CrankyCrafstman

Hey micko Nothing new project is on hold wsiting for items in the mail that I need to finish it. Ron G

Thanks SS

Thanks guys Ron G

Hey all Small update, I got the tires & wheels from Scenes Unlimited, thanks Jeff for the heads up. I have to say that the tires and wheels are absolutely amazing quality. I got 24.5" drives and heavy haul front floats, both Bridgestones with 5 spoke wheels to match the trailers wheels. I had to modify the front wheels into wider wheels to fit the floats. I used some old Italeri wheels from an old kit I built eons ago. I think they turned out pretty good. I took my Fordom tool to the Kenworths front fenders to thin them down to a realistic thickness. Then I added some fender extensions made from 0.03" x 0.06" plastic strip, these will be painted black to look like rubber. Bridgestone 445/65R 24.5 L375 heavy haul front floats. this view shows the front floats. Bridgestone M710 285/75R 24.5 drive tires. this view shows the rear drive tires & wheels. this view shows the Kenworth W925, 24' Fruehauf dump trailer and dolly. There will be a 18' Fruehauf dump trailer added to the dolly (as soon as I scratch build it) to complete the Michigan gravel train. rear view showing the dump trailer and dolly. this view shows the dump trailer. this view shows the Kenworth W925 with the 24.5" wheels/tires. this view shows the dump trailer wheels/tires. this view shows the dolly wheels/tires. this view shows the sleeper added on. view looking aft of the Kenworth W925 and 24' Fruehauf dump trailer. Well that's it for now be back soon with more. Ron G

HAPPY BIRTHDAY John

COOL! Thanks Jeff. Now I just need another 10 scale glad hands. Ron G

Hey Jeff I have a question for you. Since you drive and you said you are qualified to drive gravel trains, how many connections are there from the tractor to the first dump trailer? I think there are 5, electrical, main air, emergency air, hydraulic line in and hydraulic line out. Can you verify this for me? Also how many connections are there from the front dump trailer to the rear dump trailer, this should be the same as the front. Ron G

Hey Jeff Yeah I get what you mean. It is on a slide mechanism, but I have it set at the middle position. Here are some more pictures of the Cat and the truck, trailer and excavator. this view shows the logos in position. this view shows the logo on the rear. this view shows the logos on the other side. this view shows it loaded on the trailer. view from the rear. side view. Thats it for now be back with more in awhile. Ron G

Hey guys Here's some more pictures of the Cat 336E and truck, trailer and excavator. this view shows the excavator from the front looking aft. side view front view Rear view. plan view. closer view of the operator in the cab. closer view of the bucket. side view of the truck, trailer and the Cat 336E. I need to move the bucket down into the transport position. this view shows the truck, trailer and excavator from the front looking aft. Well that's it for now be back soon with more. Ron G

Thanks Jeff I'm a little rusty, but it's coming back...lol Ron G

Hey Jeff Heres the Cat 336E in its preliminary status. It still needs alot of work. I basically modelled up the Newray excavator. Once it's in the system I can rework it into the 336E. It took foorreeveeerrr to do those tracks, links, pins and bolts and nuts. My computer kept crapping out, but I finally got it done. this view shows the excavator that I have modelled up to this point. side view. view looking aft at the front of the excavator. this view shows the tracks a little better. They are 30" wide. Well back to work have to get all these CAD models done before I loose the use of my Wifes Unigraphics station. Ron G

Hey Jeff The answer is YES! I could print it to any scale, because I drew/modeled it full size. So all i need to do is when you would go to print it is put in the correct scale factor and voila! Printed to the correct scale requested. If you think the D8H tracks are nic wait till you see the Caterpillar 336E tracks, and the rest of the excavator. Ron G

Hey Jeff Don't forget the rear of the AMT low bed IS NOT the same as a drop nose lowboy. I can maybe print the front and back and you can covert/scratch the center bed? Let me know, like I said I haven't tried to print anything yet. It's still only in Unigraphics. I have to convert it individual part to a stl file so my son can see if he can print it. So still in the infancy stages. Her are some pictures of the 4 axle drop nose lowboy trailer and some Cat d8h tracks. view from the rear. view from the front. closer view of the front. side view. view of the bottom. These next pictures are of the Caterpillar D8H tracks I'm in the process of creating on Unigraphics. top view. bottom view. Thats it for now be back with more soon. Ron G

