work on saturday

Crosley.In.AZ · November 13, 2004, 11:44:52 PM

I was given the motorcycle trailer in the photo. A co-worker was moving and the trailer HAD to go..... I have not seen this design of coil spring suspension in years.

The trailer was quite cobbled up, the photo does not really show the fine workmanship from modifications done to the trailer.

I need a yard trailer for my lawn tractor , so I towed the cycle trailer home from work.

I cut the junk out of the trailer, narrowed it 1 foot ( 12 inches). I used a piece of 2x3 .120 wall tube down the center of it. I cut the original outter tubes down in size and reused them. I added some sides to the trailer from scrap I had out back.

I'll buy some type of board material for the floor and sides. It should work well.

enjenjo · November 14, 2004, 12:18:04 AM

Looks like some of my junk, but not as rusty. I went to an auction this morning, local scrap yard owner died, they were having an estate sale. The good stuff was gone, just scrap iron left, so I didn't buy anything. I finished fixing the cruise control on my van, took it for a test drive, the cruise works fine now. Of course the master cylinder went out coming back in the driveway, but that's another project. I them started repairing a burned up spindle on my P30 truck rear axle. Cut the bad spindle off, cut the donor spindle to size, and found the axle tube isn't the same diameter. The spindle is the same, but the tube is different. so I'll have to make a stepped reinfprcement tube that will couple them together. Then I can put the rear end back in the chassis. After that we did some cleanup around the shop. A busy day.

I talked to a couple scrap buyers I know at the auction today. There were four buyers there from the large scrap processors in this area. This was a bit suprising because there was only about 100 tons there, a few years ago they would not have bothered. Anyway the ones I know told me the price is going to keep going up for scrap steel. And they are getting desperate for more to process. They figure to just about wipe out all the junk cars in this area in the next year or so. They are talking $175 a ton for crushed cars, that two years ago were selling for $30 a ton. So if you see something you want, better score it, or it may be gone.

C9 · November 14, 2004, 06:45:50 AM

Getting near the finish line far as my garage/shop shelving goes.
Made if from 2 x 12's, dadoed and lag bolted together.

My friend thinks it's overkill, but if I'm putting up to a hundred pounds on one 20" wide shelf, the 2 x 12's are a necessity.
The longer shelves are 2 x 12's as well.
Nice to know that they will hold a pair of heads with no strain.
Along with all that 'necessary' stuff we need to pursue our hobby....

Bib_Overalls · November 14, 2004, 09:59:50 AM

It was 37 degrees Saturday morning and clear. So, about 8 am I jumped into the roadster and drove to the Front Page Cafe for breakfast. Belinda told me I was crazy and I told her "I suppose so, but this may be the last good cruising day for a while." After breakfast I drove over to the Tractor Supply store and bought a pull over hood that fits tight around the face. I may be crazy, but I am a quick learner." After that I went to Lowe's, Darwin's Hot Rod Shop, Peterson's Discount Warehouse, and the Dollar Store. Much better than staying home and watching autoinfomercials on TNN (oops Spike TV).

In the afternoon I raked and burned some leaves and puttered in the shop.

Life is good.

kb426 · November 14, 2004, 10:24:37 AM

I had a successful day working on the 53 truck. The seats are installed, the 40 ford wheel is adapted to the monarch column, the shifter has been moved sideways to allow the console to be centered. I fired it up for the first time since I disassembled back in June. My little 3 weeks to paint estimate has been way off. I turned on the heat in the garage and I'm back at it in an hour or so. I have to rebuild the door hinges next. Almost everything I did to the truck the first go round has been redone, modified, or trashed. I hope this is the last time I think I need to disassemble the whole thing though. Stereo equipment should be here tommorrow. When that's done, I have the door panels, head liner, and carpet left. Then all the front end has to be bolted back on and the only thing left is to paint the rear fenders. Gee, sounds like another month, doesn't it.

Crosley.In.AZ · November 14, 2004, 11:41:52 AM

Also , on saturday morning we drove to Phoenix Sheet metal again. I bought more spiral duct work & fittings from Bill.

Bill has been very helpful with this cooling / heating install in my shop.

