shots from the garage...

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last weekend on “This ole trailer”..... first of all my disclaimer. I own a welder, but I’m not a welder. After looking at most of the structure of the trailer I decided my skills, or lack thereof, couldn't be much worse. I got things as clean as I could and turned the power up and went to town. My weapon of choice is a Miller 211 110/240 mig welder. While I’ve done numerous little projects in my shed utilizing the 110, I have no 240 outlets. I talked to a guy that does electrical work where I work and after 2 occasions of him not showing up I called a friend. After a few pictures and some conversations a plan was devised for a “dirty 240” outlet. Armed with a shopping list I went to Ace and despite my better judgement dove into the main electrical panel and had a power supply. Found a 50ft cord via Amazon and by Sunday afternoon had the new hanger on as well as the two 1/4” thick triangle outer plates on each side of the 1/4” hangers. I also boxed the rear hangers down further.... next weekend we’ll get the left side done where so far I’ve only discovered a crack on the rear hanger. Drilled a hole at the end of the crack and we’ll grind a “v” along it and bead her up before adding the side plates.
 
Welding job looks nice to me. It appears you had some good heat in it and it will hold up to the abuse now.
 
The area where the hanger was nearly broken off the frame was probably the cleanest metal I had to work with.... we definitely utilized the grinder in many spots. I was told make it hot... not pretty ;)
 
Looks like you did a great job... Extra support should do the trick and be solid a heck... :)
 
Well in my boredom last night I did a little more “interwebbin” and found a few RV forums where this was all but a common occurrence. Funny that one of the longer 4 page threads was on a Forest River enthusiast forum and that’s who makes Cargo Mate trailers. So I guess word to the wise is that “IF” you have a leaf spring trailer, and a welder, it might be in your best interest to strengthen this area. Most seem to agree that years of “tight turns” will stress the metal back and forth until it will crack and then eventually tear. Well mine are now a 1/2” thick and boxed on the ends.... hope the frame is up to the task! (Think it is... the axle area is actually dual steel I beams welded together).
 
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after some more research it’s been discovered that the trailer repair place that sold and installed this Dexter EZ ride system used the WRONG equalizer. This part number is for a trailer with 33” spread axles.... mines a 35” spread. 2.5” difference in the length of the equalizer between the two parts. So my suspension has probably been playing tug-o-war with itself for 3 years. Of course in that time frame they wouldn’t do anything for me.... all I asked for was them to provide me with the correct part. Personally I think with the data I’ve collected I could probably do quite well with a court case..... oh well. Live n learn.
 
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well we’re in our “off season” in the desert so why not more trailer repair picts! I purchased the correct part for my 35” spread axles and it was AMAZING how much easier it went together. Replaced all the brass inserts in the springs too. Someone will get a decent trailer when we finally upgrade.

COVID deaths....drag strips.

I fear that west coast drag racing is going to take a huge hit before this is all over. Tucson was forced into cancelling their “Hangovers” race, Fontana never opened in 20 and I’m betting they won’t ever. Sonoma announced no more bracket program.... that track is owned by Bruton Smith who also owns Vegas and rumors have been flying about whether the same thing will happen there. Sacramento has been circling the drain for years (seems every year is their last...) although they do have an 1/8th mile race scheduled towards the end of the month (f’n 9hr pull for me). The staff at Wild Horse Pass in Phoenix was let go.... tracks on Rez land and they were quick to close (casinos still going ). March Meet at Famoso has now been pushed up to memorial weekend.... who knows if they’ll pull it off.
Looking like I need a new hobby :(
 
A body said:
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well we’re in our “off season” in the desert so why not more trailer repair picts! I purchased the correct part for my 35” spread axles and it was AMAZING how much easier it went together. Replaced all the brass inserts in the springs too. Someone will get a decent trailer when we finally upgrade.

COVID deaths....drag strips.

