is nearly complete. Just a little more finish welding, paint and then start bolting it on with the tanks.
Upside down doing finish welding
I am installing dual 150 gallon aluminum Freightliner fuel tanks, yep that's 300 gallons total fuel capacity. This will significantly increase my distance between fills, oftem most trips will be able to be done on one fill, it'll greatly reduce the amount of fees I pay for transactions with my Comdata fuel card and save me a lot of money on my fuel costs as I will now be able to purchase fuel in only the cheapest states to buy fuel. In short I should recoup what I paid to purchase and install these tanks in about a month.
I have decided to buid my next bed in modules that can be transferred to the next truck. The first module is this fuel tank module. The subframe is nearly complete. Just a little more finish welding, paint and then start bolting it on with the tanks.
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Upside down doing finish welding
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tonkadoctor
Full Access Member
Sweet.
Just make sure your next truck has the same width frame rails....
Standard width for frame rails on medium and heavy duty trucks is 34"
Only one's I know that are different right now is the Superduty F450 and F550 which are 33-1/2"..... They also put rivets for the crossmembers through the frame flanges so you don't have a clean flange surface to mount a body like most other manufacturers do...... Musta been a couple of their "better ideas".
Now on to the rest of the story....
Subframe is complete and painted. Managed to get one tank completely bolted up too.
Spent $120 on grade 8 hardware to bolt it up. This is the kind of misc. costs that are hidden and blow a project budget. If you want to figure the cost of a project, write down the cost of everything you can think of and add it up....... Now multiply this number by 2 and you might be close.... Multiply by 3 or 4 if you are really bad at planning stuff.
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h2odrx
Anti-O
That looks sweet, will they be switched or inline?
