Long time no update.
In a nutshell, I and my previous employer parted ways
last fall, putting a pretty severe restriction on my
project spending. So, the truck has sat idle, with only
a little tinkering here and there since September.
However, a new job was found, and I'm looking forwards to
getting going on it again. The change necessitated a move:
I'm now in/near Wichita, KS (any ole-truckers nearby?). The
truck arrived here yesterday; but to my dismay it arrived with
a break on the frame.
The right-side Mustang-II spring mount decided to partially
separate from the frame rail. It was welded to the top and
side of the rail; the welds on the side broke. Under the force
of the spring, it bent up, twisting inwards (still attached to
the top of the frame) bending the top flange of the frame
with it. At first, I thought I just had a flat air-spring.
Sigh.
I can't be too upset- I'm much happier to see this break happen
while the truck is getting bounced around in a trailer than
while I'm driving it around a corner at 70mph. And, no mater
what he did, the trucking company should not have been able to
break the weld; it's simply a bad weld. I haven't gotten in
deep enough to really look at it, but I suspect a lack of
penetration of the weld into the frame rail.
My REAL worry is the rest of the welds. The mustangII mounts
were welded in when I bought this frame- along with some other
mods. I'm now wondering how I can check the rest of the welding
work that was done before I owned it... or if there's some way
to go back over them all (at least the critical ones) to ensure
they're OK (somebody suggested a tig-torch).
Cheers-
Ryan.
rborder@earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~rborder/truck
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