My "keeping busy" project

I purchased a trailer before my son passed, with the intent to build it up as a usable work trailer.

It is a tiltbed, with the tilt bed measuring 5.5x8 foot, with another 2x5.5 section in front of that. My plans where to either build a box or get a longbed truck box, and use the 2x5.5 section for a toolbox.

Here are pics of the trailer.





The plan was to cut off the old sides, add a patch to the back frame rail, replace the tires, clean and paint the frame, etc.  I picked up a truck bed from a coworker for dirt cheap. 35 dollars dirt cheap. Why? He got a little happy with a telephone pole. Here are pics of the bed. Don't mind the swimming pool stuff, it's for Brendan.




I just need to get a set of taillights for an 04-07 and I'll be happy. I can wire them up for both 4 and 7 pin harnesses. The 04-07 was an all red lense, with both upper and lower acting as taillights, but upper lights were brake and lower were signal. I can wire a 7 pin plug to all the lights, and wire a 4 pin to just the tails and "signals". Easy solution allowing me to plug into any vehicle with it.  Needs a tailgate too. The bed is beat up, but the nice thing is that it's already Line-X'd. That's a 400 dollar bonus FREE

Then I picked up a pair of matching tires with about 50% tread for cheap as well. 235/75R15 Michelin LTX A/T. 20 dollars for the tires, including mounting and balancing. Why balance tires on a trailer? Because you never know when you might need to grab a tire for a spare!
Tires!


The other day I wheeled the trailer around to the garage bay of the shop so I could start working on it. First I pulled the wheels off, cleaned them and painted them. They look so much nicer now. While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I started checking out more of my trailer. Uh oh!! I found problems! The axle is junk. The spring mounts are part of the axle tube, and are crumbling from the axle. I need a new axle. So I put the wheels back on, rolled the trailer back out and decided to "mock up" the new bed. I had a little too much fun with the forklift I think.
Picture!


So now I'm sitting here with a trailer I can't do much with yet because I need a new axle. Guess what? Craigslist kicks ass! Scored a 14' Javelin SS boat with trailer for FREE!!
BOATS!!





I picked it up solely for the purpose of putting the axle under my tiltbed. Unfortunately doing so made me unintentionally break a personal vow. I've now owned a Chrysler. The trailer is a 1976 Chrysler Corporation boat trailer. Dammitall.....
Anyway. I bring the boat and trailer directly to the shop when I picked it up. The following morning boss sees it out back, and tells me he wants to trade me for his boat trailer. Why? Mine sits lower. No joke, his sits pretty high. Mine would make getting on and off at the boat ramp easier. I can't fault him for that.  My trailer, his trailer, either way I've got the axle for my tiltbed

So 24 hours after I take possession of the boat, I watched the boat go away.
BYEBYE BOAT!!


Saturday afternoon or sometime Sunday I'm going to start working on my tiltbed some more. I'll cut off the old sides, and start cleaning up the frame. I've got 3 cans of flat black spray paint left after doing the rims (1 can), so I can at least coat the metal again with something.

More pics as it happens!

Decided to work on the trailer some more today, since it stopped raining. I started by cutting off the old sides and the outer 2 bed braces of the front. I left the middle one for mounting a spare tire.

Here is a sample of the thickness of metal used for the lower bedside mounts.


Crazy angle iron lower section.


Yay! Bare tiltbed! (Yes, I used the forklift for most of this shit because none of my friends wanted to come help me today. They instead decided to be utter fags and sit at home playing World of Warcraft all day. Thanks guys. The whole point of this project is something to do so I don't fall into depression. But never mind, enjoy your game bitches.)
]

Brought the bed around the building for another mockup.



I had to cut out the frontal section of the bed skirts so that it would clear around the frame. I also had to remove the extension rods that are used to keep the skirts from folding in. Once this is all done I will weld or bolt in new ones around the frame rail. More mockup.


This is why I wanted a longbed. I do NOT need that much space for a damn spare tire. The tool box will fit in the section in front of the spare tire brace.


And done for the day and parked back around the back of the shop.


Things I still need to do:
Swap in the new axle
Weld in cross braces for supporting and mounting the bed
Get taillights and tailgate
Clean and paint the frame
Weld on new pieces for locking the tiltbed
Replace all hardware with new hardware
Wire up trailer
And probably more crap that I'm not thinking of right now.

As the bed sits in the pics, it as as far forward as it is going to get while sitting all the way down on the frame. I'm actually ok with it because the back of the bed sits just past the edge of the trailer. I'm thinking I might try to find a bumper to put back there too.

I realized why my boat trailer sits lower than my bosses. I have a drop axle, his is a straight axle. Waiting for him to call me back so I can tell him all we have to do is swap axles.  I'll use my boat trailer as donor metal for my trailer. Then all I'm really paying for is welding materials plus my time spent doing everything.

Glad you are still alive Dean. Man..

I say send all your friends spam with key loggers or something.

Dodge junk is under Ford and GM more often now (cheap and strong)

Dude, your trailer needs 33's...lol

Glad to hear you're out and about.

And fuck your friends, in the ear.

looks like fun!

outta curiousity, whats the point in the tilting? just to offload stuff easier?

