the DT guy

we have touch down! Spent Friday morning putting 2 final coats of paint on the belly then fitted the dolly this morning. 

Very happy to be writing this update as I got the completed dolly back today for the Fruehauf 😋 Jason Jeffries has done a stunning job all the way through and a lot of the credit for the trailer certainly goes to him. 
 

work involved just on the dolly includes:

all new timken wheel bearings

all new tyres, tubes & flaps

all new break linings and return springs

NOS brake chambers

all new felt seals for the hubs 

Everything has been fully dismantled, shot blasted and painted. 

obviously there are many other little jobs involved that I don’t need to list but for know I shall let the pics do the rest of the talking. 

just to clarify the zip tie and little spring are temporary as the proper large spring is still drying 😂

1 hour ago, Packhow75 said:

I have reposted in WW2 British Reenactor forum on facebook - maybe someone there will know.

Thank you for doing that, I am sure the guy said he was at this years Dig for Victory show.

regards sam

Had a very enjoyable time at truck fest southwest with the T which was very well appreciated. Specially when it was running Saturday night as you quickly realise the modern trucks for all the power and tech just don’t match up to true old school mechanical power and noise. Think the blue stream scania was a 2016 remapped from 580 to 730. But interesting seeing the difference of 75 years.

On another note a gentleman I was talking to on Sunday dropped his memory cards for his digi camera. Don’t know his name but lives in the Bristol area and does British Ww2 re enactment as a press photographer. If any one knows him please pm me on here and I’ll get them back to him asap.

I’m nearly satisfied with the old girl honest 😂 but as I enjoy working her hard and not put off by driving anywhere I want to go. I know i need to rely on her, so far I’ve never had any doubts when going out. the drive to Langport was about 120 miles round trip full of hills and she kept plodding away at 28mph. 
 

9 hours ago, john1950 said:

I have watched the video several times, you have that gear box mastered. That C6 is sounding good but I do not think the fuel pump is quite right. I do not remember so much black smoke when pulling hard 900 to 1000 is their torque band, it was just a faint haze. It also seems inconsistent through the rev range, the black changes shades.  Have you compaired it with another one? It would seem the air inlet side is good as there is very little smoke a high revs. You have to get them right or they give piston trouble. Have you another fuel pump to try on it? This is just my opinion looking on. You do fantastic work.

good evening john, your correct with your observation regarding the smoke. the injector pump is know 100% but since this video i have removed the 3/8" fuel line which goes from the primary filters to the lift pump (postwar fitment) to a 1/2" line so the suction side is all 1/2" pipe know. this has solved my fuel pressure issues as the lift pump is know drawing the fuel through the modern CAT fuel filters a lot easier so i'm no longer getting the fluctuation from before.

the issue i had was injectors 5 & 6 had partially blocked nozzles so she was running 100% on 1 - 4 and 5-6 were only producing half a spray pattern. these have been removed and cleaned and what a difference it's made having all 6 firing correctly. also i have turned the fuel on the injector pump back another 1/4 turn which has cleaned the exhaust up at full power though on a really hard pull she does still produce a very faint consistent amount of smoke. which i have been told by a couple of old school guys that is right for these NA diesels. 

drove her down to the Langport steam rally in somerset couple of weeks ago and went down the 303 with no issue at all and at the show i went on the tractor pulling sled and i never ran out of power just traction on the damp loose soil. so at the moment i think i have her bang on know and swapped the fuel filters out the other week. looking forward to getting the rogers finished and start running down the road with some proper weight on the back. 

Got a few projects I can’t wait to jump into ounce the Rogers is finished and the 980 is dialled in properly.

bit of video running my 980 making fuelling adjustments and figuring other issues out like fuel pressure issues etc.

I’m still here John just been so busy with work I haven’t been able to spend time on the Rogers, but did manage to get the 2nd ramp together a few weeks ago. Also collected a NOS front axle for the 980 as I know the king pins are past their best and been collecting other NOS parts for other trucks waiting in the cue.

 

Top hat bosses for hinge bolts machined ready to be welded in.

glad there nearly finished just the outer hinge brackets to machine and weld on and handles to make and will be some were handy.

