trimster

Luckly no. But the tire explosion under the flatbed deck, bent the deck up 2", tore out all the trailer wiring on the truck side, blew out the left side tail lights and took paint off the outside of the bed. It was on our International 4700 truck. When the tire blew, we kinda pooped in our mess kit. It got your attention.

Weight is an issue but for a different reason. I want to be able to get under the deck to service stuff. The deck is currently comprised of 5 pieces. The 2 full length sides (@ 107 lbs each) and 3 smaller sections down the middle. I paid a premium to do this. Aluminum is way hard on the budget right now. But I wanted the convenience. The weight of steel would have been nice however.

I was in the same position on another truck. Answer is YUP! We've had one do a come-apart on freeway. It was not pretty and put a 2 day damper in our vacation. The damage from one tire was more than the cost of 4 new ones.

Got the gauges, not the pump. I just put in a can and cold air returns. Nice!

You are darn close. Just pulled a tape down the side of the truck.... drum-roll... 28'5" bumper to bumper. My post was in error. I can fit 29'6" in my driveway. Hence the original search for a 209- 213" wheelbase.

Thought about that. But as I understand it, the air pressure there is not as much as a direct connect to the tank. Might be wrong.

So other than the build build I'm trying to wrap up, Today is a recharging of the air conditioning, draining the air tanks, and figuring out which gasket kit I need for the roto-filter thing. It's leaking. Also need to find a tap-into place on the wet-tank air tanks to run an air line to the rear of the bed...and what path to thread the PEX back. Somehow I think this is going to be a challenge to put in a user-accessable shut-off valve near the air tank. My MDT (International) did not have a shut-off valve in line with the air hose quick release fitting. It was a shorter run and, as I recall, plumbed with copper. All I can invision now is having to pull the side fairing off each time I want to open or close the valve. Which means it would (for practical reasons) stay open all the time until I got a leak in the line somewhere, then I would go through the hassle of getting to the valve. Maybe that's just okay. Oh, and I did install a 2 camera dash-cam. Second camera attached to drivers side mirror looking back. Shame we have to put these in to defend against bone-head drivers. But such is life today.

Looking at the fittings on my trucks Air Con system, it seems that the low pressure connection is rather inconveniently located above the valve cover on the firewall. Is this correct? The high pressure side is easy to get to, on the line coming out of the radiator, pretty much above the compressor. Second air con questions... there seems to be a leak in the low pressure side at at tubing connection point behind the engine air filter housing. This is dripping down right onto the hot exhaust manifold. I'm having to imagine that the drip is the oil in the air conditioning system? Are connection points in the air conditioning tubing rebuildable? Pull it apart with the proper tool and add a new o-ring/gasket do-hicky? Is this something most air conditioning service providers can deal with or is it a 'big truck' kinda service provider I have to look for? Thanks all.

Made good progress and it looks like a real flatbed. Fancy that. And with the help of the 2 grandsons.... the deckplate install went fairly fast. Better yet, no broken drill bits or taps. That in itself is amazing. Pulled out the tape and it's 64' long. Monday the fabricator does a final test fit on the boxes. I've been concerned that the pinbox and the deck frame clearance when doing off camber transitions. Did some fairly radical ones today and no deck-to-pinbox collisions. I'm going to mount a little action camera back there and record what's going on.

I would have preferred a diesel genset but cost & size ruled that out. There will be an aux fuel cell [5-7 gal) above the generator box. That should give it 24 hrs of runtime.

Nice build!

They vary a lot. It has to do with wheel base. Remember that on these trucks with dual drive axels, the wheel base is measured from the center of the front axel to the mid point between both rear axels. Then there's differences in length of frames, depending on how the truck was ordered. Sorry there's no pat answer. Mine is a 670 (shorter cab than a 780) with a 209" WB. I had 25" added to the frame for the RV hitch and now, total length is 23' 8" with the chrome rear bumper. I'd go to a dealer (if you have one near) and do some measuring for yourself. should get you in the ball park. Hope this helps.

