DREADNOUGHT

Dreadnought definitions that suit me...

One that is among the largest or most powerful of its kind.

Fears nothing.

Big, Strong, Impressive, Awe inspiring.

Any large heavily armored battleship.


Heh!

Sand application between topcoats

Here folks is an image of the result of shaking clean/dry sand in between the final two topcoats...The feel is that of around 20 grit sandpaper...

Hi Solids Polyurethane

Perhaps I'm particularly sensitive to these types of coatings because the actual topcoat hi solids polyurethane was actually much worse than the Kem Kromik primer, as far as odor and dislike. I'm not sure if the hardener was the culprit and what, if any, effect the reducer had in the mix, I had to reduce it a small amount to make it more workable... Very happy I never opened the stuff inside!!! I even had a good breeze blowing and it annoyed me.

After careful consideration, I'm leaning towards letting the huge landing gear idea go at this time due mainly to the weight. (I have a slightly educated guess that they are over 220 lbs each)

I might add that if I do happen to come into possession of a GM Duramax (Preferring the GMC)  I could go ahead with the extra weight...Especially if a set pops up on Craigslist that's reasonable...

I guess it's time to talk about my truck. I suppose you can see it in some of my posts. I love it! It is a 2000 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 2wd extended cab long bed with the 6.0 LS engine.
A little story; I've gone to look at the new trucks, mouth gets all dry, then I get back in my paid for, nothing wrong with Baby and she glides away just as pretty as you please... Sure a crew cab four door, four wheel drive, dually, WITH DIESEL AND ALLISON TOO!!! would be tits!!!
Some of you may know, if you've ever heard of a spark plug, or haven't spent your life on Uranus, that GM's LS engines are the easiest to soup up.  Very reasonably priced mods and some of the best engines in existence... SO! I've toyed with the idea of freshening it up (new rod bearings and mains, rings, oil pump etc) and slapping on a set of aluminum L-92 heads and a new intake. Then adding a small turbo charger (75mm) and running about 10 lbs of boost. I figure that'll get me in the 500-550 hp range and around 500 ft. lbs. of torque to pull my trailer loaded uphill without, lets just say, getting in the way... My dealer says they can reflash computer and offered options for the transmission.. While toying I have noted that Hudiburg Fleet sales in Oklahoma seems to have the best prices on the 2015 and 2016 3500HD crew cab 4X4 with Duramax and Allison....Both with pickup bed and cab and chassis and bed options as well. (I'm rather fond of the aluminum flat beds)
Obviously I'd go with the dually for stability but folks that's an awful lot of money, I cannot trade my truck because she's my girl...She's reliable if I do nothing! I have a car I could trade in but I'm not a fan of payments AT ALL! Therefore I'm left with paying for it by working my butt off. I'm starting a complete exterior first thing in the morning, I'll get the interior as well... But honestly, I'd need 20 more to buy that truck and I'm not certain I could do it. Sure, it would be fantastic and I could do more dabbling in heavy equipment (buying/selling) but I just don't think I could do it. That is a boatload of money!

That's all I have to say about that. I need to get up early, get to Nashville and get to work... It rained a good portion of the day here and I had to give a bid for work so nothing got done on goose today, still need to finish priming bottom of diamond plate and painting it as well, then I need to run 7 conductor wire in conduit, wire in breakaway box, electrical connector, brakes, stop and turns... Then design and build ramps. Add additional lights etc.

I'll tell you what!!! Has anybody seen the big truck trailers with the tilting landing pads on jacks? They ride in a low in the rear attitude and look B.A. to me. The 12 thousand pound axles from Dexter are $1300 each through my dealer in TX. Two month waiting time after ordering... Tires and wheels are $235 each and are 18 ply rated at 6005 lbs each. Though they are 17.5 inch, they are actually smaller in circumference than the 16's. (lower profile side wall) The total will be around $4000. to get to the labor part. Meanwhile I'm looking for the big truck jacks I've got to have, these Bulldogs are petty in comparison., comparatively the Bulldogs look anorexic...
Talking to my engineering friend, we agree there is no rating that can be put on my mainframe and bedframe because there is no comparison, the weight carrying capacity of my trailer can *ONLY* be limited by the axles. The diamond plate is 278 lbs per sheet, times 5 equals 1390 lbs...

I was thinking of putting JDM inside neck I-beam and now I'm toying with maybe:

LEVIATHAN
BEHEMOTH
COLOSSUS
DREADNOUGHT

Heh!

Maybe DREADNOUGHT and my phone number...

Anybody have a set of big truck trailer jacks that sound like what I'm talking about please contact me... I don't believe they are made any longer, too much weight...

Another comment on commercial trailers... Folks the entire "torque tube" fiasco created by the large trailer companies to sound intelligent and add cost is killing me really, I get tears streaming down my face at the lengths they will go to in order to build a cheap trailer and make cheap sound inviting. Hilarious doesn't quite get there...

So as I mentioned in an earlier post, get up on a commercially available trailer and walk to any corner and jump and the opposing corner flops up and down, well looky here people... Along comes the almighty *torque tube* watch this; by welding a piece of pipe at 2 or 3 points inside the mainframe they can cut down on the flopping when you jump on the corners... Hehehehehehe....

Okay, here's the thing people... steel flex is about the worst thing you can do to steel, it causes the steel to become stressed, metal fatigue is a serious problem, you cannot fix it. Imagine replacing the main beams in these trailers after a few years...

Again, I'd like to point out that anybody can build their own. My fully boxed mainframe beams are extremely ridged, the rear wall of the 6 inch channel is 7/16 inch thick, the web is 3/4 inch, now double that and you can imagine the strength we're talking about. Two of those for the main frame and then main frame crossmembers from the same material, then add another one to the center of the crossmembers... Do you think this system can flex???

