building a bulk feed tanker truck

[dabelltoller]

i desided im going to build a strait truck bulk feed tanker these trucks are usally 38-40 feet long with a single lift axle. the axle is usally infront of drive axle or behined.

i wanna build it up to look like a really hard heavy haul 359/379? (not sure yet ) so im thinking of doing a drop axle in front and rear of drives.

i have a revell pete 359 now i wanna use as the stepping stone for the project . (this is the one in 1/25 scale that is purple on the box )

any how i was looking on the sour krauts sight for after market parts and everything seems to be sold out

so i was wondering how to find a list of items

1. floater tires for front steer axle.

2. extra sets of tires to make duels fror both drop axles( would like them to be crome or look aluminum im not looking for spokes)

3. im cutting sleeper off thinking of scratching the back wall with out a window (advice on cutting bunk? thinking of using hacksaw and putting in new pice of plastic. IS a after market piece out there and better?

4. a texas style bumper.

5. a drop visor

6. along with the tires for drop axles im looking for axles to shown in the lifted up postions

hopefully my list is understandable and i could go on the right track to find the stuff and items i need!

also im looking to add i think about 7 to 8 inch of frame to get a strait truck length of 40feet how is best way to strenthing frame to hold weight of a piece of pvc pipe? im going to add a bulk of leangth from cab back to drive axles with about a inch added on after the drives !!!

im thinking of making frame look same with reinforement frame rails inside strenth and lots of cross memebers advice on this would help

gary

Edited September 4, 2011 by dabelltoller

[mackinac359]

Sounds to me like you've got it planned out pretty well.

For the strengthening the frame, I use an insert inside the splice area, running about 1/2 inch or more on either side of the splice. The insert is usually brass that I epoxy or superglue in.

Tim

[dabelltoller]

yeah im really wanting to blue print this one out and then some, but any advice on some after market suppliers or advice on getting said tires and axles ?

[cowboysevens]

heres a few aftermarket vendors that can help you out on the needs for your builds:

ppvintagekits.com

http://s429.photobuc...danielgailloux/

http://mmtaer.webs.com/

http://www.rbmotion....utboltpins.html

http://www.aitruckmodels.com/

http://sourkrautsmod....com/?page_id=3

http://www.kitformservices.com/

modeltruckin.com

there are many many others, but i lost a bunch of my contacts off my computor. you can also find alot of spare parts and new custom parts on ebay.

im sure others will chime in and add a few to the list here and there. good luck on your build it sounds really cool. please keep us posted with some work in progress pics so we can see it come to life.

Edited September 5, 2011 by cowboysevens

[dabelltoller]

ok everyone here is some updates and photos of the truck, it started out as the revell 359 i cut the bunk off, and made it into a windowless daycab. this was my first time doing a daycab converstion so i gotta say im happy with it.

next thing i did was cut the frame and added about 6 inches to the frame to bring the truck to a 40 foot in total leanghth. i used more of a i-beam to do the streching since its having to hold a heave piece of 3 inch pvc pipe.

as you can see from the pics its super strong and does hold it quite well, the truck is going to get a drop axle put in and also bag boxes. (bag boxes are compartments on side of tank close to cab that bags of feed are put into)

the tank is now capped at both ends

some of the items on the list to go are making a drop axle,

making a working auger boom( i hope it rotates anyway)

i need to make bag boxes, the side shelves for truck ( they run leangth of tank and are for stargage of bags and blower pipe.

i wanna plum all hydrolic lines, and also plum the lines from the blower system

in regards to blower systerm i need to make a pto case for transmisson, a blower box, a hydrolic cooling box, ,

the lid system with safty rails for top of tank !

and thats just to start !

http://s1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb409/dabelltoller1/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ24

enjoy some of the progress photo and feel free to comment and ask questions!

[dabelltoller]

so here is some update photos of my current project. i got the cab done, the tank done, and the bag/storage boxes done. the white cross thing is the auger system it needs cut down to size and finished and painted, its more of a planning and mesuring stage right now,

its a hydrolic controled system used to unload the bulk feed into over head bins and reaches really high into the air, mine doesnt move.

so far the drop axle is just resting on the drive shaft to get the look and hight i want. im slowly scratchbuilding the frame for the lift axle.

also on this kit i made the choice to go back and use one of my first trucks i built for parts gond i felt so dirty killing it for the good of something else, but i was never totally happy with it so it didnt hurt so much, but my wife did give me one hell of a hard time over it !

enjoy the photos below

some of the items left are blower system and blower tube storage and lettering and lotos of small details, i only spend about 8 hours a week on this thing

http://s1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb409/dabelltoller1/