Usually. I didn't make it a tiltbed, that's how it was built before I came to own it.  I don't mind it being tilt bed because when I start using it to haul stuff it will definitely make it easier to load and unload stuff.  I should have the new axle under it before too long, the boss wants to get his lower so it will probably happen in the next week or so.

I'm going to use those large pieces of angle iron to box the frame where the suspension will mount. Once that is done and the suspension and axle are under it, I'm going to weld in the cross braces to support the bed. I'm not looking forward to the time it's going to take to clean up and paint the frame though. Having a sandblaster would definitely make this easier.......

Anybody in my area got a blaster?

Don't buy the HF pressure blaster...

Don't buy the HF pressure blaster...

You talking about the big red gravity fed one? Buddy of mine uses it for soda blasting and it has been fine, but he only does very small projects.

Yup. I couldn't get it to work to save my life.

Knock on wood, I've never had a problem with anything I've bought there from a digital caliper to heatshrink to a creeper and a boatload of cheap hand tools.

I have so much crap from there. The only problem I have is with the blaster and that's probably the adjustments.

Ok, the new project, while I'm waiting to be able to remove the axle off my boat trailer and prep it for Greg's so that I can get his axle for my tilt bed.




Craftsman LT4000 riding mower. 12.5hp Briggs I/C motor, 6 forward and 1 reverse gear, used to have a 42" deck under it. I picked it up without the deck (70 bucks), did a tuneup on it (5 bucks worth of parts, got the air filter for free since we had a used but clean one on the shelf), and cut the muffler box off the pipe. It runs like a champ. Could be faster though....

Also picked up an opposed twin 19hp Briggs I/C from a friend's dad, price undetermined yet. I'll tune up the twin then install it on the tractor in place of the 12.5hp after I clean up the frame. The frame looks like it's mexican. Greasy and hairy. I have a feeling I'll be pressure washing it for a while to get it clean from end to end. I'm hoping that I wont have to add any additional wiring, it looks like it has all the same connectors as the 12.5hp, so it should be a plug and play job.



Plans are to remove the governor (and install a tach), install a smaller pulley on the transmission, switch to a foot throttle, get taller tires in the rear, relocate the front axle to the front of the frame and up a bit, and use larger tires on the front as well. I'm thinking about changing the steering configuration a bit as well, maybe to a set of ATV bars and change the steering gear as well so that full tilt on the bars is full turn on at the wheels... The whole point? Cheap and basic ATV for me and the kid to go have fun on. Plus I have nothing better to do with my time once I shut the doors at the shop lol.

Dirt track racing mower!

here's some motivation:



this is the world's fastest lawnmower.

did 80mph at the salt flats. lol

That's going to be fun as hell.

Pulled the 12.5 off the tractor, and then pressure washed like 5 lbs of greasy sludge and fur off the tractor...and there is still more.....

The 19hp opposed went on pretty easy. Nice thing was that the Craftsman frames come pre-stamped for multiple motor options. The mounting ears on the bottom of the case for the opposed twin I/C are different than those of the single cylinder I/C Briggs motors. I didn't have to make my own holes, just lined up with existing ones and bam.

Now I need to rig up a new throttle cable, add a choke cable, change the filters, oil, and spark plugs on the motor, make an extension harness for the charging system, and cut the hood to fit. The starter spun over, but the gear on the starter seems stuck at the top, like it doesn't want to spin back down the starter. Once I get the motor ready to go I'll see what it wants to do. If it stays stuck at the top I'll rebuild it with parts off the shelf at the shop.

Also need to get some lengths of 1" pipe and a couple 90* pieces and straight pipe it out the back of the tractor, and remove the lever and bracketry for the mower deck that will never see this tractor again.

Among a pile of other stuff I scored for 100 bucks today was a pair of wheels and tires that will came off another Craftsman, they both hold air and are taller than the current rears. Sweet. Thinking about swiping the front axle and steering off the John Deere chassis I picked up. Not sure yet. I forgot to take pics tonight, so I'll take some pics tomorrow when I get to work of what it looks like so far.

here's some motivation:



this is the world's fastest lawnmower.

did 80mph at the salt flats. lol

And no seat belt, that takes balls. It's not like a motorcycle where you're practically stamped into the top of the thing.

just take some penetrating oil and spray on the starter gear and work it up and down by hand.   I have the same problem with my grandpa's old outboard motor after it sits for a long time. (over a year)

The starter was also smoking a little when I was trying to crank it over, so odds are it needs to get rebuilt anyway. I'm almost certain we have another starter on the shelf at work, so it's not much to just throw another one on.

Made some more progress on the tractor. Moved the key switch from the fender to the dash and re-loomed the harness so that I could move a couple parts of the harness around and not have to hack it up or make extension harnesses. Now the charging circuit is hooked up, the coil ground wire is hooked up, the headlight harness is run to the front. All good.

Removed the lever and brackets for the mower deck, did some more pressure washing, installed the new back wheels/tires (no more flats yay!!), did most of the tuneup on the motor. Would have pulled the starter to rebuild or replace it but I couldn't find the flywheel puller...so.....guess that waits until tomorrow....