New Toys

[Dualie]

Every time i flip a piece with any sort of weight on the overhead it always puckers my bottom side.

I see the rod oven are you guys stick welding all these beds out? Is there a reason that your not using wire feeders with either dual shield or self shielded FCAW?

I take it the beds are full pen welded at the seams, flipped over back ground and welded out?

 

[Nige]

That bed weighs 68,000 pounds in the condition that we flip it. Let's say it cleared the dust off the overhead crane when it went over and leave it at that .......... it's awful difficult to sling so that it wants to go over but doesn't go over too hard if you get my drift. The only other option apart from the 2 lifting points in the sidewalls where you can see the rigging attached are 2 on the outside underneath the body (you can see the tagline attached to one of them in the photo above) and if you sling it there it doesn't even want to go as far as vertical - so you need 2 cranes to flip it. Unfortunately I have but one (big) hook on that overhead so a bit of banging & crashing is the order of the day.

The body will go about 83,000 pounds when it's fully completed & fitted with all the wear liner plates.

Rod oven's for stick welding around the canopy and a bit of other odds & sods like around the ribs when the body is initially assembled. Everything else is V-groove done with wire feeders. Currently I have 6 feeders running, 3 on each bed. All major welds are 60-deg v-groove and accessible from one side only with a 1/4" backup strip on the other that is 100% welded to the structure as opposed to just being tacked in position, so you can't back gouge and then cap with one last pass on the back side. If I think on I'll take some photos of some of the parts before assembly and post them - you'll see better what I mean.

Assembly sequence is as follows: -

1. Turn the centre section upside down and marry the 2 sidewall sections to it. They are a type of "tongue & groove" fit.
2. Fully weld the joints (ribs) between the centre section & the sidewalls underneath the body (but on top because the body is inverted) and also the 2 vertical seams up the front wall between the centre section & the sidewall sections.
3. Flip the body over. Weld the 2 lengthwise seams in the floor between the centre section and each of the sidewall sections. Weld the 2 vertical seams up the front wall.
4. Install & weld the headache rack.
5. Install & weld the wear liner plates in the floor.
6. Clean, paint externally, apply numbers.

 

[blitz138]

Wow great thread Nige, pretty awesome

 

[willie59]

Nice pics Nige.

I was drilling holes on the side of a mountain on a hwy project in North Carolina, from my perch I watched local Cat dealer assemble about ten 785 trucks and a 5230 shovel. 785 beds came split in half, had to be welded together on site. And there was a pile of oil drums that went into that 5230. It was a beehive of activity.

 

[crane operator]

Great assembly project. Just thinking on your flipping the dump beds and the "flip" when it comes over center.

I know you don't have a second crane or hook to tail it with, but I think you could "tail" or brake it before it comes over. I think you could use your other sidewall two inner bed lifting lugs, and run rigging out the opposite side of where your picking at on the bed.

You could attach those lines to a winch truck/big loader (it looks like you don't have a shortage of big iron) and use it to apply backward tension/tail on the bed. Pick the bed like you were, but use the loader to stop/ anchor it before the bed breaks over and continue with the overhead to raise the bed off the floor. Then simply back off (slowly) with the loader/ winch truck, until it hangs freely from your upper hook.

The biggest danger would be avoiding too much side loading of the overhead, and making sure you have enough loader to anchor the bed. I wouldn't try to lift it with the loader, just use it as a moveable tie down point. (Of course- I could be wrong on all this-ask my wife if you need confirmation material)

 

[Nige]

Thanks for the suggestions. My big problem is the concrete wall in between the 2 bays where we're building the beds. That kinda stops getting other gear in there because the rest of the shop hasn't been handed over by the construction germs yet.

Actually we flipped the 2nd one by rigging it from the 2 lifting eyes underneath the bed instead of inside the bed like the 1st one. That's the one in the photo above where you see the tagline attached to + the one at the front end on the same plane. Even though the body does not quite go vertical in this configuration we put 18" of cribbing under the outside edge of the sidewall with the bed in the air and then slowly lowered the bed down while at the same time travelling the crane along the track. That was enough to persuade the body to go over far enough until gravity took over. It also had the advantage of maintaining constant tension on the rigging all the time. Much better for my heart rate also. Next one we do one I'll post some pictures, but it's difficult to run the crane and use a camera at the same time .........

The big issue with that overhead for me is that although it has a 2-speed hoist and the 1st speed is perfect for aligning parts, etc because it's super-slow the 2nd (fast) hoist speed on 8 parts of line is nowhere near fast enough for what is needed to "snatch" a load from the "balance point" just before it tips to hanging free in the air without banging & crashing in between the 2 scenarios.