Then a few minor NOS purchases to help keep the fleet going with more in the post 🤦‍♂️

 

hoping to get the 980 out this weekend so will get some pics of her out and go through some of the up grades I’ve done to her.

i had new bottoms put on both tanks and i have had a brown sludge in the filters so i think that sludge has gone through the lift pump and damaged the valves. i have know removed the original ww2 filter set up and fitted twin caterpillar spin on filters. i guess the tanks went a bit rusty n side while i was building the truck then it's got drawn through with the diesel? i have run the truck of a can with all filters bypassed and no difference which is why the lift pump is apart again, the truck runs perfectly just looses fuel pressure when the governor opens up.  

i didn't realize your girder trailer needed so much work john, i had a quick look over it when we were there in august. but yes there is only one way to do a trailer and that's back to the bare bones and go through the processes. thankfully my DT & rogers wont be living under trees or in hedges ever again hopefully.  

regards sam

24 minutes ago, john1950 said:

Great to hear from you, I really needed a big restoration fix. As usual your welds are very consistent and clean. Have you checked the Fuel flow through the return from the top of the fuel filters, I seem to remember a relief valve in the filter block. 

have checked fuel flow every were including bypassing all filters and no change, even isolating the return line to tank it still wont hold fuel pressure when pulling hard. so can only assume the lift pump isn't working correctly.

thank you for your kind comments John those old school welding rods do run really nice, don't think i'll have the set out this year as be getting ready to go to normandy and got the XXX core trip to holland all in 2024 so this year will be getting ready for 2024. hopefully this year i'll be running a Fowler BB1 ploughing engine for a close family friend. 

Some of my pics from GDSF 2022

Evening everyone I’m still here been busy with work and chasing a fuel pressure problem with the diamond t which has been annoying to say the least. But the Rogers is quite a way on from my last post and the running gear is nearly finished, just waiting on new break linings. 
 

all heavy fabrication finished on the deck.

Shot blasting and primed in one very long day, started at 8am finished 3am following day.

Few days later 2 top coats applied just before winter hit.

Rear bogie pins cleaned, greased ready for bogies to be fitted.

New steel for ramps and turntable discs.

New ramps underway was going to make just 1 and try to save the original but just as much work in 2 new ramps so making a matching pair.

Dolly frame and track guides in top coat, the dolly is know all assembled part from brake linings so very close.

new rear brake casting which links the actuator rod from the chambers to the break drum actuator rods.
Red is the pattern

green is a original I borrowed

Silver is the new un machined steel casting. 

 

that’s the Rogers up to date and hopefully start adding more soon. The truck is having the fuel lift pump gone through again as we think it has either a bad valve or a bent actuator arm, so waiting to hear back on that. 
myself and Jason Jefferies took our DT’s to GDSF last year so here’s some pics from that week but I’ll put a load in the Dt gallery from south cerney and GDSF in a bit. Enjoy everyone 😊

17 hours ago, Didier Belgium said:

Thank you for the fast answer,;Is a remote header tank a good suplement,or is it nessecery for the supercharged Cummins ,Is it worth to use it on a Hercules engine ? Thank you 

never seen a hercules powered DT with a remote header tank so i would imagine in the hay days of heavy haulage they just couldn't work the engines hard enough to warrant a header tank so certainly in preservation they definetly don't need one.

the cummins on the other hand was a highly tune able engine and wasn't impossible to get over 320 hp from them which in a dt is a massive step up from standard. Wynn's ran over 20 DT's with cummins engines on some extreme heavy haulage operations, were it was common to have 1 truck doing a job really for 2. so it's no surprise they needed the header tank as being worked so much harder than normal.       

30 minutes ago, Didier Belgium said:

what is the purpose of the two yelow canisters on the back of the cabin ??thank you very much;Didier from Belgium

the tall skinny can is a header tank for the radiator the other is a large remote engine oil filter. the engine in that truck is a supercharged cummins from one of the Wynn's heavy haulage pacific's.

a fine photo taken by David Lee on the last day of gdsf 2022 of Jason Jefferies 981 leading my 980. 

