A Light Recovery Trailer from Downunder

[Sam Scholz]

Hi Everyone,
After getting my DT969 road registered, I very fortunately stumbled upon a Light Recovery Trailer locally. Very timely.

I think that it is almost the perfect trailer to tow behind a 969 in Australia.
As I have almost zero documentation on it, I am on the hunt for information about it.
Also, I have ramps, but none of the other hardware that went with it, eg., chains, legs, blocks, etc.
When I work out how to get pictures up in a manageable way, I'll post them.
Then, I'll have lots of questions.

For those interested, the re-build of the 969 is here:
https://forums.g503.com/viewtopic.ph...09152#p1809152

Unfortunately, the photo host that I use for that thread is becoming less user friendly, so I don't want to use it here. I have also noticed other photo hosts that seem to have a "use by date", something I want to avoid. Suggestions?

Watch this space.
Have a nice day.
Sam, in S.E.Qld.

[Sam Scholz]

Photo upload test. Thanks Hanno!

LRT recovery 10 2019.jpg LRT front quarter view. 10 2019.JPG

Now, how is that? It worked great!!!
No mucking around with a third party host, and they are permanent.
Bargain!!

Sam.

[Sam Scholz]

Time for more pictures. Ignore the grain bin.

The front dolly assembly. The drive shaft is for the floor auger in the grain bin.

LRT front dolly 10 2019.JPG


The brake application equipment is in place!

LRT brake cylinder and chambers 10 2019.JPG


But the trailer has been grossly overloaded, and along with incorrect offset wheels, it has bent the 4 stub axles. One so badly that someone has removed the backing plate with all its' attachments with an oxy cutter. I need that lot.

LRT Bent axle problems 10 2019.JPG


First major job is to remove the rusty grain bin, which will be done in a way to liberate lots of useful steel.


Enjoy.
Sam.

[Gordon Yeo]

Sam

I followed your 969 restoration and wondered what you would entertain us with when it was done. Question answered, welcome to MLU.

Gord

[Sam Scholz]

Hi Gord,

Thank you for the kind sentiment. I sometimes wonder about the 'lurkers' who populate the views count!

Unfortunately, this thread will be slow at the start, as the LRT is 2 projects and 2 major rallies down the list. But I probably won't be able to resist doing bits and pieces on it.
I have already found a possible source of 18" rims and have a lead for tires and some rear body jacks that may do the job.
I need pictures/manuals/info on this type of trailer in Australia, who can help?

Have a nice day.
Sam.

[rob love]

I have one of these 7-1/2 ton trailers that was Canadian built. The tires and rims are the standard 16" CMP type. I bought mine thinking it would be a neat way to take the Bren carrier to displays. Once I had it, I discovered you would need a class one tractor trailer license along with air brake endorsement (and annual safeties) to take it out of the yard.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Sam Scholz

Photo upload test. Thanks Hanno!
Now, how is that? It worked great!!!
No mucking around with a third party host, and they are permanent.
Bargain!!

Sam, my pleasure, glad you like it

Great trailer you have there, apart from a bit of overloading it survived quite well!

Hanno

[Sam Scholz]

Just a quick update.
I have now shod the LRT with all zero off-set rims.
Looks much better now.

LRT as at 11 2019.JPG

Enjoy.
Sam.

[Sam Scholz]

Hi fellow MV tragics,

I've been playing with wheels. Managed to get some 7.50 x 18 tyres in good condition, so I have been cleaning up some rims and fitting them up. The original size tyre is 10.50 x 18 and is only available (in Australia) in an agricultural tyre which has limited road speed and a very poor wear rate on hard surfaces. So the 7.50 x 18's are going to have to do for now. The 16 ply tyres will go on the rear axles and the 14 ply will go on the front wheels.

So, after disassembling the wheels I purchased, I removed the tube/liner and cleaned them and re-assembled them. The picture below shows the fitting of the liner to the tyre following the fitting of the tube.

LRT Remove liner 18 inch rim 12 2019.JPG


The next problem which I did not anticipate was the mis-alignment of the studs. These I "massaged" with a large soft-faced hammer.

LRT 18 inch rim studs alignment 12 2019.JPG



Then drop the tyre onto the rim inner followed with the rim outer. . . .

LRT 18 inch rim fit outer rim to tyre 12 2019.JPG



. . . . and then the nuts which had been chased with a 1/2" UNF tap. I was a bit surprised as I expected BSF from a Commonwealth country!!!

