RE: [ihc] IH Corporate axles, by the book.

["Mac @ TRIAD" <mac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

## >> If it helps, my 1853 school bus has an RA-30 axle. That's a big SOB.

heya Allan!  i'd started to wonder where you'd got off to and if you were
even still alive and screaming.

i don't know if that helps me or further clouds the issue for me.  i
remember this axle very well.  and ayup, that's a big mother.  big and
heavy.  way bigger than anything *I* have.  wonder if one of those will fit
under the B122...  hrmmmmm...  <getting wild ideas>

## >> Also, if you will recall, you spotted the oversized brakes on my 1200C
## >> truck, and at that point we realized that I had an RA15 rear
## >> axle rather
## >> than the standard RA10. This was, of course, due to the fact that the
## >> factory GVWR had been increased to 8500 lbs, probably for the
## >> service bed.

yes, i remember this discussion, and the debate we raged together for a few
minutes about the RA10/RA15/Ra20/RA25 axles and which ones shared
components.  i tried to convince you that what Greg is saying is the truth,
that the RA15 and RA20 share a housing, but you'd indicated that you'd had
an RA10 and it had the same housing as the RA15 we were looking at under the
current truck.  i sided with you then, and i still think that yours is the
right opinion.  i've since seen enough evidence to convince me that the RA15
and RA20 have nothing whatever in common except general design and
appearance.

## >> I'd had that truck for 5 years or so and never paid any
## >> attention to whether
## >> the axle was different, although I only drove it for 6
## >> months. I bought it
## >> for the engine and transmission, which I used in a different
## >> truck, but I
## >> just "assumed" the axles were the same since the wheels were
## >> the same as the
## >> other 1200s and the B120. Glad I saved the truck. I won't
## >> hesitate to use
## >> those parts or put the truck back on the road some day. Solid
## >> truck with no
## >> rust, I can't bring myself to park it in the weeds just yet.
## >> Somebody who
## >> knows what they're looking at will need it some day, and it
## >> won't die of
## >> neglect if it sits in my driveway a few more years.

i made the same sorts of assumptions about my other trucks.  i never checked
teh 1010 to see what was under it, just assumed it was the same as the B122,
because i had no idea you could get Dana axles with these things.  all my
previous IH experiences had been with trucks with IH Corporate axles, either
RA10 or RA15s, untill i got the 1500A which had whatever that new axle is.
now i've got the 800A with Dana axles, the 1110 with Dana axles, the 1010
which has a D44...  and only one IH Corporate axle left.  whatever that
thing is.  <sigh>

i hope you can run this truck again yourself someday.  that was a pretty
solid and very neat truck.  i am not much of a fan of the C through C series
trucks, but the first one i ever bought myself was a '65 D1200, and i'll
always have a soft spot for those.  you've definitely got some real keepers
there, and all your trucks have distinctive character.  especially that old
B TravelAll.  <turns green with envy>  +)

well, someday my B will roll again.  someday.  just needs a new clutch
assembly, drop the engine in, six new tires, radiator refurbished, new
engine mounts, new springs and shocks up front...  oh, and a new windscreen
as well as the interior compleatly gone through.  the one thing i can say
about it is that, sitting in that field for 13 years now, it still isn't a
big rust-bucket and the body is still VERY solid.  amazing.  the paint is
pretty decent, too, except for a couple places where it's been knocked off
and the primer or original school bus yellow paint shows through.  isn't
that odd?  my dad made me wash it before we put it back in the field a
couple days before i left for Texas.  left it gleaming.  very pretty.  i
took pictures, too.  +)

## >> Anyway, that RA30 axle is so big that four grown men could
## >> not pick  it up
## >> and carry it. I know this from having tried with 3 friends,
## >> as I have a
## >> friend who parted out a loadstar and saved the axle for me.

it took three of us straining pretty good (one of them being my dad, the
Viga Svart-Alf) to move the axle from the 1500A to the B122, a total of
about twenty five feet.  pulling the RA15 out of the B was a whole lot
easier and only took two of us.  as i said, the RA15 is noticeably smaller
than the axle we replaced it with, which is identical to the one under that
B140.  even with the wheels on, moving it is a definite chore.

by the way, that was a really nice friend, to save that axle for you.  very
nice indeed.

## >> He still has the
## >> axle, even after almost two years, since my bus has been waiting on an
## >> engine.  Same gears, same axle, etc. We have moved it twice
## >> in his yard, and
## >> it was not easy. The wheels helped immensely, but the
## >> obstacles are numerous
## >> and interesting. Some days are more fun than others. Those were
## >> mini-adventure days.

oh yes.  the days of adventure.  aren't you glad those days are past?  or
are they?  <wicked grin>  i wish we lived closer and that i knew where to
get a new engine for that bus cheap.  we'd have that monster back on the
road post-haste.  i'm not really all that far away, though.  maybe we can
put a weekend together to hang out and i dunno...  do whatever.  +)  maybe
one of those training holiday three and four day weekends that occasionally
pop up here at the post.

## >> Hope that helps. I haven't been reading most of the posts
## >> lately due to a
## >> crazy work load, so if I miss something important, I'll have
## >> to catch up
## >> later.

well i guess it helps, and also helps confuse some of the issues.  but
that's okay.  we'll keep learning and going on, won't we?  holler when you
get some time so we can catch up, i'd like to hear how things are going in
your neck of the woods, how the family is, everything.

--Mac

---------------------------------------------------------------
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Wassail!

Krystof "Mac" MacBryghde
TyrGothi

http://master.triad.ath.cx/