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Frame rail identification?


runaway parents

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Well I checked into a local truck repair shop yesterday.To see if they know of any body that  might have any frame rails locally.  I might be on to something. This company happens to have a yard full of old parts trucks. He suggested to come meat him and he would take me threw his yard to see if he had something that would work and if so work out an plan so I can excavate the frame out of the old donor truck.  And not interfere with there daily operations. I understand that my 780 has frame  has a tensile strength of 120 thousand . Now with all of this in mind . Picture your self standing on top of your truck looking over a field of parts trucks . You have left your acme tensile o meter  at home and you are wondering what kind donor truck  would be compatible. Yes ideally I would like to find a truck that is the same make and year that would be to easy but he doesn't have one. The question is. Is there other makes and models that are interchangeable and has the same tensile strength? How do Identify a potential candidate? What do need to look for? (dump truck over the road truck) Is there trucks I need to stay away from?. Any advice would be highly appreciated Thanks

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Just get a frame that will match yours dimensionally.  The area where they are welded together will be the weak point. Not necessarily the weld itself but the HAZ (heat affected zone) adjacent to the weld.

For what we are doing with our trucks, it should never be a problem as the loads we induce on the frames is usually a small percentage of what a commercial rig has.

You do need to look at the body builder manual as most of them will give you the correct cut and weld pattern to splice the frame rsils.

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Tempered steel is basically spring steel so that the truck frame can do this,

EBLeQtNl.jpg

and return to it's original position without taking a "set". I think I see a Volvo, any hunk of Volvo frame from a "donor" vehicle will do and will match. Pretty much in trucking there are two sizes of frames, 12 inch high (class 8) and 10 inch high (class 7, single axle, MDTs). 12 inch high, 3 inch flanges. 1/4 inch or 5/16 thick steel. That's the extent of my truck frame "education" I needed.

Examples of extensions I've done.

EtjHLUZl.jpg

9aYgxcil.jpg

c98iGkyl.jpg

These were done with plain steel bent on the brake to correct size and radius. On another 6 foot extension,

dPLFcJ6l.jpg

we did use tempered stuff and added another brace between the rails, but in retrospect for RV pulling use it was probably an overkill. 

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10 hours ago, phoenix2013 said:

Tempered steel is basically spring steel so that the truck frame can do this,

EBLeQtNl.jpg

and return to it's original position without taking a "set". I think I see a Volvo, any hunk of Volvo frame from a "donor" vehicle will do and will match. Pretty much in trucking there are two sizes of frames, 12 inch high (class 8) and 10 inch high (class 7, single axle, MDTs). 12 inch high, 3 inch flanges. 1/4 inch or 5/16 thick steel. That's the extent of my truck frame "education" I needed.

Examples of extensions I've done.

EtjHLUZl.jpg

9aYgxcil.jpg

c98iGkyl.jpg

These were done with plain steel bent on the brake to correct size and radius. On another 6 foot extension,

dPLFcJ6l.jpg

we did use tempered stuff and added another brace between the rails, but in retrospect for RV pulling use it was probably an overkill. 

Thanks for the info  .Cant wait to get started on this so I can get the bed out of the drive way so Dw don't have to park her car out in the street we have had to look at a completed bed since the end of march didn't want to break down truck till camping season was over. now all I have to do is get threw the holidays .and then it is time to get to work. and get it done! OH  BUY THE WAY THE WOOD  BED THAT I PUT ON TRUCK WILL BA AVAILIBLE. I would really like to see it go on another truck . I would make somebody a really good deal on it. it would be a shame to see it go into the burn pile. If interested let me know.

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Not the best pictures, but they were what I had handy from the WCR a couple years ago.

UPzP2Zxl.jpg

ELZoQCkl.jpg

zVNUJEbl.jpg

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5 minutes ago, noteven said:

phoenix... is the sweet Power Wagon part of your fleet 😎?

No, just a picture I found on internet demonstrating an extreme frame twist. I was looking for ones from a test Peterbilt did on their truck with the new stability control, where they had the rear axles off the ground 2-3 feet with a high load twisting the axles. That was impressive. 

Also when semis end up on their sides, the wreckers just flip them straight and drive them off if they can. 

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10 hours ago, GeorgiaHybrid said:

Henry, the frame rails will depend on what was ordered, a wrecker frame will be a double frame (one inside the other) or maybe a log truck frame. Mine was ordered with a logging frame that is from 3/8" thick steel that is 10 3/4" deep with 3 1/2" flanges.

Dave, I did own up to the fact that my education was very sha...............llow, only from the trucks I've worked on. That's why we have guys like you and Scrap to 'splain things to us.

My "education" took another jump. I visited Jack and Mark at RVH Lifestyles and saw couple of their brand new  Volvos, what a "sweet machines" these are! Naturally, I just had to "document what I saw", just in case.

rD9SjESl.jpg

These suckers are, factory single axle, super singles on the rear axle, air disk brakes, fuel tanks forward with the skirt, factory "weed burner", frame rails straight all the way to the end, frame rails are 12" high, 3 1/2" flanges, 5/16 thick and bunch of other things. Never too late to learn more things.

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Interesting........   Not so long ago, it seemed that super singles on a single axle was frowned upon.

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6 minutes ago, rickeieio said:

Interesting........   Not so long ago, it seemed that super singles on a single axle was frowned upon.

Traction control, disc brakes, faster processor speeds.

I have been wrong before, I'll probably be wrong again. 

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