Busy Getting Ready To Hit The Road

Here is one thing I have been up to lately.......hanging out with my Great Grand Son!!!! bu marriage  lol

Heading out and not seeing him for 6 months or so is one hard thing to do.....

Hows that for a POPEYE imitation!!!

8 months old now....he was born last year while I was in Quartzsite, Az. Right now he loves to climb up and down over that step and will poke his head around the corner and play peak a boow.

I also see my grandsons Derrick and "Dino" a few times a week and will be missing lots of the everyday things I am a part of now.

Winter is closing in on us here at home, snow on the mountain tops, cloudy cold  days are upon us......time to head south.

I came up with the idea I needed a motorcycle to get around on and to save miles on the Dodge, so I ran over to a friend, John, who has done metal fab for me in the past.....he builds 8 second drag trucks at his shop at home.......I need to remember to go over and shot some photos.....very impressive to see up close.

Any way John set me up with ideas how I could build most of the bike rack I need on the back of the 5th wheel...while I was there he showed me an old motorhome he has at his auto shop.....the photos give some idea of how wild this thing is, but I forgot to get photos of the inside.....think of old Disco lounges and you might come close...it is for sale for a very reasonable price......get ahold of me and I will pass on John's cell number.....it does run and drive.

Ok, back to the bike rack....

I started by cutting two holes in the bumper of the fiver..they are right next to the frame.

Here is a photo of one of two receivers I bolted to the frame, you can see the hole I cut in the bumper, what do you think of my straight lines???? The metal bumper sits behind the fiberglass shell and is not seen from the rear so I just made sure I had enough room to slide the deck into the receiver. 

I spent hours drilling the holes for the receivers.....16  holes in all and it took me 3 days, 3 new multi-bits (often called step bits)

One of my Car buddies, Earl, came over to get some old dash parts one day while I was stuck.....I had spent a few hours just sitting in a lawn chair looking at the holes I had cut in the rear bumper...somehow my T.B.I. cut in and my brain just froze.....I had no idea what to do next or what the plan was......as soon as Earl looked at my project and the materials I had gathered he knew just what I had planned.....I remember I was hoping to trade Earl the car parts for some welding.

Earl really came through for me, not only did he get me past the brain fart, he did a fantastic job fabricating the supports for my bike rack.

This started out as just a 2x2" square tube....the weld are pretty good for an old man....and I loved the way he capped off the tops.

Here are the parts to the deck.......I got 3 aluminum scaffolding deck boards and one C channel......the left piece is one of the boards just as I got them from the scrapyard...the next two are what I got once I cut one in 1/2 lengthwise.......I used a cheep metal blade from Harbor Freight in my skill saw....worked great....the far left piece is a 4"x12" aluminum  C channel. I cut them to length and re  attacked the end caps so things look factory. Earl cut the C channel for me as my skill saw just could not handle the job, it did do great on the rest of the cutting....only cost me $4.00 for the blade.

This is the end cap I had to drill out the rivets before I cut the boards to length and then just re riveted them back on.......simple job for a simple mind....

Allmost finished.....a little house cleaning and the small little railing on the rear of the deck and it will be done.....in this photo the deck/rack is not pushed all the way forward......it now is and is bolted on....undo a few bolts and the whole thing slides out....if I ever want to use a hitch for say a small trailer or car dolly...it will be easy to switch over.....the hole idea started with John and would never have been finished with out Earl's help, so thank you both!!!!!!