4 Curious Georges' 2001 Saf-T-Liner

[david.dgeorge07]

Well, the good news is that the Jeep follows great!

The bad news is that the hitch does drag...easily. I’m sure the interstate and a lot of places would be fine but just turning out of our neighborhood it scrapes.

[david.dgeorge07]

Scrapes...



Something like this would be better...

But I think I will buy one made for a bumper that has the receiver flush with the mount.

[david.dgeorge07]

Ordered a new hitch...starting getting serious with the steel I bought Friday.







Streetlight through painting drop cloth.

Now off to do some welding...

[david.dgeorge07]

All of these show tanks upside down.





I fit them on my bike rack on my Honda Fit!



All things considered, today went very well!

[david.dgeorge07]

Hard to keep up the pace when you have to work, but I prepped the hangers for paint and drilled mounting holes.

I also finally settled on where exactly the toilet would sit and roughed in the hole.

It will drop straight into the black tank.







Toilet from recycled camper.

[david.dgeorge07]

Well it feels like I got a good amount done tonight.



Base plate primed.



And top coated.



And installed.



New hitch arrived.



Had to drill all my own holes. 8 of them. Drilling 1/2” holes in 3/8” steel gets old, but got them done and primed and painted.



May not look like it in this picture, but this is very beefy. Much stronger than the last hitch I tried. The back of the plate is bolted to 3/8” angle that is part of the engine cradle structure and the front is bolted to the bumper through 1/2” heavy steel spacers. I kind of wish the gap wasn’t there, but it is so beefy I can’t imagine it not being very strong.



I also gave the holding tank brackets 2 coats of primer and a top coat. Should be able to install them tomorrow.

I decided to go with white for fun!

[david.dgeorge07]

Another view of the tank brackets.

[joeblack5]

May be not possible but why not cut a square hole in your bumper and mount the receiver behind it with an extender L bracket to the frame rails?
Nice Jeep. That is what I need to tow, The jeep a 1985 diesel XJ is already set up. Similar setup as yours.
When i towed my old 300TD back behind Dory I just bolted and L bracket with a spreader plate on to the bumper.

Later J

[david.dgeorge07]

Originally Posted by joeblack5

May be not possible but why not cut a square hole in your bumper and mount the receiver behind it with an extender L bracket to the frame rails?
Nice Jeep. That is what I need to tow, The jeep a 1985 diesel XJ is already set up. Similar setup as yours.
When i towed my old 300TD back behind Dory I just bolted and L bracket with a spreader plate on to the bumper.

Later J

Engine is in the way. I could put a pintle style plate on the bumper but the contours of the bumper don’t work with the flat plate.

[david.dgeorge07]

Progress, but a fly in the ointment. I thought I had loads of room to slide the tanks into the rack from the front. Top one went in fine but I lacked the 54” of straight shot for the bottom one. Air tanks in the way.

I have a mod in mind to fix it, but too tired to try tonight...

[david.dgeorge07]

Ok, a lot has happened. Last Thursday was kind of a bust for bus work because of this.



A guy rear ended me while I was stopped at a light. My face is a bit cut up but I’m fine, and looks like he has legit insurance.

In other news, I have been chipping away at the build.



I removed the base plate and went through all the bumper and related brackets and got rid of all the nut-zerts that the oem used and replaced with grade 8 hardware. Then got everything put back together and torqued down. Also have everything a wipe down with fluid film, which is my new favorite product!


Then I got back to working on the tanks. I was able to mod the bracket so I could slip the lower tank in with a little smaller throw.





Then I cut some cross ties from angle to hold the tanks in place (although they are pretty snug already)



After some careful measuring I felt confident enough to cut into my black tank.



Since my biggest hole saw in only 2.5” I used my router to expand it to the roughly 3 3/4” diameter needed.



Then I silicones the grommet into place. This will relieve the pipe directly from the toilet.



Thank goodness it looks like I got it in the right place!



So I went ahead and bolted the tanks in. Note the cutouts for the fill sensors.

