The Road Ranger. 1997 SEMI

[Curious Hound]

Patience. Years ago, I was heavily jnterested in wooden boat building. I learned from others that one of the most important shop tools is a comfortable chair. Not a stool to sit on while working at the work bench. But an honest comfortable chair. A place to sit and look at the current project, to relax and think and reflect on the project? How does it look? Does it function the way I want it to function? Is it pleasing to the eye? What is the next step? Should I change how I have something planned? Am I satisfied? Am I truly ready to do the next step? Enjoy a cool drink while looking at your work. Enjoy the process. The thinking chair is a vital part of every project. Not just for boat building, but for any project.

 

[Rick W]

Patience. Years ago, I was heavily jnterested in wooden boat building. I learned from others that one of the most important shop tools is a comfortable chair. Not a stool to sit on while working at the work bench. But an honest comfortable chair. A place to sit and look at the current project, to relax and think and reflect on the project? How does it look? Does it function the way I want it to function? Is it pleasing to the eye? What is the next step? Should I change how I have something planned? Am I satisfied? Am I truly ready to do the next step? Enjoy a cool drink while looking at your work. Enjoy the process. The thinking chair is a vital part of every project. Not just for boat building, but for any project.

I have no time for that!!!!

No scratch that. Good advice, and I do sit and contemplate a lot. I rushed to get it to the show, but now I am backing up and redoing a few things more precisely. That may not be the perfect word for this project, but you get the idea.

I was frustrated with the wheels, they’re supposed to be rated at 1100 pounds, but that must be when they’re frozen in ice or something…

 

[RobbieD]

But an honest comfortable chair. A place to sit and look at the current project, to relax and think and reflect on the project?

Good advice, and I do sit and contemplate a lot.

So true, and that's why I'm seriously considering putting a toilet in my garage.

After all, that's where I get some of my best ideas . . .

 

[Rick W]

So true, and that's why I'm seriously considering putting a toilet in my garage.

After all, that's where I get some of my best ideas . . .

Sometimes, that’s where some of my ideas belong!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

@Rick W , as for those wheels, maybe you could do like some boat trailers where they have wider/different forks and stack two or three wheels together? On rough terrain wider wheels or more surface area on the ground (more wheels) helps lower contact pressure and makes it easier to move. Pneumatic wide tires work really well on rough surfaces, but not so practical for landing gear on a trailer

 

[Rick W]

@Rick W , as for those wheels, maybe you could do like some boat trailers where they have wider/different forks and stack two or three wheels together? On rough terrain wider wheels or more surface area on the ground (more wheels) helps lower contact pressure and makes it easier to move. Pneumatic wide tires work really well on rough surfaces, but not so practical for landing gear on a trailer

Good advice, I actually have one of those double wheel jackstands, but my problem is I was just being cheap like usual. These wheels were $6.99, and the steel wheels were $7.99. I think if I swap to the steel ones it’ll be fine for what I do, maybe these will be fine for what I do. I suspect the only time I’ll be using the wheels at all is when I jockey it around in my driveway since I have no place to turn around with the whole rig. If I’m anywhere else, I’m going to use a solid foot, so it would be harder for somebody else to mess with it.

But again, these were supposed to be rated at 1100 pounds. I think that might be in Barbie pounds.

Edit: I also wanted the bigger diameter wheels since my driveway bricks can be rough

 

[Rick W]

Sooooo, I started cutting the grass late this morning, the summer has returned to Atlanta and it was about 90 by lunchtime, and still heading up.

Now, not that I think cutting grass sucks, but I took my broken kitchen chair, and I sat it behind the Road Ranger semi, with a fan blowing on me, and I pulled off the left rear light panel to see what it would take to change the shocks. I would have had them both changed in about 30 minutes, except I spent 35 minutes trying to get one stripped and gaulded 9/16 bolt out. Once I removed it (along with some of the skin on my knuckles) everything fell in place.

Before:

After:

The coil overs, especially with my deluxe paint job, were infinitely more sexy on the back end of that thing, but I realized on the 40th trip they were just way too stiff, so now we have the Lincoln panther platform rear shocks. I was thinking of painting them, but they look so wimpy compared to the rest of the stuff, I figured leave them black to disappear into the background, at least until I test drive it.

These are going in the shed of miracles, for who knows what:

And yes, those are steel toe socks. All the work was done, and I had taken a break, and I just went out to walk Lincoln and get a couple of pictures…

 

[Rick W]

On the Road Ranger trailer, I followed @ericbphoto ‘s advice, kind of, and I sat down on my broken kitchen chair with a tape measure and a piece of chalk, going back-and-forth between the tail of the Road Ranger and the neck of the trailer, figuring out the geometry for the redo of the tongue.

In the process, I figured out why the very front end of that trailer tilted at a different angle than the trailer, an easy fix. And somehow I still had one wire run on the wrong side of a thingamabob, so I fixed that.

The funny thing is that Sweet Pea has two recliners sitting in her garage that’re too good to throw out, but nobody has wanted it. If I welded a picnic table umbrella……

 

[RobbieD]

If I welded a picnic table umbrella……

. . . and a drink holder.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

. . . and a drink holder.

Or 2

 

[Curious Hound]

See that? Do you see all these great ideas that come from a few minutes in the thinking chair?

 

[don4331]

I’ve been fooling around with the tape measure, and it looks like I want to move the “pin” back about 14 inches. I want the front of the lower deck to clear the corners on the semi by a couple of inches, and also be able to turn a full 90° without interference. I’m trying to figure out some way to mock it up with a 2x4 and plywood so I only do it once (we’ll, once more).

For 5th wheels towed by class 2 trucks (as opposed to class 8 trailers), the minimum clearance recommended is 6". That allows for changes in grade and flexing of components. That provides enough room for a worse cases real life scenario.

 

[Rick W]

Former inspirational seating:

New inspirational seating:

I’m going to have to get everything done. Only two left after this, and this one is already wobbly (like me).

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Former inspirational seating:

View attachment 97382

New inspirational seating:

View attachment 97383

I’m going to have to get everything done. Only two left after this, and this one is already wobbly (like me).

As long as the wobbles are in sync there should be no problem

 

[Roert42]

Around here we call that a “lawn chair”.
Wife says she doesn’t want it in the house anymore so so we take it out back and use it for sitting around the fire or whatever.

Or you save it for when someone you know moves and drop it off at their new house first day they get the keys. Say “ Figured you’d want something to sit on, you know, better then sitting on the floor.”gotten rid of a lot of old broken chairs this way.