The Ballad of Big Red

Steady bearing. They are usually slipped onto the shaft behind the middle u joint. Should come off pretty easy.

Truck aside, I admire your stones for pulling a travel trailer you don't own with a 227k mile truck.

EvanR wrote: Truck aside, I admire your stones for pulling a travel trailer you don't own with a 227k mile truck.

For a hotshot rig, thats peanuts for mileage. Guy I know has half a mil on his rig. Wouldnt know it unless you looked at the dash.

bearmtnmartin wrote: Steady bearing. They are usually slipped onto the shaft behind the middle u joint. Should come off pretty easy.

Well I hope so. I'm gonna take a crack at it today.

mndsm wrote:

EvanR wrote: Truck aside, I admire your stones for pulling a travel trailer you don't own with a 227k mile truck.

For a hotshot rig, thats peanuts for mileage. Guy I know has half a mil on his rig. Wouldnt know it unless you looked at the dash.

Yeah I'm pretty sure this truck hauled cattle or heavy equipment in Texas. For an '08 truck having 227k on the odo, that's just a little over 28k a year.

There was a guy at my orientation that bought a purpose built rig for hot shotting from a friend of his. It's a '14 that was purchased in '13 that already has 254k on the odo.

I did a little reading into this hotshot trucking gig. I read that the segment back is often empty. Would it be possible to vacuum out the interior and be an uber driver for the return trip? I wouldn't mind getting picked up in a crew cab.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

bearmtnmartin wrote: Steady bearing. They are usually slipped onto the shaft behind the middle u joint. Should come off pretty easy.

Well I hope so. I'm gonna take a crack at it today.

Yep, usually a slip fit. On occasion they get stuck and you have to cut them off with a grinder.

Mitchell wrote: I did a little reading into this hotshot trucking gig. I read that the segment back is often empty. Would it be possible to vacuum out the interior and be an uber driver for the return trip? I wouldn't mind getting picked up in a crew cab.

Maybe if you're working in a city. Depending on the company you work with, there can be haul backs. I get a daily email through the company that I contract with that shows haul backs. Some times they are on the way back, some times they are way out of the way.

Toyman01 wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

bearmtnmartin wrote: Steady bearing. They are usually slipped onto the shaft behind the middle u joint. Should come off pretty easy.

Well I hope so. I'm gonna take a crack at it today.

Yep, usually a slip fit. On occasion they get stuck and you have to cut them off with a grinder.

I hope so, because I've already seen one video that they needed a press, but their drive shaft was rustier than all hell.

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

Cutting them off isn't too bad, as long as you have a grinder and cut off wheels. Cut the outer race away, remove the cage and balls/rollers, cut the inner race about 3/4s through on two sides, and smack it with a hammer and chisel. The trick is, don't fight it long. If it won't slip off with a little persuasion, cut it.

Then I clean up the shaft with emery cloth, so the new one will slip back on.

Well replaced the worn out carrier bearing and still have a vibration, but not as bad. I greased all the U Joints, but the most rear one wasn't looking healthy. I'm going to give a call down to the driveline shop tomorrow and see how much it would cost to replace the 3 U Joints and have the drive shafts balanced.

I can't afford to have this truck off the road much longer.

Keep in mind, for us plebs miles show wear and tear from sitting and the motor barely doing anything.

He's cruising down the highway for 90% of those miles. That's the happiest time for any motor.

I always tell people dad got fantastic life out of his 2004 545i. Thing was, it was all sales calls with nearly 40k put on in a year. My bil has that car, he bought it at 188k miles. at 194k miles now he's had to do a TON of maintenance on it. He's not driving it as often and when he is he's pushing it harder than just cruising down the highway.

I bought an ex hot shot truck with 439k on it. Interior was a mess, but mechanically it was close to perfect. I'm not saying that is the norm, but if you find the right PO you will be good to go. After all they are relying on the truck for their livlihood, so they can't afford for it to be down, and most will religiously maintain their vehicles.

I drove it another 20k miles in about 2.5 years and when you factor in the things I fixed or replaced (basically interior and tires), maintenance, and even fuel it was the best vehicular "investment" I've ever made, in that it only cost me $1200 over 2.5 years to operate. (Bought for $6500, sold for $11k for reference).

So today I replaced the U-Joint that was in bad shape and boy it was fun. Most fun i had in my life. Can't wait to do another one.

This is what I ended up with:

I needed to use both an angle grinder and Sawzall to get this dude off the driveshaft. I went through 8 Sawzall blades when the angle grinder couldn't reach any further.

But the new one is in and with the new carrier bearing, everything is smooooooth.

So, now that is done, I realized that my trailer hitch gear can't be riding in my back seat. It's taking up valuable real estate.

Now, I can't afford a toolbox right now, but I need something. Wally World used to sell these plastic lockers with metal latches and a place to put a lock on it. Unfortunately they didn't have any, though I suspect when college starts up, they'll magically appear.

So I rigged up a container that my stuff will fit in when I travel and it can't be jacked out of my truck if I stop for fuel or something, but can be removed and put in the truck if I'm staying overnight.

So I started with a Sterilite container.

Drilled some holes....

Got some chain..

Did some chain things...

Drilled some more holes, added some locks...

The ends of the chain are locked to a cargo hook, added hitches...

And now I have a container that can't be easily walked off with.

I might end up stealing that box idea.

I'm lazy, I would have just tossed the bin in the back and written "dead raccoon" on it with a sharpie.

I was going to ask why not go on craigslist and get a cover for the bed.

then it hit me, you need to be able to gooseneck haul on occasion...

Though you could probably get a bed box for 50 bucks from craigslist.

I have one. If you ever make it up to PA you can have it. Its just sitting in the rafters now. Was mounted at the back of the bed in my truck when I bought it, 5th wheel/gooseneck in front of it, 110 gallon fuel tank in front of that.

In reply to camaroz1985:

Still have the fuel tank too?

So now there is a problem with the 7 pin socket for the trailer connection.

I'm not getting battery power for the trailer. Everything else is working like running lights, brake lights, and trailer brake, but I need to have the auxiliary 12v power for the trailer jacks and such.

I checked the fuse box in the engine compartment and the wire is hooked up and the fuse looks good, but I'm not getting the 12v at the socket.

Well off I go to see what I can find.

Well found out it was just a fuse. Bought a new one and a spare, just in case it pops again.

Apparently with dealing with a breakaway battery, they are common to pop if you hook the trailer lights up before you hook the battery up.

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

Sold it. Took up too much bed space for a "regular" truck, and dear god filling it up would be crazy, but at least if you found a really good deal you could fill up for cheap and get wherever you need to go.

In reply to camaroz1985:

Damn. Well if you can ever get a pic of the tool box let me know.

This whole idea of hotshotting an 8 year old half beat to death GMC for a living is Berking Awesome!

Carro Atrezzi wrote: This whole idea of hotshotting an 8 year old half beat to death GMC for a living is Berking Awesome!

Half beat to death? 227k is only just over quarter beat to death!