Something I learned here is that the two tanks were not identical. I marked and drilled holes for the retaining plates and when I put the tanks back in everything was wrong. Even though same brand model and part number, clearly made on different molds.



I also tied off the frame to the frame rail and it is extremely stiff now.



View through the access door.

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by david.dgeorge07

Well, the good news is that the Jeep follows great!

The bad news is that the hitch does drag...easily. I’m sure the interstate and a lot of places would be fine but just turning out of our neighborhood it scrapes.

I made my own hidden hitch on my Dakota for around $25. Bought a $17 receiver tube and 4' of 2" square tube. welded the square tube between the old bumper bracket and frame rails and welded the receiver tube to the cross tube, fitted flush with my roll pan behind the license plate. I just found this piece and along with a section of 4" tube welded or bolted between the bumper brackets would look clean if the hole you cut is clean enough. It's a shame you can't just cut a 2" hole and slide it in till the flange opening is against the bumper for a super clean install.



PS, love your tank mounting system.

https://www.agrisupply.com/bolt-on-r...UaAvMcEALw_wcB


If you trust the strength of your bumper mounts you could just bolt up this unit to your bumper, then use an appropriate drop tongue and no more scraping.

[david.dgeorge07]

Originally Posted by o1marc

I made my own hidden hitch on my Dakota for around $25. Bought a $17 receiver tube and 4' of 2" square tube. welded the square tube between the old bumper bracket and frame rails and welded the receiver tube to the cross tube, fitted flush with my roll pan behind the license plate. I just found this piece and along with a section of 4" tube welded or bolted between the bumper brackets would look clean if the hole you cut is clean enough. It's a shame you can't just cut a 2" hole and slide it in till the flange opening is against the bumper for a super clean install.



https://www.agrisupply.com/bolt-on-r...UaAvMcEALw_wcB





If you trust the strength of your bumper mounts you could just bolt up this unit to your bumper, then use an appropriate drop tongue and no more scraping.

I went ahead and did this. I may upgrade it by replacing the solid spacers with a piece of thick wall 1” box tube. Not convinced it would be much stronger, but I’m sure would look better.



It is waaaay higher than the old one.

[david.dgeorge07]

Originally Posted by david.dgeorge07

I went ahead and did this. I may upgrade it by replacing the solid spacers with a piece of thick wall 1” box tube. Not convinced it would be much stronger, but I’m sure would look better.



It is waaaay higher than the old one.

And yes there are more bolts that aren’t visible in this view. There is heavy angle just behind the bumper that this is bolted to. all grade 8 hardware.

[david.dgeorge07]

Last time I drove the bus I noticed that the indoor portion of the mini split units really shook around when we hit bumps. They have very light duty mounting brackets.

That was a little bit worrying based on possibly work hardening and breaking the copper lines that feed them. So I made these little brackets out of angle iron, double-sided tape, and wood screws. It seems to have reduce the ability that they have to rattle around by about 95% which seems like it’s a pretty good thing.

[adic27]

Originally Posted by david.dgeorge07

Ok, a lot has happened. Last Thursday was kind of a bust for bus work because of this.



A guy rear ended me while I was stopped at a light. My face is a bit cut up but I’m fine, and looks like he has legit insurance.

DAAAAYUUUM! Glad you're ok. shame tho

[david.dgeorge07]

Installed a breakaway system this afternoon. Kind of overpriced for what it is, but it is a pretty clean system. It feels like it should work well.

[david.dgeorge07]

Originally Posted by adic27

DAAAAYUUUM! Glad you're ok. shame tho

Looks like it’s totaled...

[o1marc]

How does that break-away work?

[david.dgeorge07]

Originally Posted by o1marc

How does that break-away work?

Basically, close to the bumper there is a device that allows aircraft cable to pass through it only One Direction. That is attached to the Bus via a link that is designed to fail once a certain tension is achieved.

If the jeep separates from the bus the cable gets pulled and that it passes through the one way device and the firewall and pulls the brake pedal against the floor and holds it down.

Later, assuming your breakaway vehicle has not been destroyed, there’s a release button that you press to release tension on the cable/brakes.