C.S. Lewis was right (once) . . .

Well at least about this he was.
"The longest way round is the shortest way home."

I always misquote it as;
"The longest way round is the shortest way there."

In fact I spent a couple of hours the other day preaching it to a friend of mine who is always in a hurry and ends up doing everything twice.

I like the other one too;
"I haven't got time to take the shortcut". (It ends up taking longer.)

How about "Make sure your brain is engaged before putting body in motion"?

So. Having satisfied myself that the design for the lifting legs was going to work I realised that I had to make multiples (of 4) of everything. Four of those pieces, 16 of the other, 8 of another etc...
Being a rank, manky, stinking hot day I just kept loading pieces into the mill, do some welding | grinding | cutting etc. while waiting. Cutting slots and drilling holes and welding bits together.




















Legs drilled.























"Arms" assembled and welded.























Lower brackets, left and right handed cutouts so the air fittings would fit nicely.























In fact things were going so well I didn't need to go draw it all out properly did I?
See the little brass bar temporarily placed in the lower hole because I didn't have the proper pins cut yet. Meant the holes didn't line up. That's OK. It's just 5mm out so add 5mm to the distance from lower arm to upper arm when you measure from the job for where to cut the slot. Right? Don't need to go draw it all, just a waste of time. Right?























You guessed it. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

Well at least I only stuffed one up before I found it. Would have been quicker to draw it all properly first.

You know.

Go the longer way round.

Silly Season Slowdown . . .

Season's Greetings.

Parties, presents, food, drink, sleep, books, toys etc. etc. etc..

As if there aren't enough distractions already.

A few hours were found if not a great amount of energy and enthusiasm.

The lifting legs are now high priority. They need to be able to lift the "cabin" at least high enough to drive the truck "out from under" but also, because this thing is so damn high to begin with, to lower it down to a more stable and reasonable height where it can be used safely and comfortably.

Screw mechanisms, hydraulics, levers and all manner of different ways were considered to try and find an economical, simple, reliable method of actuation. Finally I realised that half of the items needed were already in use with the air supports on the chassis. These items are not needed when the cabin is taken off so can be utilised as actuators (with the addition of two more to make one ) at each corner.

There are always problems getting one piece of pipe to fit nicely inside another especially when they have a weld seam inside but 65 x 65 x 3 SHS isn't a bad fit inside 75 x 75 x 3 SHS so that's what I've chosen for this. These sizes are a little loose but it is difficult to remove the seam so it's not advisable to choose a closer fit even though different wall thicknesses are available. They work better in longer lengths as shorter ones have a tendency to tilt and "jam".

Having decided it's "air" I need to make a prototype to see if it actually works OK. The air-bags are rated at 1000kg each so they will be close to their limits and they have an extension range of 100mm. so multiple short lifts will be required. Test setup looks like this:























The lower sleeve I decided to completely fabricate from 100 x 5 flat bar and 65 x 5 flat bar as I could make it a closer fit on the lower section which dictates just how low to the ground I can get. With this setup it can be lowered to 125mm which is OK as I would block it up rather than have it sit directly on the ground (drainage) and is about the floor height of a container for loading. It raises better than it lowers but I think the addition of a shim strip would solve that.
Also it requires the welding of an extension on the back to slide into the support beams under the cabin which will help to hold the sleeve more upright and hopefully prevent the jamming.
With additional bracing gussets the final version looks like this:























No holes have been drilled at this point however a number of holes and slots need to be made for each step up, about 100mm as mentioned earlier. Also it is important NOT to allow the full weight of the load to bear on the airbag NOR to allow the airbag to stretch more than the recommended maximum so there will need to be limit stops provided as well.

Setting up the legs, which need holes at 100mm intervals, in the mill is quite simple and ensures the holes will be accurate in shape, size and position which is important for ease and security of operation apart from one small problem. The leg is too long to fit in the mill!!



















A minor adjustment to the splash guards disposes of that problem!


















Now all I need is a bit more enthusiasm.
Maybe if I stopped eating quite so much I might feel a little more like doing something.

Irony is My Strong Point . . .

