fuel tank repair, the hard way

[pjtoledo]

just a reminder as to how easy life is here in North America

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Theres a series on youtube that documents truck driving in some of these 3rd world countries....its amazing what they go through and how much life they can squeeze from old machinery.

 

[ericbphoto]

I like those videos. I’ve seen some with the guys doing heavy equipment repair in what we consider rough conditions. But it’s their shop, working outside in the dirt right next to a busy street downtown. I admire what they do with simple tools, elbow grease, time and determination.

You hand me a hammer and chisel and say “I need you to cut this fuel tank in half.” And I’ll say “Get real, dude. Fire up the air compressor and hand me a pack of cutoff wheels.” Or, better yet. Let’s weld a couple 55 gallon drums together and make a brand new tank.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

I like those videos. I’ve seen some with the guys doing heavy equipment repair in what we consider rough conditions. But it’s their shop, working outside in the dirt right next to a busy street downtown. I admire what they do with simple tools, elbow grease, time and determination.

You hand me a hammer and chisel and say “I need you to cut this fuel tank in half.” And I’ll say “Get real, dude. Fire up the air compressor and hand me a pack of cutoff wheels.” Or, better yet. Let’s weld a couple 55 gallon drums together and make a brand new tank.

I was watching one one time from somewhere in africa. It was a stake truck that was loaded way over capacity then they had like 30 people riding on top of the cargo.

They buried it in some mud about hub deep, the drive axle just sunk. Everyone unloaded off the top and they literally pryed it up and out with a huge branch.

I told the wife personally, as a truck driver here in the states...it would be quite a fun and fulfilling experence to go over there and do that for a week or two.

Driving a 50 year old off brand truck held togther with shitty welds and wire, overloaded to twice its capacity down "roads" that wouldnt even pass as trails here with nothing but your own wits and guts to get you home.

My luck id snap a U joint or somethin and get attacked by a lion over a 20 dollar part. But eh.

 

[89Twincharge]

Reminds me of the two years I spent working in a junkyard.... No power tools or even floor jacks... Had to use scissor jacks from cars.. we'd use exhaust pipe and seatbelts to pull motors... Cut holes with chisels to access fuel pumps... Damn I miss that!!

 

[superj]

me too, but when i worked at the local golf cart shop

no air tools, no electric tools, just hand tools. i covered all the golf courses in a 2 hour range from my town because i was the only factory trained guy so i got sent for all the warranty work. we have lots of golf courses down here, let me tell you

 

[89Twincharge]

me too, but when i worked at the local golf cart shop

no air tools, no electric tools, just hand tools. i covered all the golf courses in a 2 hour range from my town because i was the only factory trained guy so i got sent for all the warranty work. we have lots of golf courses down here, let me tell you

Nice!!? I know the older carts had the one big battery instead of multi battery. I helped my dad replace them a couple times but we used a engine hoist, speaking of golf carts at the j.y. we had to pull a Prius battery, ended up cutting the quarter panel off car to get it out and took 4 of us to get it on back of truck

 

[superj]

wow! i wondered how big those batteries in the prius are. i always think about getting a used older one, since they are super cheap, and just getting a new battery. they used to be around 1500 for a battery, if i remember right. and i think i read and figured it would take me about three days to swap it. i read you pretty much have to remove the whole interior and some panels to get the battery out

 

[superj]

being a golf cart mechanic was a great job. free golf at every course and we built alot of those off-road golf carts before these side by side things came out.

there used to a be tv show about hunting deer. it filmed in a few places but one of the ranches they used is here in south texas. we built their lifted off-road golf cart that was used on the show. i went out to the ranch one time to do some warranty work on it and the ranch had its own landing strip on top of a plateau and a huge, beautiful house. it was crazy