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Decision on a knuckle boom crane.

DB556

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Well it was nice out today so I got a lot of work done!

My original plan was to use a gantry crane at my house or use the 10 ton crane at my buddies warehouse, but as I was taking out my spare and tool box today, I remembered that where were a bunch of 2" to 4" holes at the front of the bed from a water pump, so I decided instead of cutting the rear of the bed.

I'd cut out the front and lift the knuckle boom in with the service crane! well I broke out my plasma cutter and a piece of angle iron for a straight edge and had the bed front of the bed off in 20 minutes, then came 4 hours of pulling and labeling the hydraulic lines, and taking off the knuckle booms out riggers so I can fix the hard lines on them.

Then I got everything setup to lift the knuckle boom into place tomorrow morning, it was getting dark so I started cleaning up my tools, got some dinner, and seeing as was on a roll and already dirty, and it was only 10pm so why not its only pitch black. Grabbed a worklight and plopped the crane down on the frame.

Now I'm debating if I should make some frame supports before I clamp it down all the way and weld up the bed.

Pictures tomorrow.
 
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DB556

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Ambridge, Pa
Now I'm making some bottom supports for the U bolts and some top plates to better hold down the knuckle boom, since the nuts on the ubolts fit with just a 1/8" of contact on the mounts. I'm going to have to go the hydraulic hose shop to figure out what these flat oring metric fittings are so I can convert it over to #8SAE - #10SAEor NPT so I dont have to have hoses made and I can just order them from surplus center.

Then I have a day or rewelding the bed to do.

But once I have the knuckle boom semi operational I can use it to take off the service crane and use it to pull off the bed for the dump hoist!
 

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mikejrau

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I have the same crane model that am working to install on my truck, i believe the hoses are 1/2 bsp flat face. I also thought about going to npt but looking into the cost of converting it might be cheaper to run the British fitting. I'll let you know what i find out later this week
 

DB556

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Ambridge, Pa
I have the same crane model that am working to install on my truck, i believe the hoses are 1/2 bsp flat face. I also thought about going to npt but looking into the cost of converting it might be cheaper to run the British fitting. I'll let you know what i find out later this week
Looking at 1/2" / -8 size ORFS hoses eek! those hoses are a lot more expensive than the NPT cheapo hoses and adapters from ORFS to NPT are hard to find.
I can get ORFS to JIC or oring BSPP. Hopefully it is something cheap, I'm going to the hydraulic shop tomorrow for a rousing game of "What crazy project did you bring us this time?" or "guess the obscure fitting / we have to use 5 adapters stacked to get you something useful"
 

DB556

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Ambridge, Pa
Looking at 1/2" / -8 size ORFS hoses eek! those hoses are a lot more expensive than the NPT cheapo hoses and adapters from ORFS to NPT are hard to find.
I can get ORFS to JIC or oring BSPP. Hopefully it is something cheap, I'm going to the hydraulic shop tomorrow for a rousing game of "What crazy project did you bring us this time?" or "guess the obscure fitting / we have to use 5 adapters stacked to get you something useful"
Actually looking more in depth these might be -8 ORFS it they are can get a adapter to JIC for $2.60 then a adapter from JIC to NPT 3/8 for $3.30 so $6 extra per hose which is still less than the ORFS hoses. But hopefully the hydraulic shop has a 1 step adapter just to keep the amount of connections down.
 

DB556

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Ambridge, Pa
Yesterday I didn't get as much as I wanted done, I did get the sides of the bed welded back together and the troop seats and side cut down.
As for the knuckle boom I moved it forward a 2" since I noticed when I putting in the U bolts that I would hit the air tanks, but I could move it forward to one of the holes in the old front bed mount. So I'll weld a gusset on the mount and put in a 3/4" grade 8 bolt in there instead of the U bolts for the back.

