The Steco

Well doing some work on the old float getting it ready for some high speed highway work instead of the normal farm work and crawling around the joint
So some fresh treads and some new brake shoes and fix some lights and should be good to go

rough neighbor hood left the float near the house and found some joker flogged me wheels LOL



bloody weird suspension set up thought I would jack it up and leave it on blocks with axles hanging in the air

No such luck the walking beams just keep on hanging down lower and lower I reckon it would have to 6 feet up before the pivots stop drooping

Paul

Can we have a closer look at that suspension please while she is lying there naked.

Mrs
Gudday m8

Steco lost the plot with th@ suspension
They had a big contract to supply the army
and designed th@ suspension
The Army stipulated th@ the axles must B able to travel up 12 inches as climbin over a log
FFS with th@ much axle to frame clearance U could climb over a 2 foot log but the suspension beams n deck would belly out long B 4 th@
most of our trailers have bout 4 inches from top of axle to under tail frame n there aint no paint worn off m
B hard 2 get bushes etc for the ol Steco n if U can try n get sum synthetic rubber for longer life
OR
fling the suspension n axles n update to something more pratical ...... Air suspension is the go ifn U can live with th@

More Pix pls
Give till it hurtz
Thanx in advance
cya
§

As requested Pete

number 1 the rear axle walking beam pivot

number 2 is the front two axle attachment points

number 3 is the walking beam attachment point for the front two axles

number 4 is were the load sharing between the front two axles and the rear axle takes place

As number 5 pushes up it pushes down a proportional load to the front two axles, this can be seen as the rear axles walking beam sticks out a lot further than the front attachment beam sticks rearward

clear as mud ????

Now if I was escaping Rossco Peako train on the Dukes of hazard and got air born over the busted bridge the wheels and axles would hang down at least 6 feet on the front two axles I reckon ???? So I hope Mrs Mack has good run up as shes gunna need it to get this super lite (not) float that air born LOL


Went to Brownsville today for some fresh thongs for the float, also to get some brake shoes for the float (lucky they are easy to get !!) yeah right
So after not finding any hens teeth laying around I tried to get them relined but hit a snag
Due to new rules and stricter councils and other green type BS most brake baking ovens are a thing of the past
So found a joint that will do it but we needed to get some linings for said shoes
The linings were tracked down in Old Melbourne town but due to daylight savings dramas they missed the kero kite tonight so wont be on the plane to tomorrow and wont get done till Monday

Float is booked for a machinery on Tuesday

I did find new shoes in Brownsville but cant afford to give up 1 arm and both my legs $240 each FFS

Also after much Farnarkling around got new axle seals
I do wonder should these have been Stemco types instead of normal seals ??? maybe next time

And Swish man I dont think this was a exarmy float as its all orange underneath so maybe Telecom ?? either way she would have been a flash and expensive bit of gear when new and with full air S cam's to boot, pretty rare back in the day on 15 inch wheels I would have thought

Paul

I remember telecom had heaps of these floats.They also had White 7000? prime movers with double reduction bogies,and heaps of winches ,extra heavy checker plate bits,cause they had red and white Commonwealth plates,and weight didnt matter.When Telecom was privatized,they lost the govt plates,and had to comply with Qld limits.All the heavy stuff had to go.But ,as I remember ,in those days,Qld MRD wanted springs ,not rigid beams,and the things werent registerable.Unless you knew Big Russ.Or Joh. Or Bill Gunn,

As for the brakes,I wouldnt be surprised if Telecom had them converted from hydraulic.When ADR 38 came in ,they chucked the hydraulic brakes on just about everything,but instead of using economy bits,they went for a lot of German Girling stuff,making spares for some a nightmare.When the workshops closed,we bought tons of new stuff they had squirrelled away,mainly to get Caterpillar dozer stuff.They had beautiful Cat dozers,serviced to the nth degree.if a dozer did a long road trip,they would rerace the final drives,in case the bearings had brinnelled.

Thanks Paul, I can almost understand that.
Swishy - what is wrong with lots of suspension travel. I used to tow ordinary tri axle trailers with spring / rocker suspension and would notice when reversing over a steep gutter the first axle of the tri would be in midair, second axle barely touching the ground and all 20 ( ish) tonnes sitting on the third axle whose tyres looked like they were going to burst.

Mrs
Gudday m8
Me B think n Where the rear axle suspension beam tuches the front bogie suspension beam (@#4) there should/could/would B a hoop to keep it all together so it dun fall apart wen U get it all airborn wiff sum altitude
@ th@ era Steco were supplying trailers with air mechanical Brakes with Slak adjusters from PBR

---

JonK
M80
Steco tried to sell the same type of trailer (army Specs) to everyone n lost the plot with next to nun customization

---

AtikiP
To operate a successful transport biz round Melb town U need to B able to transport a wide variety of loads and the army spec suspension Rsend twaz just to high to place a load over RSend n B competitive
Our strict dimensional laws made it U need to keep the load down low to avoid having to run with tramways or train govt department crews with costly $$$$$$$$$$$ time & crews
@ times the transport costs were less than all the crews supplied by the overheads from train n tram mobs

These pix aint high loads ...... but with lowest trailers U can cart high stuff without all the the BS n Costs from Govt departments









cya

§

I see the height problem.

Well poking along ok I think ??

I think Swish man may well be right about it been a Army float as some parts I pull off have Army green underneath
But in other spots its orange

I wonder did the government order a whole heap of them and then divvy them as they saw fit, I do know during WW2 and the years after this it happened

Anyway chucking some new LED lights as the old festoon lights are getting harder to get these days
Brake shoes should be ready to put on tonight and in for a machinery in the morning I hope








Surrounded by cane fires the other evening while working on the float, makes for a interesting sunset