Off to Couplers and change the parallel plug for a taper and also to get a few other fittings for what I have in mind and another 5 metres of tubing to plumb it all together. Even these plugs seem just a little undersized and I have to use LOTS of teflon sealing tape to eventually get them to seal. However, fire up the motor and let it idle while building up air pressure and lots more soapy water and all is sealed. YES !!!

Now how to actually make use of it. One of the jobs will no doubt be to pump up the tires from time to time. When the new tyres were fitted I decided to spring for some magic beads. Yes. I was a bit suspicious too. But a little bit of searching round and reading up and it seemed like a good idea even though about $35/tyre. There are a couple of alternatives in this field, powder, granules and beads. None of them take too kindly to moisture in the tyre. So I really need some kind of water trap before I pump air into the tyres and the ability to regulate the pressure may be nice at times. I have used this type of regulator/water trap in my workshop for many years and they are quite good and not very expensive at around$65 (courtesy of Couplers again).























The problem is where to put it. While they are industrial and I have seen some operating in execrable conditions they are not really designed to be mounted on a truck. It occurred to me that the small compressor I mounted for pumping up the air suspension for the accommodation unit is now pretty well redundant. It could only be used for that one purpose and the new compressed air system is much more useful and can be used for that purpose as well. So out with the old compressor and mount the regulator in the box I had provided for the compressor.























Now I have a standard quick-fit air coupler as well to which I can attach any standard air line and tool. Much betterer! Run up the truck again, lots more soapy water and all is well.
An interesting side effect that I have noticed is that the brakes lose pressure more slowly when parked now as a result of the increased volume of air in the system. In this vintage of truck there is a bit of a problem with the tanks and lines being made of steel. All the new ones are plastic and aluminium. The steel tends to rust over time even with driers in the system and small flakes get into the control valves and they tend to leak. I enquired of the service manager at the Isuzu dealers and he said that as long as the truck was maintaining pressure in use it was not worth replacing the valves as they would surely leak again within a week.

Managed to finally empty the last drops of fuel from the old fuel tank and the 3 drums I brought back when I purchased the truck. They all had some rust flakes etc. in the bottom so I needed to filter the fuel before adding it to the tank. A messy and slow operation but it needed to be done before I dispose of them all.

Actually all the little bits and pieces required have taken up quite a lot of time and today seemed to be open house day with 3 of my friends calling around for long pre-Xmas chats as we will all be with our own families for this time and wont catch up again 'til after.

A general finish off and tidy up day.

The remaining items on the truck itself seem to be; bull bar, storage boxes, towing hitch and lights. Apart from the bull bar they all interact with the accommodation unit to a certain degree so I think I am going to have to make a serious start on that "some time soon" before I finalise all the other bits.

The irony is that when I have covered up all the bits I have done to date it will start to look like I have actually done something!

Thank You Oceanus !

Surprise ! Surprise! I didn't get seasick!
The oddest thing was that I felt quite strange in the first 10 minutes tied up in the dead calm harbour while we were getting ready to go.
After that I was absolutely fine all day.
To the extent we even called into Hillarys for a nice lunch!
We were taking the boat from Fremantle up to a new pen in Two Rocks about 70km in a more or less straight line, which we're certainly NOT going to travel given the reefs, craypot lines and other hazards off the coast here.
In addition we could have picked a better day weather wise!
The weather backed from a very early strong SW to NW during the day bringing quite a heavy rain squall which seemed determined to hunt us down, which it managed to do about .5km from the Alkimos Reef complicating the situation with heavy rain and a flattened sea which meant we couldn't see any waves breaking on the reef.
Thank goodness for GPS and echo sounders.
Safely tied up in the new pen by about 3:30pm.
Quite a good day all in all.


So today (even though for some odd reason I kept thinking it was Monday) I set about finishing the air tanks.
Cut and slide some of the air line tubing, which by happy coincidence is the appropriate size, over the "U-bolts" and " Ahhaa" some left over rubber matting which is perfect for lining the support bracket.























Drop in the first (original) tank and clamp it down. Do up all the fittings, mechanical and electrical.














