What did you do to your truck today?

[Chad Heiser]

16 hours ago, Phil D said:

When we were considering new seats for our T2000 four years ago we went to a seat distributor's showroom and sat in anything and everything that looked even remotely interesting, Chad, and those Wide Ride + with Sertas were, by far, my favorites, but I guess I hadn't been a good boy that year because Santa didn't come through for me.  Enjoy!

I sat in one at my local Kenworth dealer’s parts section and really liked it.  They had a few other seats as well, but the Bostrom wide ride with Serta were my favorites.   I’m really looking forward to traveling with them in the new year.  I spent over 130 days in the rig this year and put a lot of miles on the truck during that time.  Being more comfortable on travel days is going to be nice.

[rickeieio]

Yesterday, I fixed three things on the truck, two of my own doings, and the third a flaw in the ETHitch design.

First was a retaining bolt on one of my sliding smart loading trays.  Pretty easy fix by through drilling and putting in a carriage bolt where I'd just had a smaller bolt into a tapped hole.

Second was making a release tab on a drawer slide.

Lastly was making a retaining loop/chain to replace the silly safety pin on the latch arm of the ET.  The pin was a band-aid to prevent unlatching due to a flaw in the design/machining process.  I know I'm not the only one to modify this head, though my approach is very different from a couple others I've seen.

[GeorgiaHybrid]

Rick, I modified the hitch to accept a couple of hitch pins to prevent the latch arm from becoming disengaged. There is now a plate welded to the rear of the lock block cage and a modified handle design that is match drilled to the new plate to allow you to insert the pins.

I had to do that after the hitch screwed up and dropped our trailer a few years back. I modified the hitch and had over a grand worth of machining done to it to fix it to my satisfaction. It now has bushings everywhere they are needed, additional stiffeners in the frame at critical impact points, new, thicker limit plates added, lock blocks bolted over the pins that had a tendency to back out and several other fixes.

Works great now.

[Danfreda1]

I did the same thing Rick. Now the jaws stay closed all the way not open like they did before. At the 2022 national hdt rally I looked at a lot of et hitches and the older ones stayed tight, the newer ones have a lot of slop in them. Haven’t heard anymore about a fix from the inverter in a while so did the addition and use a pin to keep the jaws closed. 

[rickeieio]

11 minutes ago, Danfreda1 said:

At the 2022 national hdt rally I looked at a lot of et hitches and the older ones stayed tight, the newer ones have a lot of slop in them.

Yep, there's no doubt the machining is sub par.  Even so, there's no doubt the ET is the best hitch on the market, but that "Super Binkley" needs some refinement.

[SuiteSuccess]

3 hours ago, rickeieio said:

Yesterday, I fixed three things on the truck, two of my own doings, and the third a flaw in the ETHitch design.

First was a retaining bolt on one of my sliding smart loading trays.  Pretty easy fix by through drilling and putting in a carriage bolt where I'd just had a smaller bolt into a tapped hole.

Second was making a release tab on a drawer slide.

Lastly was making a retaining loop/chain to replace the silly safety pin on the latch arm of the ET.  The pin was a band-aid to prevent unlatching due to a flaw in the design/machining process.  I know I'm not the only one to modify this head, though my approach is very different from a couple others I've seen.

Pics?

[rickeieio]

2 hours ago, SuiteSuccess said:

Pics?

I plan to get back to the shop tomorrow. (Retirement is great.)  I'll grab some pics then.

[Av8r3400]

I'd love to see some photos, too.

[rickeieio]

As advertised, here’s some pictures. 
 

 

[rickeieio]

Mote:

 

[SuiteSuccess]

So the bracket is screwed to the bottom of the hitch in the front and the chain slips over the handle and is pinned from coming loose with the fold over pin?  Is that what I’m seeing?  BTW I assume you made a blood offering?

Edited December 30, 2023 by SuiteSuccess

[rickeieio]

1 hour ago, SuiteSuccess said:

So the bracket is screwed to the bottom of the hitch in the front and the chain slips over the handle and is pinned from coming loose with the fold over pin?  Is that what I’m seeing?  BTW I assume you made a blood offering?

Close. There are pins protruding from the head to which springs are attached. My rear mount slips over a pin, and is held on by the spring. 

In talking to others, it seems this issue is only affecting the hitches built by Youngs. 

[rpsinc]

1 hour ago, rickeieio said:

it seems this issue is only affecting the hitches built by Youngs

This seems to be a significant issue

 

[Danfreda1]

before the fix

[Danfreda1]

After the fix

[rpsinc]

21 hours ago, Danfreda1 said:

After the fix

Did you resolve this by securing the handle?  I might be missing something about what the change was.

[Danfreda1]

1 hour ago, rpsinc said:

Did you resolve this by securing the handle?  I might be missing something about what the change was.

Yes when I hitch up as soon as we moved the truck the jaws would open like the picture. Now when hitched up and I can pull on the arm the jaws close the rest of the way then I can put the pin in on the plate I welded on the arm and the locking block that keeps the jaws closed doesn’t move. 

