Old WC's never die - they just move on! :-)

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

sometimes are simple things gettin' complicated: the wheel bearing nut that is keeping the hub in place did not move at all.
The pressed steel nut for it was gettin' larger and larger and was badly bent up to the point, that it was scrap metal.
- But the wheel bearing nut did not move a bit...

In the end I decided to "fight fire with fire" and spot-welded my HD wheel-nut wrench tool on the bearing nut, used an 1.20 m. long steel tube extension and...
...it started to move. - With a torque of estimated 240 Nm "plus"!

The inner bearing nut is allso not moving as easy as it should, but the thread has no visible damage.
So the only explanation can be, that the stub axle with the thread of the wheel bearing nut has been damaged "somehow" by the "exploded" drive shaft lately.
Inside you can see some scratches, caused by the breaking drive shaft, but the damage does not look severe.

So after the hub is removed, I have to check the stub axle. Worst case: replacement of the stub axle that is riveted with the brake anchor plate to the rear axle...

To be continued...

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

my Dodge is not any longer the only OD pet in our Garage: Our colleague Andi has bought a very nice "new" trailer and parked it now next to my Dodge:





Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

And yes: my Dodge is still only on 3 wheels - got the wheel bearings etc. from my spares dealer in France...
...but the outer nut was out of stock. So I have to find a source for that lousy nut...

(to be continued...).

[12th Air Force]

So - while the Dodge puzzle is waiting for essential spares - I focussed again on my flat-top project that now is on the final mile, with the flight deck back in place!

So only 4 additional fixing points and a rail is missing and the beast is ready for it's check by the authorities to make it road legal again.

So here are the final stages of the 6-wheeler project:













Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

I uploaded 57 photos of the vintage car meeting at the village of Massenheim, nearby my hometown. Very "cosy" Event with lot's of "bread & butter" vehicles from the past.

See: http://www.steel-toys.com/OM16/

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

the aircraft carrier had now it's "maiden trip" of 40 km to my old Garage - incl. 30 km on the German Autobahn - and worked perfect.
It's a huge beast with the 2.50 x 6.00 m platform (=as large as a 7.5 t. truck) but is very stable even hat high speed (100 km/h "plus"), thank's to the 3 axles and wide track with the 195 size tires.
So - hopefully - it will now pass the road inspection and be registered in time for Tanks in Town at Mons.

Have a great Sunday,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

The maiden voyage of the aircraft carrier after the rebuilt...

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folks,

thanks to spares-support from my Dodge Brother Davy from Belgium the latest repair on my Dodge is finally finished.
So it took me approx 4 h. with a triangular file to recondition the damaged thread, but in the end it was possible to fit the new nuts without using 300 Nm torque (as to remove them).
So new oil seals and wheel bearings fitted, test-driving on next Thursday and cleaning up the chaos in my Garage. *haha*

So hopefully the new oil seal will do, so that I can take part with the Dodge in the guided Ray Barrack's Garrison tour on next Saturday at Friedberg (Germany). That's a unique chance to see the closed former US Army installation that has been for two years "the Army Home of Elvis".

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

normally I would say "mission accomplished" - the trailer is finished, registred and in use...
...but someone at the "specialist Garage" that adjusted the brakes and did the inspection has forgotten to tighten the screws on one of the six wheels...
So we made it never to Tanks in Town, because the trailer had a fatal brakedown at Liege: first we lost one wheel on the left side and then two axles on that side collapsed because of this.

So the trailer is now in a trailer repair shop and waiting for the things to come, while the Dodge is parked at a friends place nearby Brussels, after a 2 hours drive from Liege.

So here are some photos of the ill fated mission to Mons.

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim








About 10 m. later the first wheel on the left side bounced over the Mototorway.
On the next photo is that on the very left - shown with the spare wheel in place.
The other two axles couldn't manage the weight and look now like that:



So I had then a stay in the Hotel with my Buddy and to drive the Dodge on the next day thru the Belgian countryside to the next safe harbour.



So now I wait for the repair and the chance to bring the Dodge back home again.
- The trouble never stops... (to be continued).

Keep 'em Rolling,

joakim

[12th Air Force]

PS: But to be postive: nothing happened to us or the Dodge when we had the breakdown and the repair of the wheel bearings seems to have been a success.

And even without the Dodge we had some fun at Tanks in Town 2016.

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

with my broken trailer and my Dodge still "lost in Belgium" I needed some OD related to do and visited on last Sunday the Hürtgenwald Museum at Vossenack, South of Aachen.