Was our 2nd year on the trot last year took 1 Dt and Sherman this year took 2 Dt’s, Sherman and the hellcat as well. Awesome trip both ways and another brilliant 3 days at the show. Nice to see an increase in Ww2 vehicles to go along side the impressive amount of armour that was there this year.

helps that running so slow were not having to adjust speed all the time for traffic and on most big round abouts etc you don't need to slow down as you can coast around so there are lots of little fuel savings that way. to be honest it's the long hard pulls were the bulk of the fuel gets used as it takes so long to climb hills at 5-10 mph. the only issue we have ever had was a blocked fuel filter but luckily i can open the battery box lids and turn the taps from 1 tank to the other while on the move. 

i have heard the turbo and supercharged C6's were a bit heavy on fuel but that most also depends on how the pumps are set up. i know with the NFL you can wind the pumps out and chuck more fuel in but doesn't make much difference.    

my truck is half decent i get between 10-11 mpg out of it, just put a new gearbox, drive line and diff in her bout 5K km ago so drive like a new truck know. she does have a really odd gremlin were i indicate right and sometimes the wipers come on but very inconsistent. 

in 2019 me and a mate went to holland with his c6 powered 981 with a sherman and she averaged 12MPG over the 1000 mile round trip. course you get to 30mph and you just sit there and cause your grossing 60 ton the weight for the most part is pushing you along. plus there are only 2 big gear changes to get from cruising speed to hill climbing mode and having no turbo helps as your not dumping more fuel in for no real gain.      

1 hour ago, john1950 said:

No one thought about the fumes coming of them either. Biggest ones I poured in were the old number 4's inside of a crusher. You are putting in the hours as well, but it really is coming together now. Is that a French truck lurking in one of the pictures? 

yes that's a 52 plate renault premium 18 tonner i drive, 4 over 4 with 320 ponies been driving it for 9 years really nice truck. 

Not much to say just hours of laying down beads with 5mm rods.

1 thing I will say huge respect to the men & women who worked un godly hours pushing these big old welding rods. 

The Rogers has come on leaps and bounds since the last post, rear crossmember is know welded in and the long endless task of welding all the little bits back on begins.

removing the ramp hinge mounts from the old rear crossmember, simple tidy up with a cutting torch and grinder. Then set up with a calibrated piece of 1” bsp pipe to get them all in line, then tacked them all in place.

Same process as before with the D ring brackets that are welded to the rear crossmember.

 

in some ways would have been easier to have started completely from scratch but I wanted to save as much of the original as I possibly could.

After 10 months I got the injector pump back and after taking the truck out, there is no comparison in performance from before.

cleaning the area ready for the pump to be dropped in.

a piece of art in its own right.

very 1st start with injector lines cracked off.

following day at the REME museum at Lynham. 

next planned outing with the truck is Armour & Embarkation on the 18/19 June. Also planning to go to Capel as well hopefully with the Rogers in tow to both events.

On 5/13/2022 at 9:17 AM, john1950 said:

Sorry I have just seen this question. Sandstone is a Museum in South Africa covering living steam as well as civilian and military vehicles

i think i know the place your referring to, they have a Rogers trailer which they tow around behind the steam engines.

Got loads going on with work but still finding time know and then to keep the project moving. 
jigged up and welded the original bracket back in for the air line water separators, nice simple 5 min task.

re attached the one cleat that was near as dam it ripped off on the beaver tail. Originally bolted on with counter sunk bolts but like most the bolts break so they were welded to the deck and the broken bolts welded in to the cleat.

another missing D ring fitted.

new I beams to replace the 2 rear crossmembers completely as there is no point trying to let bits in.

new wheel bearings for the whole rear bogie assembly.

 

Torched the rear crossmember out which was a fiddle as the beam is slotted and t’d into the main chassis beams. So ended up chopping out in about 6 different pieces. Got a lot of grinding and prep work to do yet but almost at the end of all the welding repairs.

skimming Rogers brake drums, glad there split hubs and not the early single piece lumps.

 

cleaning up and welding the snatch block mount to the neck.

new spare wheel rack lids being fitted, managed to save some of the original hinges, can still see the “Stanley” stamp in them after all this time.

Removing the smaller of the 2 beaver tail crossmembers, plan to replace both but 1 at a time. 

needle gunning the chain locker floor which luckily doesn’t need replacing. Used the stacked bags of compost lean’t up against the plate to absorb the vibrations when needle gunning.

all ready to fit 1st new beam, you can see all the holes in the main rear cross member. This will be completely replaced as well.