Everybody keeps saying :
"Why don't you pressure wash | steam clean | etc. the chassis and fittings?"
There are a number of reasons actually.
I appreciate that after I've done it I would stay a lot cleaner while working over | under | around it (mind you I seem to get pretty filthy while I'm cleaning these sorts of things), however;
1) It would last until I make my first off road excursion (about 20km after I leave). In actual fact the chassis was perfectly clean when I bought it. All the dirt is from transporting it back here. It builds up until it reaches a natural level and then stays like that.
2) All the fittings were never designed to be pressure washed. They are generally OK for road splash etc., which is normally about the only way they get wet, but I don't like the idea of forcing water into places which were not designed to deal with it.
In engineering spraying seals with high pressure jets is a NO. NO.
I know I am not going to be happy when the time comes to clean it all for shipping as you need to get every last crevice cleaned out. But until then the minimum number of attacks.

Time to put in all the necessary blanking plugs (thank goodness the tanks are all BSPT which makes obtaining the parts easy. NPT are not as "off the shelf").
So in with the second tank - which now nicely clears the shaft underneath.












And the third one as well.














I have put a ball valve leading from the original tank to the first of the other two and another on the output from the third tank.
This way if there are problems with any of the hoses or fittings I can isolate everything to protect the brakes.
And for the rest I am using these lovely fittings again to make everything easy.
It is the same tubing I used for the differential, gearbox and transfer case breathers so in an emergency I am actually carrying about 10metres of this tubing around the truck.
I am trying to make everything as common as possible for redundancy of spares.























So now cut up all the necessary pieces and fit them in place.
And I'd better close off the ball valves until everything checks out in the original brake circuits.

I haven't actually started the truck since I changed all the fuel tanks etc. so this is going to be interesting.
I have had described to me what to do if I run out of fuel (which is what this situation equates to) by about three different people - three different explanations. Hopefully this will provide enough information when combined to get it all going properly.
I really am quite happy with this situation as I believe it is something I need to know how to do before setting off. It's the same reason I helped fit the new tyres - it demystifies the process in a non-critical environment while you have time to think properly. You don't want to be finding this stuff out in a foreign possibly unfriendly country in the dark!

So :
. Loosen the fuel filter drain plug.
. Use some air pressure in the fuel tank to force the fuel up to the filter.
. Close the drain plug.
. Loosen the hose fitting to the inlet side of the priming pump.
. More air pressure in the tank to get the fuel to that point.
. Tighten the hose fitting.
. Loosen the fitting at the highest point in the injector circuit.
. Operate the priming pump to get fuel to the fitting.
. Close the fitting.
Now in theory we should be OK.
Of course there will be fuel in the injector circuit anyway so the truck will start - it's just a matter of will it keep running.
Start her up.
Running beautifully so let's wait for a while to see if there are air pockets in the system anywhere.
Sure enough - some slowing down and irregular idle are signs that something is not right so pump like crazy with the primer. Every pump brings more life back until she is running nice and smoothly again. Pity the primer pump is very primitive and leaks a bit while in use but that's tolerable. I hope never to use it again!

OK let's see how the brake pressure is building up.
Coming up quite nicely; Oh and look the fuel guage is registering as well -that's nice.
Switch off the engine and listen for any leaks in the brake circuits.
Nothing.
I'll have to do my Tony Grieg impression at this point; (you'll have to imagine the accent)
"I can't believe it!"
OK. Open up the valve to fill the other tanks. Now I can hear the leaks.
Out with the soapy water to blow some bubbles.
Most of the leaks are just fittings I haven't tightened up properly (probably nervous about putting too much pressure on the aluminium threads) but an extra turn solves all but one.
Pulling this plug out reveals that somehow a "parallel" plug has snuck past where it should have been a "taper".
A quick trip to Couplers tomorrow will fix that .
Quite happy with that result!

Rites of Passage(making) . . .

I'll spare you all the drama of re-machining the support brackets for the tanks. Needless to say it was tedious at the least. I hate doing things twice. So here we are all re-cut, extra support flat pieces welded in and primed being trial fitted in the chassis.

















Now I can try the first tank again.


















That one's OK. I needed to put the tanks in for a trial fit to make sure the U-bolts I made didn't foul the tank fittings when I drilled the holes for them in the brackets.
So now the other two tanks (that aluminium sure makes everything else disappear in the flash) and it all fit's but it sure is a little "tighter" than I anticipated.
I will of course just say "It was meant to be like that".