Impressive collection, that has been started by a private collector in the 1960ies and that was bought by the community after his death to preserve it for generations to come.

So here you can find some of my photos: http://www.steel-toys.com/HM16/
(Notice: Click on next image on top to open each next photo).

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[GoranWC51]

Sweet museum there Joakim. It has that "Private museum" look to it, where someone has been building a collection of stuff over the period of many years. The type of small museum you find littered all over the landscape in Normandy.

Very cool indeed. Any more photos of the collections? Preferably of the vehicles, of course

Ha det bäst min vän,

Göran N

[Lang]

Joakim

Bad luck with your trailer, but it looks like a nice unit.

Not trying to teach you how to suck eggs but the problem may have been made worse by the way you have the Dodge strapped down. A vehicle being carried should never be tied by the body/chassis. It should be attached by the wheels or axles. You will notice the car carriers and tilt tray tow trucks always tie down by the wheels, never the body

The way you have it means every bump you go over the Dodge sits down on its springs making the straps go slack then rises back snapping the straps tight with quite a shock load. This could not have helped your problem. We have a lot more rough roads here in Australia and I have seen straps broken and the vehicle coming loose and also the attach points on both the trailer and the car broken by people tying on to the body of the vehicle.

If you tie down the wheels or axles the Dodge will float gently on its own suspension helping your trailer suspension greatly. You will certainly notice how much better your trailer rides with less jerking.

Just a thought, maybe the mechanic did fix the wheel OK but the suspension unit started to fail (like the number two wheel in the photo). Once the wheel started to get out of line it put huge forces on the wheel studs resulting in failure. Number two was going the same way. We have found those suspension units are great for caravans but the sellers here will not gaurantee them for use on a load carrying trailer no matter what rating the maker has on them. Remember that you do not have load sharing like most spring suspensions and there are times the entire load goes on to one wheel only (crossing gutters, dips in the road or over speed bumps) Sad to think about after your hard work but maybe they are not up to the job?

Lang

[12th Air Force]

Sweet museum there Joakim. It has that "Private museum" look to it, where someone has been building a collection of stuff over the period of many years. The type of small museum you find littered all over the landscape in Normandy.

Very cool indeed. Any more photos of the collections? Preferably of the vehicles, of course

Ha det bäst min vän,

Göran N

Hej Göran,

they don't have many MV in the collection (only the Jeep and a BMW MC) - but the focus is more on finds from old foxholes.
They have some more stuff as a section with crashed WW2 Aircraft parts from the area and historical Fire Brigade equipment that was used to fight forest fires that have been caused over many years by ammo in the Hürtgen Forest, esp. in summertime.

And yes, you see, that it is in it's origin a private collection, that now is preserved by a small group of historical interested Folk's that are organized in a Museums Association.

Interesting might be to point out, that they organize since about 33 years the so called International Hürtgenwald-Marsch for Peace (IHM) in mid October. It's a walk along the battlefield that starts at the Museum with some HMV owners and Re-Enactors from the area having a small Camp at the Museum and with participants from many organizations, incl. the German and US Forces.

Info: http://www.rk-huertgenwald.de/index.php ... ts_termine





Hälsningar,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Joakim

Bad luck with your trailer, but it looks like a nice unit.

Not trying to teach you how to suck eggs but the problem may have been made worse by the way you have the Dodge strapped down. A vehicle being carried should never be tied by the body/chassis. It should be attached by the wheels or axles. You will notice the car carriers and tilt tray tow trucks always tie down by the wheels, never the body


Lang

Thank's for the hint.
We did that this way for several years with several different trailers with no negative impact. The other way round: we have tried it in the beginning with the straps around the wheels and twice the effect, that they did not stayed in place...
Anyhow: loosing 5 bolts and then the wheel is a very strange thing.

We discussed several reasons that might have caused this, esp. because we had two more wheels on the right side, that have been in place, but with quite loose bolts (could be screwed off with a wrench with one hand only).
So 3 of the six wheels have been sandbasted and powder coated, not very nice and with a very thick coating. All wheels have been war (not hot) when I checked them en route. But one idea was, that the powder coating could have turned to becoming soft, when warm, so that the screws started to turn loose after a while because of this.

But that is only speculation. The other reason might have been the bad road condition, when we passed the bridge repair site with the trailer. The surface had deep worn out areas - maybe they did not match the trailer axels size/width so that there was more weight on less tire surface. No idea.

A pretty financial mess in every case: about 2,5k Euro in repairs and spares to come...

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim