mattb73lt

Interesting valve for the front brakes. I've seen those before, but didn't realize they had settings. I thought it was like the front axle limiting valve you mentioned, just ON/OFF. My B73 had the limiting valve and a trolley valve on the column. I removed all of that and the trailer connections to simplify my system as none of that is needed now that it's a straight truck.

This story is far from over and it's been a wild transformation. Now to finish it up and start enjoying the fruits of all my labors!!

I sourced mine from a local hydraulic shop. I like to use the take-apart Aeroquip style fittings, because I can make my own lines. The crimped ones are fine, but you can’t reuse the fittings. I would find a shop and once you determine the size hose you have, order it and have them ship it to you. I’ve had to do that when I was constrained for time. I built all my oil lines for the NH220 when I converted it to spin-on filters.

Mechohaulic, here’s the axle set upon that Granite Tri-axle. It’s set up to carry some serious weight because it was spec’d out by a rigging company. For some reason they declined delivery so my friend grabbed it. Way too heavy for my needs, too many tires, too(ie; $$$$!)

Mehohaulic, the balance of the truck is pretty good. The deck has 13' forward and 11' aft. If you look at the landing gear, there's not much room to move the axle back maybe another foot. But that's about it.

I was over at my friend's yard today, the one that very graciously sent me several lifts to assembly my truck. He just took delivery of a 2024 Mack Granite Tri-axle Roll Back with a Century body. I couldn't help but park mine next to it to compare. Not even registered yet, with all the stickers still on it!. I almost passed out when he said it was over $300,000, DAMN!!!!! 64 years between the two.

Let’s see if this’ll load up.

It's definitely a different generation of public out there. I certainly get some thumbs up and waves when I'm out and about, even people snapping pictures.  But most people/drivers are oblivious to what's around them.

I did have the truck out today in the rain. I almost didn't take it, but at the last second did. We had a ATCA Chapter luncheon today up at Matt Pfahl's place. I decided to take it for three reasons.  One was that a bunch of people wanted to see it and for me, I wanted to see if the windshields leaked and to test out my home built wiper system. Both sides proved to be dry in pretty heavy rain and the wipers worked as expected. I used every speed but high. The intermittent modes are great and really do a good job in drizzle to light rain. The truck needed a good cleaning after all the deck work and dust from the last week efforts. I'm also glad I pushed to get that done as it seems were losing the weather to colder temps, now.

Told the wife I needed to help “air dry” the deck to help it out. The truck runs out so nicely and is so smooth. Took it down I-91 a ways and back to the house. 1700 RPM gets me an easy 72 MPH. Made a few second video clips of it. I need to get a GoPro camera to do it safely. She caught me backing up the driveway on my return, it sounds so good. I’ll see if the videos will post. Crap they’re too big.

Third and final coat this morning and it looks amazing!

That would be cool to have the Mack oval and Bulldog branded in, in the style they used for the 100th anniversary.

Called upon my Army floor buffer skills today. I have a modified floor buffer I use for sanding the floors in the house. It sands in a 17" swath so it made quick work of the deck, after I cut the edges in with a belt sander. Gave it a good cleaning and applied the first coat of oil to it. I used a clear type because I knew it would darken the wood some. I'll put a couple more coats on before I'm done. I wish it would stay in it's raw state, but it'll stain and fade if not treated. Not bad for a hack carpenter!

Just about finished. Three full, long days followed by long hot showers and a fistful of Advil PM each night. Just set the filler pieces as I lost day light today. A few hours tomorrow should have the deck down and I should have a few screws leftover. This was definitely one of the more tedious tasks to complete on this project. With it mostly screwed down the deck is amazingly stout and several hundred pounds heavier. My screw count was way off. It took 851 screws to anchor it down.