pole dolly build/questions

[arse_sidewards]

I'm building a copy of an old school telephone pole dolly for a buddy of mine. He does fancy wood work shit. Like he gets a tree, makes slabs, make shit out of the slabs and then people trip over themselves to pay stupid money for it kinda stuff.

So I'm building the old-school kind of dolly that you chain the pole to and the pole acts as the tongue and you strap a coupler on.

Like this, but 1000lb lighter and way more bare bones.

 

[arse_sidewards]

So first step was to whip up a pair of spindles.

I happened to have a pair of 2wd Superduty knuckles on the shelf so I cut the knuckle off and made these. I'll give them to my buddy to do final turning on as my lathe has no good way to turn to a specific dimension at present.

I really need some sort of extra deep hole saw or special lathe tool if I'm gonna make these with any regularity. I trashed a sawzall blade, a couple 4.5 cutoff wheels and two carbide inserts to get to this point.

 

[arse_sidewards]

So I laid out the steel. Tubing is 5x2x1/4 from a rusty old 10k Four Winns boat trailer. I figure if it's good to 10k new it's good to 5k after rust.

Trailer spring are for a 5200lb axle. This is my first time working with new trailer spring hardware stuff. Jesus fuckin christ that stuff is ghetto. A plastic bushing for the bolt to ride on and have bolt in pure shear with negligible clamping load WTF. I guess it works fine but I see myself upgrading this shit in the future.

 

[KungFooMASTA]

Nuns and Orphans will be killed.

 

[PAToyota]

I picked up way-cheap small boat trailer that I plan to do similar to for carrying steel and lumber home. The plan is to do a telescoping box tube tongue so that I can carry 20' ~ 24' lengths but then collapse it for empty or for storage.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

So first step was to whip up a pair of spindles.

I happened to have a pair of 2wd Superduty knuckles on the shelf so I cut the knuckle off and made these. I'll give them to my buddy to do final turning on as my lathe has no good way to turn to a specific dimension at present.

I really need some sort of extra deep hole saw or special lathe tool if I'm gonna make these with any regularity. I trashed a sawzall blade, a couple 4.5 cutoff wheels and two carbide inserts to get to this point.

I'm having a hard time figuring out how you got the finish like that. Flex in your tooling/tool post?

For sure weird. Cracked compound maybe, or way too much tool stick out?

 

[arse_sidewards]

I'm having a hard time figuring out how you got the finish like that. Flex in your tooling/tool post?

For sure weird. Cracked compound maybe, or way too much tool stick out?

Yeah shit is moving all over the place. I covered it in my machine shop thread, there's tons of movement at every joint from the compound down that I need to address.

1/8" depth interrupted cut isn't doing it any favors though.

 

[rockyota83]

This is my first time working with new trailer spring hardware stuff. Jesus fuckin christ that stuff is ghetto. A plastic bushing for the bolt to ride on and have bolt in pure shear with negligible clamping load WTF.

ive replaced a bunch of trailer springs over the years and every time i feel like they should be in the bootyfab thread i dont know which is worse the shitty plastic bushings in the spring eye or the slipper ones that just grind down metal to metal(repaired a few of those landing pads too)

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Op smokes so much pole, he has to build a trailer to haul it in?

Anything with the word trailer in front of it, is shitty. Especially in the smaller stuff.

 

[[486]]

been meaning to build one for hauling bundles of rebar and similar "long but not too large" shit with the car
prolly never get around to it
esp after finally building my truck a ladder rack sorta like this guy's:

ive replaced a bunch of trailer springs over the years and every time i feel like they should be in the bootyfab thread i dont know which is worse the shitty plastic bushings in the spring eye or the slipper ones that just grind down metal to metal(repaired a few of those landing pads too)

and yet it works good enough for long enough
always funny when you realize those box tube slipper spring equalizers have worn through their pivot sleeve and then sawed 90% through their pivot bolt

 

[arse_sidewards]

esp after finally building my truck a ladder rack sorta like this guy's:

You'll be regretting those words when you're trying to load 2500lb of I-beam onto a vehicle you care about.

That was half my motivation for this build. Driving with a trailer sucks and a ladder rack works good but there's some BDLs you don't want on top of you.

 

[[486]]

simple, just have the yard fork it up there, then fork it off once I'm home
if they put a fork through my cab I'll just cry

easy

 

[arse_sidewards]

just have the yard fork it up there

The best deals are usually buyer loads type affairs from people not usually in the business of selling whatever the material is and just want it gone. The difference between 2ft in the air and 6ft makes a big difference in those situations.

then fork it off once I'm home

Your one machine is an antiquated skid steer and its own weight is more than enough to sink it in the mud farm you call home. I know you know better than that.

 

[[486]]

The best deals are usually buyer loads type affairs from people not usually in the business of selling whatever the material is and just want it gone. The difference between 2ft in the air and 6ft makes a big difference in those situations.

