phoenix2013

Emergency valve in the BlueDot system which puts full air pressure (from the storage tank) into air over hydraulic actuator in case bad things happen to the hoses.

Ah, my young padawan, wisdom have you acquired, the force of air is with you in abundance. No stinkn' brake controller, no stinkn' brake away switch.

Which switch on that Kenworth puts the MARKER light on, asks a Volvo guy and where is the Thank You switch? For those who have no patience reading a 16 page manual (or know better) there is a single sheet insert with quick tips and admonishments. Third item on the list "discourages" the use of the Auxiliary Circuit, diode notwithstanding. Yes, some wits have done it trying to drag the trailer with full brakes on.

The content of "mini kit", 20 foot harness, 8 foot harness and two resettable breakers.

Brake/turn sizeable marker is the plan for the mid marker. I remember from my pulling days of those turds who would "park" themselves mid between my fifth and the truck to "admire" my setup and if I needed to move over they couldn't see any of the turn signals.

Will do, I'll have him bring the truck back for the mods. I'll make it a start of the next phase and have the lights plugged rather than hardwired. This way they'll be ready for the bed install.

Will do, I'll have him bring the truck back for the mods. I'll make it a start of the next phase and have the lights plugged rather than hardwired. This way they'll be ready for the bed install.

Bravo !!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it !!!!!!!!!! Right on point. The hint # 3 was total misplacement and misunderstanding of the ICC MARKER black wire. I'm guessing whoever "created" this wiring was very experienced wiring pickups and RV trailers. "I've done this many times before, don't need no stinkn' manual". In the world of pickups and RVs THE BLACK WIRE IS ALWAYS +12VDC! "I need to power the Brake Controller from the Jackalopee". Another manual "no read", where it says, "there is no power in the Jackalopee to run things". "The Brake Controller has to be powered and grounded from the semi batteries". The genius saw multiple opportunities. Aha, black wire, lets go to the +12V DIRECT, this will go to the trailer batteries and charge those, lets splice it and also go to the Brake Controller and power it. Also, there is a free ground above it for the controller, boy, my lucky day. Unfortunately, in the semis the black wire is trailer running lights, there is nothing on it unless you turn the lights on. I don't think the running lights circuit would be happy charging batteries, but no damage could be done, the instant key is turned on, the +12V DIRECT relay side is disabled. The manual says so. Incidentally, the troubleshooting of this mess was pre-planned few days in advance, The truck owner made an arrangement with DirecLink to stop by and have Alan look/fix it. Having somewhat knowledge of what was in there, I suggested that Alan junk the "creation" and replace it with proper harnesses which I shipped to them "for the occasion". This is turning into a mini-product, just the harnesses. I have used and shipped four others already for similar situations. Jackalopee has been installed, it's a mess and we are tearing our hair out figuring it out. JUNK IT and re-harness it. One of those went to an owner who just bought the Jackalopee without the kit. The guy is really good, can find and buy anything he needs, installed the Jackalopee and ran the cables. Then he saw in the manual the pre-made harnesses. Even though he could do it, he just had to have a set. I got couple of messages, "are they gone", "did you ship them". I'll make some pictures of just the harness set and post it later.

Saturday evening, final touches primarily wiring and air connection done, customer hitching up the daily driver he used to come down (from Orlando) and drive off his "possession". Prior to this I conducted about 5 minutes session how to appreciate an ET and what it does and countermand some bad advice from the "dumpers" crowd which managed to make its way to the YouTube channel as a new ET hitching up gospel. I video taped it on my iPhone and intend to publish my own gospel. The reason for the Saturday night rush to finish was the plans he had for Sunday morning. Here's the picture that arrived to my phone Sunday morning. He intends to have some fun throughout the summer in this form factor and bring the truck back around August for the bed design and build. It will be similar to this one. We've already discussed the changes to the design to add few custom "goodies".

Hint # 1 Hint # 2 Obviously hint # 2 show the proper wiring of the truck side, however I suspect that if one had not seen hint # 2 (in the manual) and was only familiar with what's in hint # 1 (some of it) one might think they did a great job and things should work. Come on guys! Put those grey matter cell to work! There is a hint # 3, but I'm going to hold off, what do you think hint # 3 is?

OK, here's a test for your successful Jackalopee installers. What's wrong with this installation. Good story goes with it. The owner bought the truck with the Jackalopee already installed and couldn't get the DirecLink brake controller working. He was driving by Tuson RV Brakes and Alan Hoogenakker (DirecLink Technical support) offered to troubleshoot it for him. They sent me those pictures. I emailed them the appropriate pages from the installation manual. A hint. Although I shouldn't think about my customers in those terms, after all they bought the Jackalopee, this idiot never read the manual and he went with his "assumptions". What were those "assumptions"?

