Blizzard's GMC 6500 Conversion Project -RumRunner, Back from Nashville TOTAL well 50% BATHROOM MAKEOVER Options

[blizzardND]

Pictures

[J.W. Morgan]

bliz,

is that your shop or living room?

looks like good work an indeed a project to do indoors in this part of the country.

Question: I noticed in your post you replaced the rivets with GR5 hardware, why not GR8? I use the GR8 nitrided bolts on most of my work
because they do not corrode as easily and you can get them apart easier years later if you have to make a repair or change of design. Just curious.

[blizzardND]

bliz,

is that your shop or living room?

looks like good work an indeed a project to do indoors in this part of the country.

Question: I noticed in your post you replaced the rivets with GR5 hardware, why not GR8? I use the GR8 nitrided bolts on most of my work
because they do not corrode as easily and you can get them apart easier years later if you have to make a repair or change of design. Just curious.

I used Grade 5 because I found these great 1/2x 2" bolts with flanges at the surplus bolt store for $1.99/lb I thought that grade 8's might be to brittle if there is any movement I just thought I'd rather they bend, not snap. Mistake?? I can still get other bolts. Thoughts?
-blizz

PS the shop is our "records storage" room at our office, which is a fancy word for future expansion area. City/fire dept. will not allow us to do any automotive work in there, but we can store office records. So we usually just park my "records" Garden tractor and our classic cars, open trailer, RV ect. in there.

I needed more room and the 9' garage door, so reluctantly She (Finance Director) let me move my tools over FOR THIS PROJECT ONLY! but I have to keep it neat. and No welding or cutting torches, so I'll farm out the wall construction.

[J.W. Morgan]

I am sure one of the structural engineer guys will tell you they are fine for GR5 for no more stress than that cross member or centerline bearing carrier.

GR8 will not be as brittle as you may think it just takes more torque to start stretching threads.

Did you centerpunch four reference points on the frame rails prior to cutting? I do this for measuring prior to final reassembly and then use a stringline
to square L/R and a SmartLevel to square flanges F/R.

If you want to take the easy way out on your coach I can get you the number for the company who makes these:


Your "records storage" looks like a display room for fine automobiles. That little "DEERE", is it your snow removal device? How well does it work in that
aspect?

[blizzardND]

I thought about centerpunching 2 marks on the frame before cutting, but then I figured that since my plates are comeing pre drilled to match the existing holes on my frame, only further apart now, I'm trusting that laser table to be more accurate than my measurements and its cutting identical matching left and right plates.

By the time I insert the 4 -3/4" bolts holding the front shackle mount thru my plate-and the 8 1/2" bolts on the front rail section, I would not have much "wiggle room" to adjust.

The 2210 John Deere works great at moving snow, I have a front loader but the 48" blower and the 6' angled rear blade makes for a super combo. the 23HP jelly burner provides all the power all 4 wheels need.

We ordered a Curtis cab for it on Friday, FD took either took pity on me out in the cold for hours, or she was afraid as bundled up as much as I've been- I'd back into something. Probably the latter. I've been putting a lot of hours on it this season, I do our office parking lot, then load it up on my trailer to do the house and 6-7 of the neighbors.

Some people like to snowmobile, I blow snow. Can't wait for that cab.
-blizz

[J.W. Morgan]

The little "wiggle" room can translate to over an inch at 10' out. String lines and a straight edge can help keep you straight, check before
tightening and/or welding.


I hate snow and snowmobiles, everyone here says I need one and I have trouble explaining to them "I work outside for a living!" 10 to 14hr a day,
rain, sleet or snow. Now an ATV in the spring is an entirely different story.

I wish I had the snow blower though, this is the worst snow we have had in years. My enthusiasm level is low with the shovel at this point.

[bigboomer]

Now that's a shop.....Nice picks of the new rig....good luck....

[blizzardND]

Progress Report Jan 17-23 2009
What a week it has been, Sold our Roadtrek RV. Delivered it to St. Cloud MN on some God awful roads, cars in the ditch every 5 miles or so, we watched a young lady flip her Suburu Outback right in front of us, she landed on her wheels in snow up to my waist as I helped her out and into our RV. We trailered our Pacifica FWD after selling the RT we hooked the empty trailer to the Pacifica to come home, doing 45-50 the front wheels spun occasionaly going straight down the interstate. normal 6 hour round trip took 12hrs.