The brackets seem to work better this time so take them out, put a coat of black paint on and set them aside to dry while I start the bolting up process.
The chassis needs the equivalent of rivets back in so put hard washers each side to apply the load better.
This bit is not optimal but it is sometimes difficult to get exactly the type and length of bolt you want.
If the thread doesn't go far enough down the length of the bolt it can mean you need a longer bolt than you would like and it wont "pull up" properly. So an extra washer is required.























On the other side another hard washer and a "purlin nut" upside down.
This is done up tight to act like a rivet and to still leave as much thread as possible remaining.























The reason for this is; you will remember the original tank was mounted on the side of the chassis (actually more difficult than a simple cross support like I am putting in).
This is because the chassis will probably flex quite a bit at this point and the cross support would be stressed and or damaged so mount it on one side where it can just stay relatively unmoved. So I have to make some sort of allowance for this.
So place a thick rubber washer over the bolt;























Then imagine the bracket placed on top of this (if I put it in you wont see what's going on as I can't get a camera in there) and a second rubber washer on top and finally a nyloc nut to retain the whole thing. This will allow the cross braces some degree of movement when the chassis flexes and will stop them fatigue cracking (hopefully).
























Now off to see the nice young girls at couplers for all the various blanking plugs (there seems to be an awful lot of holes to fill up in these darn tanks) and fittings to make it all work.


















If it wasn't for the fact I'm going on sea trials in my neighbour's new 43' powerboat tomorrow I could get it all working in a few more hours.

Wait a minute - WHAT am I doing tomorrow ??
That's why I'm not building a passagemaker.
I get seasick !!!

Too Good to be True . . .

Check first thing (well for me these days that means about 8am) and the next 4 oil coolers are ready to go from the powder coater. Pick them up, package for delivery, out to the freight company and back by 10am. Great. Rest of the day for the truck!

Whoops. Spoke too soon.

Friend of mine with lots of relationship problems arrives and wants to talk. Well that's what friends are for - and I like and sympathise with this guy a lot. But I think my advice is a bit radical YET. . . He'll get there. Unfortunately.

OK. Lunch and now I can start . . .

Put the support bars in the mill for the other two recesses.

While that's happening (don't you love CNC machines?) I can make some giant "U" bolts to hold the tanks. Some 6mm diam. rod ought to do it - they are aluminium after all and I don't want to damage them.

Hmmm. 180mm diam tank plus 50mm RHS support works out to about 650mm long pieces.
Need to thread both ends first. So the quickest way is in the manual lathe like this.
The power is off! The tap wrench handle rests on the tool post (that's my third hand), the drill chuck JUST touches the back of the die. Turn the lathe chuck by hand while keeping the drill chuck in contact with the back of the die by hand. This keeps the die square but does not change the pitch (unless you push too hard). Make sure that the die is fully on, about 10mm. Remove the drill chuck and tool post, turn the lathe on in a very slow gear and apply cutting fluid. Hang onto the die wrench. With a little die like this you can always just let it go if you need to. A larger thread size requires a different technique.















And turn it off when you get to here.
























Wind it back out, turn it around and repeat!
Will give this.



















Find a block of 150mm diam. scrap and clamp it down.


















and wrap the rod around it starting in the middle gives this:





















and if you do it 6 times you get :






















and the mill will have done this.























Cool. . . .

So let's try it all in place; bars in the chassis























Two tanks in place (the light is awful in there). It's hard to see with the flash bouncing off the polished tanks and with reduced size photos but there is a PTO pulley fairly close to the middle tank. It could be a bit close


















with three tanks in


















but lets have a look underneath ;























Yep. CLOSE!! That's about a 20mm gap, should be alright by the time I add the flat bar support.

Making great progress!!

Yes. The eagle eyed among you will already be shouting;
"But the gap is too small for the U-bolts to go between the tanks".

I saw that too. Hmmnmm. Check the diameter of the tanks again.

200mm!!

Where did that 180mm measurement come from. Now I am going to have to spend 2-3hrs tomorrow re-machining the cutouts to move them outward.

I knew it was all too good to be true.

Quantum of Solace

Finished these silly little pieces at last. A mixture of Stainless Steel and Mild Steel. Twenty of each! Still haven't worked out how to charge for them without giving the customer a heart attack. Hmmm. Come to think of it as long as he pays the bill first . . .






















