The one man show to grow

[Fastdirt]

I just picked up the four hubs, four brake drums, and replacement seals yesterday. I got them from Fleetpride. They are Webb brake drums and the hubs are from Fleetpride's in house brand "FleetPride OTR". The FleetPride hubs are about $120.00 less each than the Webb hubs. That was a very nice break on price.

This is a 2000 Eager Beaver 20XPT 20 ton tag trailer. I talked with Eager Beaver several times and they say I will be using the same brake shoes and bearings as now. So, we'll see. I ordered eight new wheels and they should be here any day now. The only aluminum wheels I could find were Alcoa's.. They are 17.5 x 6.75 8 hole on 275mm. I ordered four steel and four aluminum. I also ordered an Eager Beaver decal kit. I was rushed when I painted my trailer last year and had to slap some DOT tape on at 6:00 a.m. one morning and I hated the way it looked. As soon as I get all the wheels I am taking the whole rig to a big alignment shop where they do semi trucks and trailers.

View attachment 111898

Here's the hub with studs and bearing races already installed.



nedly, here are the invoices. You can save several dollars with the Fleetpride hubs, however Fleetpride does not make the drums. You can also go with all steel wheels or maybe even used steel wheels. This is a long time coming for me. I want to pull this trailer behind a road tractor too. I love the trailer and the heavy duty ramps. I will never sell this trailer. Should look really good with new decals and wheels.

Let me know if you can't see the prices. Merry Christmas to myself I guess. Every dollar I make goes back into the company. It's a good thing I enjoy this stuff.

 

[Fastdirt]

Here's the other invoice. I accidentally uploaded the Fleetpride invoice instead of putting up another invoice showing the wheels. I tried to edit the post, but what a nightmare trying to edit pics. You can't even see the pics in the advanced manager and the picture numbers don't match. You have to delete the whole post practically. I have fits posting on HEF. Every single picture I post has to be resized. It's so frustrating and takes so much time and almost takes the fun out of it. I wish you didn't have to resize every single picture. I went through this on HTF's with no solution:Banghead:Banghead:Banghead

This is from Orrco International. They are a distributor for Alcoa wheels.

 

[nedly05]

So its not that big of a deal really, just like doing a brake job, and putting on different hubs and drums when it goes back together? That seems easy enough. The price isn't too bad for the parts either. I would have thought it would be more like the total for everything. Im thinking I have another winter project now!!!

 

[Fastdirt]

Speaking of tag along trailers. This happened earlier this year. I finally got the life scared out of me. I' know I've loaded on tags at least a 1000x's. I've never come off the side, but this one got me. I was in my own driveway on a Saturday. It had been raining and we had just enough mud on the tracks from the day before. The tire guy was there to change yet another tire. He said I had to unload the machine. I backed the trailer up just a little so the machine would be in the gravel.

I noticed the slight angle of the trailer, but it wasn't much. I stuck my bucket out just in case. Well the 312 took off like a bat out of hell. It completely overpowered the swing gear and slammed down with one heck of a force. It went up on one track and then slowly sat back on the trailer. It seriously almost flipped over.I jumped out in a panic and busted my butt on the trailer, but I went straight to my knees to thank God for saving it all. That could have been so bad. I've loaded track loaders on the worst sketchiest beaver tails you could imagine. I've been on and off tag trailers a 1000 times. I've never ever come off one or come this close to flipping. It might not look bad but it was. I had to re glue the big lexan window after slamming into it.

You can see where I had the bucket. It stayed in the same place. In hindsight, I should've had the bucket and boom at 90 degrees from the trailer and machine. Very very scary.

 

[Fastdirt]

Here's how I recovered it safely. My internal physical balance leveler was going off the scale. It was at a scary angle, and then I had to lift and swing to 90 degrees. I counter chained the machine to the trailer and parked the 150 on the very edge of the opposite side of the trailer just in case.


Scary stuff!! It can happen to anyone. A big bucket of sand could probably prevent this. Wet wood on wet dirty metal tracks is asking for it. I might remove the wood decking on the tail and have the welder fabricate some steel angle or grousers on the tail to prevent this. A lot of times I do load up off jobs in the rain, but never really had a close call. This one just came out of nowhere. So glad it happened at my own house and not somewhere parked next to something.

