Part 12: Battery Box Completion and Tool Box Mounts

20190425-29

The Trip

We had a number of actions in progress, but most of this photo set was focused on the battery box and tool box mounts.

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.

Upon leaving the shop we spotted an interesting set of cargo on the railroad tracks.

These are blades for wind turbines and are made of composites.  A new addition is the spikes on the trailing edge of the blades likely to improve efficiency, cut noise or both.

We took the cameras and headed to the overpass to see the blades.  These blades have a substantial curve in them and are long enough that they require 2 1/2 rail cars to hold them.  Every 3rd car was empty to allow the blades to overhang.  The birds at the upper edge of the photo above were swarming and seemingly chasing bugs.

Special articulating mounts were required to allow them to bend when the train goes around curves in the track.  Note the pivot and arm arrangement and the wear paths on the surface of the cars.

Meanwhile back at the shop, Billy was finalizing the welding on the trailer axle mounts.

Thor was taken to the muffler shop to get new exhaust pipes fabricated that would route the exhaust to the rear of the truck rather than in front of the rear wheel.

The shop did several iterations but in end it was as I desired.

On Saturday Thor, had a "spa day" and got anti-corrosion undercoating.

On Monday, the previously fabricated and painted cross members were installed and the propane tank was mounted to them.  This tank provides a 20 gallon capacity rather than the twin 7 gallon tanks we had with the HiLo.

Rear sub-frame cross member.

The opposite side shows the spring bolt mounts and the vertical offset to allow for frame flexure.

Battery cable jumpers were fabricated - there were 16 of them required.  I used 2/0 cable for the jumpers but 4/0 for the longer distance run to the Lance 12 volt ingress point.

The battery box is fully cabled and ready to lift into the frame.  The fork lift was only used for gross positioning of the box.

To verify that the system would work as desired, we used an electric driver on the old tire winch with new steel cable to lift the 600 pound battery box up to the frame.

To miss the newly installed exhaust pipe, we had to rotate the box during the early part of its lift.  Once the mounting tabs cleared the pipe, it was rotated back.

Box installed and bolted into position.  Note that a ratchet rather than an electric driver was used for the final positioning.

Next, a coil of 4/0 cable was used in conjunction with crimp lugs to run the 12 volt supply to the front of the truck.  The hot lead was wrapped with red tape to insure there was no mistaking the polarity of the wire.

Rivets that held the tire mounting point to the frame were removed to allow connection of the rear tool box mounts.

The remains were primed and painted for corrosion control.

Mounting tabs for the tool box frame were cut.

Since the attachment points for the front tool box were migrated, the supporting frame widths needed to be adjusted as well.

Both of the original mounts that Kathleen and I made in 2010 were used for the propane and the rear-most mount was co-opted for tool box use as well.

Those mounting ears will be welded on the 2x3" tube.

Once the ear location was confirmed, they were hard-welded to the mounting frame.



Note the rear mount uses the same strategy as the fuel tank mounts which is bolted through the lower frame rail.

It has been a few days since I posted photos because there were not sufficient photos to tell an interesting story.  That problem has been resolved.  We expect the Lance to be mounted on Thor before the end of the week.  Remaining actions include the balance of the tool box mounts, generator mount, tire crane/handler and seat replacement.

Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2019, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.