LRT 18 inch rim nut fitment 12 2019.JPG



Finished them with a torque wrench set to 60ft/lb. I got the setting from a generic torque chart that gives torques for each size for coarse and fine threads.

LRT 18 inch rim nut fitment torqueing to 60flb 12 2019.JPG



And then I could fit three rims to the LRT more-or-less permanently. I am seeking another 3 or 4 18" 6 stud rims to complete the LRT in 7.50 x 18 wheels.

That is all for now. I wish for you and yours a happy Christmas and prosperous and peaceful 2020.

Enjoy.
Sam.

[Sam Scholz]

Good morning all,

Well, what memorable times we live in.

My overall plans have changed quite a bit recently, for obvious reasons.
As BTTT2020 has become BTTT2021, I have 16 months to do what I previously had 4 months to do.

This has opened up the possibility for taking the LRT to the MJCQ Swap meet at Caboolture in October, 7 months time. Only time will tell.

So, with the pressure off, I collected the LRT and brought it home.

I fitted the last of the 7.50x18 wheels, and loaded and strapped down the ramps. Man, they are heavy. I'll weigh one sometime and report back. Suffice to say it was Dennis on the crowbar and winch assistance.

LRT Dennis positioning ramp a 3 2020.JPG LRT Dennis positioning ramp e 3 2020.JPG


As I had not yet replaced the axles after the trip to Corowa, The Glorifier needed to be towed up the wet grassy slope out of the paddock and up to the road. But once on the road, everything went well. We stopped to check all was well on the 15km trip home.

LRT moving stop to check the load 3 2020.JPG

It seemed to travel very well, but I sure noticed the weight (41/2ton-ish), having to drive it like a well loaded truck. It is beyond me how these trailers, loaded with a 4 1/2ton Carrier were towed with a 3ton Chev CMP!?!

Anyway, it is home now and I feel like I actually own it now.

I have acquired a wheel chock as seen in the youtube video linked above, thanks Dave M . More on that later.

Have a nice weekend, BUT stay at home!
(Good excuse to get some restoration/maintenance jobs done.)

Sam.

[Lionelgee]

G'day Sam,

Looks like you are having loads of fun with the trailer project! Good to see that you are achieving results.

I also live in Bundaberg. If you would like to catch-up or could use a hand with something please send me a Private Message.

Good luck with the rest of the trailer restoration.

Kind regards
Lionel

[Sam Scholz]

Lionel, PM sent.

Hi all,

As I am missing some brake parts, the hunt is on for some replacements. By posting some pictures, someone may recognize the parts or know of similar sized easy-to-find replacements.

So, the backing plate uses eight 5/8" mounting bolts and has adjustable anchor pins. One needed.

LRT Brake backing plate 10 2023.JPG


The brakes are 16" diameter and 3 1/8" wide. Here are the shoes with the hand brake mechanism attached. Two pair needed.

LRT Brake shoes with hand brake mechanism 10 2023.JPG


This brass bracket bolts into the backing plate to carry the handbrake cable. I don't need any of these, but they may help someone recognize the brakes.

LRT Hand brake bracket for backing plate 10 2023.JPG


And the wheel cylinder is 1 1/2" diameter and 97mm long. The mounting bolts are 3/8"UNC at 2 1/8" centers and the mounting hole in the backing plate is 1 3/4" dia. Fluid fitting is a banjo bolt with a 1/2" thread.
Anyone recognize these cylinders?

LRT Wheel cylinder a 10 2023.JPG

LRT Wheel cylinder 10 2023.JPG


Any info on these trailers is scarce, so to find a parts listing, let alone parts available is laughable!
Anyone got any suggestions to help me here?

Regards.
Sam.

[Sam Scholz]

Hi all,

The next job I did was to remove the handbrake linkages. I learned a couple of things.
It is becoming increasingly clear that this trailer has had some modifications over the years, some more, um . . . , agricultural, than others.
So another ongoing job is trying to work out what is original and what is a modification.

Anyway, just getting to the linkage in the center of the frame was pretty tricky and restricted. Here is some that was easily visible. The lever shaft closest to the camera has something to do with the handbrake actuation equipment that goes to the rear of the trailer. Some pictures earlier in this thread show a small handwheel at the rear of the trailer between the ramps mounting points, it is used to apply/release the handbrake. This system is missing, so in the absence of a picture of an original one (anyone?), I need to design and build a new one sometime.

