Dollar Store Trailer Upgrades

boppa

boppa

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Jul 21, 2002
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They are "hot wheels" type. They are too small, the hubcaps are outside the tires, they are chrome, and they are single and wide. I have put some extra Athearn's wheels on in the past but they cost to much to buy seperate. Maybe I should try making a mold and casting some....hum...FRED

just think of em as supersingles with chrome covers :)

(i dont know it they have them statesides but down here a supersingle is a single wide tyre used on semis(tractor trailers??or 18 wheelers??) instead of the more common duals)
btw supersingles are often smaller (16") than the duals (22 1/2")

another difference ive noticed- all the american trucks look really strange to me
they 50 ft long??and only 2 axles (18 wheels)
our locals run 45 ft with tri axles (22wheels) unless they are a bdouble or a road train



http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/krystal_g/b_double_roadtrain_info_australia.jpg


(i hope they dont mind me `borrowing' their pic)
b_double_roadtrain_info_australia.jpg
 
F

Fred_M

Haven't seen anything like that, closest are "van" boxes that use 15 or 16s but they are duals. The period I'm modelling is early 80s and the dominant size then was 10.00 X20 with some 9.00 X20 and 11X22s. Today most used semi tires are 22.5 and 24.5. The half size denotes they are tubless and was done as a saftey thing so that tube tires would'nt fit on tubless rims. All are ran as duals. It's a pretty standard thing as millions of trucks populate the US hiways. Our main roads (interstate) are so full of trucks that it can be thought of as a conveyer belt of trucks. Even at 3 am one can coun't 10 or more trucks per min. on I44 which is only a couple miles from my house. Then there are several intermodals a day on the BNSF hauling scores of trailers and containers. FRED
 
boppa

boppa

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Jul 21, 2002
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Somebody with more knowldege correct me if I'm wrong, but the batteries I used were 550 mAh and the LEDs were 20 mA. So they should of ran about 25 hours per charge but ran 5 days because as the voltage dropped the current draw decreased. So how do people claim a battery will run an LED for a month? FRED

several ways

550mah batts are VERY small in capacity-aa energisers rate in the 1000's of mAh and the d's in tens of 1000's
then using an inline(series resister) will decrease the current drawn(and the light output) but not in a linear fashion like a light bulb tho

then you can get fancy flasher I.C.'s that literally take a year to run the same battery down at the same brightness (or make the led ultra bright instead)
lots of different ways
 
F

Fred_M

Oh. they are 53 foot and gross 80,000 lbs on them 18 wheels. In Chicago in the steel mill areas one can find multi axled trailers loaded in the 200,000 lb range with steel. Use any picture of mine. If you sell it though I want a cut :). FRED
 
F

Fred_M

Originally posted by boppa


550mah batts are VERY small in capacity-aa energisers rate in the 1000's of mAh and the d's in tens of 1000's
then using an inline(series resister) will decrease the current drawn(and the light output) but not in a linear fashion like a light bulb tho
Click to expand...
They are AAA. AA are too big to fit in the trailer, in fact AAA bow the sides of the trailer slightly. The AA's I have are 1850mAh. On a note, 4 of them AA 1850s will not power up my digital camera even though the book says you can use rechargables. I have to use alkalines. FRED
 
boppa

boppa

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1 pounds = 0.45359237 kilograms

so 80kp is about 35-38 tonnes

sheese the local mermaids would be grabbing the ticket book if they saw an 18 wheeler (bogie axle here lol) carrying THAT load
barely legal on a tri(22 wheeler)
 
Alan Bickley

Alan Bickley

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Dec 22, 2003
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18, 22 wheels?!!
Here in the UK they count wheels on trucks mounted in pairs as one (to make it more confusing? who knows!).
Just as well the tri-axle trailers these days have super singles that boppa mentions.
Hey, boppa, do you have any images of those six trailer Road Trains? I have always been fascinated by them.:thumb:
 
boppa

boppa

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Jul 21, 2002
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or this one(how would you like to be trying to overtake it??)
its actually a world record holder for a while for the longest roadtrain hauled but lost to a longer one in a competion they hold every year in the Northern Territory
 

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F

Fred_M

Originally posted by Alan Bickley
:eek: :eek: :eek:
Strewth! Ah well, it proves that not everything in the US is bigger than anywhere else. Hee hee!
How many gallons to the mile, then?:D
Click to expand...
But we are bigger where it counts mates.:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: FRED
 
boppa

boppa

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Jul 21, 2002
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you may have meant that as a joke-but they do it!!

not on any road trains ive ever seen,but during construction of a local bridge the mainspans(concrete) were brought in on a massive lowloader that had 2 trucks at the front and a pusher behind!!

best bit was i wandered over and they were all throttle,brake and gear controlled by the front prime mover with only steering done in the back trucks by their drivers

was indeed a sight
 
F

Fred_M

Originally posted by Lightbender
In Canada I've seen wheat trains that were 2 km long but I hear they are running them up to 3 km these days. Do they have them this big down in the US?
Click to expand...
What's a km? :) I've seen some long trains on the BNSF, but it's hard to GAUGE:) their length. Also, I'm told by real railroaders that a train can be broken into more than one string. The fred tell's you if there is more of the train coming or if it's the end by the light. I can tell you it takes three AC 4400 CW to push/pull the coal trains coming through on the roads, but I don't think they are much over a MILE long(guessing). It's the intermodals that are long due to low weight per foot. I hear some of the shortest per pound trains are iron ore trains. So the longest would be the ones hauling foam:D :D :D. FRED
 
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