Dez' 'fleet' thread. Another bl00dy transit!

For those who have asked about loaded shots…

First thing to go on was this-


As you can see, it’s quite low. The grille shell clearance doesn’t matter much as it’s directly between the front wheels, but the main body is about 3” off the floor. It also has a very long wheelbase, 115”, that’s a foot longer than a stock model A.

A bit of pushing and we’re ready to go.


This is the money shot. As the weight of the front wheels gets to the top of the ramps, everything tips level for a pretty much straight shot up and on, which is exactly what I was aiming for. Obviously it varies a bit depending on how heavy each car is, but it’s in a ‘workable’ range for the 1-1.5ton stuff I work on.


Then it get strapped on-


And 150 miles later-


Unloaded and tucked away in a actually reasonably sized but also already full of junk garage, making it a tight fit!


Only gotta do that 10 more times or so…

I’ve got a thing for resida.
The majority of my workshop equipment is it, and every time I refurb something that’s what colour it goes.
Plus my front door and I’ll paint my gates to match too eventually 🤣



Lincolns are gone. Largest vehicle I have now is a shoebox (16ft) or the 47 pickup, again about the same, or the falcon, also just under 16ft. So all will fit without issue.

Once I’d warmed up with moving the model A, which was a pretty easy one in that it rolled and steered and was more or less in one piece, I decided to do probably the most difficult one on the list.
This being the ‘34.

It was difficult for a number of reasons, one being that it was welded to a chassis table that was on castors, two being that the body wasn’t really joined together or attached to the chassis, three it had no floors so I couldn’t put anything inside it.
Oh and number 4 is the *slight* issue that the chassis table is 15 foot long. But the bed is 15 foot long I hear the more astute of you say- yes it is, but there’s a winch in the way for the first foot of it.

So the back had to be blocked up with an overhang to allow me to remove the ramps, the body was partially bolted together and ratchet strapped down, and all the loose parts where removed and boxed up. Did I also mention I didn’t want to get it wet so I have to pick my day carefully? 😬




One major issue id not really considered was point loadings. Although I calculated it weighed about 1.5ton so I wasn’t overweight, the bed did NOT like have that entire weight on 4 small points. I’ve damaged the ally a bit at the back of the bed until I realised I needed to use ply to spread the load from the castors, moving the bits up the bed as i winched it on, which point-load a lot worse than a big ol’ inflated tyres do.
The ramps have also taken an absolute hammering getting it on and off. I had two people to help me steer it on (castors are absolutely sh1te for doing such a thing, they’ll go any direction except the one you want them to) but I had to unload by myself.

The journey itself was uneventful, here I am after another 150 miles.


And here it is waiting to be unloaded.


It was going in here temporarily, the concrete that’s supposed to be in that hole isn’t yet so I had to aim carefully with the ramps.


The was LOTS of plywood involved to prevent further damage, it still slewed off the ramps twice and had to be jacked and levered back into place as castors are an utterly terrible invention unless you’re on a mirror smooth surface.


Still, after a lot of swearing it was in the tent on the concrete and nobody died.



Ramps took a hammering, but with a bit of further hammering they’re a bit better.




The other vehicles should be easy after that! 😂

Respect!

In comparison, the next car was easy. Just winch it straight on and it didn’t even scrape, not bad to say it has 3/4” ground clearance.



Repack any loose parts into boxes, strap the bonnet and boot shut, wedge the bumper etc. inside, and we’re good to go.

And again, another 150 miles later-


And unloading-


It’s amazing how low a car this bed will take without issue. I think I’m justified in feeling smug about my design on this!



The truck has also had a bit of extra love to finish off a few of the last rushed bits, I removed the rear mudguards and primed the brackets-


Then topcoated them and refitted the guards.

^^^
So does Dez I bet!

So with the truck on the road, I had some running issues with it. After I put it back together the glow plug light was flashing which is an indicator that there’s some sort of fault. It wasn’t there before so I figured it’s something I’d disturbed dismantling the front end.
Driving it to the mot and back showed it was down on power, but there were no other symptoms- no noises or anything, and it always starts well.

When reassembling I noticed the MAP was held into its pipework with zip ties, which pointed to an obvious place to start to me. Unplugging it did nothing, suggesting it was indeed duff.
But rather than p1ssing in the wind I decided to code read it first.
My reader wouldn’t read it at all, and nether would George’s. So I ran it down to my mate rikki across town as he also has a mk6 recovery truck, and a reader that’s known to work on it.

Plugging it in gave me lots of codes.











The battery was a bit low at this point due to lack of use, and it was acting a bit funny when trying to start. The battery got a charge and the codes were cleared, and I chucked on a new MAP from the transit breaker next door seeing as it was showing a MAP fault.

With that done, the only codes that came back where these two-


Now the temperature one is interesting, because these transits use a combined MAP and temp sensor. The guy at the breakers said ‘it’ll be the wiring not the unit’ and gave me one with some wiring still attached.
Swapping just the unit sorted the MAP fault but not the temp sensor, and it’s highly unlikely both units would be faulty in the same way.

Swapping the MAP and resetting the codes made the flashy light go out and netted a partial improvement, so I did the first couple trips like that. Slow on the long uphills, but not dangerously so, about 50mpg loaded which is only the same as the lorries could manage so I wasn’t making a nuisance of myself.

I then got some time to do some fettling between trips, and I soldered in the replacement plug and a few inches of wiring.

Ropey old plug-


Old and ‘new’.


New MAP with clips no made of solid rust like the old ones-


And I’m happy to report it’s cured it. I hasten to say it’s fast, as it’s a 90ps transit, but it’ll hold its own now without slowing excessively as soon as you point it uphill at all!

The last fault code? I’ve ignored it as no one actually knows what it means and it doesn’t seem to be causing an issue 😂

It’s not one of the ‘your pump is about to die’ codes so I can live with it, especially as it doesnt seem to effect performance.

It had a whole new engine/pump/ECU/immo package about 9 months before I bought it, all out of a minibus with only 39k. So it’s probably something to do with that swap I guess.

That is indeed a possibility, I don’t know what was done to fit the new engine but I guess something will have had to have been messed with, these things are actually pretty heavy on the electrics for a pre 2001 commercial vehicle.