Semi Trailer Mechanic

Well Done... I can give ya some insight on tarps. I use to be a trailer mechanic for a trash hauling trucking company. The prefered tarp was made by Mountain Tarp Inc... I'm guessing you're building whats called a roll over tarp. The anchor bar if I remember was 1,1/8"OD the length of the tarp. The anchor bar mounts and tarp stops may be tricky to scratch build. Usually the tarp will be mounted on the trailers' curb side so the driver just rolls the tarp over from the road side. I did some experimenting making a tarp using fine curtain material. That worked good. On the rool over tarps I have experience w/ were heavy vynal nearly leather. But in the center was nylon mesh. The problem w/ working in scale size using actuall vynal the material cut to that size is too stout and doesn't form fit and looks highly unproportioned. So I used a solid black curtain for the vynal part of the tarp and a black sheer curtain to make the inside mesh part. My ex girlfriend showed me a trick to attach the materials togather. She used a strip that use place on the material then lay the other piece material ti join to it and run an iron over it. The strip was designed to adhere the materials togather from the heat of an iron. It works awesome!!! On the 1:1 tarps they have pockets sewn in the length of the tarp on both sides. One for the anchor bar and the other for the roll bar opposite side. KS tubing worked perfect. The 1:1 tarp bars were 15' sections. The just one end is tapered so it inserts flush into the other section then you weld the seam. When I installed/repaired those taprs on the walking floors the achor bar I made the length of the tarp. That didn't go anywhere hence it's name. The roll bar I would make long enough to extend 18" outside the tarp on both ends. This is because sometimes as the driver is rolling it(opening) sometimes they get sideways and if that bar is just the length of the trailer and gets sideways then it'll fall down inside a trailer. Then the driver has to get inside the trailer and fish the tarp out. When drivers get paid per the load and they have to take time to fish out the tarp they get upset to say the least. For your straps use 3mm wide ribbon you can find in a craft section. Rough them up a little to get the sheen off. Mountain Tarp has black straps only. These straps have a bull ring sewn on one end. Installing the straps to the tarp was simple you just take a razor and cut slits in the tarp directly behind the rollbar. Feed the strap up under the tarp and around the bar and then feed the end thru that ring and pull it straight down. The ratchets are mounted to the trailer in two ways. One, they can be mounted solid by opening up the ratch drilling a hole in the side of the trailer and using a tapered end 3/8 bolt. That's the easiest. The problem w/ that was as the truck's in transit the wind is tring to pull the trailer off an it elongated the hole that bolt is in and gets loose then ya gotta drill another hole and remount the ratchet because it got loose. I've seen them come off if left unattended too long. Then the driver usues a bungee strap hooked to the rathcet to hold strap tight LOL. The other way is a mount that gets welded to the trailer. This is the best but when you're in a service truck at a transfer station 150miles from the shop you have to resort to the first method. If you were to look at the mount fromt the side it might resemble this here----> _l-l_ On the ratchets i s a bolt I wanna say a half inch bolt the hex is 13/16 if I remember. You take that bolt out then take the ratchet and bolt it to that mount and they hang. The bad thing about that is when empty and the tarp is open /secured as the trailer hits bumps they tend to bounce and make the side of the trailer. Considering the trailers I worked on were trash haulers that wasn't an issue. But if it's a well taken care of hopper then the farmer might be upset having the ratchet slapping the side of his trailer. I hope this gave ya a little insight on understanding the tarps 1:1 and the tips to make a scale size tarp. I almost forgot on the tarp is a handle the driver uses to roll open the tarp. Some are attached the the roll bar itself and others the handle is removable. Either version there is a small u-joint at the end of the handle that allows it to be able to rotate as the driver turns it to roll open the tarp. On the removable handle version the bar would hang on the side of the trailer. What I did was I took the tapr stops and unsed the mounting brackets used for the tarps anchor bar for the handle mounts I took the aluminum stops off . ( those were always getting bent and have to be replaced so the stops I just kept in my service trusks' inventory) then I just mounted those brackets to the side of the trailer the length of the bar. Since the handle was basically made from the same OD pipe the achor bars were they worked perfect. Then I would take a bungee strap remove one s hook mount that centered between the mounts. Next I cut one end off so the bungee was a few inches short. I carefully drilled a hole in the end of the strap then I drilled a hole in the trailer. I used the same tapered bolts used to mount the ratcheds solid and a fender washer and screwed the strap to the trailer. This is used to secure the handle tight. Screwing it to the trailer was my way of making it fail safe from the strap getting lost. Again I hope this gave ya some ideas how to make your tarp. GOOD LUCK!!!

NICE!!!

Jim That Mack turned out GOOD. That's worth an ATTA-BOY, a slap on the back, and a icey cold draft beer! WELL DONE!!! A single 28' pup would compliment this truck perfectly!

Cool! That kit must be engineered well. Considering the time line from your first post to when you showed finished pics was only 6 days. These days It takes me 4 months just to get to the half way point on a project. I too picked up one of these kits. HobbyTownUSA hosed me on the price 85.00 but to me it's worth it. I like to physically look at an item on a shelf,pick it up , set it on the counter, and then pay for it.