After looking at dozens of fittings it is a 1/2 BSPP oring flat face pretty much the 'Hiab' fitting. The shop couldn't make me the hoses without ordering in the crimps and we tried a dozen ways to to make adapter none of which would work well. So I found an adapter to JIC online that should let me use JIC end hoses which are cheaper than the FFBSPP fitting hoses. The part number depending on the supplier is 9210-06-08 (3/8" JIC) or a 9210-08-08(1/2 JIC) or a 4210-06-06 now the fitting to the spool valves is a standard -12 BSPP so I was able to get fitting to convert that to NPT for the pumps.

Now cleaning up yesterday I started looking at the valves and if they leak ect I'm going to rip out all the stock hoses, hard lines included and just go to SAE and NPT fittings with the solenoids valves.
 

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Rmtaunton

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I do sooo love knuckle booms as most like yours come with outriggers and are bolt on ,, but I would add a winch to the last frame , makes pulling motors or anything tricky so much easier


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

DB556

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Ambridge, Pa
Well, I rigged up a adapter test adapter with my 110v hydraulic power unit, a five gallon bucket of cheap oil, funnel and a piece of pvc pipe.
I found the first two valves leak badly, and I twisted off the end of one of the hard lines capping it off.

So I'm going to go to a wireless controller with a backup wired switch box. I just ordered a 5 station D03 manifold, since looking at the manifold I had it was a 3 station ( could of sworn it was a 5 station since I had 5 solenoids with it) and I'll need 4 solenoids for the crane and then one for the dump bed.

Now for the lines, I'm going to try to save a few of the hard lines on the boom and cut off the haib flat face fittings and weld on new fittings on the end.
I've got all the fittings, check valves and pressure relief coming in for my dual pump system with the 3~4gpm electric pump and my 9gpm engine powered pump. Now to just finish welding the bed so I can convert this truck to 4x4 so I can have room to mount all of this.
 

DB556

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Ambridge, Pa
Well, got a little welding done on the bed yesterday, I still need to grind out some rust before I can get the front of the bed mounted and welded back up.

Now I started taking off all the stock hydraulic lines so I can get some lines ordered and some 1405 -04-06 fittings silver soldered to the hard lines.

Looking at the truck I'm debating if I still want to go 4x4 from 6x6, I would drop ~2500lbs going 4x4 and that would get a unladen weight of about 14000lbs so still 2 tons of cargo till 18000lbs, If I keep it 6x6 I'm going to be running at around 16,500lbs so only 1500lbs, but I could run a trailer for 8000lbs.

But either way, I had the gas engine I had for the hydraulics running and I dont like how much space it will take up, and how much noise it will produce, it sounds louder than the multifuel.

So I'm thinking of running a PTO pump off of the transmission.

Any recommendation for what kind of PTO I'm looking for? trying to search for PTO doesn't work since it too short for the search engine.

I could run a rear or front shaft unit, since I'll have to rig up a mount for the pump anyway. I could run a chain and sprocket to the pump from the pto to keep the engine RPM down. Since I'll need about 22hp to run the pump at at 9gpm@2600psi and the pump I was looking at runs that at 2000rpm I round run a 2:1 ratio on the sprockets to get that at idle rpm.
 

cattlerepairman

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There are basically two and 1/2 options. You can run a simple forward facing PTO that is used for the PTO winch and make it work for a pump. It needs fabricating but they are plentiful. The second option is a transfer case PTO as used by the water and fuel trucks and auger trucks, I think. This PTO conveniently faces backwards. These are rare by now.
The 1/2 option is to install a winch PTO (1) and not use its output, and add the rear facing auxiliary PTO to it. The latter is still available new from vendors. The aux PTO shifts independently of the forward facing one. I don't have the time right now to search for the rpm but you can easily find this info here.
 

DB556

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Ambridge, Pa
Found some threads on PTO searching from google instead.

One about output RPM so at with winch PTO and the engine at 1000rpm it will have 1435rpm in high or 650rpm in low and 975rpm in reverse.