Here's the video I made. I didn't capture the act, just the recovery.
http://http://youtu.be/zsY5E71FQa0

 

[Fastdirt]

So its not that big of a deal really, just like doing a brake job, and putting on different hubs and drums when it goes back together? That seems easy enough. The price isn't too bad for the parts either. I would have thought it would be more like the total for everything. Im thinking I have another winter project now!!!

I've put it off as long as I can. I hate looking in the mirror around turns and seeing wheels that are wobbling. Tire techs just don't care to true them.

 

[nedly05]

I removed all of the wood from mine and welded angle iron all the way across from the deck to the end of the ramps. Makes some ugly noise when loading but it's never moved an inch on the tail since I did it.

 

[245dlc]

Your lucky you don't have much for winter in Georgia I slipped off an old beat up 46 foot Fruehauf tri-axle lowbed a number of years ago with a Cat 320CL luckily it slipped off into a big ditch full of snow which made for a nice soft landing. Nothing was damaged just my pride but nothing like steel on steel with water or ice as a lubricant. Nice looking machines and trucks you have there, how do you like the Hyundai? They seem to be growing in popularity these days, does yours have the Cummins engine?

 

[Fastdirt]

Your lucky you don't have much for winter in Georgia I slipped off an old beat up 46 foot Fruehauf tri-axle lowbed a number of years ago with a Cat 320CL luckily it slipped off into a big ditch full of snow which made for a nice soft landing. Nothing was damaged just my pride but nothing like steel on steel with water or ice as a lubricant. Nice looking machines and trucks you have there, how do you like the Hyundai? They seem to be growing in popularity these days, does yours have the Cummins engine?

245dlc, Thanks, I actually don't own a Hyundai. I rented a 140 for about 10 months. They tried to get me to buy that 140, but I didn't like it much. It was so unbalanced to me that it hurt. It's heavy on paper and pulling behind my truck. A 312 has about the same reach and better balance so I'll take the lighter machine for my tag a long setup. The bucket was shallow...other than that it was a good machine. Honestly, it's a great machine. The joysticks are super easy to move. I like a little resistance personally. It did have a Cummins, but I think they are using another engine manufacturer now. I did love the dozer blade and they are priced right though. I think the price is why they're so many around. I just think of funny little cars when I hear "Hyundai".

 

[Fastdirt]

This is a demo I did before getting the 312C. I used the Hyundai to demo this house. I used tandem dump trucks. I had to remove the slab and the footings. The footings were huge and a pain to pull up. I just dropped big pieces of the footings from high up onto the other pieces to break them up. I actually finished it in one day , but I was out there till 9:00 p.m. I was thinking the police might show and run us off, but they didn't. Sorry dog cut me $200.00 LOL. It was tough at the end of the trash pile with no thumb.

Here is the video showing a long day. http://youtu.be/5VSK_XOvIgw




Now this was a pretty big demo for me. It was three stories high with the top floor burned out and manually demolished. The bad part was I could not disturb the joining existing units. I had to chainsaw a cut all the way up and down both sides. Lots of big power cables had to be dealt with and a couple of live water lines. It turned out really nice. The same company recently just gave me another similar project of the same size. It too is amongst existing units that I will have to separate without causing damage. That job is supposed to be coming up any day now. They are dealing with the insurance company delays.

This video shows some more pics and details http://youtu.be/hYkCr7Upbpg

 

[nedly05]

Do you have any pics of your new lowboy?

 

[Fastdirt]

Do you have any pics of your new lowboy?

About a million LOL. I was trying to lead up to current events LOl. I've been sitting on all these pics since I started out on my own. I was just waiting for some free time to post. I have a thread on Heavy Truck Forums. http://www.heavytruckforums.com/showthread.php?53-Peterbilt-379-Lowboy-project

 

[Fastdirt]

Then there was ROCK!

Here I have a big hammer on a rental machine. The video:http://youtu.be/VXTqodZ9SPk

This little action cost $925.00...I refused to pay it.. Well, I contested it. I think they have dropped the charge. Once I showed them the video, they backed off. Window breaking video.http://youtu.be/hd1YPxSdHMc

Some GoPro still shots.

 

[Fastdirt]

Some more rental's and another breaker. Shotcrete pools are very tough to demo because they use rebar every 12" squared. Now, gunite pools are a different story. They come apart much easier.

 

[Orlando]

Great pics and stories thanks for sharing.

