The ‘RAITH Party Cart….

[Rick W]

I just realized I didn’t really answer the question. The short lid on the right, which would cover the legs, has a lip that extends underneath the lid on the left, covering the torso. That lip is actually like a little tiny rain gutter. When water goes in the crack between the two lids, that lip will shed it to the front or the back. The long lid has a little gasket that rides on the left edge of that little gutter. And then, like I said, the two lids crank down tighter than a refrigerator door closes, a lot tighter.

 

[Rick W]

If you really need a positive answer, I could pick up one of those day laborers in front of the Home Depot, and put them in there for a few days and see if he gets wet

No, scratch that…

 

[Rick W]

I was just doing general cleanup today, but I got enough of the top of the table saw free that I could test trim the 4” channel for the cross pieces.

Came out great. It’s hard to see it in the pictures, but on the right, I tilted the piece in just a hair, and it literally took everything off the surface. On the left, I just passed it through straight, and it left just a teeny tiny bit of the cross piece (V looking mark). That would be easy to shave off or grind.

I was taking a lot of time (and stress) trying to hold the circular saw blade as flat as I could against the channel when I was cutting the connecting pieces out. and even with the WD-40 trick, the blade was trying to bind up The channel is one and a half inches wide, so I imagine I set my table saw guide 1/32” skinnier than that. Then when I run the 4” channel, it just shaves the surface and anything that’s not flat on the surface disappears.

This will also save time because I can just rip through those connecting pieces with the circular saw. With the 10 inch blade on the table saw and the increased amperage, its slices the remainders off the surface like cutting a piece of cheese.

When I do my long side frame pieces, I’ve just got to get somebody to help me who knows how to hold it straight as I shave it.

 

[Rick W]

This morning I put the casket back together. Like any project it always takes 10 times longer than you think it will because there’s always 10 times more stuff to do than you thought.

I put the backing plates in the corners, and I used some chrome plated steel bars, hollow, I had from some kind of potato chip display rack, and I ran them 4 feet in the front and in the back as back up plates. I have about 20 left for whatever. But they worked out good because no matter where the two frame crosspieces go I’ll have a place to bolt them to the Casket. I drilled a 1 inch hole through the middle of the back one for a possible drain in the middle compartment, and I just drilled a pin hole through the outside so I could locate it later.

Half the Styrofoam came out in pieces, so it was a little bit of a jigsaw puzzle putting it all back together, but not too bad. Then, when I went to set the tub back in, I couldn’t get it all the way down. I finally climbed up and stood in it, and with a little wiggle, it finally dropped down. (I’m sorry for that visual.)

I caulked it all around, I put glue under the gasket, I caulked around the edge of the tub, etc. etc. it’s already in much better condition than when I got it, and I’m still planning on a few enhancement features, but they can wait for now

I’m not sure what the whole thing weighs, I am curious, but I can barely pick up one end of it an inch or two. 350-450 pounds. I had planned on sitting it on a dolly I’ve got, and using the step trailer to make the frame, but I’m back to plan A. It’ll sit right where it is, and when I have the frame sitting on top of the axles, I’ll just move it one time down onto that.

The self drilling self tapping quarter 20 bolts I picked up are streamlining everything. I’ll be using those things forever.

 

[Rick W]

This afternoon, I started in earnest on the aluminum frame. I had pre-chopped the crosspieces too long, and from calculations, I cut them at 44 inches. That would make the outside of the frame 47 inches. The casket is 28”. The fenders will rise up about 10 inches, and these measurements were so that my 13 W shoes could step in between the fenders and the casket if I needed to go there. More on this later.

I used my chop saw with a carbide tipped wood blade, first, to true up one end of the channel, and then to cut them square to length. All the drops will be used.

I took the drops and cut them just shy of 4 inches, and then split them to make the corner bracing to attach the crossmembers to the long frame members.

Then I took one of those pieces, and I drilled it in the right locations for the connecting bolts. I’m planning on using those self tapping 1/4-20 bolts I picked up. I drilled these holes way too small, and I’m going to use this angle piece as a guide, to drill the holes in everything else, way too small.

On most of the connections, the bolts will go through the side/long frame pieces, and tap into these angled pieces. I drilled the holes too small, and I will do so as I lay everything out. The aluminum is very easy to drill. Then, when I go to assemble it, I will open up the holes that are to be tapped to the right diameter, and open up the pass-through holes to just enough to let the 1/4-20 bolts slide through. After I put that together, I’m going to put backing nuts on the back side. I’ll use the E 6000 stuff on everything threaded as a thread locker, and I also plan on bonding those angle connecting plates to the cross pieces and long frame pieces.

