Deuce bobbing

Hello. ,


I'm in the middle of a project with a duece. I'm bobbing it into a 4x4. I have a set of front springs for the rear axle but I'm in desperate need of a set of U bolts and plates. Can anybody help me find them, preferably fairly cheap??

thanks heaps,

cole

Northhamptonshire, United Kingdom

A good truck spring shop should be able to make them, at least they do here in the colonies

I made a set when I put the REO axles into my M715. Used 5/8" round stock and bought a die from Graingers. Bend them on 90* for the axle tube on a hydraulic press.

An easy way I saw it done is to remove the rear axle and add a rear spring "hanger", like an I-beam with a rectangular hole cut in it to support the end of the leaf spring (where the axle used to be). If the end of the spring has room to pivot up (in that hole), I would assume you could get more articulation (allowing the spring to pivot and drop the wheel). To clarify, the principal is to remove one of the axles and support the end of the spring it was riding on! This set up allows you to use the existing springs and such.

I did something like that when I sold the first rear position axle out of a parts truck. Chained the springs up...same principal. That's somewhat easy and quick...but still massivly heavy.

A quick update: Got a set of Ubolts, plates and the wedges between them off a scrapper and performed the bob this weekend. I cut the rear axle loose while hold up the chassis with a forklikft. Then a couple hours of gas axing the center truck out. V- painful! Since I left the prop shaft attached to the first drive axle it stayed put. I then loosely attached the springs to the axle, lined it all up, drilled the chassis through the spring hangers and bolted it all up. Last thing was measuring the 105 trailer body, subtracting the length of the bumperetts and whacking off the overhanging chassis. Looks great!

Now I have to whack the end crossmember out and re-attach it to the shortend chassis.

Cheers,

Cole

Post some pictures, if you made any.

Yeah post some pics...or did this really take place! ehehe...



Now you can cut the exhaust stack, put the windshield down, and park it next to your wife's SUV!



Warren

I'll post pics in about 3 weeks. The truck is three hours south of me and I forgot my to bring my camera when I did the work. I have to go to Germany for Nato work but when I get back I'll go back down and put some more hard graft into the beast and take pics. One of the subtle nuances about getting anything done in the UK is they don't have the same work ethic as us 'Mericans. See, back in the 1640's they had this bunch of knuckleheads around here making trouble for everybody and somebody got a smart idea. "See that boat over there, called the Mayflower? Yep, Free rides for you and all your Puritan buddies, dont miss out now!" As soon as everybody got on, they cut the mooring line and set them adrift.

Now you and me are stuck with that old "get down to work" attitude that the rest of the planet, save the Germans, are completely missing! End of rant...

Anyhow, its coming along great. Its going to look pretty, uh, well, LARGE parked next to my Hummer h1 and will DWARF my wifes little mercees A class!

Cheers for now!
cole

PS. got a 3.5 straight tube muffler to put in the stack. Ordering a exhaust temp guage next. Question is: where is it supposed to go (the probe) Before or after the turbo????

Cole

Before, I believe.

Before!

I am in the process of bobbing my duece but I don't have a 105 trailer for reference/measurement. Where should I cut off the frame? Does the axle line up with the wheel wells if left in the stock first rear position?

Sorry, it took a while to reply. I'm teaching at the Nato School in southern Germany at the moment and have been out of touch for while.

I measured the distance from the middle of the wheel arch on the trailer to the end of the tail gate. Then transposed that distance from the axle center line rearwards on the full chassis. Then I measured the length of the bumperetts and subtracted that distance from the previous mark on the chassis. a little 9" cutting wheel action and viola', one bobbed duece.

the trailer body is actually a bit short for the truck. There is loads of room between the cab and the trailer body. Plenty of adjustment space. When I go back down to work on the truck I'm goiing to see if making a vertical spare wheel mount like on a 5 tonne tractor unit) between the cab and bed will be feasable. I think theres plenty of room. I cant give any exact measurements at the moment but if in doubt, cut it long. You can always trim more off. Personally, I would wait until I got the trailer to whack the chassis. I assume you've already pared the third axle off, yes? That was a major (!) undertaking.

good luck!

Cole

I have the third axle removed. Pretty much everything unbolts. Except for 3 or 4 bolts, a 3/4" drive impact removed everything. The real bear is removing the cast iron bracket. I ground off the rivet heads from the gusset on the side of the frame and used a chisel to pry it off. The cast iron bracket will have to be cut off and the rivets drilled from underneath. Cast iron doesn't cut well with a torch. Grinding the rivet heads off doesn't work. What was your experience?

I left the first drive axle connected to the prop shaft and then used the gas axe to whack off all the trailing arms and u-bolts then rolled the second drive axle out. Next was using the torch to trim the center truck plate off just below the chassis. Lots of cursing, pry bars, sweat and some serious application of the "North Carolina Trim Saw" (12 pound sledge hammer) I managed to get the lower half of the center truck out. That still left the cross member and the outer sides of the plates on. Almost a full bottle of acetalyne later, more application of above mentioned pry bars, cursing and trim saw, it finally came out. NOT easy. I'm sure that Spruce surplus and others that do this often probably have a system that works easier but I dont know what it is. Those hot rivets are a complete a pain in the a$$ to get out.

Clamping the leaf spring brackets and drilling the chassis, bolting them on and then doing up hte axle u-bolts was the easy part!

cheers,

cole