Monday Dealer called Cab was installed on my John Deere tractor guy told me "it will probably warm up now and you won't need it" I told him either way I win. If it warms up Great! if not, I'm glad I have a heated cab. It warmed up for 3 days, colder than &%$#(* today again.

Thursday, Steel fab shop called, inner frame rails are done, I picked them up. wow, what have I got my self into? I'll post more pictures on Sunday of them bolted together.
-blizz











This post has been edited by blizzardND: Jan 25 2009, 10:03 PM

[J.W. Morgan]

bliz,

I love the snow blower! That looks like fun, I was always the one who would rather bush-hog than play on the ATV so I can appreciate your
position on blowing snow rather than a snowmobile.

I noticed how you are protecting the cab from sparks and I wanted to remind you to cover the mirrors as they will retain slag like stainless steel.
I built a bed on an F-450 I had once and never put a scratch on the cab but, when I got in to move it for painting I realized I had destroyed the
mirrors from grinding slag. Back then the mirrors cost more than the steel for the bed.

[blizzardND]

Progress report, Saturday, the day 8, 1/2" and 2, 3/4" drill bits were sacrificed in the name of progress, I had to drill out all the 1/2" holes as I had thought the rivet holes were 3/8" based on a set of 3/8" holes in the frame with the same pattern, rather than paying to have the holes re-programmed, I chose to just re-drill them, but what I didn't know was the heat from the plasma or laser, I think these were cut on a plasma, hardens the area around the holes, very hard on bits, but I bought a hand full of cheap bits, they didn't chip like the more expensive ones, they would drill many more holes, until the snapped unexpectedly.

[J.W. Morgan]

blizz,

You have gotten sincere about building an RV! I am curious to see what is next, that is quite a piece of fab work. Is that your design?

[blizzardND]

Update Jan 28 2008

I have good news on the drive shaft front, they will make 2 longer ones out of my 2 front shafts which already have pillow blocks and such.

Better news, after spending 3 hrs drilling 4 holes last night, Cris, the weld shop that will be welding my walls, loaned me his big honken frame drill, now were talk'n.





blizz

[J.W. Morgan]

If it didn't take an hour to dig it out, I would send you a pic of my mag drill. The annular cutters are so much easier to cut with. That drill you
are borrowing, did it come over on the Mayflower?

Man that is a totally different looking truck and the work looks really good in the pics. I can tell that it isn't a project of mine, there are more
bolts than welds!

How much fuel are you going to carry?

[blizzardND]

If it didn't take an hour to dig it out, I would send you a pic of my mag drill. The annular cutters are so much easier to cut with. That drill you
are borrowing, did it come over on the Mayflower?

Man that is a totally different looking truck and the work looks really good in the pics. I can tell that it isn't a project of mine, there are more
bolts than welds!

How much fuel are you going to carry?

I was oogling one of those fancy Fein Magnetic Core drills at Acme Tool Crib the other day, sweeet! Fein Core Drill

The drill I borrowed, He showed it to me a week ago, I thought it would be easier to just drill them with my 1/2" hand drill, then to load,lug and setup that beast- WRONG!!
as Homer Simpson would say Doh!
It is really easy, probably easier than even a Mag drill, just roll it up along side the frame, hook 2 chains to the frame, and crank up/down the drill to line up with the hole. then just crank the trailer hitch mounted drill thru the frame. so easy I wish I had it last week. Doh!

I will have the 2- 35 gallon side saddle tanks, relocated back behind the drivers. My next problem is finding 27' long plastic fuel line. The local truck shop has plastic airline splice fittings (brass), I am thinking of using those and just cutting my existing fuel lines and splicing in 25' of air line material. Thoughts?

Bolts? I bought 10lbs of 1/2" grade 8 flange bolts. 'nuff to do the just passenger side. looks like I have to make another trip to bolt store.
-blizz

[J.W. Morgan]

On the fuel hose issue use something like this Flexsteel and replace it all.
have the ends crimped on with swivel fittings and never worry about it again.