 

[markshr151]

Haiti has enourmas mineral wealth .I have heard some crazy story's from privet pilots. But no country in the world is as old west as Haiti. Last time I was there I even got cought in a gun fight between the good guys and the bad guys.

 

[robin yates uk]

Thanks for the suggestions. My big problem is the concrete wall in between the 2 bays where we're building the beds. That kinda stops getting other gear in there because the rest of the shop hasn't been handed over by the construction germs yet.

Actually we flipped the 2nd one by rigging it from the 2 lifting eyes underneath the bed instead of inside the bed like the 1st one. That's the one in the photo above where you see the tagline attached to + the one at the front end on the same plane. Even though the body does not quite go vertical in this configuration we put 18" of cribbing under the outside edge of the sidewall with the bed in the air and then slowly lowered the bed down while at the same time travelling the crane along the track. That was enough to persuade the body to go over far enough until gravity took over. It also had the advantage of maintaining constant tension on the rigging all the time. Much better for my heart rate also. Next one we do one I'll post some pictures, but it's difficult to run the crane and use a camera at the same time .........

The big issue with that overhead for me is that although it has a 2-speed hoist and the 1st speed is perfect for aligning parts, etc because it's super-slow the 2nd (fast) hoist speed on 8 parts of line is nowhere near fast enough for what is needed to "snatch" a load from the "balance point" just before it tips to hanging free in the air without banging & crashing in between the 2 scenarios.

great thread Nige, thanks

 

[Nige]

I will be updating with more pictures but today has been a bit hectic (understatement of the year). We had 4 chassis & all their ancilliary parts rocked up together - 16 trucks all told, 4 lowboys & 12 flatbeds. Trying to offload them in between lightning storms was, well, trying ..............

 

[crane operator]

Do you have to unload them all with your overhead crane, or do you have a lay down yard somewhere nearby? Weather never cooperates, it only complicates.

 

[Nige]

Do you have to unload them all with your overhead crane, or do you have a lay down yard somewhere nearby? Weather never cooperates, it only complicates.

They are programmed to arrive 5 at a time. Fortunately the dump bodies are shipped separately to the chassis but even so 5 bodies is 15 loads, 5 chassis is 20 loads, although with the chassis only 2 loads require a crane, the rest is unloaded with a lift truck.

We try to work on 3 bodies (2 being assembled, 1 being painted) and 2 chassis in the workshop. So they all get handled by the overhead. The rest get stored outside in a laydown yard a couple of hundred yards away, so when we need them we have to bring in a mobile crane to load the parts in the yard then they get unloaded by the overhead in the shop.

As thunderstoms are violent in this part of the world we are not allowed to work outside whenever our lightning detector system (that's installed all round the perimeter of the property) detects a strike within 5 miles. We have been known to be under continuous lightning alert for 8 hours or more some days in summer. This time of year the best time to work outside is the early morning before the thunderheads build up. Of course inside the shop we are not affected by storms, it's just that you can't step outside.

 

[Nige]

Answering people's questions from earlier. Can't remember who asked but here are the photos as promised.

Wire feeders ............



Pics of the joint between the centre sections and the sides. You can clearly see the backup strips .............

 

[Nige]

Another sequence showing how the 3 main parts of the dump body go together ......

 

[Nige]

Now things start to get interesting ..... the first chassis comes off ...... as you can see we set the rear axle on the ground first then position the chassis over it. Then after cribbing the chassis to the correct height it's a simple matter to lift the rear axle up into position.



These 2 were taken 2 hours later .......

 

[Nige]

These 2 were taken the following day .........

 

[Nige]

Painting of the first body completed ............ then we pulled it outside and parked it on the trailer to make room for the next one.



The second one for paint was a bit complicated because there isn't enough height to lift it over the wall between the welding bay and the rest of the shop. So it has to be loaded on to a trailer, get pulled outside and then reversed back in 2 bays down. You can see the 1st one parked outside on the trailer.

 

[Nige]

In she goes ............ on the right-hand side of the last photo is the 2nd chassis in the shop that was offloaded yesterday morning. Rear axle not installed on that one yet.

 

[Nige]

Off the truck and on to the ground ready for paint ................ at this point I opined it was Miller Time and left the boys to it ....!!

 

[robin yates uk]

it is only when you see these massive trucks in a normal environment that you realise just how big these behemoths are. ,,,,,,,,, enormous does not even cover it!Thanks for the update

 

[blitz138]

Very curious how your crew gets more efficient. As you said earlier you have some very green help.