After I did all that, I took one of the cross pieces and a couple of 2x4s, and I mocked up how the casket will be sitting on top of them. I also got a spare tire, to estimate the wheel width and fender height, as well as one of the springs I’m going to use. A picture is worth 1000 posts. That led to another redesign.

My original design thought was to have this all sit low, but be able to step in between the fender and the casket to be able to reach inside the casket. When I mocked it up, the trailer would’ve been as wide as the step trailer, and the casket would’ve looked skinny down the middle. When I mocked it up, it was obvious that if the fenders were close to the casket, you could simply reach over them and pick anything you wanted out of the box.

With that knowledge, I am going to narrow up the cross pieces with the thought of simply reaching over the fenders into the box.

The Jenn Air gas grill is 55 inches wide with the two wings. It’s a shame to cut anything from that, since that Jenn Air is built like a brick outhouse of very high-quality stainless steel. I’m going to set the outside of the wheels/fenders to match that 55 inches.

Now all I have to do is cut it and assemble it.

Before I quit, I took all my oxygen tanks out of the Missing Linc, and I couldn’t help my curiosity, I took one of the empty ones and sliced it just to see what I was dealing with.

They have about a quarter inch wall thickness. My juices are flowing on what to do with them, all but one are still full.

I was planning on proceeding on with the frame this evening, and then I ran up on this in my music room, something I had forgotten about. Neighbor is coming over to help me figure out what it is…

Plenty of time tomorrow to proceed…

 

[Rick W]

Trouble in the netherworld fab shop. Reality sets in, as opposed to the alternate reality that was in my head about this thing.

The vision started out as a casket on a trailer made into a beer cooler. I always had the thought of a double axle because double axles are just cooler than single axles.

Then I ran up on that Jenn Air gas grill, too good to pass up. Then the barber chair for free. And I had a diamond plate tongue box in the back 40 for a dozen years. In my head, this would all go together and look right if I pulled in behind the Missing Linc.

I figured out my width over the last week or so. Today I pulled out the next channel beam, and set it on some sawhorses to start marking it up.

My plan from front to back was tongue box, barber chair, space for my feet, gas grill, a little space so the lid of the grille did not compromise the lid of the casket (and so you could see the end of the casket), and then the casket. And then I had the idea of putting the spare tire on the back like a continental kit.

12 or 13 feet, right? Wrong, more like 17-1/2 feet!!!

When I first laid it out, it was actually about a foot longer than the step trailer on the Road Ranger!! And keep in mind the ball on the Road Ranger is actually about 30 inches further back than the tip of the deck.

I can’t change the size of the casket, and it’s got to have the gas grill, so I started playing around with everything else. If I lose the tongue box, I can start the fold in for the tongue underneath the barber chair, but that only gives me one foot. if I eliminate the continental kit spare tire, and I mount the spare like I did on the Road Ranger, that gets me another foot. That just gets me to where I could put this thing on top of the step trailer, but it would literally be the length of that trailer. BTW, about a foot longer than the Missing Linc!

I’m thinking the barber chair has to go. If I eliminate the chair, and I turn the gas grill around, I could sit on the front of the casket while cooking burgers. That gains me a couple more feet. Not a total tragedy because the barber chair was free, and it’s kind of plane Jane, I was going to spruce it up with some upholstery, and now I can save that money.

Then I had the thought of putting the gas grill in the rear, sitting on the casket to cook, and have the casket run all the way up to the tongue, and still use the tongue box. That’s probably still too long, and that also shifts the weight from over the two axles to the middle of the trailer.

Too tired to figure it out today

 

[racsan]

Have you figured in tounge weight vs your ranger suspension? Total weight when getting stopped?

 

[Rick W]

Good thought. Yes and no.

Basic design is for the casket to sit centered over the two axles. I have 1250# springs, and 2000# axles. I think the casket is about 250 or 300 pounds (I can barely pick up one end now), and if I put 10-12 inches of water in the whole thing, that’s about 750-800 pounds. I’ll NEVER load it that heavy. That makes it 1000 pounds or a little bit more sitting on the two 2000 pound axles, balanced.

The gas grill is maybe 100 pounds, and the barber chair is 75 pounds. That’s what would be straddling between the hitch and the front of the net-zero casket.

I can pick up one of those 22’ aluminum channel beams fairly easily. I’m guessing it’s about 125-150 pounds. One of those beams is about the same amount of aluminum it will take to build the entire trailer.