Deck is now ready for the tread-plate install. Tomorrow the teenage grand kids are drilling and tapping 80+ screw holes. This should be entertaining. Today we put on 1/16" x 1.5" rubber gasket material. Some Super-77 holds it in place nicely. Older grandson is walking the steel like a pro. Kids have a good sense of balance. I'd need someone to call 911 of I tried. The two larger deck plates will have several surface mount d-rings to strap stuff down. Trying to figure out the best placement. I have 10 mounts to distribute over the deck. 4 will be assigned to the wheel-baskets for the Smart Car. Can't really place those until we get the car and put it on the deck. The generator arrived and that went to the fabricator. He's building the box and rollout drawer around the generator. Friday the underbed boxes get a final fit. We ran into fit issues yesterday at the first fitting. I did not make the first 2 cross ribs exactly square to each other.... off by under 1/4" end to end (101"). Way off by my standards. So the fabricator is making some changes to adapt the box to the space. My bad.

PLEASE, please don't let this become politically charged. I'm posting this for information purposes. Some really smart college kids seem to be on to something that captures the carbon and that can be reused. https://www.fastcompany.com/90618799/this-new-device-captures-the-carbon-from-trucks-as-they-drive?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss

Someone asked what the basic sub-frame for the bed looked like. Here's a photo I forgot to post. The 6" C-channel bolts to the truck frame in several places. Where the original commercial hitch mounted, and some custom brackets that use exiting frame bolt holes to tie into. This shot was taken when I had planned on making the end of the bed 'beaver tailed'. I added segments of channel to the end creating a flat bed all the way back. Although this photo was taken in Jan, it seems like ages ago. Time flies when you are having fun.

First shown in the 60's worlds fair, it vanished. https://www.thedrive.com/news/37925/we-found-fords-incredible-turbine-powered-semi-truck-big-red-thats-been-lost-for-decades

Thanks Jack. I've been able to keep material costs down a bit by finding rems. Of course self-building kept the budget under control. But still, it's an ouch.

"Make sure to tie into the right tank"... but my tanks are on the left side. Sorry, could not resist. I'm assuming the three under the drivers side are for overall system air? or is there specific duties for one or more of them? There's another tank closer to the drives. I'm assuming that is for the parking brake?

Rolled both. Don't have the compressor ability to drive the air gun to shoot it. Rolled-on okay. The roller they include isn't the best. It worked better with the Raptor brand.

Any other/more information I can provide, please ask. I have not covered lots of little things here. Some are specific to this build but maybe helpful.

Additional tank... good idea. I should be able to find a used one at the semi junk yard north of here. I've got room. Anyone who has tapped into the VNL air tanks remember the adapters you used to get from the hole in the tank to a hose-friendly fitting?

Deck plate has two coats of Durabak-18 in dark gray. First time trying this brand. Used Herculiner on the last truck and liked it. Durabak is very similar to that brand but does not cover as well. 2 coats and still has thin spots. Fortunately I got 2 gallons, and have 3/4 gal left, which is enough for a third coat. This Durabak dries really slowly. Raptor (2 part system) flashes at 60 min, dry to the touch. Raptor does not have any grit in it (although you can add some), producing a nice textured finish. I would imagine it might be slick if wet or snow covered. Durabak has texture and grit... so good non-skid properties. Also decided to put a 50' air-hose reel in one of the rear storage boxes. Now need to run an air line from the air tanks up front. Anyone see issues with running rubber or synthetic air hose from the air tanks back? ...and so it goes. Just a bit closer to done

Whoooa, the Fox are spendy. Those are out. I put Monroe on the front of my international 4800. They were quite a bit better than stock. With the limited mileage we put on, maybe Monroe might be the ticket for now. Thanks folks.

I'm getting the distinct feeling the front shocks on my vnl need replacing. Any suggestions on brand ? And it seems like 5 inner fender screws and I'd have access to the upper shock bolt removal using the beefy air wrench.

Between rain and snow storms built the arm that will hold the winch. It folds up small enough to fit into the smaller under-bed bin. Once I decide on the winch model and get it in hand, the mounting plate will be welded to the top and the whole unit will be sent off for powder coating. The weather broke and the bed liner rolled-on the side rails. Like this brand. It can be sprayed or rolled on. Took less than a qrt to do 2 coats on the rails all around. Today the deck plate gets a coat of acid etch primer...if the winds don't come up.