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Tatmans Toys

tatman

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Last year I had a chance to buy a rolled quick response fire truck from the county. It only shows 174 hrs on the meter but more important to me is its 4 wheel drive. It has a 8.3 GM turbo diesel and has a low range in the transfer case. I have a 30 ft. goose neck that I haul the Tucker to the mountain on and pull it with a 3500 duramax single wheel pickup. I am hoping that this will make a more suitable tow rig and still have some traction on icy roads. The tan truck is the donor that we are stealing the cab from ( its an old garbage truck) It was wore out and cheap. I'll post a picture when we get it back together.
 

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tatman

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This summer I was at a Ritchie bro's equipment auction when this tracked trailer came up. I hadn't even looked at it but it was going cheap. Long story short I got it for $400. It had never been used, has new tracks and tires. Its going to look great behind the Tucker!!!!
 

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sno-drifter

Bronze Member
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Hey tatman, does the fire truck use a 223 Rockwell transfer case? If so, I have some modifications to make it live.
 

tatman

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Snowtrac you have a very good eye, a old military trailer is exactly what it is. Last year I sold my older Tucker to a lodge owner who's place is 5 miles up the forest service road on the way to our place (14 miles in), He had a trailer that had some poorly fabricated guard rail skis on it. The day I delivered the Tucker to him he tied on to his trailer and started up the road, within a 100 yds one ski was tore off. I told him that the Tucker wouldn't know if there was ski's on the trailer or not. Just pull it up the groomed trail on its wheels. The trailer was empty so it didn't sink into the snow. It did however leave a trail right to his place. Next day a Ranger showed up and gave him a ticket for $350 for putting a wheeled vehicle on a groomed trail. That why this little trailer, with tracks on it, will be nice for hauling supply's or any thing else we need at the cabin. Rangers won't be able to say anything cause it is a tracked vehicle. I also think I'll look for a nice modern looking set of mag wheels for the outside set, just need to find the right size and offset!!!
 
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tatman

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Morooka; The people that build the tracked trucks for construction built this trailer for a pipeline co. They just started with an old military chassis
 

tatman

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Here in Wyoming we haven't received enough snow to even need the Tucker. I think I could still drive my pickup to the cabin (If the Forest Service would let us up there. Upside is we have some time to get a few projects done. While I am waiting for the cab to come back from the paint shop I ordered a new set of wing cylinders for the blade as the ones off of the old blade didn't stroke far enough so instead of having a U dozer it was a V. Tucker wanted $800 for these cylinders. So I ended up ordering these off the internet and with some machining on the ball ends they seem to work fine. ($160 apiece.)
Next I took the drag off the back and am going to weld a receiver hitch to the remaining pipe. This should give me an hydraulic adjustable hitch for the trailer.
After that I am going to cut the top off the fuel tank. As you can see in the picture it covers up over half of the rear window. Its 100 gallons so if I cut off 1/4 of it I should still have plenty of fuel. This is for the people in the back so they will be able to see out . My wife always complained about riding in the back of our old tucker because it was no leg room and you couldn't see out.
 

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redsqwrl

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GOLD Site Supporter
ON your draw/packer bar what do the pair of shorter rams do. do they turn it or apply down pressure?
 

tatman

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The drag for this Tucker is about 10 ft, long and built out of heavy plastic with grooves in it. about the with of a truck mudflap. The short cylinders tip it back and make it more aggressive. I'll post a picture maybe someone would want it, I don't see any need for it in my future.
 

redsqwrl

Bronze Member
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I just bought one of those tucker packer pans but mine just has a stout spring in that position.

that is slick. FWIWorth, I like the drag, Our snow mo officials require "groomers" to drag something when on the trails.. these packer pans *like a 2x4* are something...

thanks
 

tatman

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Taking the fuel tank off to shorten it, it seemed very heavy. I measured it and it is made out of 9 gauge steel, (72.76 sq ft x 6.25 lb per sq ft = 456 lbs) that's more than a Small Block Chevy weights. I looked for pictures of other Tuckers and all seem to have a different type of tank no matter what type of cab. I am guessing the previous owners wanted a bigger tank and had a machine shop fabricate this one, they obviously were not concerned with weight. So instead of shorting this one I'll look for something different.
 

