Somebody Hit the On Button

It seems everybody went back to work today.

Well all the people I needed to "get stuff done".
First things first; take the last three oil coolers to the zinc platers.

Mine was their first job for 2009!
Arrived at 8:01am and they were sitting around waiting for "something" to arrive so unloaded it straight onto the plating line.

"Pick it up after lunch mate."

"Excellent!

Straight to Couplers on the way back.

Control block, 6 taps, 6 push-in tube fittings, 2 thread size adaptors and a 10bar gauge.
$150 Not too bad. Also picked up 50metres of tube to plumb it all into the accommodation unit.
It makes more sense to put it there as it's no use on the truck by itself.









Now with the controls at hand I can lift off the beams to remove the mountings for what I hope will be the last time before I start to weld the accommodation unit together.

I need to do the final drilling and tapping for the mounts.

I have been leaving them while I think about it a bit.
For me I find it helps to approach some problems slowly.

The simplest way would be to just use bolts and nuts (and initially it was drilled to allow for that so that it could be mounted temporarily). I normally put bolts down from the top with nuts up from underneath on the rationale that if the nuts fall off at least the bolt will tend to stay where it is due to gravity. A minor consolation.

But in this case the mount plate will be part of the floor on which the whole thing rests when lowered to the "ground". This would mean the bolts have to be extracted. In addition, no matter which way up they were, either the nut or bolt would be at the bottom of a storage locker and quite awkward to get to.

So I guess there was no real alternative other than to tap the mount plates and put the bolts up from underneath. Spring washers AND thread-locker I think.

Seeing these bolts provide all the mechanical connection, and there are just two smooth plates facing each other, unlike the other fittings which use u-bolts and through-chassis bolts, they need to be fairly substantial, so 16mm and 6 of in each fitting. That ought to do it.


Main cross-beam to go under the main longitudinal stringers. It's upside down at the moment so the burrs from threading the holes can be cleaned off. This will be bolted to the flexible mounts and then the stringers etc. can be welded to it. Holes are still only 12mm plain at this point.























Tilt mount for the front pivot (right way up) with a temporary spacer in between the arms so I can grab it in the vyce to drill it without crushing. Holes are now 18mm diam. to allow for any minor distortions which may accumulate during all the welding which will occur.


















Accurate positioning is achieved by doing it all in one go in the mill.























So now all drilled and tapped and put back in the chassis.

The air control block works a treat and the bags are lifting the small amount of weight at about 1.5 bar at the moment. I was a bit concerned about the air bags being out in the open with 10 bar in them so I looked up the spec's. Apparently they are proof tested to about 28 bar!!
Felt a bit better after that.

It was a bit of a drag only having two available at the moment so I thought "better get the other two ASAP".
The originals were bought for a camper trailer which got scrapped when this project was started and I had bought them from a local suspension shop. About AU$1000 for the pair.

I'll just have a look on the web.

They are sold by "The Airbag Man" in Australia. I have since learned from an internet forum that I could probably have got them for a little over half the Australian price from a company in the US in about two weeks.

But I try to do things locally if I think I am getting a good deal.

It went sort of like this.
(1150) 10 mins to lunch - get on the net.
(1200) Send an email to the Aus. distributor (Sydney) as I couldn't find a local address.
(1330) Phone call from the WA distributor.
"Sure we have two of them in stock and I can get another one from Sydney by next week."
"Great. How much is that going to be?"
"$318 each including GST and delivery."
"I'll take two now and the third whenever is convenient."
(VISA card detail exchanged)
(1400) Better go and get the plated oil coolers and take them to the powdercoaters.
(1600) Knock. Knock. Courier arrived.
"Here are your two air bags".

That sort of local company I am more than willing to support.
(I know the product is made in USA but we don't MAKE them in Australia!!)

It looks like I might actually have to commit to some accommodation welding tomorrow.
SOOOO many decisions to make.
My brain hurts!