Project Large Marge - Going Full Tilt

[Just-in-credible]

Sorry for being so quiet on this!

I have a few upodates for you folks.

FIrst of all, I spent the last few weeks dragging even MORE trucks home. I had a bit of a loss of control at an auction and ended up with two more trucks.

[Just-in-credible]

My original intent when going to this auction was to grab this parts truck. It is a 1960, and I figured it would be good to have a few of these spare pieces laying around. I had no idea what engine was in the thing, and I had no idea of any of the history of the truck. Long story short, I paid 700 bucks for the thing and drug it home.

[Just-in-credible]

The biggest surprise came when I got it home and finally managed to get the cab tilting linkage free…lurking under the cab is what I am reasonably sure is a 348. Lots of things say that a passenger dipstick means a 409, buty I am pretty sure it would have been a 348, given that it is a 1960. I have never ever seen one of these in real life before, so I was pretty excited. I think I might have to start looking for a 58 fleet side to build around this motor haha. The thing will crank, but I didn’t do much more past that. I was out of time because I bought another truck, which I had to go get that same day, which brings us to part two of the story.

[Just-in-credible]

I have no idea why I bought this thing…
That is a lie…I know exactly why I bought it. It has a Detroit 6-71 in it, and it starts and runs SO good, I couldn’t bring myself to leave without this thing.

What am I going to do with it? I have absolutely no clue. It has air brakes on it. And a 4+4 transmission, which, I learned very quickly, is not as simple to drive as I had thought it would be. I learned very quickly that if I miss a shift, I need to pull over and start from the beginning haha.
Even though this thing went to the very bottom of the priority list, I was thinking it would be cool to stuff some modern big rig axles under it for updated brakes, put a more modern road ranger transmission in it, run alcoa floats on the front, chop it short, put it on air, and have a really cool fifth wheel hauler. But for now, she gets to live at my parents farm and just tug things around on the farm until I get more time to deal with it.

[Just-in-credible]

Shes a 65 B7000. Current plan...I dont have one. So she got parked at my folks place and will patiently wait her turn.

[Just-in-credible]

Anyhow…back to Marge.
I talked to a local wrecking yard, and got a front and rear axle out of a 2008 international CF600 box truck. The front axle is a Dana D700, and the rear is a Dana S110. I also got a rear frame section from a Freightliner air liner. This gave me the frame brackets, the bags, and the suspension arms. The wreckers told me it would be a week or so until I got the parts, and I had a bunch of other stuff to do, so I was not in a hurry for them.
Fast forward 2 months, and I called to follow up. They told me they had them ready to go for a month, and had no way to get in touch with me. Funny enough, when I went to grab them, my phone number and email was still on the original order…funny how that works.

[Just-in-credible]

My idea is to bolt the rear arms on the frame and use them in a very similar arrangement as the airliner system. This would keep them in a radius arm type of set up. I will set the bracket height and my pinion angle to be about where I want it at ride height, and it will be close enough when it is aired all the way down. I don’t really think it will cause me too much for issues when I am aired down, as I won’t be doing a whole lot of driving that low.

[Just-in-credible]

Originally, I wanted a radius arm front. I thought that would be super simple and easy to install. The problem with that arrangement is going to be the caster angle as the suspension cycles up and down. With that said, I am designing a 4 link for the front, which will be a bolt on assembly using the existing bolt holes in the axle, and the existing front leaf spring hanger, adding a bracket or two I know this picture is a bit busy, but this is the idea I have so far. If thre are any 4 link or air suspension experts out there, please let me know if I am doing this right, because I have never done one of these before.

[CG]

Not a part of the board I spend any time on but seeing the title pop up I checked it out. I really like what you are doing here. Your ability to model and print really helps the vision.

Back in the day they used this style of tilt cab truck to make a lot of race car haulers. I dont think thats your end game here but you can grab some general ideas. There are some really neat examples online if you do a search.

Keep up the good work, this is a fun build to follow!

[Just-in-credible]

I got the rear axle out without much fuss. it got pretty late on me, so the last bit ended up being done with the headlights of my other truck for light, but shes out just the same.

Now comes the fun task of grinding off the bajillion rivets that hold the old suspension brackets on.

[Just-in-credible]

Well that was a miserable job...

After much grinding, swearing, and beating...All of the rear frame rivets are out.

i mocked up the axle based on two existing holes in the frame, and just drilled two new ones to temporarily locate the new axle.

I wanted to add a couple pins to the axle housing to ensure the axle and arm assembly stays centered. There is a single pin on the top of the housing, and it is offset towards the front. I 3D printed a jig to help align the second pin. I made a ¾” bushing that had a ¼” pilot hole that I turned on my lathe. I made matching pins which sat in the holes I drilled.

I then made a matching jig for the lower axle to center the arm stud on the lower half of the axle.

[Just-in-credible]

lower axle jig...

[Just-in-credible]

and finally...new axle bolted in place. THis may not be the final location, I just used existing holes in the frame to check for fit. but so far so good. I will locate everyhing for good once I get the tanks mounted and know how much clearance I have for things like exhaust, and setting pinion angle.

[Just-in-credible]

Just out of pure curiosity, I had one of those mothers power ball wheel polishers laying around at the shop, so I thought I would try it on the paint and see what happened.

In no time, the oxidization disappeared, and the original metallic came back, along with the shine. I bet this old girl will polish right back up.

