Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

Your mention of friction tape brought to mind what I use instead of friction tape. The black tape used on hockey sticks works better than basic friction tape, I use it when splicing woven wiring loom material.

https://howieshockeytape.com/collections/hockey-tape

 

Nothing like a rapid forced sweat.
Glad you out danced it.
Once pulling a Wagoneer 4x4, using a side road as I approach a stop sign the cross road is a good 6 feet lower than my road.
The difference is made up in about two and a half car lengths.
Wagoneer 4x4 is resting on the sling straps the bottom bar is under the bumper.
As I hit the brakes, full pressure, the weight of the Wagoneer is pushing down hard enough to make my steer tires lose traction and slide. ( apparently the rear drums aren't adjusted tight enough )
I had to ease up the brake enough to allow the front tires, and discs to grip the asphalt and do their job.
Meanwhile the whole mess rolled onto the crossroad. Thankfully the road just led to 2 farms and a deadend. YEESH

 

Scary I wonder if there is easy way to set the trailer brakes?
Dan

 

IF I’m ever crazy enough to do it again, I’ll lock it in 4X4 and the between the parking brake and the trans locking both ends, it should hold. But it would take something pretty serious to get me to try doing anything on the hill again.

 

How steep is the hill?
Dan

 

I’ll have to put the angle finder on it. If I had to guess I’d say between 10 and 15 degrees. It takes 4wd in the winter if we’re lucky but it’s only 300 ft. from the road to the garage Otherwise I clear a spot near the bottom and we can walk the fence up to the house where it levels off. The shop is about 1/3 of the way up if we can get there to park

 

Locking in 4x4 is your friend . The tongue weight changes and raises the rear axle of towing truck off the ground . I have seen it happen many times , loading and unloading equipment on the pipeline rigs . Scary stuff , the operator on the equipment on the trailer can do nothing but ride the shit storm out . Always tried to get to most level spot as possible . Most of the drags we used had feet to support the ramps which made it some what better . Air brake trucks helped .

 

Had a similar experience, but wanted to add that it doesn't take much of a grade. The big thing I think is how much the trailer lifts the tow vehicles rear as you initially drive onto the ramps. I was at my brothers house and he has a "slight" grade as his driveway winds across his yard. A few degrees (3-5) at most. My tow "vehickle " was a 2000 Chevy 1/2 ton reg cab shortbed. The other "to be towed" vehicle was a 2000 S10 extended Cab. It had been sitting for a while and (unbeknownst to me) the rear brake lines had rusted thru. As I drove onto the trailer I was surprised that the small S10 squatted the rear of the trailer and raised the rear of my Silverado. The whole thing began rolling forward..........

Thinking quickly I hit the S-10s brakes figuring the rear wheels would stop the S-10 and remove the weight from the trailer. Thats when I found that only the front brakes were working and they kept me on the back of the trailer. It gained a little momentum and slowly began to jack-knife. Panic..........

Luckily the jack-knife slowed thing and just as the corner of the trailer hit the rear fender it stopped.
My lucky day............... The dent was really just a small ding that could easily be fixed by one of those pull-a-dent guys. Its still there tho because its not really noticeable. I think the key thing here is that if you are loading downhill, it accentuates the lift at the front of a trailer and compounds the result. Just remember that the grade I was dealing with was only a few degrees, maybe 3-5 degrees. Best to have someone in the tow vehicle if ever loading on any type of grade..........


One additional thing, chocking the rear of a trailer so it can't push down may help .

 

When we bought this D-9 dozer the owner loaded it on the back of a four axle trailer….on an incline! As he climbed onto the trailer , the trailer and truck started heading down hill at a rapid pace, starting to Jack knife! I was observing this at a distance, thinking this is not end well for the guy we hired to haul this monster! The owner , cool as a cucumber, just shifted the D-9 into reverse and backed it off the moving trailer , when the cleats reached the ground, everything stopped, short of any damage! Coolest thing I have seen in years!




Bones

 

When we loaded him there was a slight slope and his tires could barely get him up on the trailer. The truck didn’t show any signs of moving at all. But had he backed up on the trailer when it was slipping, it probably would’ve stopped everything as the weight returned to the rear axle of the truck.

 

Sometimes logic is a bit slow to show up during a crisis. Much easier to get it right the next time.

 

i'm not sure that is a 9.....

 

That's OK. I bet 99% of us don't know the difference between a D-9 Caterpillar and a rocking chair.

 

Here's one I discovered this afternoon when I was replacing some disk brake pads. I've always pulled both bolts out and removed the caliper completely (except for the rubber brake line) when replacing pads. I was having a hard time with the 2nd bolt on the first side that I did and accidently found that I could just pivot the caliper up and out of the way on the other bolt. Well, that saved some time and aggravation. By leaving one bolt in there was no need to fiddle around lining up the bolts again.

First pic shows one bolt removed and the piston/housing moved slightly. Second pic shows piston/housing swung completely out of the way allowing the pads to just about fall out.

Replace the pads; push the piston back in; swing the housing back down; reinstall one bolt; and boom; you're done.

NOTE: this may or may not work on other vehicles, but it worked this time on this one.

 

1990s and 2000s Subarus come with one pin and one bolt with the assumption being you'd undo the bolt and swing it on the pin.

 

I’m sure it is, because I said it is and I bought!




Bones

 

That dozer is still a brute. The heavy duty winch is an awesome addition. It may not have all the bells and whistles of a modern D9, but I bet it can get the job done. The sun shade/cab cover showers that thing was meant to be worked. In the words of some on the site, I’d drive it.

 

Thank you! We bought this monster some years ago, like thirty! We acquired a new pice of land on the West side of the ranch, that was bottom land with huge trees. We used it to clear that piece fir grass! It was a blast to operate. We would put it in low gear, drop the 14 foot wide blade and raise it 1 inch and just drive through the smaller trees. Funny thing about the engine. Idle was 900 rpm, wide open was something like 1400! lol




Bones

 

better look around your neighbors for a 60 or 70 can-you have a dbl drum on there!

 

Yep! We don’t use it any more. All the big stuff is done! I have a scraper that will fit it! I was planning on building a lake on the East side of the ranch, but got too old!
If we need anything done we use my D-6 or one of our wheel tractors, with front end loaders!




Bones

 

One day with that brute and I could be done with all the dirt work I’ve been doing for the past 20+ years

 

You can break a rocking chair...

Cheers,
Harv

 

Personally, I consider it to be a classic. I'm a Chevy guy at heart, but old Mustangs are not only "classics", they are an Icon. That's why we have that brand still being manufactured 60+ years later. (1964)
Look around you today and notice how many manufacturers have quit producing " Cars" or only produce one car instead of several. The bulk of sales today is either an SUV or a truck.......yet the Mustang has endured. Yep, I think they qualify as a Classic (IMHO).