We had
a number of actions in progress, but most of this photo set was
focused on the battery box and tool box mounts.
The photos below are what we saw.
Upon
leaving the shop we spotted an interesting set of cargo on the
railroad tracks.
These
are blades for wind turbines and are made of composites. A
new addition is the spikes on the trailing edge of the blades
likely to improve efficiency, cut noise or both.
We took
the cameras and headed to the overpass to see the blades.
These blades have a substantial curve in them and are long
enough that they require 2 1/2 rail cars to hold them.
Every 3rd car was empty to allow the blades to overhang.
The birds at the upper edge of the photo above were swarming and
seemingly chasing bugs.
Special
articulating mounts were required to allow them to bend when the
train goes around curves in the track. Note the pivot and
arm arrangement and the wear paths on the surface of the cars.
Meanwhile
back at the shop, Billy was finalizing the welding on the
trailer axle mounts.
Thor was
taken to the muffler shop to get new exhaust pipes fabricated
that would route the exhaust to the rear of the truck rather
than in front of the rear wheel.
The shop
did several iterations but in end it was as I desired.
On Saturday
Thor, had a "spa day" and got anti-corrosion undercoating.
On
Monday, the previously fabricated and painted cross members were
installed and the propane tank was mounted to them. This
tank provides a 20 gallon capacity rather than the twin 7 gallon
tanks we had with the HiLo.
Rear
sub-frame cross member.
The
opposite side shows the spring bolt mounts and the vertical
offset to allow for frame flexure.
Battery
cable jumpers were fabricated - there were 16 of them
required. I used 2/0 cable for the jumpers but 4/0 for the
longer distance run to the Lance 12 volt ingress point.
The
battery box is fully cabled and ready to lift into the
frame. The fork lift was only used for gross positioning
of the box.
To
verify that the system would work as desired, we used an
electric driver on the old tire winch with new steel cable to
lift the 600 pound battery box up to the frame.
To miss
the newly installed exhaust pipe, we had to rotate the box
during the early part of its lift. Once the mounting tabs
cleared the pipe, it was rotated back.
Box
installed and bolted into position. Note that a ratchet
rather than an electric driver was used for the final
positioning.
Next, a
coil of 4/0 cable was used in conjunction with crimp lugs to run
the 12 volt supply to the front of the truck. The hot lead
was wrapped with red tape to insure there was no mistaking the
polarity of the wire.
Rivets
that held the tire mounting point to the frame were removed to
allow connection of the rear tool box mounts.
The
remains were primed and painted for corrosion control.
Mounting
tabs for the tool box frame were cut.
Since
the attachment points for the front tool box were migrated, the
supporting frame widths needed to be adjusted as well.
Those mounting ears
will be welded on the 2x3" tube.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2019, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.