LRT Part of the hand brake linkage a 10 2023.JPG


Some of the nuts had to be removed with a cold chisel and others defied any mechanical sense in their design. But I got it all out of the frame.

LRT Hand brake linkage removed 10 2023.JPG


It was at this stage I realized that the mounting plate for the handbrake handle was previously welded to both the frame and the front end pivot shaft!!! Fortunately the welds were poor quality (thus probably not original) and had broken off the front end shaft. The picture below is taken from below looking up between the frame and the front end pivot shaft. Sometime, it is going to surrender to the grinder and be carefully redesigned during re-assembly.

LRT Hand brake bracket welded to front wheels pivot captioned 10 2023.jpg


I like to assign a clear engineering name to the parts I'm working with, but the "front end pivot shaft" eludes a label that I'm happy with (yeah, I know, who cares?).

Enjoy.

Sam, downunder.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Sam Scholz

As I am missing some brake parts, the hunt is on for some replacements. By posting some pictures, someone may recognize the parts or know of similar sized easy-to-find replacements.
(*snip*)
And the wheel cylinder is 1 1/2" diameter and 97mm long. The mounting bolts are 3/8"UNC at 2 1/8" centers and the mounting hole in the backing plate is 1 3/4" dia. Fluid fitting is a banjo bolt with a 1/2" thread.
Anyone recognize these cylinders?

It looks like the regular CMP rear wheel cylinder which is 1-1/2" diameter. These can still be bought new, e.g. see http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...003#post123003

The wheel cylinders are a Ford part but used on all CMP trucks plus most Canadian-built trailers, so it looks like a likely application for your trailer.

[Sam Scholz]

Thanks for that Hanno, I can follow that up locally.

One small job was to straighten a small section of the rear gunnel. I figured that a bit of porta-power grunt and applied big hammer work would do the trick.

LRT Straighten gunnel a 10 2023.JPG


And so it did. I wonder if the good condition of the deck is due to it having a grain bin on it for most of its' life.

LRT Straighten gunnel b 10 2023.JPG


Enjoy.
Sam.

[Sam Scholz]

Hi all,

With some trepidation, I made a start on disassembling the front end. After hunting around a bit I managed to find a socket that would fit the 2 3/8"AF nut. It was 3/4" drive which I was not confident about. Anyway, after 3 meters of cheater bars and bending my 36" pipe wrench handle, I decided to add some heat.

LRT Remove steering pin heating nut 10 2023.JPG


It is easy to add too much heat such that the material softens so that it can 'pick up' or broach inside. Despite some sniffing around, I have not been able to find the temperature range for mild steel where beyond that is very little to be gained but lots to lose when using heat to expand some material to loosen it. Anyway, that is what happened!

LRT Remove steering pin nut destroyed thread 10 2023.JPG


In the end, I had to cut the nut off. So sometime will be a major bolt re-building job.
Next job was to remove the steering pivot bolt. So I added some pressure, around 20 tons, I estimated. Plus some sledge hammer encouragement all without any action.

LRT Remove steering pin pressing the pin 10 2023.JPG


So time to add more heat, carefully. It didn't help that I did not know the design of the pin which was still out of sight. So, as seen below, I managed to get the whole frame/pin assembly up to about 200deg C. Note that I removed the chains and porta-power as they would not handle the heat real well!

LRT Remove steering pin heating the pin bracket 10 2023.JPG


Then removed the fire, refitted the porta-power and applied a good lot of pressure. The main caution I had was around a chain breaking and bits flying off like shrapnel. I added several wire ties to act as whiplash arrestors. The chain was 5/16" Herc-alloy with a working load of around 1.2 tons. Then six legs gives around 7 tons. Then I wandered into the safety margin, which is around 200%, while standing well back. A pause, then sledge hammer applied. Nothing. Stepped away, added a bit more pressure, waited, hammer again. After a few cycles of this, applying the hammer to the enormous hex head of the pin under the frame, without any warning, the whole pin flew out the bottom the the frame with a great crash!

LRT Remove steering pin sudden release 10 2023.JPG


As it turned out, there is a large diameter 1 1/2" long section under the head of the pin where all the tightness was. Wow! I'm glad that job is done.
One more job done.

Enjoy.
Sam.