the DT guy

believe it's in dave crouch's shed these days

Good afternoons work new brake chamber mounting plates cut, drilled and fitted, just snatch block mount to clean up and weld on. Also got hinges sorted for the spare wheel racks so that can be finished as well. marking out and drilling new plates using originals as guide to get holes in right place. setting up the bracket closest to front of trailer 1st, this one is longer to allow room for the air lines into the back of the brake chamber. Can’t have holes in the I beam to allow air lines through as the air tank is on the other side of that beam. 2nd mount fitted showing the holes for the air lines. both NOS brake chambers mounted were they need to be. After getting the mounting plates fitted I stripped the brake chambers to make sure the bores are clean and lubricated. There is a main rubber seal with a felt wiper seal in front of it. lubricated all internal parts with air tool oil as everything was dry but luckily all holes were plugged very well with French newspaper dating from the 70’s. the brake chamber cap and piston return spring. going back together again for another very long time. to finish off I cleaned up a pair of spare Rogers rear axle shafts, never know when they may come in handy. Just in case a bearing spins etc. Got loads of parts being blasted and painted by Jason Jeffries and soon I’ll be getting into the rear cross members as well. 1st set of 8 wheels finished.

Got the fare lead’s all sorted nice little job ticked off the list. after torching the plates decided it was easier to square the plates up on the mill rather than grinding them. Didn’t take to long in the grand scheme of things. boring pin holes with boring head on the Bridgeport. IMG_1154.MOV New shieve pins and nuts. ready to fit to the neck next job drill some big holes in the new piece I let into one of the central I beams, make new break chamber brackets and bolt track guides on then weld the nuts to the underside of the deck.

it is very satisfying when the scale curls up, try to keep doing a bit each evening after work and try to get the neck area finished. soon start to fatten it all up.

Had another decent stint on the Rogers Saturday with more welds completed on the main frame. Almost a professional lol!! decided to have a break from welding so made a new cover plate for the king pin compartment. the original was so borderline I just went with the easier option of going new plus I’ve used thicker plate so you can actually put a decent load on top of the plate if needed. Back to welding but a nice simple job of re installing one of the missing D rings which was missing. Luckily I have a load of originals I cut of a scrapped Rogers so simple task of cutting of the retainer and welding back on. Surprising how long this took as there is 12 passes on each side with 3.2 mm rods. also bolted the horizontal fare-lead rollers on to check they fit as the full width roller and brackets are from a doner trailer which needed bolt holes converting to slots. Which must have been common as the original brackets had been changed to slots as well. Glad it’s starting to look like a Rogers again, next job is weld on the snatch block mounting brackets , finish welding the mud guard on the front left corner and bolt the track guides on so I can weld the nuts to the under side of the deck as original.

Your most welcome not sure if I’m inspiring or putting people off the idea of restoring the big stuff lol

Managed to get a good half day on the fruehauf while the sun was out. With the frame on its side I managed to get a load of awkward welds sorted. The frame needs rolling onto its other side to complete other welds. The other important job was to get a 1/2” bow out of the king pin plate, this happened at some point while welding in the new I beams into the neck. Which I didn’t spot till I had flipped the frame up side down. Luckily despite being nearly the full width of the king pin plate the bow only went about 4” in from the edge. between clamping the I beam, running the heat up and down the vertical and pulling on the I beam with 2 chains/binders to help get the twist out. The end result is spot on so I’m know happy to carry on and fit the snatch block mount point. More welding inside the neck and on various other parts of the frame while on it’s side. lastly got the new spring clips which are used to hold the D links on the side of the trailer in the upright position. Other wise they drop down just past 90 degrees and are easily caught.

Few more jobs completed, re fitted my re built (again!!) injectors. Managed to borrow a correct RR C6 injector pump so new governor springs can be maid for my pump, so hoping won’t be to long know. been pushing on with the new spare wheel carrier as well and removing the remains of the original hinges so they can be fixed and re used. Original rack wasn’t terrible but was badly corroded in spots and was no easy way to cut all the welds to remove it so made sense to start again. Un finished welds will be done when I turn the trailer onto its side like when they were made originally. Still plenty of welding inside the neck but the front & middle sections are nearly finished. Front plate stitch welded both sides like it was originally.

Dennis is still fit and healthy but i know he hasn't got any nos front or rear spring U bolts as i had his last set for my 980, i'd of thought if need be you can split the nuts and re use the u bolts with out to much trouble?

yes the U bolts are UNF it's the pinch bolts on the spring carriers that are 1 1/4" UNS

just checked the parts book they are so say 1 1/4" x 12 tpi

i will have to double check but they are either 1" UNS or 1 1/4" UNS as i had to make new nuts when i did the rear end on my 980

who is "sandstone"?

just thinking the exact same thing, the pins on my trailer are mean't to just slide in/out by hand as there are 2 bronze bushes in the chassis bracket and 2 in the axle assembly. then a nut each side to keep the pin in position but nothing at all to stop pin rotation not that it moves much even at max articulation.

lucky for me this is the better of one of the two roger's trailers i own!! but will get there one day lol

fantastic stuff Duncan, being very fortunate to see this in person i can honestly say the pics don't do it justice. the sign writing and all the small details all over the vehicle are in a class of their own. going to be a monumental day when it drives down the road for the 1st time.

