Gary Lewis Posted August 22 Share Posted August 22 Oswald will be in a garage at the cabin. The seats, carpet, headliner and doors are in my basement (a lot less mice). Most of the rest of the stuff I removed will be in the bed (in the garage). Winter is still a few months off, but September is pretty well taken up with a vacation. October and into November is grouse hunting. The next couple weekends in November are usually catching up on the yard work I've neglected during hunting season. And then comes Thanksgiving, and that's starting to get into winter here. So it's not that winter is here, just that I can't make Oswald enough of a priority to make any significant headway. So I'd rather get him put away for the winter before we close the cabin up on Labor Day. I don't know what I'm going to do different to get the bed on and off easier. Removing the rear bumper will be a good start though. And I have thought about getting some junkyard steel rims and trying to get the smallest OD 16" car tires I can find (take-offs) to get Oswald low enough to fit into my garage at home (if he's not too long as well). But any more figuring will have to wait until I get closer to needing to do anything. Ok, that makes sense. All of it. As for winter, closing the cabin up on Labor Day sounds like a tradition founded on experience. But it also sounds like there's a difference in weather betwixt here and there. Here, in recent years, Thanksgiving has been warm. But I know that hasn't always been the case as I remember all too well riding an enduro on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the middle of Kansas. It had been 20F for several days and the ponds were frozen hard enough to walk on, but not hard enough to support a guy and an XL350 falling 3' off the bank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mat in tn Posted August 22 Share Posted August 22 Ok, that makes sense. All of it. As for winter, closing the cabin up on Labor Day sounds like a tradition founded on experience. But it also sounds like there's a difference in weather betwixt here and there. Here, in recent years, Thanksgiving has been warm. But I know that hasn't always been the case as I remember all too well riding an enduro on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the middle of Kansas. It had been 20F for several days and the ponds were frozen hard enough to walk on, but not hard enough to support a guy and an XL350 falling 3' off the bank. that's a cold day to get wet! many of us have successfully used an engine hoist to remove truck beds. many years ago, I even used a tree. but the last few frame offs all have been done more like what you just did with boards on the truck and board on the bed allowing me to slip it forward slowly and inching my way in place. I have had a man on each corner before, each wearing gloves, and still someone's belt buckle caused it to be pulled back off and put back in the paint room. live and learn. jeans with rivets are bad also. and half of these cool car guys have chains hanging off of somewhere. I prefer to take half a day putting it on then doing it over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted August 22 Author Share Posted August 22 Ok, that makes sense. All of it. As for winter, closing the cabin up on Labor Day sounds like a tradition founded on experience. But it also sounds like there's a difference in weather betwixt here and there. Here, in recent years, Thanksgiving has been warm. But I know that hasn't always been the case as I remember all too well riding an enduro on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the middle of Kansas. It had been 20F for several days and the ponds were frozen hard enough to walk on, but not hard enough to support a guy and an XL350 falling 3' off the bank. We've often waited until mid-October to close the cabin. The problem this year is that September is too busy, so we won't be up there, and Lesley doesn't want to leave everything for later when it just means we're going to have to run up there the next time we possibly can (mid-October) just to close it. We will probably leave the water in since my sister still wants to use the cabin, and let her close that down. But I'm the only one in our family with a trailer hitch, so I have to put the boat away, so then I might as well take out the dock... And we have had warm Thanksgivings, but we will have a hard freeze before that, and our cabin is not at all equipped to deal with that. that's a cold day to get wet! many of us have successfully used an engine hoist to remove truck beds. many years ago, I even used a tree. but the last few frame offs all have been done more like what you just did with boards on the truck and board on the bed allowing me to slip it forward slowly and inching my way in place. I have had a man on each corner before, each wearing gloves, and still someone's belt buckle caused it to be pulled back off and put back in the paint room. live and learn. jeans with rivets are bad also. and half of these cool car guys have chains hanging off of somewhere. I prefer to take half a day putting it on then doing it over. I'll definitely have to have a better plan by the time I get to putting a repainted bed back on. But that is at least a few years off, and this bed is destined for the scrap metal dealer, so I'm not too concerned yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted August 25 Author Share Posted August 25 Ok, that makes sense. All of it. As for winter, closing the cabin up on Labor Day sounds like a tradition founded on experience. But it also sounds like there's a difference in weather betwixt here and there. Here, in recent years, Thanksgiving has been warm. But I know that hasn't always been the case as I remember all too well riding an enduro on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the middle of Kansas. It had been 20F for several days and the ponds were frozen hard enough to walk on, but not hard enough to support a guy and an XL350 falling 3' off the bank. We've often waited until mid-October to close the cabin. The problem this year is that September is too busy, so we won't be up there, and Lesley doesn't want to leave everything for later when it just means we're going to have to run up there the next time we possibly can (mid-October) just to close it. We will probably leave the water in since my sister still wants to use the cabin, and let her close that down. But I'm the only one in our family with a trailer hitch, so I have to put the boat away, so then I might as well take out the dock... And we have had warm Thanksgivings, but we will have a hard freeze before that, and our cabin is not at all equipped to deal with that. that's a cold day to get wet! many of us have successfully used an engine hoist to remove truck beds. many years ago, I even used a tree. but the last few frame offs all have been done more like what you just did with boards on the truck and board on the bed allowing me to slip it forward slowly and inching my way in