Also it seems I'm looking for a Chelsea 308454-3, Spicer WD 7-28 or WND 7-28
Time to search the ebay
 

DB556

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Ambridge, Pa
Its been a while since I updated but

  • Stripped off all the old hoses
  • Pulled the cylinders off and brazed on new fitting on a few
  • Moved the crane around by hand with a high lift jack and some swearing.
  • Pulled the liftmoore crane off.
  • Ordered a ton of hoses off surplus center
  • Painted it OD green.
  • Started running the hoses.
  • Found a dual Vbelt PTO pump from a flat bed wrecker
  • Started putting the cylinders back in the one for the second(elbow) joint is a pain to get in been trying for a day
  • Started drawing up a wiring harness for the 24v pump, solenoids and backup hardwired switches.
Now I have to figure out how to mount the pump, I'll have to reroute some coolant lines for the air compressor, and find some bolts that would be suitable to mount to. Any one got any ideas from looking at the pictures?. I was running the suction and pressure lines today, before it started down poring.
 

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tobyS

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For other deuce owners....the A2 uses a 1 3/8" diameter wheel cylinder all the way around. The A3 uses a 1 1/2" on the front and they are interchangeable (with a slight mod to the push arm length) to the A2 In fact, the 1 1/2 can be put on all wheel cylinders.
 

DB556

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Ambridge, Pa
Err....? wheel cylinders?

Well I am doing a disc brake swap with a hydromax booster, the remote style master is coming in a few days.

Seams my new one wire 21SI 24v 70amp alternator is coming today maybe (its only been out for delivery for the last week and a half, thanks fedex... address does not exist, gate locked, business closed, bar code illegible) got the 10si 63amp 12v alternator two weeks ago

Once thats in I can pull the stock alternator and start designing a dual alternator / hydraulic pump mount.
 

DB556

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Location
Ambridge, Pa
Got a little work done, tapped some lines, then brazed a few fittings, I did some crap welds on the hard lines for the outriggers, slapped on some OD paint, then I bought out the rural king of hydraulic hoses to get started getting the hydraulic lines in.
I have no idea how I'll be able to bleed the air out of the hydraulic cylinder that is inside the boom, it was very hard getting that all in there.

Then started putting on the new silicon boot since the zipper boots were trash.

Got some large bore tire valves for the M35a3 wheels, so slowly swapping those over.

And got a big donaldson filter for a F series truck with a 5.9 which should move more air than the multifuel should ever need, I'll have to weld up a fender mount airbox for that soon.

Now if only rockauto could finally ship my remote reservoir HydroMax master cylinder and I'll get the disc brakes in.
 

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DB556

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Ambridge, Pa
Wish I was had more time for it, I've been waiting for parts for weeks now.
That and random work for my buddies,
"hey can you make my van into a high roof conversion so I can live in it this summer when I'm out west shooting tin type photos?"
"Sure that should only take one day...." three days and a bunch of rain storms later

Well that and take some time memorial day to go shooting with the guys, they have so many tax stamps.
 

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DB556

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Ambridge, Pa
Not much done on the crane last couple days, I did though pick up the cummins 12 valve!
Now they listed it at the auction as being a 1997 so a 215hp, well its a 1995 so its a 175hp but its a p pump cummins so its easy to turn the star wheel.
Now the transmission that came with it I hoped was a eaton fuller over drive but its a FS4205A, and it came with a intercooler and radiator, but sadly both are way to big.
If anybody needs some parts let me know, otherwise they'll sit in the shed till I forget about them.
 

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gentrysgarage

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NICE!

Do both outlets come straight out on the intercooler (can't really tell from the pic)? If so the Dodge Cummins truck guys will buy that from you. My intercooler and radiator are from a UPS Freightliner day cab (FL70?) and is nice and narrow for my M135 and should work great in your truck (measurements are either on my thread or youtube channel).

Is your flywheel housing adapter SAE2 or 3? If you are still shopping for transmisions I suggest the FSO8406 OD same case as my FSO6406, but built for higher torque which will equate to a longer life...well worth the extra $$ and unless its a wrecking yard most guys don't know its worth more.

When looking for an air compressor get it complete with brackets....the brackets have been a trouble for me I should have gotten a single cylinder one instead of a Bendix dual cylinder. Hope this helps.
 
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