Finally as she sits today, removed the main rear axle trunnion pins (2 weeks ago) which to say they were tight is an under statement as the 50 ton jack wasn’t keen. One pin came out easy ounce I got it moving but the other took 3 solid hours of jacking plus rocking the whole assembly with the telehandler to help persuade the pin to move. But it’s always going to be a tuff job as the pin goes through 4 4”long bronze bearings so you got 16” of steel and bronze binding together. Plus the grease that was in there had mixed with dirt and set like concrete!! new pulley mounts for the hand break cable to run through to actuate the rear axle breaks. new mud guard plate that is welded underneath the hand break mechanism. Originally was a piece of 1/16 thick tin with a welded on bead round the edge. But I had some 5mm plate sat around so copied the shape but simplified the design. Also getting rid of the bead gets rid of a lot of moisture traps to. last pics to bring you all up to date with todays activities, needle gunning the bottom side and assessing the rear cross member and the rear chain locker. Oddly the chain locker floor is really good just everything round it is knackered. More cutting and welding required, lucky me!!

Original cast fuse box cover with new brass mounting studs and new plate welded to the trailer neck to mount it long with the front junction box. 2 pics of the rear junction box showing how these trailers were originally wired. Basically all the black wires are the side/tail lights and the yellow is break lights. As the truck/trailer is positive earth all lights are earthed direct to the trailer frame and earthed back to the truck via the jumper cable linking the 2. managed to get a full set of new 8.25/15 18 ply tyres ex mod. new hand break shaft and mounting plate for the dolly as original was badly corroded. next set of pics is the new king pin strong back I made which originally was a single piece of 3/4” plate. But at the time steel prices were just going up all the time and I have tons of 12mm plate led around. So I tack welded 2 pieces together, machined to shape then riveted with 3/4” dia shank rivets so it’s nearly 1” think. It’s a tiny bit over kill but it will do the job.

Back to the fabrication which after days of needle gunning I realised the central longitudinal I beam which carries the rear break chambers and linkages was near enough non existent. So out that came and the only reason this I beam is as so bad is it had a tray welded on top of it and it was just trapping water under neath. part of the central I beam removed which wasn’t to hard to flatten it out by hand!! you can see below I’ve had to put a new corner into the left corner of the I beam in front of the wheels as it was badly corroded. The big gap in the next I beam is also due to rotten material needing to be cut out. closer pics of the original break arms and mounts fitted to the new I beam. few more of welding the new filler plates into the neck. Due to this trailer living in a hedge for a number of years all the inboard welds that secure the deck needed re doing. welding the new front I beam into the neck, which is actually a “T” beam as I left the bottom flat of the original I beams welded to the 5th wheel plate. So as to help prevent warping when the welding started. By this stage I had used 3 boxes of 3.2 mm welding rods!!

A nice wet day job involved dismantling the 2 hand break wheel/shaft assemblies. These are really simple with a separate wheel and gear slid over a single parallel key, with a grub screw to lock the wheel in place and to stop the shaft from dropping out. Obviously 70+ years out in the elements means it’s never going to just slide apart so in the lathe. this is the kindest way as it prevents any unnecessary shock on the cast wheels. Making new shafts and key’s is simple enough to do with a bit of hand fitting required. At the same time a friend in Holland was making shieves for the snatch blocks and the chocks that would be used to help secure vehicles. So these were ordered and are sat in the painting pile.

After a few weeks of gutting the next and tidying it up I needed to do a few motivational jobs which involved removing the filler plates either side of the neck as these were corroded. They simply prevent the tank tracks from catching on the I beam as a Sherman only clears the neck either side by a few inches. Luckily this was a really simple task which made a nice change, after which I decided to remove the dolly to aid working and cleaning around the neck. at that point I decided to farm out the dolly as a complete assembly as I knew the fabrication required on the rest of the trailer plus juggling 2 family businesses wasn’t going to work. The dolly is with Jason Jefferies near Bristol being completely gone through. This involves full dismantling of every nut and bolt followed by blasting & paint. All new break linings are being fitted long with a full set of new timkin wheel bearings.

Next stage removing more parts such as winch rope shieves and starting to cut the rot out of the neck. Though this quickly went to everything inside of the neck was bad so ended up cutting the lot out as it just made sense to start again. The whole construction of these trailers is littered it rust traps and the necks can be horrifically bad like mine is.

Ok let’s crack on with the Rogers so sad to say John that is just a pic of when it arrived it certainly doesn’t look like that know. So I’ll bring everyone up to speed. this set of pics is some of the initial disassembly, which at first looked generally ok which is why I purchased it but that soon changed!!

Although the T has been pushed to one side I have been kept busy with the Fruhauf to go behind it. Don’t know if anyone wants to see progress on this project ??

good afternoon John were still kicking but the truck has been parked up since July as i had a serious injector pump failure which has been a bit demoralizing as it had been done and not even got 500 miles on it. turns out the injector pump came off a turbo charged C6 RR generating set engine so the governor is not set up to run in my application. also found out the guy who rebuilt it for me the 1st time didn't clean out the fuel filter in the back of the pump which was full of crap which led to injector problems as well. but on a positive note the injectors have been re done again and i have new injector pipes, the pump has been rebuilt but the guy who is working on it at the moment is trying to re set the governor to work in a vehicle application rather than a generator set.