Your one machine is an antiquated skid steer and its own weight is more than enough to sink it in the mud farm you call home. I know you know better than that.

putting a dovetail on the flatbed "Soon.™"
besides, can do all kinds of stupid hoodlum shit with a comealong and some chains

 

[arse_sidewards]

So 5" tall tube, 2" tall trailer spring, 3.5 axle tube, 31" LT tire works out to the tire being 6" above the "deck" at full bump.

Based on some simple math that means the tires need to be a little under 32" apart in order to fit a 48" round item and still have room for the tires to go full bump without touching the cargo. Figure 1" of tire clearance on each side and that gets me a 30" deck.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Welded up the top and bottom edges of the tubes tonight. It's not perfectly square so I'm gonna have to pull it square before finish welding.

 

[arse_sidewards]

How does this shackle angle look?

Ignore the fact that nothing is sitting flat. That's just because the bolt is too tight to let it swivel and I haven't ground down the crown of the welds that are in the way.

 

[bgaidan]

This thread just gave me an idea.....and of course google confirms it's already a thing. I'm planning on buying or building a saw mill soon and moving logs will become a requirement. Instead of having to lift the log or beam or whatever on to the trailer, how about a straddle lift that you wheel over the log and then lift and and either chain or even insert a bar across and lower it back on to it. You could still do it like the utility pole dolly style. Add a cheap 5k winch or two and you'd be set.



Seem a lot of people make them for ATVs for moving logs around on-site.

 

[rockyota83]

How does this shackle angle look?

Ignore the fact that nothing is sitting flat. That's just because the bolt is too tight to let it swivel and I haven't ground down the crown of the welds that are in the way.

i shoot for a vertical shackle with no weight on it but with a short trailer spring like that im betting it will be fine

 

[Derp]

I figure if it's good to 10k new it's good to 5k after rust.

have bolt in pure shear with negligible clamping load WTF.

I like the way you think

I might be showing how little I know but, what is wrong with the bolt being in shear, I assume you mean in the spring hanger? Besides the obvious of metal on metal wear, are you saying it would be better to have the spring clamped tight in the hanger, and if so how would the spring rotate on the bolt in the eyelet?

 

[arse_sidewards]

I like the way you think

I might be showing how little I know but, what is wrong with the bolt being in shear, I assume you mean in the spring hanger? Besides the obvious of metal on metal wear, are you saying it would be better to have the spring clamped tight in the hanger, and if so how would the spring rotate on the bolt in the eyelet?

Having the bolt provide clamping load on a sleeve (like what's typical on a cars and trucks) would be way stronger than in sheer and wouldn't egg out the holes on the hanger and wear the bolt when the plastic bushing in the spring wears through.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Axle tube is going to be 3.5" OD.

I can only find trailer spring perches up to 3" diameter.

Should I buy a set and open them up or should I just build from scratch?

 

[arse_sidewards]

Ok, well etrailer has one but it's apparently back-ordered. I was gonna call and confirm but they gave me an estimated hold time of 45min so fuck that.

 

[bgaidan]

Spring Seat For 3 1/2" Axle Tube

Spring Seat For 3 1/2" Axle Tube: Fits 3 1/2" Round Axle. Can Be Welded to Axle. Has 5/8" Center Hole

richfieldtrailer.com

Cheaper too

 

[arse_sidewards]

So in case anyone was wondering basically every 2wd 250-550 sized Ford truck/van uses the following front inner and outer bearings starting in the 1970s

For the '07 model year the F450/550 got different larger bearings and seals. The 250/350 got the same change in '08. This coincides with a front GAWR upgrade from 3800 (06 SRW Superduty) to 4400 ('13 SRW Superduty). Considering an '03 E-550 that uses the same old bearings everything else uses has a 6k front GAWR I don't think this is a very meaninfgul change and suspect it was probably done because somebody's simulation softrware said a slightly too high percentage were going to fail before the end of whatever period they cared about. I'm going to consider this dolly good to 6k easily and based on how this hardware compares to typical trailer stuff I'm gonna call it good for 10k on back roads. The material I'm using as stock was originally a 30+ft 10k boat trailer.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

So in case anyone was wondering basically every 2wd 250-550 sized Ford truck/van uses the following front inner and outer bearings starting in the 1970s

For the '07 model year the F450/550 got different larger bearings and seals.

The 450/550s switched to the super 60 front end and 10 lug in '05, but the bearings didn't change till 2007?

 

[arse_sidewards]

The 450/550s switched to the super 60 front end and 10 lug in '05, but the bearings didn't change till 2007?

Scroll up and look at the kind of spindles we're talking about. The D60 has nothing to do with this.

 

[Spreader]

I have some 3-1/2” spring perches. Bought them for what I thought was a D60. Turns out I had a Ford D61. Bigger tubes. Pinion offset more. Think I got them from DIY4x4

 

[[486]]

Scroll up and look at the kind of spindles we're talking about. The D60 has nothing to do with this.

I think the f450 and f550 2wd got a beam axle made outta super60 bits
seen them in the wild before, kinda like those 2wd jeep front ends

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I think the f450 and f550 2wd got a beam axle made outta super60 bits
seen them in the wild before, kinda like those 2wd jeep front ends

They did, that's why I'm mentioning it. I have one.