Here is the sales photo of my Hougen Rotabroach and an annular cutter;


Me personally I would squeeze a few more gallons of fuel under there, I like to at least carry 100gal. I assume that you are tying the tanks
together at their low level plugs, you may need to go with electric fuel pumps to lift from each tank and push the fuel that far away. I plumb
the big diesel water pumps to pull from tanks much farther away, but I set them up to gravity feed. It will take some time for you to reprime
if you ever run out. I am not sure how an equalizer valve will work that far away, that would be a good question for Scrapmaker.

Whose bolts are you using? Just curious.

That truck we were talking about the other day, was it an Aeromax like mine?

[blizzardND]

Fuel line, Just today I piked up plasitc line that matches what GMC ha on the truck, it has the funky plastic clip you squeeze together then pull apart, amazingly they seal?? Any way Nelson International here in town say thats all the use when the relocate fuel tanks. Your stuff looks like the ultimate stuff, for your enviorment I can see it, but mine will see pretty light duty 4-6K miles a year.

Nice drill? Busy tomorrow? come on over to Fargo! Bring it along 10 more holes to drill. (leave that invoice book at home though. )

Bolts? I don't know what kind, just some grade 8 flange bolts with just the right amount of shoulder to keep the treads out of my frame rails








Ill PM you the pictures of that truck.
blizz

This post has been edited by blizzardND: Jan 30 2009, 09:53 PM

[J.W. Morgan]

Lets see if I gave you a break and charged you like I do the oilfield contractors (from my yard and back to my yard) that would
work out to 16hr driving, 30min to drill 10 holes and I don't bill them for partial hours so that would be 17hr and cost you $187.00 per hole.

You shouldn't have moved to the other side of the state, if you were here I would drill them for free! There are certain toys that I enjoy playing with
ant the Mag drill is one of them. I don't miss the torch and rotaburr for those really big holes.

The bolts must be "no-name" we use CAT and Lawson. I was just curious, it shouldn't be of any importance.

[Stanley P. Mille...]

When running a line between the tanks low points you really have to watch for fuel migration when you park on a side-hill with low fuel. It is no fun to turn off the valve on the balance line, siphon 20 gallons of fuel from the low tank and pour it in the high tank, re-prime and eat all the crow the wife serves up for the next couple weeks. Yep, she suggested closing the valve but I thought we'd be fine.

I never liked my fuel balancer, it didn't do a very good job on my IH 4700 LP. I was tempted to try a different setup but I could never think of something to replace the balance line and shutoff valve that wasn't quite expensive.

[blizzardND]

Update Feb 1 2009
Got a few things done the last 2 days,

Managed to find a solution for extending my fuel lines. After driving all over town to truck shops, Nelson International had fittings for the Plasitc line they also sold me in the first place. I was able to get the lines connected and could then install the inner panel that goes under the drivers sied of the cab. With that done I could install the center panel and all the bolts that goes with that piece.

I got all the bolts installed into all the inner panels, Hooray! were done drilling.

Then it was on to temporarily installing a fuel tank to get the truck to the welding shop. It is supposed to go on the outside of the generator cutout, but I have to get the panels welded out side of those cut-outs first. It seemed to fit right in the back, so I put it there. 2 quick bolts with Chris's frame drill and bingo tank's installed.





After cleaning the shop a bit, I thought about Pipeliner's comment about keeping the whole thing square, I also remembered I had a laser that a freind had given me for hanging pictures on a wall or wall studs in line.

The frame rails wen't all that straight to begin with, but it appears I am just a bit off, maybe 1/16-1/8 on 22' so with all the holes with not any clearance to them, it's about as straight as its going to get.

That got me to thinking about diamonding, so I ran a tape fom end of frame rail where I cut it to the opposite rail cut. 114.625" on one side, 114.75" on the other , that is also as close as its going to get. I will get the truck aligned when I'm all done. I hope that it won't cause problems anywhere, because short of hogging out a dozen or so holes, I don't think it can be fixed.

blizz

[J.W. Morgan]

With measurements that close the only one who will ever know is you! (and the rest of the forum, )

You may want to leave that fuel tank there after your done, looks like a great step up to the top of the frame for easy access!