Too tired to do much explaining. I'll state that in a perfect world my ideas would've been fantastic. The things I said I'd do were outrageous fantasy. I got up at 4:00 am on the 19th and pulled it all outside, set up main frame level, then put every piece of bed frame on main frame, went on to dove and that's where the illusion became apparent. With bed frame sides positioned perfectly with miters at front nothing with dove would line up, I had the bedframe done at 5:30 am and the dove took 4 hours. I got it after quite a bit of WTF... I started welding at 10:00 am and well... I'm a peculiar person I suppose some may say. I couldn't just weld without continually checking every piece for movement, oh the horror of imperfection is simply intolerable. I worked all day and until 1:00 am the 20th. Things have been pretty much a blur since then, I've worked on it one way or another since. I had an outside job scheduled with my work that had to be done so that drove me nuts. I'll update in more detail when I catch a mood. There is no end to what's enough. I ruined my press bed shaping the boarding handles (They had to be identical...) the boarding steps took a whopping 2 hours, couldn't have shin busters on MY trailer...I installed the lights I had today, also what WAS the plan, things change... I'm ordering more mini L.E.D.s right after this, and flood work lights, contemplating bed surface lights, either out of any conceivable way or dead center, flush without question... I put 3 per side under bed facing down on outside of wheels (tire issues resolved with glance in mirror) and it's evident 1 or 2 lights inside wheels would be logical... At any rate, here's the images... enjoy!

All about the Prep!

Working on getting lights set up. Here's the plan... Thursday morning early I'll get all bed frame channel on mainframe and pull outside, not sure if its been mentioned, but trailer almost 8 1/2 feet wide will not go through my shop door, once bedframe welded no more inside at my current shop. I'm thinking about looking for a larger shop because I'm getting calls to fabricate/weld on large equipment, dump beds, big truck trailers etc and I enjoy this type of work, as well, it's good exercise... I'm not capable of laying around... So, Thursday morning I pull it all outside and set up/weld all bed frame, then weld on stake pockets, install lights and go to steel company to pick up diamond plate. No mystery here if anyone's wondering, I've already explained I need one sheet cut lengthwise 32/16 (to avoid mating over short crossmembers at wheels) and that I need each sheet laid in its respective position on bed frame, we can do it with their crane/trolly hoist.
No time to play, I'll strap for security in freshly welded stake pockets, get back to shop, set up plasma cutter and remove triangle corners for boarding steps, weld sheet steel top and bottom (stitch) and then have a couple of my guys get on the primer, while I knock off weld slag and such with angle grinder. Then I can set up boarding steps and weld. I may have left out that in using these marine coatings they require you to "strike" coat all welds/joints first, then go over all. By the time they get close to being finished I'll start one guy back on paint. I'm concerned with bottom, time consuming...
I decided (diamond plate gets slippery when wet) to add a special step into the top bed coat as follows: I'm going to get them started on top of bed together and as soon as they roll out one 4X8 section, I'll sprinkle clean/dry sand on wet paint (I'm making a sort of sand shaker with a folgers canister, drilled holes in lid...) Then after that paint can be topcoated...Sand should be well into coating and sealed.
Weather permitting, that is the plan...
This evening I cut 3/4 inch holes in side bed frame channel for markers. Had to countersink (1 inch) holes in order to use mini L.E.D.'s (channel too thick) Annular cutters, mag drill... Here are images of that process, single hole. I drilled/countersunk 6. Last image shows light lit with battery...

Okay people or lack of them...Maybe I should just type Okay record... Heh. Sherwin Williams, understanding the nature of me and my extremely high opinion of quality and longevity, sold me an industrial primer...
Kem Kromik pronounced Chem Chrome-ick a lot like it looks. Protective and Marine coatings. This is an Alkyd metal primer.
First and foremost the stuff is the most bonding product I have ever used and I own a painting company and use alkyd based (oil) paints regularly and have for a number of years. Example: I applied this product to naked prepared metal and in removing some of it, to weld, I learned it was next to impossible with a stainless wire brush in my angle grinders. Apparently this product gets into the microscopic pores in the steel, very pleased with results so far.

Just as important, depending on your view, is that the product is almost completely impossible to tolerate the smell/odor. Again, I have experience with thousands of different types of coatings and none has offended me as bad as this. You'll want to get a breathing apparatus and spare no expense. On top of that the fumes remain in the air for some time. (if the epa knew about this they surely would bury it all with nuclear waste and no one could ever use it again) When I use it again, it will be outside no matter the circumstances. I hope that this is coming across clearly! I'll add that it actually made me angry with a cheapo filtered mask. (the mask didn't filter enough out and the chemical that got into my lungs/bloodstream made me angry) This product will not be used by me inside my shop or any other closed space again, period.

At this point I believe this is and will prove to be the best metal primer available. Cannot reduce.(who wants to have to paint over and over)

The paint (top coat) is a two part product, high solids... The name is Hi-Solids Polyurethane, also protective and marine coatings. Comes with the hardener, one gallon and one quart respectively, and that's how it's mixed 80/20. I'll say more after I use it but SW assures me the odor will be much better and may not bother me at all. I'm very interested in not having to paint again.

Okay, I've added a center single 6 inch channel member for additional support between mainframes essentially making three mainframe beams. My reasoning is that my forklift is 36 inches wide and weighs 5200 pounds dry. I'm surprised that didn't occur to me before. Obviously forklifts concentrate massive amounts of weight in a very tiny footprint... I mentioned the additional beam before but not why. There you have it. (it isn't lost on me that the tandem dually is ideal for this by its inherent design)

I just laid out my conduit and 7-way conductor cable in preparation for wiring. (conduit needs to relax from tight spool position) Here are current images...