CrankyCrafstman

Hey Danny I'm not sure. I haven't driven a semi in over 40 years. It's mainly because I want the air ride suspension on the model I'm making. Most all of the videos of lowboy trailers you see on YouTube have air ride so I'm going by those for my project. Also the 3 axle trailer is more closely proportioned to the drawing I did. It's a model of a LoadKing lowboy. It has all of the outriggers and "D" rings, that the other model doesn't have. Regular leave springs where the first type of suspension systems for lowboys and they are still the basic setup on a base trailer. Air is optional. Ron G

Hey all Ok I finally got the 3 axle drop nose lowboy trailer into Unigraphics...Hoorah! Also my son found another one that is a 4 axle with flip up rear axle, it's kinda short the bed is only about 14' 0" to short to haul much, but the drop nose part is way more detailed than the three axle one. So now my thinking is can I combine the drop nose from the 4 axle with the rest if the 3 axle trailer, it has air suspension, and the other one is standard duty suspension leave springs. So it's a modeling I go, CAD modeling that is...lol I'll try to post some screen shots tomorrow if everything goes all right. Ron G

Hey Axeman Yeah, I don't show my wife the stuff I build or modify, because she just goes off on how much money I've spent and I have to run away back to my modeling cave. Ron G

Hey Axeman Great build! I've been using this to help on my 1/25 AMT Caterpillar D8H and it sure has helped. Thanks Ron G

Hey all Just another small update. I worked on the blade tilt cylinder and the blade connection arms. I cut off all the pins on the kit parts because they were to small for the holes in the connection arms and the small plate pieces that attach the arms to the blade rear piece. I replaced them with 3/32" & 1/8" dia. Plastic rod pins. view showing the left side blade mechanism. this view shows the blade tilt cylinder. this view is of the real thing. close up view of the tilt cylinder, this is totally from scratch. I added the small aluminum nuts, this are from RB Motion. view showing the rear of the tilt cylinder. this is a mock up view. Well that's it for now be back soon with more. Ron G

Hey all Small update, did some work on the engine. I added some pipes and removed the exhaust turbo and mount so I could rework them so they fit correctly. They were pointing down toward the front, which caused the exhaust stack and air cleaner to not line up with the holes in the hood. I also did some painting and started some weathering. this view shows the intake turbo now painted steel. The pipe that goes from the part between the exhaust turbo and the intake turbo down to the side of the block. This is a piece of plastic rod bent to shape. I painted the starter black. I added a piece cut from a truck air cleaner and fitted it to the air cleaner on the Dozer and painted it silver. I painted the fan belt rubber black and the pulleys and fan Cat yellow and I painted the alternator silver. this view shows the hydraulic pump is now painted Cat yellow and the filters are painted an off white. I added the pipe that goes from the area between the turbos down to the part on the block. this view shows the fan and fan belt. this is a close up view of the air cleaner and the wing nut I made from a piece of plastic card stock. You can also see the strap that I made for the alternator. You can see the pipe from the turbo to the side of the block, I made the small plate/fitting that it goes to, and the two nuts that hold it on. Thats all for now be back soon with more. Ron G

Yeah Vandy I did, thanks Ron G

Hey all I'm back with more updates. I worked on one of the blade cylinders, added a pipe from the back of the cylinder to the front of the cylinder, as per prototype. I added some hydraulic lines, I'm not sure if I have it right or not, but I think it's pretty good. I also started on the blade tilt cylinder. The kit doesn't have this option, so I reworked one of the support rods for the blade into one. view looking down on the top of the Dozer. view showing blade cylinder. The dark copper wire is the pipe I added. this view shows the oil filter I added to the trans cooler. view showing hydraulic lines from hydraulic pump (the grey part at the rear of the engine) to the hydraulic manifold on the blade cylinder support tube. I scratched this from spare parts. And the lines from that manifold to the blade cylinder. view showing the hydraulic manifold on the support tube. Also the cylinder lines. I had to modify this side of the blade so I could attach the blade tilt cylinder. this is the blade tilt cylinder I made from one of the blade support rods. Still needs work. this is what it will look like when I'm done with it. Thats all for now be back with more soon. Ron G

How does the Liang stencil work? Is it sticky like masking tape? Or do you just hold it against what you are going to paint? And where did you get it because I think it would work great on my D8H Caterpillar build to add that rusty look. Ron G

Thanks everyone Well got some more done. I assembled the frame work, except for a few pieces, this is so I can install the engine later after I paint everything. I have it partially put together, but just temporarily for photo purposes. here's a view from the front looking back. this view shows the cutout in the grill shell thet I did with my Fordom tool. I added some black screen from an old truck model kit, this is only temporary. I have a photo etch grill coming in the mail. intake/exhaust side of the engine. the other side shiws the water manifold and fuel pump with the lines. view from the rear. The ripper will attach here. I bought another kit, so now I have three ripper blades to put on. It's going to look cool with all three rippers installed. I couldn't resist so I temporarily put on the exhaust manifold, intake turbo and air cleaner then added the exhaust stack. better view of the turbos. OH. I almost forgot to add these photos. This is a picture of the photo etch grill. And this is a picture of the photo etch fan shroud. These photos are from Pappyhobbys. Thats it for now more later. Ron G