OK. The guy to fix the washing machine has arrived - quick look (as I already have it in pieces) and it's NOT the piece I thought it was! It's the one right next to it.

"That's the part mate. Pity. I used the last one of those I had in the truck about three weeks ago. Hadn't used one for two years so I decided not to replace it. I'll have to pick one up tomorrow and get back to put it in the day after."

"What if I get the part at lunchtime?"

"Still can't get back to fix it until the day after tomorrow. Sorry."

"You're sure that will fix it?"

"Guaranteed!"

"There are only 5 wires and they are all colour coded. Can't I just swap the new part in?"

"If you are OK with that - no problems."

"How much do I owe you?"

$50 bucks."

"Done"

Off to the parts supplier . . .

$95 for this.


















Swapped it in. Hit the go button. Works a treat. Clean clothes coming up!!

Hmmmm. . . . . This is interesting . . . .


















That's the other side. Curious! It's filled with epoxy!

Now my electronics knowledge is to a certain extent limited but I think I count about 5 capacitors, 3 transistors, a logic circuit and a relay. It's actually quite a simple device. If you look really carefully you can see a burn mark on the corner of the bright blue rectangular "box".

Now this item is located way up in the control panel where it can't possibly get wet.
The only reason I can think of to fill it with epoxy is to prevent it being repaired. I find that disappointing.

There's a whole philosophical discussion here but I think it can go in "Output From a Shrinking Brain" for another time.

Back to the REAL JOB ! The truck. Of course it's about 2-30 now so not much is going to get done today.

Start carving out the recesses for the air tank in the support bars. Easy job for the mill even if a bit tedious to set up and slow to run.


















First one done. There are two more (one each side of centre) in each bar but that's a different setup. It's noisy and vibrating enough as it is without trying to do it all at once. First part done. Will need a flat piece curved to shape and welded in to make a better seat for the tank otherwise it will wear a hole through the aluminium in about a week. Probably should use a "plastic" liner as well to avoid chaffing and maybe even galvanic corrosion.



















And I can take out the rest of the rivets in the chassis while the mill is running.

So that's it for today. Have to get ready for "dinner and a movie"!
That's a "Quantum of Solace" for not getting much done AGAIN !!

Not a complete write off . . .

OK. Time to concentrate on the customers job. The trouble is it's about 20 each of 6 different pieces. As a CNC machine shop it takes about as long to set up for 20 items as it does to make them. Two of the items take 56sec. and 63sec. respectively. Setup time 20Min's for each. What sort of price can you charge for that? We were used to doing batches from 100 up to 1000 at a time. Any bigger batches than that and you start to run into logistical problems.

However . . . a couple of the items were taking about 6-7 Min's each so it was still going to take up too much of the day that should be used on the truck. While in the current economic circumstances just doing enough to pay the overheads is nice but I am going to have to restrict the type of job by refusing the little batches. C'est la vie.

That'll be the phone Reg.

"Hi. Zincplaters. You're job is done."

"Wow. Thanks. You said Wednesday but I'm not complaining."

So there goes another chunk of the day. Pick up the oil coolers and take them to the powder coater.

Back to work . . . . until . . . . Lunch time.

I have arranged to go with my friend (who is building the bus that I mentioned once before) to look at some work being done on some other buses. This counts as truck work as you never know what you can learn that will help on your own :)

This is what we see :


















I don't think anybody is impressed !!

The interior is just being trial fitted so the owner can get a proper idea of how the layout works. Better to change anything that needs it NOW rather than later.























When we got back I took this picture of my friend's bus. I think he should be rather proud of his work!
























So back to my place and . . . Damn!! I forgot about the washing machine. There goes another hour while I organise to get that fixed tomorrow. I guess I'll just have to work late to finish what I planned.

So in the few seconds the machines are working I can manage to cut the supports to go into my truck for the new air tanks. They'll need scoops out of the top surface to hold the tanks but I can't do that 'till I finish using the mill for the customer's job.


















So I'll just take some rivets out of the chassis (sound familiar?) so I can bolt these in when ready.


















So I can put the supports about here:


















Which will allow the tank to go about here:


















And although it doesn't look like it there is room for another two as well.


















Well I guess the day isn't a complete write off!

It's all going wrong . . .