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tatman

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I figured out the volume of the fuel tank it is 27.4 sq. ft. x 7.48 gal. per ft = 204 gallons. No wounder it weighs so much. ( it took 2 1/2 55 gal. drums to drain the fuel, it was about half full.) We started work on taking the storage compartment out and building room for the backseat passenger area. Tucker really had this welded in, continuous weld from one side the cat to the other. Next step is to cut the door in the side.
 

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tatman

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Update on our progress on the Tucker. Got the hole for the door cut out. We used a demo saw, made short work of it, cut threw the skin and the interior bracing in one pass. The door is coming along, we had every clamp I own trying to keep the outside skin tight to the frame, while the epoxy sets, (and could have used more.) I also got to work on the fuel tank, decided to build one out of diamond plate aluminum, got it sheered broke and ready to weld. I made 2 baffles for the inside, this might be overkill??
 

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tatman

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Got the clamps off the door and its still together, this is good, used the same epoxy that they use to hold the doors on chevy pickups. Spent the afternoon building the receiver hitch for the back. This way if I need a ball hitch I can just change it with the penal. Just need to get it painted and it will be done.
 

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tatman

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I bought a quart of grey oil based enamel paint from the hardware store and it cost $8.50, a gallon of reducer for $12.50. This matched the Tucker grey pretty close. Then it was off to the parts store to get the Omaha orange for the door. (Been to long time since I had to buy any car paint.) Holy buckets, A gallon of one stage Omaha orange was $285.00 plus $65.00 for the hardener. ( my guess is there has to be a better way to get this color) Ended up only buying a quart, hope its enough and I don't make to many mistakes. As you can see in the pictures Tucker's paint has quite a bit to be desired, it is falling off in big patches. The only way this is going to be fixed right is to soda blast (or something like abrasive hydroblast) the whole cat down to bare metal and start over. But that has to be a project for another time.
 

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tatman

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About finished with the fuel tank , some trouble with the aluminum warping with the heat of welding. It weighs less than 100 lbs, saving almost 400 lbs over the old one, hope its worth it. Will be a pretty sizable project by the time I get it mounted. Paint, not so good, ended up with the primer not being cured enough and is bleeding up through the finish in a few spots. Will have to sand the spots and shoot it again. The heater in the shop had shut itself off over the weekend and I guess the primer didn't cure out. Always something to be learned!!!!
 

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sno-drifter

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Lookin good tatman. Will you have enough leg room in the back? If not, you could make another door and put the seats back to back. This would make for good viewing and good leg room.
 

tatman

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I measured the backseat in my GMC crew cab pickup, and if I use the same size seat, there should be 4" more leg room in the back of the Tucker than in the pickup. Should be plenty comfortable.
 

tatman

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Every project that I get into always takes about twice as long as I figured going to. I guess you should always take that into consideration when you start. First time for me gluing material to plywood for the interior. Tried to make it look like what the factory had in the front half the cab. The rear seat we used ended up coming out of a extended cab Chevy pickup , the 4 door seat was to long and you couldn't get threw the door.( It's at the upholstery shop getting covered to match the front seats.) Between the fuel tank and the heavy mounting bracket that was under it, I saved over 500 lbs with the aluminum tank and aluminum mounting.
 

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tatman

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Finally we got some snow, so had to take the day off and head to the mountain for some sledding. Going to finish up the Snocat just in time.
 

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tatman

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The weather here has been so unseasonably warm that I had to go back to work. But did get the Tucker ready to go if we get a break (snow) I had to replace most of the glass (rear window was broken, and both wind shields were fogged up between the laminates, and we got some grinding sparks on the rear door windows while they were laying on the bench.) so all the glass is new except for the front doors. The rear seat is in and it past the wife test, so I guess were good to go.
 

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3512b

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I don't know if I like the hitch or the Ghisholt Lathe better... Between you and our friend over in Germanery ( which we haven't heard from in A wile) I am getting matching shop envy!
 
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