Hey all Small update. I scratch built the blade lift cylinders. The kit ones weren't up to snuff. I used pieces from them along with some brass and aluminum tubing and some plastic tubes and a piece of 1/4" x 1/4x piece of plastic stock. I still have to add the hoses and the piece of pipe that runs from the upper end block down to the square block at the end. Well that's it for now. More later Ron G

Hey Jeff Its RB motion, but for some reason his site is down right now. Ron G

Hey all Next installment. Like I said I started on the engine. here is the engine and some engine parts. Some I have modified. this is the intake turbo. You can see the round white plastic cover plate that I added to cover up the void in the kit part. I also added 8 small hex bolts. To the right is the exhaust pipe I made from 7/32" round plastic tube. Below these are the pipe that connects the intake turbo to the intake manifold. Also the exhaust manifold with the exhaust turbo and the piece that is attached to the exhaust manifold that connects to the exhaust pipe. this view shows the plastic cover I added to the exhaust turbo to cover the void in that part. Also another view of the part that is attached to the exhaust manifold and to the exhaust pipe. another view of the exhaust turbo. view with the exhaust pipe on. this is a view showing the fuel pump. The silver colored nuts I added are for the fuel lines which will be made from the brass 0.04" wire above it. view showing the nuts where the fuel lines connect. view showing the intake manifold. This view also shows the six brass fittings that I added to the head for the fuel lines. close up view of the fuel line fittings. Also you can see the part of the intake manifold where the small bent pipe connects to the intake turbo. view showing the fuel pump on the engine. this view shows the pieces that I added to the front cover for the upper fan belt pulley. AMT forgot to add this to the kit, go figure. view showing the fan belt with the alternator attached and the small bolts I added. view showing the fan belt attached. view showing the fuel lines attached to the head fittings. this view shows the fuel lines connected to the fuel pump. These are supposed to go under the water manifold, but to late to fix it now. More to come later as soon as I get back to modeling. Ron G

Hey all Well here I am again with another build thread. A little history first. I started this kit almost 16 years ago. I had plans to convert it into a modern D9T high drive, I even scratch built part of the D9T drive mechanism, but alas I came to the tracks. These are really bad and it's why I shelved this kit back then. The tracks connect together in a way that AMT most of thought of on one of there acid trips! Because they don't connect anywhere like the prototype. These are done like tank tracks. If AMT would have gotten this right it would have been a superb kit. The other bad part of the kit is the grill. There isnt one! Well there sort of is you get a plastic part but there is no grill opening not one hole. You get a sticker with dots that are supposed to represent the grill, pretty poor AMT. The newer kits have decals (3) different ones for the grill. Ok enough ranting, on with the build. Like I said I started this a while back and had two kits to work from. I bought a third kit today in order to get one more ripper blade. The kit only comes with one but has postions for three and I want three on mine. The left over parts I will make into another dozer later. Here are the kit tracks You can see they don't go together like the real thing at all. They even have numbers cast into them, on every track all 84 of them!!! They just don't look real and unless you completely cover them in mud and gluck they look like crap. "So what do you do" you say, well I found a cure for the crappy tracks, albeit a little expensive. $112.00 per set, thats 100 links. Now these are really sweet! They are for a newer D8T, but they are almost perfect for the D8H. There a little wider by about a 1mm, but they actually were made for someone who used the AMT kit parts to create there D8T from so they will fit the drive sprockets, idle wheels and rollers. There are 50 links per set, I only need 42, so there will be some extras. They even have the 4 bolt heads on the upper or outer side of the tracks, these represent the bolts that hold the shoe to the actual links. There from a guy on Shapways who designed them for a customer. [DW Toys] I also found a place in Canada with some stuff [pappyhobby.com] that has a photo etch set for this kit. You get a grill, you have to cut out the opening in the kit part so you can add the photo etch grill over the cut out. You get a photo etch fan shroud that looks just like the real ones wire shroud, you have to modify the kit part to make it work. You also get pedels and some other small bits, I'll know more when it gets here. these is the photo etch set. here is a picture of the grill installed on some ones model I got from the internet. I have some more stuff done. I started on the engine and have it mostly put together. I painted it yellow but it didn't come out very good, I'll look at it Tomorrow and see how bad it is. I'll post some more later, right know I'm beat. Ron G

Hey Jeff If you look back, I am building a 50 ton drop nose lowboy to haul the dozer and a three axle Peterbilt 359 tractor to pull it. This whole setup is going to be around 36" long! I'm going to need a big shelf for this...lol Ron G