doubleclutchinweasel

You know, I HAVE thought about it...

Oh, and the thing I was most pleased with was the ramp holder thingy I built under the trailer. It looks factory. I get more comments on that piece than anything else.

I still have more plans for the trailer. Once wood gets reasonable again! LOL! They used the self-drilling deck screws. Half of them are either way off-center of miss the crossmembers altogether. Plus, there was no need to rip pieces to make them fit. According to my measurements, full boards will fill it up with just the right gaps between them. So, I plan to weld up all their holes, drill holes where they should be, like you gave a $#!^ where you put them, and use carriage bolts in from the top. Already have the bevel washers to use underneath the locknuts. Will make it a lot easier the NEXT time it needs re-floored! Did this on the other (home-built) trailer I have. Works much better, and looks a lot more professional.

And this is my all-purpose trailer. Still a car trailer, but has easily removable pieces to make it a bike hauler. The chocks are attached to cleats on the frame with bolts. No need to crawl under! The center tie-down unbolts to leave a flat deck. The outer ones are welded on. Rear tiedowns are situated on the outer rails and one in the middle. It is attached to a steel plate welded in the frame. There is actually room to do 2 more setups on the rear, if needed. The removable ramp locks in between the regular ramps to give you a good, wide bike ramp. It stores in the pocket behind the right rear wheel. Never know it's there until you need it.

And here is our lift table. Used 4 jacks in the corners. Much cheaper and sturdier than most of the el-cheapo tables.

Not sure if this belongs in here, but... I guess it depends on your definition of "shop". I don't do much heavy truck work now that my Dog went down the road. But, I still do a project now and then. Here are some lifts I made for my and my son's Triumphs. None of the commercial lifts worked very well with this frame design. So, we made a cradle for each one that attaches to a regular bike jack, and bolts to the frame of the bike. Very stable and well balanced.

Maybe this is a good place to revisit the 3 golden rules of troubleshooting. Rule #1: Check the obvious first. Rule #2: When this fails to show anything, go back and check the obvious again in greater detail. Rule #3: Go back and check the last thing you fixed. I'm glad you got this sorted out. And, really glad the new cable was warrantied.

Wind tunnels blew all the "style" off of them...

My 6.7 Cummins has the Aisin automatic and 3.42 gears. Gets 23-24 mpg if I drive like I have any sense. Drops to 19-20 when I pull the trailer and a couple of bikes. Of course, that ain’t a Bobcat or a backhoe!

On that R I had, with the 15-speed RoadRanger, bobtailing, I used 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th as a "normal" progression. Used whatever it needed when the situation called for it. Personally, I'll take all the gears I can get! Grew up on 5 X 4 Quads, so... That 350 should drag that setup around just fine, though. Like Bob said, you'll likely not do much shifting at all. The most important thing is that it DOES have 2 sticks! It ain't a "real" Mack unless it has 2 sticks! LOL!!!

I'll never forget the discussion about shifting the 5-speed Maxitorques. I think somebody on here posted the old adage. "Short shift 1-4 as quickly as you can. Wind it up to 2,100 in 4th. Pull it into neutral. Eat a sandwich. Then slip it into 5th." That about summed up the 4-5 shift! I hated driving those. The engines were great, but the trans drove me nuts. I was just too hyper, I guess. Did drive a 237 with a 10-speed RoadRanger behind it once. That one was a joy.

Well, that should take care of it regardless!

True!

Oh, and aren't a lot of the spindles friction-welded to the actual housings? I know they did a lot of that up at the Meritor plant. And, seems like they made (make?) axles under contract for Mack. Point is, a weld isn't necessarily a problem. It's more about HOW it's welded than THAT it's welded.

I've used that spray weld a lot in the machine shop. Spray it on, turn it to size, and rock on. It's generally good stuff. Hard as hell on turning tools!

Dad had a '64 Galaxie. Red outside. Red inside. 390 4 bbl. 3-on-the-tree. Remember it well.

I try to keep up with some of the MIA members over at JOT, but that site just is not as "active" as this one. Plus, there's very little Bulldog content over there!

I'm with you. If I could afford it, I'd jump all over that thing. Just can't quite justify it. Damn! Oh, to be born rich instead of good-looking!

I'm still here, Bob!

Like JoJo said, it might be an insert that is engaged well beyond the weld. Looking inside, you might be able to tell where the joint is. If it is the same distance in as the outside seam, I would definitely worry because it is just a butt joint. If the inside joint is well beyond the outside joint, then it would be the inserted stub he described. That might be a "legitimate" repair, like Vmac described. I've never done this to an axle spindle, but have done similar things through the years (drawbar tubes on CNC lathes come to mind).

You just described exactly what happens when somebody tries to run racing gas or aviation gas in a gas engine that does not have enough compression to cause proper ignition. The mixture is still burning as it goes out the exhaust port. This leads to burnt exhaust valves and other issues. Never thought about it doing something similar in a diesel, but your explanation draws a great picture. Old race car mechanic I knew summed up the too-high octane problem like this: "Make sure you have enough 'squish' to make it go 'pop'".

Like the man said, that engine has a ridiculously broad torque curve. And, its torque peak is way down low (something like 1,080 ft-lbs @ 1,200 RPM). But, I understand you wanting more gears to keep it in the spot you want to run it. Common theme running through all these answers is that you can put in a 13- or 18-speed box, so you have the gears available, but only use the ones you need at the time. We did the same thing with the old twin-stick Quadruplex boxes way back when. Just 'cause you have all those gears doesn't mean you have to use 'em! But, they're there if you want them. Frankly, when I drove the 5- and 6-speed models, I was always wanting another gear. Maybe the engine didn't need it, but I sure wanted to change a gear! You've got lots of options.

Might be another case of "We're gonna fix 'em up some day", while they slowly rot away.

The grandkids still do the balloon thing. Laugh their butts off every time.

Kinda' what I was thinkin'.