I dragged home the utility body yesterday. Since the frame had been cut off in front of the cab, leaving only frame sticking out for some distance..it was a problem getting it home. So I took a piece of heavy L steel, and an old ball hitch, along with my Lincoln Weldpack 100 mig and a long extension cord. I welded the L steel under the frame (causing a nice grass fire in the process..only realizing when I smelled my t shirt on fire... then welded the hitch to the front of the L steel. Making repeated passes, running the poor lil welder just as hot as it would burn. I only had to go 1/4 mile, and put plenty of safety chains in place..and unlike a certain spare tire carrier a couple years ago..the lash up held just fine. In fact..after towing it home..I walloped it with a sledge hammer..and it held after repeated blows of a
12lb sledge. So maybe Im getting a smidge better..or I used up some Karma points..shrug...Anyways...here are some pictures
Since the frame has dual axles..there are two extenders into the open box, that I really dont like. I cant lay a full sheet of anything 4' wide inside, so may wind up cutting them out and welding in matching metal. As you can see in Side1.jpg....the axle is plenty far back behing CG and there is a decent amount of room under the wheel wells..that I may lower it another 4-6". I can bounce on the bumper..shocks are likely shot..shrug.
Ive also considered that the body is nearly a foot wider than my pickup truck..and I really DONT need a 4x7 cargo area..and was considering taking a plasma cutter and slicing down one side of the bed..removing one whole box side, then taking out a full 12" of bed, then welding the whole box side back on, making the trailer a full 1' narrower. I could probably get away with removing the outside dualies then too. Shrug..just a thought.
Any pluses or minus's to this idea? Other than of course..not being able to move a 4x8 sheet of something laying down...which I really cant do now..with those wheel well thingies sticking out.
Whoever mounted the bed on the truck was a metal butcher..really really shitty job and needs to be redone at best. Fortunately I can bust it loose and pick the whole thing up with the overhead crane and let it hang while I either build a new trailer frame or redo what the original nitwit did, and at the same time, lower it down a smidge. 56" to the top of the bed..so while not too tall..taller than it really needs to be. Looks to be about 12" of clearence above the tops of the tires to the bottom of the boxes in the wheel wells. Though I dont know how much she will squat when I load it up.
Any suggestions, comments, etc etc are more than welcome at this point. Im open to better or different ways of turning this into a trailer..or building a whole new trailer to drop it onto. The steel for a new trailer is not a problem..a new axle..well..thats outside the budget at the moment, unless I can scrounge one up. Probably a 5' axle would do it if I went to single tires.
Gunner
14" tires. "I think this is because of your belief in biological Marxism. As a genetic communist you feel that noticing behavioural patterns relating to race would cause a conflict with your belief in biological Marxism." Big Pete, famous Usenet Racist