2011 at the Hammond Barn

[Bob Carriere]

I need the inout of Phil W. ( if he has not floated away wtih Irene) and any one else who has tackled re-assembly of a cab 11 or 12..... so wake up dwon under.

I have attached the proverbial photo worth a thousand words.

Looking at the front of my truck the pass. side of the frame is twisted upwards. Did not think it was serious until I started installing the fender / nose brackets to the arches......

AT first I believed the "horse collar" that holds radiator was installed wrong...wrong spacers or something. So I drained the rad, pulled it off
( repainted it while at it) and found out I was wrong or that the installation had the right spacers, etc.

What I was noticing was the horse collar was not centered...driver's side had a gap over one inch while the pass. ride was tight fitting. Well the rad and horse collar ARE centered its the darn twisting.

Look at the picture with the steel rod inserted in holes in the horse collar... the pass. side is protruding forward about 1.5 inches and about 2 inches higher. I applied square dots of white paper for reference.

In all the pictures the camera was on a tripod so the sa,e point of references can be observed.

So back to the drawing board....visit to the 4 parts cab 12 that I have in the back field. Well the cab 12 has a interesting modification that must have dealt with some problems with the cab 11. They installed a fairly rigid 5/8 steel bar tying together each fender/nose bracket. The steel rod has to travel behind the rad and avoid the fan. Well of the 4 trucks only one still had an original rod in place. so we removed it carefully and set about making a duplicate for my cab 11.... the original will go back for future references.

So with Master Grant as my coach we designed a jig that woudl allow to heat and bend a duplicate of the origianl bar. I made the two flat ends from flat bar stock and as the rain was starting to fall ( beginning of Irene) we hurriedly positioned the bar on the welding table under a light drizzel. somewhere along the process I nudged one fo the end plates... it fell and I repositioned it upside down. There is a clearance cirtical dimension issue with the flat end plate.... so it got welded 180 degree the wrong way.

Solution.... cut off the plate... make a new one and re weld...Voila.

BUT ..... my bigger twisting problem has not been eliminated.

I am hoping that this stiff rigid brace will pull the brackets and arches in line when fully tighned in place. Timew will tell

I remember Phil assembling his cab 12 with a whole bunch of 1 1/2 loose fitting 1/4 bolts until he could literally shake the loosely assembled cab in place then replacing with proper bolts and tightening each one properly.

It almost seems that one dis-assembled the cab11/12 have a tendency to relax and partly regain it former shape....almost like some pastic have a memory and once heated will partly return to there original shape.

I am even considering taking the rolling chassis toa frame staithening shop if necessary.

Comments... suggestions... incantations and new swear words welcomed.....

Bob