Friday and Saturday were both spent all day doing "real work"!! That's not how I planned it!!

Somehow the welding man is not keeping up with the timetable he set himself (and unfortunately I quoted the customer). This time there are a lot more coolers which need minor leaks fixing and even two tubes - which has never happened before.

Sunday however was spent doing a couple of hundred kilometres out on the bush tracks around the local dam "Mundaring Weir".

There is a walking track which starts around here and finally ends up about 960km away in Albany. It is an old Aboriginal migratory pathway and is only allowed to be walked. No cars, bikes etc. There are however many unsealed roads which are near to it and in many places the track and the road are together.

Along the track there are several camping shelters. Three sided rooms with a table and some bunks built as part of the structure. People stay overnight in these shelters while walking from one end to the other. I visited several of these during the day looking for some geocaches (which I think I have mentioned somewhere else).

Normally you bump into a couple or group of people who are on their way from one place or another to the next rest spot. Often people do the walk over a long period, getting driven to one spot and then being picked up again later further along the track and then starting from that spot next time. Generally they are pleasant ordinary people. This time however I met two somewhat strange men. Each at a different location some 40 km apart and not connected with each other, but two in the one day.

The first guy was innocuous enough. However, he professed to have come from New Zealand some little while ago (that was the first vague bit) and was working in the North as a truck driver on a two week on / one week off / fly in schedule. The odd part was that he did not have anywhere to stay when he came back to Perth. He professed to staying in the huts along the track. He would move around a bit so that he was not too conspicuous and had apparently been doing this for some time. His gear was quite good and reasonably comprehensive. It looked like he was carrying about a weeks provisions.

It occurred to me that if it wasn't in some ways a little similar to what I intend doing with the truck when I travel I would think him quite odd!

The second guy was just weird! He seemed to have no gear and was wearing sandals (the only thing I saw that he said was his was a bottle of shampoo sitting on the table). In addition he didn't want anything disturbed as "there were too many people doing too much damage on the track". Just a bit toooo weird so I didn't stay to talk!

Monday . .

Finish off the last little bits on the oil coolers and get them off for zinc plating. Today is the last day they are accepting work prior to the holidays so the remainder wont get delivered until next year. Hope the customer isn't going to be too upset.

On the way back I decided to call in at Major Motors (local Isuzu dealer) again to check on something that had been suggested to me. I was going to fit a separate air compressor to the truck for various uses when it was suggested that I just plug into the air-brake circuit. After all the truck already has a compressor on board. This sounded like a good idea but I didn't want to interfere with the brake reservoir so I wanted to check if I could fit a couple more brake tanks and use them for air tools, tyre pump etc.

I think I nearly blew it . . .

Mindlessly going through the formalities of the holiday season I said :

"Hi Singh. How's it going? Looking forward to the Xmas holidays?"

"Hello. I am looking forward to the holiday."

Hmmm. Not the normal reception. He didn't seem too put out and it may not be Xmas to him but it is for an awful lot of other people.

Anyway it appears like the idea is used quite a lot. So back to my normal approach;

"You know that truck I got the two fuel tanks from? Did you pull the air tanks off that as well".

"There was one tank out the back but come with me to spare parts. What you really want is one of these!"


















"these" are the flash new aluminium style brake tanks off the new series trucks. Of course they are $600+ each.

"So how much for both of them?"

"How about $100 each?"

"Done!"

Of course it will require another trip to Couplers where the young girls can tell me what connectors, plugs, valves and other nonsense I will need but that's OK I'll get that organised when they are fitted up.

They will go in alongside the old auxiliary brake tank which has a side mounting but seeing there will now be three tanks alongside each other I will need to make a rack.


















So. Out with the old one.


















It's rather annoying actually. I drilled some holes in the chassis a while ago in a place I didn't want to really because that tank mounting was in the way. If I had done it in the reverse order it would have been much better. Oh well.

So tomorrow I can make up the rack and fit the tanks, get the fittings etc and . . .
wait a minute - I forgot that last customer job I was going to finish today - and I haven't done a thing on it - and I remember now my washing machine gave up last night - and my clothes are all full of washing powder - and I don't want to buy a new machine even though the old one is over 10 years old because the new one wont go in the truck - and - and it's all going horribly wrong . . . .