Hauling your locomotive

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hoppercar
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Hauling your locomotive

Post by hoppercar »

I finished my 1.6 scale mikado, and it hauls nicely in the back of my dodge truck, with the 8 foot bed....but as anyone knows, who has seen my truck..it won't last forever...lol.lol....and since trucks with 8 foot beds, are becoming scarcer by the day, and new trucks are only for the insanely rich, who want to become a slave to the bank....I'm curious, how guys with bigger locomotives......northerns, Hudson's, mikados...etc,. Etc...haul there equipment to the track....these "hick-up" trucks with a 5 foot bed, are next to useless.......I'm thinking a heavy duty trailer might be in order, but I would have to modify my locomotive stand, to make it sit a little lower to the ground, to make loading, unloading easier......any tips, out there
rkcarguy
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Re: Hauling your locomotive

Post by rkcarguy »

What kind of weight are we talking about Hoppercar?
I know there is another thread on here with a "show and tell" with all the different stands/lifts people came up with. One member even had one that used a winch to lift vertically so he could stack multiple levels of rolling stock on racks in the garage.

I have an older F350 Super Duty CC LB 4x4 that is the plain jane model with manual windows, locks, and T-case, only has A/C and the V10 as upgrades. I figure I can keep rebuilding/fixing whatever I need to until the body rusts away (so far so good, knock on wood), for far far less than $65K for a new one!
I discovered through Fords records that the original owners had the trans cooler bypass stick on them and baked the transmission when they were hauling a big camper, so it has a newer one in it that only has accumulated ~35k miles.
hoppercar
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Re: Hauling your locomotive

Post by hoppercar »

I think the rrsc Mike weighs around 900 pounds...
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LVRR2095
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Re: Hauling your locomotive

Post by LVRR2095 »

There is a lot to be said for 3/4” scale. My wife has single handedly carried our Atlantic in its carrier and loaded it into the car.
And it has no trouble hauling both of us....

Keith
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FLSTEAM
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Re: Hauling your locomotive

Post by FLSTEAM »

Buy a 6x10 trailer. Hauls my 800 lb. Shay and three 2 1/2" cars. When you get home after dark from running all day just park it. Rain or shine.

John B
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: Hauling your locomotive

Post by Greg_Lewis »

If you buy a trailer, be sure to calculate carefully the length. Don't just go by the length of your equipment. I made that mistake and after a couple of years ended up replacing it with a longer one. You not only need room for tie-downs at the ends of the equipment, you need room for the other stuff that has to be taken along — tools, fuel, cooler, lawn chairs (!), etc., and you need room to get in there with your body to access the tie-downs and to fetch things. And there will always be something else you hadn't thought of.

As to trucks, get a nice old reliable one with a carburetor and breaker point ignition. If it's got compression, you can get it to run!
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
Berkman
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Re: Hauling your locomotive

Post by Berkman »

If you go the trailer route you can buy a used dodge durango or equivalent, still not cheap, but the trailer releases you from absolutely needing a truck.
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Bill Shields
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Re: Hauling your locomotive

Post by Bill Shields »

LVRR2095 wrote: Fri Feb 12, 2021 8:56 pm There is a lot to be said for 3/4” scale. My wife has single handedly carried our Atlantic in its carrier and loaded it into the car.
And it has no trouble hauling both of us....

Keith
Am on both sides of this track. My current transport vehicle is a used RV camper extended Econoline that has been gutted to take the loco and all as a roll in through the back doors.

Looks like crap.. but is fully functional and keeps the loco out of the weather.

Also building my 3rd small loco that will fit in the back of our Subaru Forrester. Never get my wife to carry it..but then beggars should not be choosers.

Either that or a 10' Uhaul used box truck.
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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FLSTEAM
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Re: Hauling your locomotive

Post by FLSTEAM »

BTW make life simple and get electric brakes. New trucks like my Chevy have factory controller wiring.

JB
Berkman
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Re: Hauling your locomotive

Post by Berkman »

I've always heard that torsion axles are a must on a tandem axles trailer, then sway control hitch will make towing long distances much more "pleasant"
Kimball McGinley
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Re: Hauling your locomotive

Post by Kimball McGinley »

I can see torsion axles giving a lower deck height, but how could that influence sway? I agree on electric brakes; one advantage is that you can downshift the tow vehicle on downhill grades to use engine braking, then touch the brake pedal or just the manual control when needed. Our boat has surge brakes, you cannot downshift for engine braking because this applies the trailer brakes continuously and they will overheat and fade.
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Steggy
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Re: Hauling your locomotive

Post by Steggy »

Berkman wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 10:40 am I've always heard that torsion axles are a must on a tandem axles trailer, then sway control hitch will make towing long distances much more "pleasant"
The tandem axle leaf spring vs. torsion suspension argument has been going on forever. In favor of using torsion suspension is the trailer's deck can be lower to the ground because clearance isn't required for the movements of a conventional axle. Also, torsion suspension acts like the independent suspension of an automobile, which helps with trailer tracking on rough roads and in producing a somewhat smoother ride.

However, a trailer with tandem axle torsion suspension is more sensitive to the longitudinal placement of the load, as torsion suspension doesn't equalize the way leaf spring suspension does. If the load is longitudinally off-center, one pair of tires will wear faster than the other and the trailer may have a tendency to sway in crosswinds or from the wind blast of big trucks passing in the opposite direction. An equalizing hitch (what you referred to as a sway control hitch, which doesn't "control" sway) may be useful in such situations, especially if the trailer is being hauled with a front-wheel drive vehicle.

Something else to consider is ease of and cost of repair. If a leaf spring breaks it is relatively easy to replace. If a torsion axle's spring member fails you have to replace the entire axle.
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