fixing Dr. Brown

So, those who know me have most likely heard the story about me doing a wheelie in the Mack dump truck trying to carry a Sea Mule hull section up my mtn. road. That was last autumn and now it's time to fix the damage I did to this truck, named Dr. Brown.

I cracked the frame rail. All the way top to bottom and stretched out the trunnion cap bolts (one even popped off). It's a miracle the truck kept his rear end under him at all.

After bringing the truck over to the shop, I stripped everything off the frame that was in harm's way. Then tacked up a bit of weld just to hold the frame crack tight together. Cautiously raising the dump bed, I put some daylight on things. Hmmn, I think I can fix this.

Ground out the crack, preheated the area with the torch and did some vertical welding with 7018 rod. Not pretty, but a sound weld. I ground it flat and next will be bolting a reinforcing plate 1/4" x 9" x 20" and 10 flanged grade 8 1/2"bolts.

Last fall, when this happened one could have observed me standing with my mouth open making low groaning sounds. I thought I had ruined the truck for sure. Now the sound you'd hear is me whistling. Two different sides of looking at the same event and two different sounds.

there when you need it

Budd nuts. Too much wise crack potential to even go there. But, really, budd nuts, budd lug nuts. These are the specialized nuts that hold on dual truck tires on, say, a dump truck. For a truck mechanic, this is as easy as buttering toast and is done as often. To me, it's new stuff.

I'm starting my fixing-the-Mack-frame project by first taking off the tires on one side. Easy. Sure. I stare at the wheel...how do I get those big nuts off there? Big and deeply recessed.

I begin searching and experimenting with tools. Some won't reach, and those that do, well, they don't have near the beefiness needed to get those lug nuts to budge.

I get a breaker bar, a long six footer that I got from some where. It's got a unusual end on it, but it aughta do some damage. Then I see that I need an extension on the socket. Hmmn, there's this funny extension that I got from somewhere and threw in the scrap iron bin.

Retrieving it, I come back and begin staring at the two pieces in my hand. Then I realize the odd breaker bar end goes perfectly in the extension. Then I see that the extension isn't just an extension--the end of it is exactly sized for the lug nuts. I'm in business.

Slipping a 4 ft pipe over the 6 ft breaker bar, climbing up on the dump truck side and jumping up and down on the cheater bar (10 ft out and 150 lbs of me = 1500 ft lbs of torque on the lug nuts) and they squeal in protesting movement.

Without this special tool there would have been absolutely no way I could have gotten the wheels off. And then I remembered where I got that special tool: in the old garage of the house we bought in Walla Walla, Washington. I had kept this tool, even though I had no idea what it was for. About ten years I've had it, and tripped over it, and moved it around when it was in the way. Not knowing what it was for, but just that it must have been for something therefore I was going to keep it.

And, now it redeemed itself. I'm thinking about all the other things, and experiences, that, at the time, meant little to nothing but now were the keystone for something else. You never know. A smile, a rain storm, a chosen other way, a tool and it makes all the difference...as Frost pointed out much better than I.

I wonder what events and things in my here-and-now will be key for later chapter in my life. I try to keep my eyes and heart open wider not to miss it.