Does your wife have a default holiday you two could take to at least make her smile?
Does your wife have a default holiday you two could take to at least make her smile?
In reply to 759NRNG :
We are buying property about seven hours from home so the plan was to spend a few weeks there and look around. We will still do that but maybe in a different camper. But I have 10 weeks so it could happen yet! Anyway she is a pretty good sport about my project.
In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :
looking to join up with The Sons of Freedom?
In reply to Rons :
You nailed the area
Radiators installed for the last time I hope....
Built a little dash panel and installed a funky little shifter from a Kenworth cabover. It is cable shifted and I used the Kenworth cables and connected them. Shifting is a little stiff and notchy but the cables are old and too long which meant too many curves. But they are massive heavy and having new ones made was going to be $400 each for an $800 hit to a rapidly depleting wallet so I will live with it for now. The levers above are the controls for the hydraulic leveling jacks. They used to be on the floor under the seat and were quite difficult to reach, at least for me with my crummy and often injured back. I thought down the road I would replace them with the push button control unit from a newer system. When the wallet fills back up.
The original location for the front jacks was right up front, which was eight feet of flex unsupported frame rail from the wheels. That meant some damaging stress on things, and several cracked windshields. Below are a couple of the badly twisted crosssmember I removed showing the problem.
So I built a new bracket and moved them back to the front suspension.
And I am in the middle of making intake and exhaust connections. I made a sharp 180 out of exhaust tubing for the motor, and then sliced the top off it to keep the doghouse as low as possible.
From the intake manifold down pipe it runs under the pan and around the corner to the far side of the charge cooler. Still need to lift it and build a bracket.
I built another section to make the easy connection from the turbo to the charge cooler. All the pipe is salvage from my junk pile. No fancy stainless here....
And now I am working on the exhaust. I want to go five inch all the way because why not. I went back (they know me now) to the truck wrecker and bought some random exhaust tubing and cut it up. For the record a new five inch 90 is almost $70 and I need.....10 I think. But a ten foot length of junk pipe with some life left was 120 and I got three 90's.
So this is the snake that goes from the turbo (one 90 already installed) down below the leveling jack and up into the wheel well.
I am running it through the wheel well because there is no room anywhere between the frame rails to put it. I could not squeeze a two inch pipe in for the lack of room left. But thanks to the four inch lift the wheel well fortunately became an option, although it's taking a lot of cutting and welding.
The shiny bit is a 12 inch length of flex pipe to absorb the engine movement.
Better pic of the plumbing nightmare
Maybe I should just straight pipe it with a fender exit.
Plumbed the intake. I cut the Freightliner rubber intake hose in half, added a $70.00 exhaust elbow and it fit beautifully around the rest of the plumbing and straight to the only spot to mount the massive freightliner air cleaner.
And I hung the bumper back on to have a look. I was debating on lowering it a bit to hide some of the charge air cooler but it would look wrong, and still not come close to hiding it. I think I will build a large copy of the Wanderlodge bug screens and mount it below the bumper.
Air intake peeks out under the corner.
What about an air dam below the bumper painted to match the body? Probably be pretty easy to fab it to match the curve of the body. You could still have the bug screen in the center.
As awesome as having that exhaust side exit seems ( it get it, you’re kidding) the noise would drive you out after the first ten miles. I remember a Bus Grease Monkey vid a while back where he had done a side exhaust on his rear engined 671 Detroit bus. It would echo off things and he ended up re routing out the back. Really looking good sir, carry on!
In reply to mblommel :
What would that look like? I cannot picture anything to put there that would still allow airflow to the CAC. Unless I made it full length. Maybe I can poke around the truck wrecker and see if I can modify something from an aerodyne truck.
In reply to 11GTCS : I don't mind cracking the window to hear the ponies escaping but I want peace and quiet the rest of the time!
In case I haven't yet commented on how awesome this build is...
This build is awesome!
bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to mblommel :
What would that look like? I cannot picture anything to put there that would still allow airflow to the CAC. Unless I made it full length. Maybe I can poke around the truck wrecker and see if I can modify something from an aerodyne truck.
yes the full width of the bumper.....mounted to the bottom of the bumper ,but not necessarily body color....with allthread (your choice)support rods to the existing front valence. With the appropriate amount of screening/ductwork......get busy eh you slacker eh ......wink.... AWESOME EFFORT!!!!!
I think the charge cooler needs some protection from road debris too. Integrate that into the airdam 759NRNG proposed as well. It would totally suck to have a stray piece of tire carcass shut you off.
Like this, but not blue...
The Fossil needs a lip and a splitter......
Not the close to factory look I am trying for..... Maybe I can bend something up out of sheet metal and paint it black. Stay tuned.
Straight pipe out the fender might not be as you'd as you think. Turbos quiet things down a surprising amount. My F450 was way quieter than expected with just the down pipe. But I totally agree for a long distance vehicle you dont want loud.
ARe you at all concerned with the lowness of the radiator catching something on the highway and borking everything all up? It just seems low, but maybe its an optical illusion...?
In reply to golfduke :
Its actually higher than it looks. It's at ride height in those photos and I have about 17 inches. I have to go to larger steer tires to accommodate the weight I am adding which will give me another inch.
Dash fun!
Glad to see this still moving along nicely.
I used a sheet of paper to draw up a new dash. The plan is to have the driving function gauges here and move all the RV functions to the overhead console.
I salvaged the aluminum back wall of the Freightliner sleeper which was the perfect thickness for a new dash panel.
Taped my pattern on and cut out all the holes. I cut the rectangles with the angle grinder and a die grinder and used a pre drilled block of mdf as a guide for the circles by clamping it in place over each hole. I did not trust my ability to center punch and free drill each hole accurately.
And a test fit. Looks good! The blank spot bottom right will be ignition switch and air brake dash valve.
After a little filing to fit the switches I cleaned it up and glued a cherry wood veneer on. I had bought a fake vinyl but it looked too cheezy so I found actual wood at Lee Valley Tools. Still need two more coats of stain and three coats of laquer.
Test fit.
I am adding a Scanguage to the cluster to replace the Cummins version the Freightliner had, which did not work.
In other news I have most of the Freightliner wiring installed now so I will get some pics of that later. We are in the middle of a 110 degree heat wave so I am staying out of the shop until it cools down.
Wait wait wait. You're close enough to Lee Valley Tools to just pop on in?
I've never been so envious
In reply to Mr_Asa :
What an unfriendly place though. My first and last visit. Come in, take a number, when you are called tell the counter person exactly what you want including part number and color, pay too much and then leave quickly with your item.
In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :
Well, that is incredibly disappointing. I knew about the pay too much part, but I wouldn't have thought about the rest of it.
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