If you run that around in your head, the tongue weight should be 200 or 300 pounds. Even if I put in the tongue box in and load it with junk, it wouldn’t be 100 pounds more. That’s under, or equal to, the 87 Ranger tongue weight (400#). This truck has been raised 2 1/2 or 3 inches, and I think it has a little bit beefier set up, not that I would push that.

Basically, the design has the real weight centered over the two axles which can easily carry it, and it’s only the little bit of stuff between there and the tongue that will (half) rest on the tongue. A little similar to a farm wagon, you don’t “carry” it, you “pull” it.

The Road Ranger step trailer is very similar to a farm wagon. One end of the platform sits on the two 2000 pound axles, and the front half rests on the added truck axle, which is actually a 3500 pound trailer axle. The original Ranger gear pulls it, not carries it. I’ve done this before on “real” trailers we used for work. It’s literally like a baby tractor trailer.

BTW, after I get it done, I’m probably going to add brakes to at least one axle.

It just got too big, I’m going to have to pare back the goodies a little bit.

Or maybe I could make it a double decker!

 

[Rick W]

The vision caught up with me again as I went to bed. I was going to build it from the tongue backwards, so I could bend the aluminum frame in for the tongue before anything was assembled. I’m going to reverse that.

I’m going to build it from the rear forward. I’ll leave the channels way too long, but put in the first three or four cross pieces that hold the casket. I’ll mount the springs and tires, without bolting the casket down, so I can slide it forward or back a little.

Without drilling holes, I’ll clamp a couple cross pieces over the rest of the front just hold it in the right place. Then I’m going to take some scrap plywood, cut it and lay it down where the floor would be. Then i can take the gas grill and the barbers chair and whatever and literally sit them on top, so I can place them exactly where they’ll work. Trial and error method, a picture is worth 1000 words and all that.

With reversing everything, one of the first things I have to do is install the springs. I won’t get the equalizer for about a week, so I’ve got some more time to figure. I’ll get as much of the aluminum cut up and drilled as I can while I’m waiting.

It only takes time…

EDIT: Earlier, I forgot the weight of the propane tanks, one 20 small and one 40 large, maybe another hundred pounds total. Shouldn’t really affect anything.

 

[Rick W]

Progress, sort of

All the saw marks will be facing inwards. When I got down to the last few cuts, cutting out those web pieces, I just about figured out how to do it without butchering it.

Then it turns out the channel was drawn in (out?) where the web pieces were welded.

If there was any doubt about facing the flat side in, that’s over now.. I figure it will be easier to pull it in then it would be to bow it out.

Enough fun for today…

 

[Rick W]

Moment of truth, before I start drilling more holes. The thing that makes these projects hard, and cool.

Casket corners have to sit on a crossmember. The back bumper has to come close to the width of the outside of the tires, not the frame. The casket crossmember cannot be the back bumper because the drain valve sticks out. I wire brushed that brass spigot to a nice golden glow, and painted the handle red. I would bust it off in a second…

The way the tail lights and turn signals and stoplights run across the ass are crucial to the cool factor.

I’m going to consult with Jack before the next step…

 

[Rick W]

Baby steps.

Some of these bolts will be drilled out and I’ll use those half inch stainless bolts I bought. The end result will be a combination of both. The self tapping ones just make it very easy to get everything in place. The ones that remain will have backing nuts.

The bow in the channel was a little surprise, no real biggie, but it once again changed my approach. The pictures are of the back cross piece. I’m going to have to do the front one next. Then for the three or four in between, I can use a threaded rod to draw the channels together to get the bolts in place.

It was a little learning curve, making those smaller pieces and drilling them in the right place, etc. etc. The rest of it should kind of fall together.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

You should offset the holes so you don't have a problem putting on the washers and nuts. Also use part of a flange for an angled shim, otherwise the washers and nuts will not clamp properly.

 

[Rick W]

Amen, yes, but….

When I drilled the holes, I drilled them a hair offset, so that when I bolted né side down, it would draw the channel together. Is that making sense?

The way I drilled/drove them, if I tightened up one side before I tightened up the other side, I could not have gotten the screws through. I did it, so that if I started the screws in one side, and then I started the screws in the other side, and then I tightened them up, it would jam the pieces of channel together.

And I completely understand that on the flange side of the channel, the flange side of the angle, but that’s a small compromise. With a little chemical bonding, and snagging the quarter 20 self tapping screws, I should have plenty of strength.

Then I look at that casket full of beer, 1,000 pounds, and I know I need all the reinforcement I could get…

Not that I would ever fill it full of beer…

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I understand the offset holes. Good idea. And if you're using only self tappers tthen the hole orientation won't matter. But if you use bolts + nuts, like I think you said you would, then having the hole drilled so at 90° they are offset vertically will be a lot less work.