[Just-in-credible]

I wanted to do a quick mock up to see where the tanks would land, and where the fenders would sit, so I got myself some cardboard, and mocked up a few different sizes of tanks and fenders. I think I got things mostly figured out to where it should all work together.
I still don’t have a great plan for how I am going to mount the stacks, but I have a bit of time yet before I need to sort that out.

I think I am going to slide the tanks and the axle ahead to take up the space between the rear of the fender and the front of the tank. I had originally planned to have the exhaust run in that space, but I think I will run the stack over top of the tank instead of all the way to the ground. I need to leave space for the cab to tilt, and mounting the stack higher means I can move it forward a bunch and close the gap between the stack and the cab.

[Just-in-credible]

Which also means...Now that I know this size of tank will work, I ordered the tanks. I got 60 gallon tanks from a Freightliner 112. They are about 22" diameter and 35" long. I will end up getting new straps for them that do not have the steps on, but for now, I will just buzz the steps off and use them as is.

The drivers side will be the actual fuel tank, and the passenger will be a dummy tank, where I will mount my battery and my air tanks.

[Just-in-credible]

Latest update! I now have my tanks, and I pulled the trigger on wheels and tires.

I had to run wheel adapters to go from the 10x225 to the 10x285, but overall, they look great! It is the exact look I was going for.
I want to wait until I get the front axle in and located before I mount the tanks. For now, everything is just kind of sitting in place. But all in all, I think it looks exactly the way I wanted it to. I cant wait to see it with the front suspension aired out the way I want it to.

Unfortunately for you folks, I am taking a few weeks off from working on this project to get my Apache ready to hit the road for street machine weekend in Lethbridge. I have way too many things to do, and not nearly enough time!

[yuccales]

Marge be looking good!

[Just-in-credible]

First off, I had decided that I was going to take the summer off from projects because summer is just too short up here, and I wanted to take time to enjoy it instead of hanging out in the shop all summer.

I also decided that it was time to haul all of the scrap steel from the bed, and the axles to the recyclers. I loaded the bed and the two rear axles up in 2 loads. The grand total so far was 8000lbs on the nose. The box weighed 4,780lbs, and the two axles weighed in at 3,220 together. I knew it was heavy when I hauled it home, but now I am starting to understand HOW heavy.

Anyhow…The plan going forward is to work hard on Marge through the months of October and November and see how far I can get. I have a few other projects that I would also like to get done, so I have been thinking of doing each project for a month and switching so I don’t get quite so burned out on each project.

I need to get the front axle yanked out and replaced with the new axle from the box truck so I can get Marge inside my shop. I only have an 8’ door, and it is too tall to fit inside. Even with the suspension chained down and the air out of the tires, she was too tall. I will probably put a very temporary radius arm in it, just to be able to move it inside the shop, I will then fabricate the real 4 link suspension once it is inside. I will use 2”, ¼” wall square tube for the radius arms, and use a threaded inserts to put the 1” Heim joints that I have in the ends of the tube. I will bolt the heims into the front leaf hangers, and bolt the other end of the arm to the top of the new axle. This should make for a quick solution to get the new axle under the truck with minimal fuss.

[Just-in-credible]

And so it begins...

I could have taken the tires off and drug the axle sideways, but it wasn’t hard to get the rear end out, I only had 4 bolts holding it together right now. So I decided to go out the back with the front axle. The tires were too tall for me to be able to jack it high enough to get it out the front. So…out the back we went. For such a big heavy axle, it rolled surprisingly easy.

[Just-in-credible]

Well…the front axle is in!
All in all, it went in without much fuss. I was able to bolt it in using my temporary radius arm system just to see how it would work. The only issue came when I decided to pull the jacks out. I learned very quickly that having the cab flipped forward had a LOT of weight over the front. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to pull the front jack stands first. Keep in mind, I did not have the rear axle installed at this point. As soon as I pulled the front jack stands, the thing did a face plant and stood its self on the front bumper, kicking the rear end of the frame about 7’ in the air. The good news is, it was relatively balanced, so this was a rather slow event. I went to the front, and slowly and gently pushed the cab back down, and the whole thing gently descended back to earth.
That was enough excitement for one day, it was getting dark, so I called it quits.

[Just-in-credible]

I know a picture is worth 1000 words, so I figured I would add a picture of how I fabricobbled the front axle into place. The old leaf spring bolt was 1” diameter, so I got a 1” Heim joint, and made a radius arm out of 2”x2” square tube, and bolted the tube to the axle. This is just temporary, so I can see how it cycles up and down, and so I can move it into my shop. I am still on the fence as to if I should go with a radius arm or a 4 link, but at least I can get it into the shop now, and not be huffing tools across the yard every time I want to work on it.

[yuccales]

Originally Posted by Just-in-credible

As soon as I pulled the front jack stands, the thing did a face plant and stood its self on the front bumper, kicking the rear end of the frame about 7’ in the air. The good news is, it was relatively balanced, so this was a rather slow event. I went to the front, and slowly and gently pushed the cab back down, and the whole thing gently descended back to earth.
That was enough excitement for one day, it was getting dark, so I called it quits.

Sippin my cup of coffee, catching up on Marge, read this and started laughing! I can just picture it falling forward! Keep the updates coming, be safe.

[MellowYellow70]

I really like the updates on this project

[C10 - C90 Bill]

If the W Engine in the '60 is original, it's a 348. The 409 came later.

Really like the '65 B7000. If I had it, I would keep it all original. The 4 X 4 Trans is fun, once you get used to it.