 

[Fastdirt]

A very important part to my little operation was parking. Luckily I have plenty of room here to make access and parking. At the time I started I only had my primary driveway which was very steep. Too steep for a big rig. It was also in a blind curve and the driveway was very narrow. Basically a nightmare for a big rig.

So, I had to clear a new access to the main road. Luckily I live outside all city limits. I'm also on a main road, so no ordinance's or restrictions. I went to get a permit to tie a gravel driveway into the road and they told me you don't need a permit for gravel drives. One of my neighbors parks his huge concrete pump truck on his property with a gravel drive added to his property. Also, a school bus neighbor and a Bobcat grader neighbor. Lucky me! In the end I probably have ten loads of gravel and a ton of work involved. Nothing on my property is level. I mean my property is just one hill after another. It was very hard contouring the access for a big rig. I still need to clear some more. Being able to park at home has been vital to my little operation.

Here is me just getting started on the new access. http://youtu.be/x4awYYdcP34

Trying to figure out the best route for a new driveway around some big trees and a big drop off. http://youtu.be/KVxDxceFejM

A lot of tree trash to haul off. Luckily I had a place in the back to haul it to. http://youtu.be/k-uedYRKig0

Also had to bring down 20 loads of good red dirt to build out the road. http://youtu.be/7BkpIL-gqzI

I had to set about 40' of ABS 24" culvert pipe and some rip rap. This was solid woods before clearing it, and it was extremely un level.

 

[Nelsonequip]

Nice looking professional equipment and work looks good, to me in my business image is important...

 

[Fastdirt]

Great pics and stories thanks for sharing.

Nice looking professional equipment and work looks good, to me in my business image is important...

Thank y'all so much for the kind words. Lot of days out there I feel very alone...but I do love dirt.


Well, hope everyone had a great Christmas. I had a very personal Christmas this year and was ready to hit today like it was the first day of the year.

I scheduled a burned out mobile home demo for today.....and I will actually be starting that in the morning instead of today. My day took a turn at 6:30 a.m. I've taken the last two weeks off to regroup and get my truck and machine smiling again. The time off was much needed for me. I wasn't expecting to be this busy this year and I was really needing a break. So, new filters, oil, cleaning and just some much needed love.

I have a tire on my trailer that leaks at the valve stem. It's been like that for a month. Every morning I air it up. I was just waiting to do all the work I had planned at once, and it was supposed to be fixed on the last service call. Well, I guess last night when I loaded up the machine and moved the trailer I pulled the tire off the bead. Didn't realize that till this morning at 6:20. So, I'm dead in the water. Called the customer to let him know I'm going to be late...if I'm lucky. Naturally he thinks I'm just trying to extend my vacation. Call the commercial mobile tire guy and they send a guy out. Then I get a call from a shipping company to see if I will be home to receive the pallet of wheels I just ordered. They apparently have the wrong address for me. My gears start turning, I'm thinking how can I make this happen. The shipping company says I can come get the shipment at the dock, then they say "ohh, it's already out on a truck". So, I call my customer and at that point the leaky tire is fixed. Tell him I'm good to go, he says ok "let's do it". Then the shipping company calls back "hey I made the driver turn around with your shipment". Ok, great I'm thinking. Call the customer back and ask if we can just start fresh tomorrow. He finally agrees, after wanting to shoot me.

Long story short. I call the commercial tire company and set up with them to get it all done at their shop. Plan was to drive the rig down there, and I'll pick the wheels up on the way. I wanted a full alignment on the trailer too. Well, it went pretty good. I ended up buying eight new bearings, four new seals, and I even had to buy 32 metric uni-mount nuts. Luckily they were in stock just down the road from the tire place. Turns out that they cannot align a tag along trailer with the Hunter system they use. It works off a king pin mount and not a pintle hitch. They did help me find the one and only guy around who can do a tag along trailer. So, I set an appointment for Saturday.

 

[nedly05]

So how did the Conversion go? Did you do it or did a shop do it for you? Any pics of it finished?

 

[Fastdirt]

My nightmare has been these trailer tires. First they can never true these wheels, but mainly the sucker is way out of alignment. I have been through probably 15 tires due to wear. The tires are brand new on one side and shot on the other. So, naturally I needed two new tires.:crying
Years profit right here, along with all my wasted tires.....but I'm going to win this fight and have a great trailer in the end.