Some progress report (thanks to me!)

Hi all

The old man says it pays to talk to everyone and i do on horse forums one of the other loves of my life.

I was talking to a girl called natalie who lives down near Yass. I asked if there is any wrecking yards with Valiants in them unfortunately she said no, then i asked if she knew of any Dodge trucks? she replied "yep we got one for sale, the only bad news is it hasn't got an engine" I then asked "Hows the cab?" she replied Good however there is some rust but not much, but it has been sitting in the paddock for a few years.

I decided to take a reconnaissance Run for the fatman.
I found it did have some issues but mainly rust and dents but it was still better than what was rusting away on our truck at home.
We negotiated a price and i told dad, He said lets do it!
So we did this weekend.
We borrowed a trailer from a friend who is a plasterer. He has a mate who builds trailers for him, he must have worked for Haulmark or Vawdrey as his last trailer was built like a battleship but his new trailer is built like an aircraft carrier.
The old man had a brain storm that we will be taking his 1997 Rodeo crew cab ute Powered by a mighty 2.6 4cyl petrol.
The trip down to Yass was uneventful apart from the rain. It had stopped raining at Natalie's place and we proceeded to dismantle the truck to remove the cab.

All went well except when we tried to remove the steering wheel which was quite happy where it was and refused to move. In the end we used Vivian from the "The Young Ones" Method of " A Special blend of psychology mixed with extreme violence" to remove it, Once we had done that we could remove the cab and load it on to the trailer. We set off home at about 6:30 yesterday. It wasn't long till dad found out the Rodeo was SEVERELY underpowered With and aircraft carrier trailer and dodge cab along with doors guards etc in the tray of his ute.

I have never seen the old man sweat/swear so much as the rodeo dropped to as low as 50k's on some hills! Lucky the traffic on Saturday night was very light.

Eventually we made it home at about 11:30pm both exhausted. Dad said he got 240k's out of one tank of fuel, as the rodeo was wide open for 90% of the trip!

Anyway here is some pics of our prize (dad still thinks it was worth it)


yes that is me, no we are not converting it to left hook


Can you believe that is all the k's it has on it till it was parked?

very clean around the roof area unlike ours


...... but there is rust in the front drivers pillar and floor


regards
Blake

go the mighty dodge..ive finally made some progress with my 700 series this weekend ..it should be on the road and registered by the end of june..shes up & running at the moment just needs some minor things done

G'day , crikey ya gotta move fast in this house , I just said to Blake my son ( aka Horse on the forum ) I better tell the Boys (and Girls) about our big weekend and latest find for the old clunker.
" I've already done it " was the the reply..... talk about stealing a mans' thunder...
We have have only one small problem .. the cab is still on the trailer ... When we were down at Yass , Andrew the the owner had a tractor with a Front end loader with bale forks on which we used with belt slings to load it on the trailer.
Genius here thought that Blake , myself and couple of male neighbors would lift it off easily, but when Blake and I tried we could hardly budge it .
Plan B is to get some belt slings and my chain block and take the weight and drive the trailer out then lower it quickly to the ground.
I have heard it is easy to distort a cab and there is no chance of a forklift. Any advice would be appreciated as the last thing I want to do is any more damage !
regards Harleigh

Hi Blake and Harleigh,
Well done! That's a good find, especially considering the condition of the original cab that you have.

I'll be eagerly awaiting the next progress report!

Stuart

Guys
Jist get a crow bar n lift a side up
Slide sum Hd planks under n have maore planks for a ramp n slide er off
Jobz dun
Not bad for an armchair criric from the interlectual state of Oztrayyar
LOL


Cya

[ch9787]

Nicely done, lads.

Thanks All for your comments , Swishy, I did think of something similar but I thought "this could end in tears!" But if Plan A doesn't work I think that's the way we'll have to go.
Harleigh

you need to make up a spreader bar a bit wider than your cab.hook the endless chain into the centre of it then tie your strap on each side of the bar and through the doors. you can also tie a strap from the middle to the front of the cab to balance it. i hope this makes sense. it would be easier to draw a pic but i dont know how. it would be worthwile to make something decent as you will need to use it a bit to restore and change cabs over

how much do you want for the seats from the dodge ? lol
just what im after for my AT4

Harleigh,
I had the same problem with an Inter K5 cab in a trailer. A bit smaller than yours and no glass so lighter, but I jacked up the trailer, stuck a bit of 4x2 through the doors slightly longer than the cab is wide, tied each end to the rafters in the garage and slowly let the jacks down under the trailer. End result, cab suspended off the trailer and no ominous creaks or groans coming from the shed rafetrs so drove the trailer out quick smart. Only problem was getting the cab down from the rafters. Afraid I didn't think that through and when I undid the rope it came down rather quick ah well.