Hey Jeff I just found these on the old web. They are 1/24 scale RC Caterpillar construction equipment. They are due for release in August of thus year. They look like they will sell for around $100 US maybe less. They are from Diecast Masters out of Florida. this is what I'm drooling over!!! She sure would look sweet on my drop nose lowboy trailer!!!...lol medium size dozer medium size front loader. 6 wheel drive dump truck. These are all full function, sone I believe even have sound. Ron G

Hey Jeff I do plan on trying to print it, actually I plan on printing as much of it as possible. The deck is way to long to fit on the printers printing bed and would have to be printed in several pieces. So that part I would plan on building from scratch. I haven't tried pinting it yet thats probably going to be the next step. If I can get it to print you'll be the first one on the list. I'll have to get with my son and figure out how much it would cost, resin, tine, etc. Ron G

Hey Jeff I got it off of Amazon, I think it was around $40.00 or so. It came with a day cab Pete and lowboy trailer, albate 1/32 scale. If you go to Newrays web site they show a 1/24 scale one that is yellow, but it's the same as the one I have. Yeah trailer is coming along ok, I've been contemplating using the front section from the 4-axle on the rear portion of the 3-axle, but haven't gotten that far yet. Ron G

Hey all I have a little update for all of you. I finally figured out how to get images off of Unigraphics. I exported some jpegs...dahh. So now I have pictures of the 3 axle trailer, and some surprise pictures, here we go. this view shows the 3-axle drop nose lowboy trailer from the front. this view shows the 3-axle drop nose lowboy trailer from the rear. this view is from the top looking down. this view is from the bottom looking up. This next set of pictures is why I haven't been modeling at my bench. I have actually been modeling at he computer on Unigraphics. I got a little carried away and modeled up my Revell 4 axle Peterbilt 359 tractor. this view shows the 359 from the front. this view is from the rear looking forward. this is a closer view of the rear. this is a side view showing the length. I dont have everything on it yet. I'm not sure how far I'm going to go on this, we'll see. The next two pictures are of the next thing I might be modeling up in Unigraphics. It's a Newray 1/32 excavator, so they say. Actually I think it's a lot closer to 1/25-1/24 scale. The arms are pretty good. The body is not quite as nice. The tracks are the worst. Every thing works ok. I'm going to pull it apart to see how I can modify it. It scales to a medium sized excavator in 1/25 scale. this is the Newray excavator, it came with the truck and trailer, but there 1/32 so not interested in them, so I gave them to my son to use on his slot car track set-up. this view shows the excavator next to the cab from the 1/25 Peterbilt 359. It sure looks like 1/24-1/25 scale to me! Well that's it for now be back soon with more Cad work...lol P.S. I also have pictures of the 4-axle drop nose lowboy trailer and some pictures of some Caterpillar d8h tracks that I modeled up also. I'll post them tomorrow. The computer was shut down before I realized that I didn't get them downloaded. Ron G

She's looking real nice John Ron G

Nice Jeff, good info there! Ron G

No problem guys, all info is good. I have been modeling yesterday and today, but not plastic modeling. I've been working on the two CAD trailers plus I now have my Peterbilt 359 4 axle truck modeled up in Unigraphics NX. I wish I could pull some screen shots off the computer, but all the data actually resides on the computer at FCA. There might be a way I'll check with my son (computer guru).and see if he knows how to do it. Ron G

Hey all I did some work on the Pete. I finished sanding the frame and adding all the stuff. Here are some pictures of it just sitting together for pictures only. This has a 63" sleeper and it's just over 17" long! driver side view showing the steps, front Tank, small step and rear tank. passenger side view showing the steps, front tank and rear tank. view showing the headache rack. front view showing the grill. This is the extra grill that came in the kit. I have one that has separate grill screening. rear view with the lines just sitting in place. Thats it for now. Ron G

Thanks Fidd88 That's even to much detail for me...lol Ron G

Hey all I'm posting this here because I don't want to start another build thread right know. I stretched the Peterbilt 359 frame a scale 23 inches. I did this in order to have (4) fuel tanks (2) 138 gallon and (2) 130 gallon. This will give the long Pete almost 2,700 miles before refueling. This is assuming that the Cummins ntc-475 will get around 5 mpg...lol. I added a set of steps between the tanks on the drivers side. Here are some pictures. heres the whole thing! 364.0625"/30' 1/16" front axle center line to rear most axle center line. Wheel base is 28' 3/4" view looking at the bottom. front third middle third rear third. I'll probably do a build thread on this later after the Kenworth W925, front dump trailer, rear dump trailer and the D8H CAt bulldozer. Ron G

Thanks Harv

Thanks Jeff