place. I have had a man on each corner before, each wearing gloves, and still someone's belt buckle caused it to be pulled back off and put back in the paint room. live and learn. jeans with rivets are bad also. and half of these cool car guys have chains hanging off of somewhere. I prefer to take half a day putting it on then doing it over. I'll definitely have to have a better plan by the time I get to putting a repainted bed back on. But that is at least a few years off, and this bed is destined for the scrap metal dealer, so I'm not too concerned yet. Well, Oswald's all settled down for a long winter's nap. But it was a process! First of all he was parked nose-in in my driveway, and to get reasonable tongue weight I need him pulled on the trailer frontward. But with no steering wheel, no way to run the power steering pump and a 460 sitting on the front tires I wasn't going to be able to do much maneuvering. So I put the trailer behind Oswald, loaded him on backward, pulled him out in the street, unloaded him, got the trailer in front of him and loaded him on frontward. That was all easier said than done (and it wasn't easy to say!). Part of the trouble was moving a non-drivable truck down hill and up onto a trailer. Sometimes I had to be controlling him to keep him from rolling back too fast, and other times I had to be pulling him backward. I did that by having one come-along from the front that I'd pay out and another from the rear to pull with. But that took a long time, so when I needed to pull him up hill to get him down off the trailer I thought of another approach. I hooked Pluto up to Oswald with the tow bar and pulled him off. That worked great! It worked so good that I decided to do the same thing to push Oswald on the trailer frontward. That did not work so well. As the front tires went up the ramps the hitch dropped so low that Pluto was pushing the hitch down instead of forward, and it tried to lift Pluto's front tires off the ground. I ended up tweaking the coupler on the tow bar. Not bad, but it doesn't work as smoothly as it used to. So I just used the come-along, which was fine because it was all uphill. Getting the loaded trailer to the cabin was finally uneventful! Now with a new transmission the Dodge didn't set any codes! Unloading was another uphill / downhill exercise, but without anything in the garage to pull from. So I welded a D-ring to a plate that I bolted down to the floor in the back of the garage. I hooked a snatch block to the D-ring and then I could pull him into the garage! After getting him in the garage I put his rollerskates on again and pushed him against the wall (to leave room for the pontoon boat). Kind of sad to say goodbye again, but nice to have that job done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBrother-84 Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 Well, Oswald's all settled down for a long winter's nap. But it was a process! First of all he was parked nose-in in my driveway, and to get reasonable tongue weight I need him pulled on the trailer frontward. But with no steering wheel, no way to run the power steering pump and a 460 sitting on the front tires I wasn't going to be able to do much maneuvering. So I put the trailer behind Oswald, loaded him on backward, pulled him out in the street, unloaded him, got the trailer in front of him and loaded him on frontward. That was all easier said than done (and it wasn't easy to say!). Part of the trouble was moving a non-drivable truck down hill and up onto a trailer. Sometimes I had to be controlling him to keep him from rolling back too fast, and other times I had to be pulling him backward. I did that by having one come-along from the front that I'd pay out and another from the rear to pull with. But that took a long time, so when I needed to pull him up hill to get him down off the trailer I thought of another approach. I hooked Pluto up to Oswald with the tow bar and pulled him off. That worked great! It worked so good that I decided to do the same thing to push Oswald on the trailer frontward. That did not work so well. As the front tires went up the ramps the hitch dropped so low that Pluto was pushing the hitch down instead of forward, and it tried to lift Pluto's front tires off the ground. I ended up tweaking the coupler on the tow bar. Not bad, but it doesn't work as smoothly as it used to. So I just used the come-along, which was fine because it was all uphill. Getting the loaded trailer to the cabin was finally uneventful! Now with a new transmission the Dodge didn't set any codes! Unloading was another uphill / downhill exercise, but without anything in the garage to pull from. So I welded a D-ring to a plate that I bolted down to the floor in the back of the garage. I hooked a snatch block to the D-ring and then I could pull him into the garage! After getting him in the garage I put his rollerskates on again and pushed him against the wall (to leave room for the pontoon boat). Kind of sad to say goodbye again, but nice to have that job done! What a journey, pull, push, winch, push pull! At least, nothing broken and the beast can hibernate quietly. Good job Bob! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 What a journey, pull, push, winch, push pull! At least, nothing broken and the beast can hibernate quietly. Good job Bob! Yes, good job! Having done that kind of stuff plenty of times I know how much work it can be. But your trailer doesn't have a place to bolt the winch on? Mine has a platform where I can move it if I want to and pull things on the trailer. But what is easier is to hook Big Blue to the trailer using the front hitch point and just run the winch line out to the vehicle. Your winch goes in the hitch, right? That won't work in that case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted August 25 Author Share Posted August 25 Yes, good job! Having done that kind of stuff plenty of times I know how much work it can be. But your trailer doesn't have a place to bolt the winch on? Mine has a platform where I can move it if I want to and pull things on the trailer. But what is easier is to hook Big Blue to the trailer using the front hitch point and just run the winch line out to the vehicle. Your winch goes in the hitch, right? That won't work in that case. I do not have a winch mounted to any of my vehicles. I have the receiver-mount winch that can be used on either end of Pluto or on the front of Oswald. None of my other vehicles have a receiver and an Anderson plug at the same end. And the Dodge doesn't have a front receiver. There is no place to mount a winch to my trailer. It wouldn't be hard to weld a receiver on the front where I could stick my winch. Then I'd also need to get electrical power to it. But with all of this the come-along to the front of the trailer is what worked best, and that's what a winch on the trailer would make better, so it just isn't a priority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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