[rickeieio]

I know of 4 of us who've modified our ET hitches to draw the jaws closed all the way, and keep them locked.  Different approaches to alleviate a manufacturing problem, all just a better band-aid than what the manufacturer incorporated.

Yes, I believe the problem arises not with the design, but by machining that makes assembly easier, and thus creates a situation where the locking block has a stress it wasn't designed for.  Henry didn't drop this ball.

If the jaws were finished like I believe Henry designed, the locking block would slip between parallel sides of those jaws.  But the jaws are finished with a slight taper, compounded by sloppy pin holes.  It ain't a perfect world.

[Cotreker]

I am having Volvo Denver dealer install and program a new ECM.  Old ECM had an internal failure so bad it could NOT be reflashed.  I should be back on the road by Wednesday.  And yes this will be expensive.

[rollinbrian]

Got new front shoes today.  Went from 11r 22.5 up to 315/80 22.5.

Only a few miles on it so not sure how much flotation we'll gain but much of the rocking and swaying it would do around corners is gone. 

I thought that was all air bouncing back and forth between the cab airbags but 80% of it is gone with the wider tire.

[jenandjon]

14 hours ago, rollinbrian said:

Got new front shoes today.  Went from 11r 22.5 up to 315/80 22.5.

Only a few miles on it so not sure how much flotation we'll gain but much of the rocking and swaying it would do around corners is gone. 

I thought that was all air bouncing back and forth between the cab airbags but 80% of it is gone with the wider tire.

My Kenworth came with that size from the factory. I ordered it with a 16K front axle. Just so you know you will be throwing rocks at the side of your truck now. My truck came from the factory with additional fender flares but It's still chipping the paint on the doors, so I had the entire truck ceramic coated. That seems to help. I drive gravel roads a lot. I suppose if I stayed on the pavement, it wouldn't be such a problem. 

 

[rollinbrian]

5 hours ago, jenandjon said:

My Kenworth came with that size from the factory. I ordered it with a 16K front axle. Just so you know you will be throwing rocks at the side of your truck now. My truck came from the factory with additional fender flares but It's still chipping the paint on the doors, so I had the entire truck ceramic coated. That seems to help. I drive gravel roads a lot. I suppose if I stayed on the pavement, it wouldn't be such a problem. 

 

Yep, add on fender flares are next, they stick out just a smidge. I'm imagining streams of water coming off those during the next rainstorm too.

They also fill the wheel wells all the way up.  No rubbing anywhere yet and the new wheels are offset enough turning angle is not impacted.

[West_Coast_Racer]

I did the overhead adjustment on my 99 volvo d12. I was lucky enough to pick up a shim set from a friend's co worker. I was hoping to find a tight valve or 2, but they were all pretty much good, only had to re shim one exhaust valve.

[ddm502001]

Been a Really defeating year.  Been driving the Big Blue to keep it all oiled up and functional, HOWEVER, toy hauler large enough garage to haul the Harley and a small trailer for that was not up and coming.  Prices have been excessively HIGH for any used, people are upside down in loans unable to dicker down to unload a vehicle they stopped using. 

Then the Really bad part, was shopping for a extra hoist to lift the cab on my old Super Duty Ford, is predominantly a Farm Truck due to age/miles.  Went to harbor Freight picked up a hoist and trolley then to a grocer and with really cold weather awaited next day was installing hoist, got a flash message, needed a Amex card charge approval but was ALREADY Approved.  Ran back to house, checked for car, AMEX and Chase Visa BOTH missing. called BOTH and shut them down or so thought.  AMEX initially did remove the charges, so too visa where Chase did not add back on, AMEX did.  the AMEX "Investigator" spoke to the Card accepting business where they felt the cardholder WAS the person dealt with, made US responsible.  Spoke to attorney, said the costs to challenge would exceed the charges to pay back so stuck with $9500 on a AMEX card had not used in Three Years.  With that expense and mounting expenses on the old Duper duty the camper is now no longer a option, neither is travel this year.

And as with any period of time with Bad Timing the right fuel tank on the Big Blue started seeping at the Strap and Support bracket contact points, old age and corrosion.  Tank is off, will be cleaning it out tomorrow then taking to weld shop Monday where will be gone estimated between 3-5 Weeks to work it in for repairs.  Turbo, Glow plugs on a 7.3, Cab corners, Rockers, doors and body repairs besides, so Blue became the work machine.  All the scrap from the Ford hauled away.

 

Sucks to be us.

Edited March 30 by ddm502001

[rickeieio]

Sorry to hear of your issues.  Sometimes the cards don't fall as planned.

I'd be searching out someone else to assist in getting your credit card money back.  That's real money, worth going after it.

When we had a leaky tank on our farm truck (2000 Mack), we bit the bullet and replaced all the straps while we had it apart.  Not much more work and great peace of mind.