Now I need to figure out how I will mount this stuff to the ceiling

58 Yeoman · November 14, 2004, 11:50:55 AM

Tony, looks like good exhaust pipes for the Crosley Wagon.

I spent the afternoon trying to get the remote starter working on the 92 Riviera. Got it to start with the key in the ignition, but the heater wouldn't work. Finally got it to start w/o the key in the ignition, using resistors and a relay, but still can't find the right wire to start the heating system (climate control). The orange wire isn't it. Now, w/o having the heat system hooked up, the remote system will start it three times, then shut down. With my neck/back problems, I gave up on it for now. Will have to drive a cold car this winter.

Tony, on a different note, about 7 years ago, I looked at a 48 (I think) Crosley 2dr sedan about 20 miles from here, in a farmers' barn. Wonder if it's still there. I can't remember what he was asking for it at the time, but I think it was mostly complete, but had leopard skin seat covers.

alchevy · November 14, 2004, 10:30:57 PM

I went over to Jackson, MS and several of us street rodders got together at one guy's muffler shop for a day of checking the cars over. The local NSRA state inspector was there and we put each car up on the rack where we could get a good look at them. Found several things on a few cars and fixed them. This was a very good idea and it was suggested that we do it more often, just to be safe.

PeterR · November 15, 2004, 07:22:42 AM

Quote from: "Crosley"I was given the motorcycle trailer in the photo. A co-worker was moving and the trailer HAD to go..... I have not seen this design of coil spring suspension in years.

A couple of questions for Crosley.
What forms the bearing for the trailing arm assembly. From the picture it appears as though there is a sleeve which fits over the cross tube.

Does it have any shockers, and if not, does it bounce much.

Crosley.In.AZ · November 15, 2004, 11:36:20 PM

Quote from: "PeterR"
A couple of questions for Crosley.
What forms the bearing for the trailing arm assembly. From the picture it appears as though there is a sleeve which fits over the cross tube.

Does it have any shockers, and if not, does it bounce much.

Peter,

there are no bearings. It rides metal on metal... looks like NO bushing material in there

Bib_Overalls · November 15, 2004, 11:50:02 PM

Quote from: "PeterR"
Quote from: "Crosley"I was given the motorcycle trailer in the photo. A co-worker was moving and the trailer HAD to go..... I have not seen this design of coil spring suspension in years.

A couple of questions for Crosley.
What forms the bearing for the trailing arm assembly. From the picture it appears as though there is a sleeve which fits over the cross tube.

Does it have any shockers, and if not, does it bounce much.

Pete,

The modern equivelent of the suspension on Tony's trailer is called a "torsion axle." Same concept but it uses a rubber torsion "bar". If you are considering this kind of suspension do a web search for suppliers. Relatively inexpensive. An example http://www.etrailerpart.com/torsionaxles.htm .

PeterR · November 16, 2004, 10:07:07 AM

Crosley,
Thanks for taking the extra pic showing more detail. I have never seen a trailer suspension like this before, closest thing to that I can recall is a motor bike rear.

Bib_Overalls,
As a young kid I helped (he might have said hindered) while my father built a boat trailer using "Flexitor" rubber suspension units. These were imported from UK and I believe the first torsion type suspension made. That trailer is still in use after 50 years of regular immersion in salt water.

These are very similar to the US Flexiride brand with a splined arm on solid steel shaft and are extremely reliable. As the price of these units crept up cheaper brands with the arm welded onto a tubular shaft took over, but these had numerous failures with the arm braking off just inboard of the weld and now rubber torsion type suspension does not have a good reputation here and their use is very limited.

The vast majority of trailers persist with conventional leaf springs, however some of our roads are so bad that mobile homes and camper trailers just disintegrated through vibration. Over the last 10~15 years interest in 4WD vehicles and camper trailers has lead to coil spring trailing arm independent suspension gaining popularity for this application. These look similar to a beefed up version of the later style VW trailing arm. The whole unit is fabricated from heavy wall RHS; the arms are about 30" long with a coil spring and long-travel tube shock about half way out the arm. These provide very good ride and are capable of extremely long travel. The rims are usually 16" to match the tow vehicle so the spares can be shared.

However these are not suitable for boat trailers as the shockers deteriorate very quickly when immersed in salt water, so in spite of their limitations leaf springs will dominate for a long time.