Aah, said the (not Apple savvy) ignorant man to himself, the .heic extension, Apple's gift to society since version 11. Pages and pages of helpful hints for the Windows unwashed.

Let's see if it works. His first hitch up and trip. Hmm, picture downloaded from my iphone had this funky .heic extension, I re-saved it as .jpeg. But the poster is still bitching about something not being secure.

I have photobucket, used them long time ago, have to find the "how to" on their site. The link on this site comes up with imgur when you go with it, seems like they use their service, don't know why it decided to puke.

It's archaic, but I trained myself how to use it. LIKE DOS. Is it something that needs the adman to look into?

What's going on with picture posting??????????????? We tried all kinds of things through many browsers and it goes through all the stages to choose picture but will not pull it in from the computer, comes up with no security. What's up????? The Old Goat

Lighting will be on the plate replacing back plate on the ET. Thanks for the tip on the mid-ship lighting, didn't know that.

I attached an enlarged photo of what they did. Probably what you were seeing is the straight edge of the massive fish plate they welded over the Z weld area. If you look over the right side you can see that they saved the downslope flange, enclosed it with a vertical rib and enclosed the resultant triangular space with a triangular plate, creating a torque box. The guy that owns the shop is not only certified welder for nuclear industry. He also inspects work of other shops to make sure it's good enough for nuclear industry. He thought my modified Z cut needed "some help" and just went ahead and did it.

Yes indeed busy as hell, but good progress is being made. I haven't painted a damn thing since I sold the ET business. Guess what, yesterday I re-introduced myself to a brand new paint gun, courtesy of Harbor Freight. I was very good with the throw away $14.95 guns. I figured, since I might be rusty I went for the $24.95 model. Hot damn, the skills are still there. Couldn't drive any further into my cousin's back yard, overhead wires for his internet, but the ass end of the truck was in far enough. I used to go through gallons of the stuff from Sherwood Williams at about $100 bucks plus for part A and part B. They discontinued what I used, but one store had couple kits of the black primer 40 miles north of me and there is another store 50 miles south of me that has few top coat kits. $130 bucks now, they still have my account. I have to report that the painting skills have not vanished. Must be part of the deep set stuff that Alzheimer's can't touch. Primed the extensions, the brace and the receiver hitch. My cousin and I did a ton of ETs in that old shop. And the stool and the walker, this was from the days when the knees were shot. I went through two of those walkers before the knees were replaced. There was no stopping the ET production. The truck and the parts are going back to the shop this morning for re-assembly, more pictures will follow. The customer needs to use it in this form to pull the trailer for some warranty repair on his trailer and have some fun this summer. After that we "resume" with the bed design and build.

Here are the additions done Friday. What you see here probably would not be necessary if the next thing after extending the rails was building the bed on top of the frame. Even with rails that long. The bed would tie everything nicely together. However, the customer wants to have "some fun" and take it for a spin as is. That's a lot of length at the end of which "resides" a 730 pounds ET with 4,000 pound pin weights on top of it. Torque, twist and moment are not a nice combo when they work together.

Swung by the shop today, was greatly impressed by the progress in one day. Rail extensions, fish plates, torque box are welded on, other things are dry fitted. I told them that the rails were an inch wider than typical ones I've seen, so the ET would have a half inch gap on either side. Solution slot the mounting holes in the angles. Indeed they must have done something like that. View from the hitch forward

We expect musicians and performers from Space Coast to Miami to come and honor him. We provide and organize many opportunities for those artists to show their talents. https://www.jazzsociety.org/ We also provide thousands of dollars in scholarships to nurture the next generations of artists and performers. Scroll down on our website and note the "Jam session protocol", it's a real high to sit in with these guys. Yes, the Old Goat enjoys that opportunity now and then. Checkout the "Milestones" link further down on the site. It's the 25th anniversary edition and shows the caliber of people involved in the Society . It's one of the best and successful 501 (c) organization around and on record and one does not mind to contribute time and effort to keep it going.

Both Dons had great careers and Don Jr's, wife was a Broadway singer, they had a show band traveling nationwide and for years had an act on cruise ships. And guess what Don Jr. also had a certificate in culinary arts. I said "had", he passed away this morning. Retire, aha, it's the VP's job to step in and step up.

It would work well for that too. The shop said they'll start on the project this week.

Bravo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!