I haven't wrenched on a 1:1 Ford C series so I can't tell you where to put them or what size air tanks to use. On average you'll find three tanks like KS Route 66 mentioned. One tank will be smaller than the other two this is what's called a wet tank. This is mounted closest to the compressor. It's nicknamed that because the compressed air from the AC condenses in that tank. The other two are the primary and secondary air system tanks. On some trucks there is a forth tank very small tank. This was an emgency reserve tank. Basically if the truck lost all air and needed to be moved the driver would have to push on the valve (yellow diamond and hold it allowing the air to release the brakes just long enough to move the truck then game over until the air system's repaired.

Looks good so far.

Thanks!

How ironic!!! Tim last week I was at a hobbyshop that has current and back issues of model mags across the board. I picked up the MCM that has your w/up about the K123 about to be released. Somehow I missed getting that issue. I just read it yesterday.

No it's just a dry van.

Here's the latest. I decided that white looks much better than brown!!! Decals are dry transfer letters. As always I thank ya for looking!!!

Hobbyland at the Graceland Shopping Plaza. St.Rt. 23 N AKA High Street in Clintonville (Columbus) is where I found that kit. I haven't been to the East Broad Street Hobbyland store in Reynoldsburg (Columbus) in a few weeks so I can't say they have it. Your best bet is the next time you'll be passing thru Columbus call ahead and see if either of the stores has the kit. http://www.hobbylandstores.com/ The Graceland store has the Bill Signs 359 and the R/G W900 wrecker and several other truck kits as well. I haven't been to HobbylandUSA in a few months. They might have it, again, give'em a buzz. and find out.

I hope you weren't trying to be green by recycling used toilet paper. BACK ON TOPIC looks like your idea works! I like the tread pattern on these tires but the offset soulders I think ruins the accuacy.

Bought one yesterday at a LHS.

HERE'S THE LATEST!!! Thanks for looking!!!

.030 Evergreen Scale sheet styrene. This is the Revell 359 (snap tite) cab that I used sheet styrene and scale rivets from www.tichytraingroup.com . If you don't want to go thru the aggrivation (and I mean aggrivation from experience) of measuring drilling and setting the rivets you can build a headache rack to cover the rear of the cab. Don't waste your money on a kit just for a donor. Good Luck!!!

Have a good one Mark!!!

Here's the latest WIP. and this is the complete start to present set http://www.flickr.co...57625693535716/ Thanks for looking!!!

I think there's a 24th scale car carrier trailer made by a Japanese model maker. If not you may have to scratch build one or just get some 25th scale car kits if you can get a 25 scale car transport trailer.

Ronald A Revell 3406 would be ok to use or the twin turbo NTC Cummins in the 359 R/G kit. Clint Freemen had an M11 and an N14 if I'm not mistaken. Those would be good to use if you could find them. An L10 was considered a moderate duty engine. Not a high horse or high touque basically an engine for an LTL spec'd truck. I have a T600 on the back burner now I built using reference of a 1:1 1988 T600. In that I just used the Revell 3406. I'm not sure if anyone offered the 444 Cummins in resin kit form. From my understanding that was supposed to be a heavy hitter but I heard it was a turd that would blow up frequently!!! In 1990 the Series 60 was brand new. I was in diesel tech in 91 and my Detroit/Mack instructor said that the engine is so new the school couldn't get ahold of one for the curriculum. I believe the KTA's were out of production by 1990 ??? If it was my call I'd use the twin turbo NTC or the 3406. Good Luck.

This looks good so far. Those are some clever saw horses ya got there.

Here ya go http://www.hulu.com/watch/129778/dangerous-drives-iraq-convoy#x-0,vepisode,1,0

That's gotta be the best looking and well built 377 model I've seen to date. Just a simple domestic truck to me looks by far better than one of those exaggerated penthouse sleeper cabs.

You got every right in the world to bragg and want to share after finding something that took 20 years to find. I looked for the same kit for nearly 6 years before I found one (At a reasonable price) . If I remember a collector was thinning out his stock and I scored mine for $45.00 open but everything was still in the box. Aside this there's a television series on SPEED Channel called "Dangerous Drives" They made an episode devoted to riding shotgun w/ an ARMY transport unit in Iraq. I can't recall which unit it was though. There was some equiptment one there that I'd never seen before!!!

Here's the latest update. Thanks for looking!!! Starting w/ the fifth wheel I added slider lock linkage and pins. Also a set of fifth wheel pins were made. The plate was painted w/ Model Master aluminum metallizer base coat and a top coat of Tamiya semi gloss black weathered w/ Tamiya weathering master orange rust and gunmetal. Unassembled... Assembled... As an attempt to keep all drive tires on the ground I completely rebuilt the shocks so they expand and retract using KS tubing and styrene solid round stock. here's the chassis mocked up. Note the torsion bar. The ends were drilled out and some hollow round stock was used to make the bushings. I used Plastrct HEX and round stock styrene to make the torsion bar bolts.