Old Albion

Ray, Check the link below from the Ranco Trailer company. http://www.generaltrailerparts.com/bellydmp.htm Look at the menu on the left until you come to Ranco Line. Then just click on the required trailer. When the page opens with the photo go to the top where it says "click here for > DESCRIPTION of Set of Doubles". It shows general arrangement drawings of the trailers with overall dimensions. With a bit of imagination and artistic license it may be possible to produce a set of cool looking doubles. Hope this helps!

Ray, Do any trailers in the US have steering axles? Its become very common here in Europe. Coupled with road friendly suspensions (Air suspension) there are good tax and weight carrying advantages over conventional spring types. Not to mention the savings in maintanance and the price of tyres. Good Luck with the build.

Johnny, This is superb. Colour scheme quality of build excellent.

Johnny, Interesting project! Make sure you put the air track suspension the right way around. The air bags should be to the rear of the trailer! Good Luck with the build. PS the Pete was superb!!!

Johnny, Ray, A pair of bottom dump trailers is a great idea. After scratch building my tri-axle trailer I have plans to scratch build a set of doubles from the 1960s 1970s. Maybe with a Pete 281 or an old needle nose Kenworth. haven't decided yet. I won't be starting just yet though, but you never know.

Quite right Ray. They reckon on 70 to 80% of the price of diesel is tax. We all have our cross to bear!! :x Good Luck with the Build

Zeb, Check this topic below. be sure to check out Mike Cole's photo's these are superb!! http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2375 As for power output Hmm!!! how long is a piece of string? I would be guessing 900 to 1200 HP. Good Luck with the truck.

Ray, Interesting observations. One important thing to remember is that diesel engines are normally more fuel efficient running aroung their peak torque output. With the price of diesel nowadays you can see why its very important when looking at your overall operating costs. To give you an idea what Diesel costs in the UK. It costs £ 0.939 per litre last time I filled up. One US gallon is 3.78541 litres. Thats £ 3.55 a US gallon or (3.55 x $ 1.977) = $ 7.01 a US Gallon. Yeah, operating a truck in Britain is expensive!!

Ray, Does your rear driver tyres suffer more wear (Scuffing) than the front driver? If so its because the steering axle geometry is set from the Front driver. On tight turns the rear driver tyres will actually be moving sideways. Just a thought!

Ray, The axle looks great, adds that little extra interest to the truck. All my builds have steerable front axles. its a must for me. With regard to the geometry of the steering axle. You should find that if you steer to the right then the right wheel will have a tighter turning circle than the left. This is because the radius is smaller that the right wheel has to move through. Similarly if you steer to the left the radius is smaller so you will have a tighter turning circle for the left wheel rather than the right. My dad used to tell me that the angle of the tie rod ends in relation to the axle king pins is set by an imaginary line from the centre of the rear axle passing through the tie rod end and the king pin. I,ve tried to show what I mean in my little sketch below. I suppose for a dual drive the geometry of the steering axle is set from the front driver. You can see that the distance from the front axle to the driver is important. The shorther the wheel base the bigger the angle. The longer the wheel base the smaller the angle. Hope this makes sense. If any one knows better then please let me know.

Jim, Is this fire truck a prototype?? The detaling looks superb!

Tim, What a great idea "A snipet in time". This was how they built the trucks. Superb!!

Ray, The photo of the HO Grain Trailer above looks interesting. Is this a dump trailer or does it have a moving floor? Haven't seen one before, I shall check on the web to see if I can find any info. Many Thanks

Johnny, Try this link from Griffin's web site. http://www.griffendesigns.com/Instructions.htm#Pete%20351 He gives some details on the conversion for a 351 Pete. The donor kit is the little window Pete 359 from AMT T500. I think the 351 was still available when the big window 359 came out but best check with Tim. If you check my Pete 351 build: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3105 I give some details about the changes that I made. Also Tim has some fine 351's on his web site and some extremely usefull information. Good Luck.

Casey, The Old Dog looks great. Like the colour combination it works well.

Scott, This is different, don't think I've seen a scale Trash Trailer before. Great idea, great build.

Scott, The Pete looks good. Have you any other photo's?

Scott, This looks great. The little details on the tail gate and the tarpaulin are excellent. The truck and trailer look like they belong to each other. Good colour scheme. Great build.

Kurt, This is excellent. The details are really superb. The hydraulic tank and the diesel tank look transparent, have you made these yourself or are they bought in items? The small vertical cylinder mounted to the frame rail in between the two tanks is this a lubrication unit? Good Luck with the rest of the build. Very impressive.

Superb!!!

Zeb, Not sure what it red lines at but it wont be much more than 2100 RPM. You will need to check in the Cummins manual for this or look at a tacho in a truck with the same engine. (Not sure if all Cummins 855 cu in engines red line at the same RPM) Sorry I cann't be of any more help.

Matt, Try this link below: http://www.kitformservices.com/photoetch.html Scroll down the page until you reach Truck Show Custom Kits. Look under MACK. Alternatively maybe Dave Natale has something see link below: http://www.aitruckmodels.com/ Hope this helps

Casey, The old dog is looking great. Worth waiting since October for.

Well I've been making steady progress these last few days. You will see that the tank trailer is nearing completion. But still alot of work to do. I selected colours that will match the Pete 351 that I built. The maroon is finished. I painted that on Sunday morning. I'm leaving painting the top for as long as sensibly possible since I don't want the masking tape to damage the maroon paint. Painting is not a speciality of mine. I'm getting better but still along way off. The top half of the tank will be gloss grey. The joint between the top and bottom of the tank is the line of demarcation between the colours. The joint line will be painted orange. I have been looking for suitable decals for the tank and was looking through the Microscale decals for Railways. I came across these Milk tank decals. http://www.microscale.com/catalog_results.mv They look great, I have ordered sets in 2 different scales, not sure how they will turn out but I thought they would make the truck trailer combination look more interesting. They also have that classic period look about them. We'll see, nothing ventured nothing gained! http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/imc-tanker-trailer-125/ Thanks for looking

Ray, That steering front axle looks interesting. Is it the kit one modified or have you sctratch built it? Great Work!