Hello Forum Family
Lately, I have been M.I.A. From the forum. I have my Father Visiting since August 5th and he will be with us until the 22 of August for his Birthday, so I have been spending a lot of time with him so Please excuse my Absence.I also have been tied up in several projects that have taken up all my time. One such project has been a new addition in the Hammerdown Fleet of a 18' Tandem axle Trailer. We Purchased it off Craig's List to move Lady Hammerdowns Mother down to Knoxville at the end of the Month where she will live the rest of her life Leaving her Native Up-State New York home.The Trailer Purchase was decided after we priced a Moving truck that was almost a Grand to rent. I hated to see her Pay a Thousand dollars for just the use of someone Else's truck, so we thought of buying a trailer instead to move here. We used to have a nice 24' Tandem Axel trailer a few years ago, but seldom used it so we sold it, and I have missed it ever since. I feel everyone should have a trailer at their access if they need it, so the one we Purchased was a real good deal at $475.00 but it needed some TLC when I brought it home.We had Priced a new one of this size and now they are $1900.00 and with the tax would have been around $2100.00 so the price of $475.00 was a Steal, but Getting it back to what it needed to be was no easy feat. to start out The wiring had been abused, cut and ripped out, so I had to rewire most of it and now the Brake,Park, Turn and running lights are all working again.I then Pulled all the wheels and tires which two out of Four were flat, and replaced the old tires with some Nice used ones. While the wheels and tires were off, I took all the Axel assemblies apart, and washed out all the bearings replacing one bearing all the grease seals and repacked all the wheel bearings along with adjusting the electric brakes while I was at it. I then had to replace one safety chain and got to Looking at it, and figured as long as I went this far, I might as well Paint the whole trailer to give it a fresh new look, so I bought a gallon of Equipment Black enamel, Jacked her way up in the air setting it on my Jack stands and painted the complete trailer top to Bottom.I noticed when we bought this trailer that the wood decking looked fairly new. It is decked with 8 -2"&10' Treated Boards, but a closer looked showed me that none of the deck Boards had been bolted down.
That led me to our local Scew
& Bolt store here in K-Town and I bought 40 Tap-Con screw's to secure the wood decking. The screw's I used, Have a special winged tip, with fine
1/4"-28 Threads on them. You have to drill a Pilot hole first through the wood and steel cross braces, then install these Tap-Con screw's and run them
down in with an electric drill with a Phillips bit, until they pull down the treated wood to the cross braces. I decided to counter sink all the heads first so
they would be below the deck surface when tightened down to eliminate any tripping over the heads so I drilled 40 holes, then installed my Counter sink in the
drill and counter sank all the pilot holes.
Both rear lights had
some issues with the contact points where the bulbs go in, so I had to take them apart and repair them as well. I finished the job off by Pin striping it with
some Chrome Pin stripes which set it off. I am now finished with the Trailer and Dang Glad of it. I will be using my Dodge Ram to Pull it, so
I put new tires on it as well, since the old ones were well worn and I did not want any problems with it in our 1800 mile upcoming trip. When they were
replacing the tires, I noticed the brake pads were about shot, so Yesterday I Pulled off the Rotors, had them turned , and replaced the Brake Pads. I also
greased it and replaced the spark plugs and cleaned my K&N Life time air filter. I am now finished with the moving project truck and trailer and can spend
some more time with my Dad. We decided to visit the range yesterday morning for a little rest & relaxation and I took along my model 15
and my newest edition the model 27 I got from Ralph. I had to re-sight it in as I had the rear sight off it for Polishing, so I adjusted the
sight as shown on the target. The last Two shots were One Ragged hole in the Bull's Eye while using my hand-loads which consisted of 2400
Magnum Powder as shown. So members, as you can see I have been super busy the past week or so and I hope you can excuse my absence... H.D.
