Rockford

Although I used to be able to forget the clutch once rolling it was frowned upon amongst all drivers I knew. It was seen as being rough on the equipment, even though in principle the clutch should be redundant in a non-synchro constant mesh transmission. As long as you match engine revs and road speed (harder going down than up) you shouldn't notice. It has to be said that if you didn't match revs and road speed the clutch was of no assistance, which just confirms the theory.

This popped up on my YT this morning. I watched it and couldn't believe that this is what I used to work on. Non tilt cab in 1973/74, working through the hatch in the doghouse and trying to keep the cab clean for the poor driver. At least it has a Cummins/Fuller combination so it would make some progress, and not need constant repairs, but to think men spent their whole working week in something like this!? Unbelievable. Now you realise why I like American machinery. This has no connection to the build, just thought I'd try for some sympathy 😁.

Did extensive research on the shift tower for the 352, there's precious few images of it on the web. Cobbled together a design using varying images and made one up from card etc... Added a shift lever from a paperclip and formed a range change switch from aluminium wire. Very fiddly. Also added strip to the top and bottom of the axle beam to make it look like an "I" beam casting, also the stubaxle bosses for the kingpins. Turned some service brake chambers, brackets and slack adjusters. Shaped two brake backplates to mount them. Still got to build front dampers and a bumper mounting. It's all getting very tight under there.

Beyond belief, this stuff. I do find drawing stuff helps me to get things a bit closer to where they should be, but it's still trial and error a lot of the time. More error than trial actually.

Oh aye, 30 years ago wasn't 1979 was it!? What an idiot. I promise I'll learn how to count.

How did it feel to climb into the seat of your own, brand new Transtar? Must have been a great feeling. Tell us more of the story as you go through the build, that would be great. I built that kit over 30 years ago with the cab in that exact colour combo. I still remember how good that kit was, especially in comparison to the AMT ones I'd built.

Great combination, looks serious.

Really nice stuff. Well done!

It looks real in some of the photographs, it really is amazing quality.

Jürgen, what a fantastic job you're doing. Not easy doing everything for the first time. on the door panels, could you cut them down to just the door card and fill them to suit? Shame to waste them. Your plumbing looks great.

Excellent work. Windows will look good. You do see these types of window on motorhomes here in UK too.

Jürgen, what a fantastic job you're doing. Not easy doing everything for the first time. on the door panels, could you cut them down to just the door card and fill them to suit? Shame to waste them. Your plumbing looks great.

Peterbilt thought of it first 😃

Jürgen asked me about some sort of cab tilt restraint. I pondered the setup over the last few days and then saw the answer staring me in the face, just do what Peterbilt did and fit a lock bar onto the passenger side ram. I cut out a blank piece of ali, scored it at the bend points and formed a C section. I drilled and filed out a locating hole and a hole at the top for clearance of the 2*1mm block I added to the ram. The locking bar shares the same pin as the top of the ram. The principle is that as I lift the cab the lock slides up until the locating hole falls over the block. The cab can the not drop back or fall over onto its face. Most surprising of all... IT WORKS!!! When I want to drop the cab I just lift the lock bar and the cab is free to sit back down.

I'd missed your progress on this one, fantastic stuff! I hate to say anything negative about it but the front brake chambers are indeed 180 degrees out. They're vulnerable down low, up above the axle gives them more shelter. Brilliant work though.

Finally found this on the web. You can see the length of the ram, it goes all the way back to the rear hangar on the spring, massive!

Oh mate I'm so sorry to hear that. No, getting old isn't for wimps. I'm going to that many medical appointments there's no point being well, I'm never free! Hope you're feeling better soon and they get you sorted.

Good idea on the smaller wheels and tyres. Looking great though, either way. Looking at it, could you narrow the track of the front axle too? You could alter the wheel backspacing so they sit further into the wheel well? Just a thought. I'll give myself a smack if you feel I'm out of order.

A few UK trucks had them too, they were Kysor Air Shutters. They were most often a dull aluminium, mostly because they weren't visible in the UK, the rad was buried under all sorts of bodywork. We used to cut a section out of the upper radiator hose and fit a section in with a temperature sensor. That fed a signal to the motor on the shutter to adjust the slats. Clever idea.

I can't believe you've never built a van trailer! You've done so many trucks. We all have our least liked parts of the job, mine's paint and body.

All I've done is copy the real thing. KW, IH, Freightliner etc... will all have a slightly different approach. I just noticed that the AMT 352 is lacking any cab substructure when I was looking for examples on the forum. The cab on your current truck does definitely tilt because you can see the locking pawl at the rear of the doghouse in one of the photos online. Packaging is an issue. The Pete rams seem awfully long and are at a very shallow angle. Others I've seen are shorter and more upright. The biggest obstacle is the steering box, they're often spaced away from the frame rail to position it under the steering wheel and also gives space for the ram to pass between the column and the frame. It's bad enough on full size stuff to at 1/32 it's a nightmare. I know many UK trucks only had one lift ram, usually on the passenger side because they only had little cabs. USA truck cabs were much bigger in comparison.

No need to ask mate, it'll be good to see what you come up with. There's very little information on each manufacturer's setup. YT channels dealing in restos are about the best.

I know what you mean but I like giving there snappers some dignity. 😀

I think the K100 system is far more compact. The rams are much further forward and smaller because they're more upright. Makes more sense mechanically too.

Looking at the 352s on the website something occurred to me. The AMT Pacemaker has no effort at replicating the cab jack details other than the pump on the chassis. That led me to searching for images of the undercab setup on the real thing. There's pretty much nothing on the web. I managed to find one image on Fotki that showed a massive lift cylinder going from the rear spring shackle to a bracket on the cab chassis. I garnered other details from various images but there was still a few educated guesses involved. I squashed the end of a piece of dismembered paperclip with Vise Grips, cleaned and drilled it to form the ram each side. Built the cylinder from plastic tube and card. Fabbed chassis brackets and added reinforcement to the front of the cab with the cab brackets mounted. Had to butcher the "damper mounts" moulded into the chassis for clearance (they're going altogether soon) and relocate the fuel filter from the frame to the intercooler. Calculating the length took some time but got it eventually. Works ok. Might add some hoses to the rams later.