The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Great moments in stupidity

Ever have one of those days where you just want to kick yourself in the rearend cause your stupidity cost ya extra work and sleep. Had one this week and it involves my old stove bolt. Thought you guys would enjoy it.

About a month ago I bot a old timber frame barn at auction, with plans to tear it down and relocate it to my property. Had a slate roof which I wasn't crazy about so I planned on replacing it with tin.
Been working on dismantling it for the last couple weeks and this week we removed the slate.
I brought my old 47 2-ton that's about half restored to haul the slate which I'm going to use for fill. First night went off with out a hitch.
Second night not so much. Been working on it after work from about 6:30 to 9pm and then head home. Well Wednesday the starter I've been neglecting to fix since it started having problem 2-months ago died. No big deal we pull started it with another truck and on the way home we went. (I say no big deal but I found out my cousins truck tranny didn't like the weight the next day it locked up... stupid auto)
Anyway, I started heading down the road and the engine cut out. I was able to choke it back running, thought maybe I had another piece of rust break free and plug the lines and was able to suck it into the filter, cause for the next mile it ran like a top(I had cleaned the tank 3 times when I got the truck 4 years ago cause of similar problems, thought something else might of finally come off) Well I continued home and just as I passed the gas station I thought about stopping in "maybe I'm low in fuel" but I said no I just put 2.5 gallon in yesterday and 5 gallon last time I drove it, should have plenty of gas unless this things getting less than 8mpg, plus no starter means I can't shut the truck off. Well the thing started cutting out again. I pumped the gas and choked it and it started running again. Fought it the next 3 miles and was climbing a hill and the truck said it was done. It cut out and I couldn't get the tranny to restart the engine no matter how much I choked it. So barely moving I slink into someone's driveway that slopped down hill from the road. I had tools and a replacement filter but did me alot of good with no starter and the drive wasn't long enough to try to push it down and restart it considering the carb was probably bone dry. But I was about a mile and a half from home so I told my brother to stay with the truck and I'd go get my other truck and pull it. So it was 9:30pm and I started running home on foot to get the other truck. Got the other truck and headed back and hooked it up to pull the 47 back on the road and all my back wheels could do is spin on the pavement. I had to get out and lock it in four wheel to get the big rig on the road. But we got it out and hooked to the front and I left the pickup in 4-wheel and headed home, I could tell the rig was back there but it wasn't horrible, the 16000lb tractor I hauled with the pickup was alot worse. But we got it safely home. However my brother told me when we got home that he had to get out and chunk the 47 while he was waiting on me cause 1st gear wasn't holding it! IT started creaking down the drive I stopped in. He also said on the way home he was using both the tranny and the brakes to make sure he got it stopped. Anyway cause of that incident I was up till 11:30 and had to get up at 5:30am the next day. Yeah... To say the least I was rather mad at my fuel system I was about ready to take the old tank out back and throw a match in it. Anyway the next day when I came home I went out to check it and I thought first lets check for fuel just in case(My level gage is broke and I haven't had time to fix it. And I can't just get a new one cause the tank was home made and very short so they had to modify the old level gauge) Anyway I banged on the tank sounded dry. So I slowly took out the plug in it. Only gas in it was what was left in the top of the plug hole... SO I ran out of gas... all that trouble cause I didn't stop and put gas in the truck. Evidently my old truck only gets about 5 mpg when it's hauling 6000 to 8000 lbs... Can't blame the truck this time, just the owner.

Try 2500 miles at 5 MPG sometime! When we moved back to Tennessee from California in 1980, most of our household goods fit into an 18 foot 3-axle backhoe trailer with a box built on it. I pulled it with a 1970 Cadillac Fleetwood with a 472 engine and a turbo 400 transmission. My wife followed in our 59 Burb and towed a Datsun 510 station wagon with the rest of our stuff in both vehicles. The trailer was too wide, so we needed over-wide permits in most of the states we passed through on the way. At the Arizona line, they weighed the car/trailer combo as part of the permit process. 16,700 pounds! The Caddy got 5 MPG all the way to Tennessee- - - -The burb got 10! I still spent less money that I would have with U-haul!
Jerry

My tank is junk so I have a 5 gallon can on the floor in front of the passenger side. It works great as long as there is gas and you don't forget that we pull the hose out each time we leave it sit because it tends to siphon out through the leaky fuel pump...It cost me almost $20 to kill that spot of grass!

Done that. The original tank was swiss cheese and I had to drive it 40 miles home. New gas tank from Classic Parts was worth every penny!

My moment in stupidity: I know that heat from welding distorts metal. I've done it several time and I just never seem to remember to properly brace or tack things together. So I get ~$200 in structural channel iron for the rails on a new dump bed and start welding 3/8" flat bar to the bottom of the channel iron. I needed spacers there to clear the rivets on the frame, you see. ...I didn't put in the cross members between the rails however, or really anything to hold them straight and square. I ended up with some badly curved and twisted 8' long chunks of steel!

Well, I finally learned my lesson (after it cost me ~$200 in materials) and actually took the time to mock/tack up the dump bed frame after that.

You couldn't bend them out some how?

Well beings I ran out of gas the tank is fine just need to fix the level sensor in it. The old tanks only 15 gallon but I'm actually planning on mounting a auxiliary tank, a beer keg, on my truck too. Problem is the engineer in me has to be fancy. I'm going to put a float senser in the keg so I can read the level from the cab.

Done that before Dan. Did that four years ago when the tank first gave me trouble. Except I wedged my five gallon can between the bed and cab and used an old caulk tube and duct tape to seal the can and hold the line in it