I fear that west coast drag racing is going to take a huge hit before this is all over. Tucson was forced into cancelling their “Hangovers” race, Fontana never opened in 20 and I’m betting they won’t ever. Sonoma announced no more bracket program.... that track is owned by Bruton Smith who also owns Vegas and rumors have been flying about whether the same thing will happen there. Sacramento has been circling the drain for years (seems every year is their last...) although they do have an 1/8th mile race scheduled towards the end of the month (f’n 9hr pull for me). The staff at Wild Horse Pass in Phoenix was let go.... tracks on Rez land and they were quick to close (casinos still going ). March Meet at Famoso has now been pushed up to memorial weekend.... who knows if they’ll pull it off.
Looking like I need a new hobby :(
Click to expand...
Golf
 
Well at least I own a golf cart already :)

.....going to pull the trigger on new wiring and switch panel. Digital Delay stuff will be installed and also considering an ignition upgrade. Would love to upgrade the wheels, but that’ll have to wait.
 
As the car sits now.... it’s wireless! I gutted it. An ambitious move that needed to be done. Years of adding, removing, splicing, hacking.... it was time. Painless panel is out, Digital Delay switches and master panel on the way. Big question is will I sawzall the dash out!

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I’ll save the dash pad... but the rest is going to the scrapper. 25 years of racecar has taken its toll
 
of course I’m dragging my feet on the wiring. I’ve also decided at this point to leave the hacked up dash in place, but will cover the holes where the old switch panel was.
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so many ways to do this... had overhead switches in the old car, but the cage on this one doesn’t put them in a convenient local.... curved dash led to some challenges, but I decided to forge ahead....
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No... I don’t weld aluminum, but enough research on those Harbor Freight aluminum welding rods got me thinking. It was a bit of a challenge to get the right heat, and not warp the daylights out of everything, and support stuff off the metal table as to not dissipate heat.
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we’ll throw some paint on it and move ahead! Racecar Good enuf!
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You like warm weather and racing... pick up stakes and move to Florida.
Plenty of racing going on all over every week
Bradenton, West Palm, Gainsville, Orlando, immokalee, etc.
 
We’ve already bought land in western South Dakota.... that is our exit plan from the desert. Will be 40 minutes from an 1/8th mile track, but who knows how long we’ll continue with this hobby.
 
B3422w5 said:
You like warm weather and racing... pick up stakes and move to Florida.
Plenty of racing going on all over every week
Bradenton, West Palm, Gainsville, Orlando, immokalee, etc.
Click to expand...

In 1985 my cousin and I went to Florida and worked. There wasn't much construction going on here and there was in FL, so south we went. Snow flakes as big as horse turds were falling here when we left, in two days we were working in shorts and shirtless. We drove a 68 Cornet R/T 440, 4 speed with a 3.54 Dana. By the time we got to Jacksonville we had used almost $100 in gas, remember it was 1985.

We were staying in Titusville and there was racing at a track somewhere just about every night, not to mention all the street racing. There were some very fast (for the time) street cars there. We witnessed a 18yo or so kid get hit and killed one night at a huge street race. That was the last street race we attended.
 
justinp61 said:
In 1985 my cousin and I went to Florida and worked. There wasn't much construction going on here and there was in FL, so south we went. Snow flakes as big as horse turds were falling here when we left, in two days we were working in shorts and shirtless. We drove a 68 Cornet R/T 440, 4 speed with a 3.54 Dana. By the time we got to Jacksonville we had used almost $100 in gas, remember it was 1985.

We were staying in Titusville and there was racing at a track somewhere just about every night, not to mention all the street racing. There were some very fast (for the time) street cars there. We witnessed a 18yo or so kid get hit and killed one night at a huge street race. That was the last street race we attended.
Click to expand...

Funny you would mention Titusville.
There is a huge restaurant there that specialized in fresh shrimp( rock shrimp to be exact) they are off the hook.
Love the place.
Dixie Crossroads its called
 
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Well that turned out ok! Now to place the fuse panel and figure out the spaghetti end of things. I have a vision of how I’d like it to end up, but things never seem to go that way....
 
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Well it’s done and it runs! Went through the shifter timer and air shift on the stands and it worked fine. Just hope it works when I launch. Even added an led dome light. Next quest is to get to Vegas for my chassis recert and then we’re eyeing a possible 2 day race in Phoenix at the end of the month.
 
Slow at work so I drug the car along with me for an alignment session. I hadn’t aligned it since the wheelie fiasco other than a level for crude camber adj and tape measure for toe we’d pretty much just sent it. No issues down the track but I feel better about the numbers now.
 
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