Lately, I have been M.I.A. From the forum. I have my Father Visiting since August 5th and he will be with us until the 22 of August for his Birthday, so I have been spending a lot of time with him so Please excuse my Absence.I also have been tied up in several projects that have taken up all my time. One such project has been a new addition in the Hammerdown Fleet of a 18' Tandem axle Trailer. We Purchased it off Craig's List to move Lady Hammerdowns Mother down to Knoxville at the end of the Month where she will live the rest of her life Leaving her Native Up-State New York home.The Trailer Purchase was decided after we priced a Moving truck that was almost a Grand to rent. I hated to see her Pay a Thousand dollars for just the use of someone Else's truck, so we thought of buying a trailer instead to move here. We used to have a nice 24' Tandem Axel trailer a few years ago, but seldom used it so we sold it, and I have missed it ever since. I feel everyone should have a trailer at their access if they need it, so the one we Purchased was a real good deal at $475.00 but it needed some TLC when I brought it home.We had Priced a new one of this size and now they are $1900.00 and with the tax would have been around $2100.00 so the price of $475.00 was a Steal, but Getting it back to what it needed to be was no easy feat. to start out The wiring had been abused, cut and ripped out, so I had to rewire most of it and now the Brake,Park, Turn and running lights are all working again.I then Pulled all the wheels and tires which two out of Four were flat, and replaced the old tires with some Nice used ones. While the wheels and tires were off, I took all the Axel assemblies apart, and washed out all the bearings replacing one bearing all the grease seals and repacked all the wheel bearings along with adjusting the electric brakes while I was at it. I then had to replace one safety chain and got to Looking at it, and figured as long as I went this far, I might as well Paint the whole trailer to give it a fresh new look, so I bought a gallon of Equipment Black enamel, Jacked her way up in the air setting it on my Jack stands and painted the complete trailer top to Bottom.I noticed when we bought this trailer that the wood decking looked fairly new. It is decked with 8 -2"&10' Treated Boards, but a closer looked showed me that none of the deck Boards had been bolted down.
That led me to our local Scew
& Bolt store here in K-Town and I bought 40 Tap-Con screw's to secure the wood decking. The screw's I used, Have a special winged tip, with fine
1/4"-28 Threads on them. You have to drill a Pilot hole first through the wood and steel cross braces, then install these Tap-Con screw's and run them
down in with an electric drill with a Phillips bit, until they pull down the treated wood to the cross braces. I decided to counter sink all the heads first so
they would be below the deck surface when tightened down to eliminate any tripping over the heads so I drilled 40 holes, then installed my Counter sink in the
drill and counter sank all the pilot holes. Both rear lights had
some issues with the contact points where the bulbs go in, so I had to take them apart and repair them as well. I finished the job off by Pin striping it with
some Chrome Pin stripes which set it off. I am now finished with the Trailer and Dang Glad of it. I will be using my Dodge Ram to Pull it, so
I put new tires on it as well, since the old ones were well worn and I did not want any problems with it in our 1800 mile upcoming trip. When they were
replacing the tires, I noticed the brake pads were about shot, so Yesterday I Pulled off the Rotors, had them turned , and replaced the Brake Pads. I also
greased it and replaced the spark plugs and cleaned my K&N Life time air filter. I am now finished with the moving project truck and trailer and can spend
some more time with my Dad. We decided to visit the range yesterday morning for a little rest & relaxation and I took along my model 15
and my newest edition the model 27 I got from Ralph. I had to re-sight it in as I had the rear sight off it for Polishing, so I adjusted the
sight as shown on the target. The last Two shots were One Ragged hole in the Bull's Eye while using my hand-loads which consisted of 2400
Magnum Powder as shown. So members, as you can see I have been super busy the past week or so and I hope you can excuse my absence... H.D.
My Poor friend had enough on his
plate so yesterday morning, I told my Father it was time to see how well this trailer would do with a load on it. After measuring how wide
this 1950 studebaker was, I saw I only had 6" over all width between the fenders to getting this loaded on my new trailer. I measured the wheel base, set
some 2X8 Planks and had my dad guide me up on the trailer. I had my work cut out for me loading it, as the Emergency Brake does not work, and
it did not want to stay ideling, so I had to keep on foot on the brake while climbing the ramps, and the other foot on the gas pedal. I eased
up the ramps with no problems and went to the head of the trailer with this 4600 Pound car. Once I had it in Place, I shut the engine off and
left it in first gear to hold it in place, I tried to open the door. I was startled that the door would only open about 2" as it hit on
the side rails of the trailer. 
Now, I knew I
had a real problem. At 6"-4" and weighing roughly 240 Pounds, I had to exit this classic out through the window. 
He is 77 Years old today, and when a Parent
reach's this time in their life, you just never know if you will see each other again, so I made his stay a very memorable one, and now I
will worry about his travel until he calls me late in the day. Dad is all I have left on my side so I make every Visit like it will be our last when we see
each other....
