It's the off season for snowcat activities and things seem a bit slow on the forum. I decided to share one of the current projects The Gorilla and I have been working on.
Before I bought my first Tucker I bought a used 18’ car hauler style trailer. One needed cribbing to get a Tucker’s tracks above the fenders. That system worked, but it was a bit hokey and loading/unloading could get sketchy. The ramps hooked into the back of the trailer and we would use some large wood blocks to help the tracks climb onto the cribbing. Sometimes it worked okay… and sometimes things started to go sideways. Sideways was never fun.
Some pics through the years.
2008, The first Tucker: 1980 1543. Note the overall condition of the trailer.
2009: Tucker number two: 1979 1642 (This became the "Vail Cat”).
2009: Tucker number three: 1980 1543 with long front tracks (This became Thundercat).
2015: Tucker number four: 1980 1643 (This became CHUGSzilla). While the original paint was faded and scratched, the orange sure looks better than the hideous green it is now!
When I bought the 1544 it came with a nice, long deckover trailer and that’s now the primary trailer for hauling Thundercat. But there is a new "mystery" Tucker on the horizon, and it too needs a trailer.
Back in January The Gorilla and I hauled a 10,000 gallon poly tank to Colorado on the same trip we picked up the ugly green snowcat for some modifications. When the tank was being unloaded, the crane’s winch cable snapped and the tank came crashing down on the fenders. Those fenders had many battle scars already, and the tank crash spelled their end.
Here’s the trailer with the tank being loaded on it (January 2025).
Scott and I talked about making some replacement fenders from steel channel, which would be much, much stronger than the original fenders. That would be a significant improvement and very cost-effective, but that would still require the use of cribbing for the mystery Tucker. A fair amount of discussion... and we hatched a plan to convert the trailer into a flat, deckover style. Yes, I suppose one could say “Those knuckleheads, they never learn”.
Here it is just prior to modification. You can see the damaged fenders and some rotten deck boards. Note the rust and the wheels. But that trailer has provided 17 years of great service, and that’s after nine years with the original owner.
Another pic. Note The Gorilla holding the acetylene torch. I can just picture him using The Evil Chadster's MUAHAHAHA phrase as he salivates at removing the fenders. But truthfully, he is amazingly precise with that torch.
Turn Scott loose with an acetylene torch, and things come apart... fast. The fenders were gone in maybe 15 minutes, max. The trailer’s wood decking, which dates to the trailer’s manufacture in 1997, desperately needed replacing, so that was removed in pieces. Nothing surgical about it; long pry bars and some leverage blocks pretty much broke all the deck boards loose from the trailer. (The remnants were cut into short lengths for wood stove fuel.)
The trailer has two 5,000 pound torsion axles. Torsion axles have what I'll call a lever arm that attaches to the axle at roughly a 20º angle from horizontal. During manufacturing one could position the arm pointing down, for more ground clearance and a correspondingly higher trailer deck height, or position it angled up, for less ground clearance and a lower trailer deck height. They were positioned up on this trailer.
After a fair amount of kicking around the best way to modify the trailer, we decided on several changes to the axles. We wanted to shorten the axles to bring the tires closer to the trailer’s main frame. By flipping the axles upside down we could re-orient the torsion lever arm down and that would get us four inches of the height we needed. (The lever arms point to the rear so flipping the axles upside down also means turning them around when installing them.) The axles were cambered and flipping them upside down means they needed to be cambered the same amount in the opposite direction. When they were originally built they used a length of 3” square tube and bent the tube in a press. We cut several inches from the axle’s length in the middle, and Scott positioned a short length of 2 1/2” square tube inside the cut ends of the axles. They were moved into position and carefully checked for alignment while simultaneously positioning the axles at a slight angle to create 5/8” of camber. Then he welded the axles and the splice tube together. By using the splice tube he was able to get a full penetration weld for maximum strength.
I'm a welder “wanna be”, which means I possess limited skill. (I can picture Scott reading this “Limited? Try none!”) Scott would make the root pass and I was tasked with the cover pass. A good welder makes welds that are both strong and cosmetically appealing. Yeah, well mine aren’t so appealing, so I end up doing a fair bit of grinding. That provides an incentive to really try and make better welds.
As part of the axle mods we added a 12” long length of 10” rectangular tube to space the axles down from the frame. Due to shortening the axles, which moved their mounting plates inward, we had to add some brackets to the frame for that rectangular tube to weld to. We used 2” x 3” x 1/4” thick pieces of steel angle for the brackets.
Here’s a pic of an axle cut apart and shortened prior to re welding with opposite camber. Note the rust. Ugh.
Here’s the trailer with the first axle modified and tack welded in position. Note: If you look toward the rear of the trailer you can see the trailer’s ramps stored perpendicularly between frame crossmembers.
And with both axles modified and tack welded into position.
The next step is to weld in a length of 4” channel on both sides to bridge the gap where the fenders were. Then the space occupied by the fenders will be filled in with pieces of steel diamond plate.
Before I bought my first Tucker I bought a used 18’ car hauler style trailer. One needed cribbing to get a Tucker’s tracks above the fenders. That system worked, but it was a bit hokey and loading/unloading could get sketchy. The ramps hooked into the back of the trailer and we would use some large wood blocks to help the tracks climb onto the cribbing. Sometimes it worked okay… and sometimes things started to go sideways. Sideways was never fun.
Some pics through the years.
2008, The first Tucker: 1980 1543. Note the overall condition of the trailer.
2009: Tucker number two: 1979 1642 (This became the "Vail Cat”).
2009: Tucker number three: 1980 1543 with long front tracks (This became Thundercat).
2015: Tucker number four: 1980 1643 (This became CHUGSzilla). While the original paint was faded and scratched, the orange sure looks better than the hideous green it is now!
When I bought the 1544 it came with a nice, long deckover trailer and that’s now the primary trailer for hauling Thundercat. But there is a new "mystery" Tucker on the horizon, and it too needs a trailer.
Back in January The Gorilla and I hauled a 10,000 gallon poly tank to Colorado on the same trip we picked up the ugly green snowcat for some modifications. When the tank was being unloaded, the crane’s winch cable snapped and the tank came crashing down on the fenders. Those fenders had many battle scars already, and the tank crash spelled their end.
Here’s the trailer with the tank being loaded on it (January 2025).
Scott and I talked about making some replacement fenders from steel channel, which would be much, much stronger than the original fenders. That would be a significant improvement and very cost-effective, but that would still require the use of cribbing for the mystery Tucker. A fair amount of discussion... and we hatched a plan to convert the trailer into a flat, deckover style. Yes, I suppose one could say “Those knuckleheads, they never learn”.
Here it is just prior to modification. You can see the damaged fenders and some rotten deck boards. Note the rust and the wheels. But that trailer has provided 17 years of great service, and that’s after nine years with the original owner.
Another pic. Note The Gorilla holding the acetylene torch. I can just picture him using The Evil Chadster's MUAHAHAHA phrase as he salivates at removing the fenders. But truthfully, he is amazingly precise with that torch.
Turn Scott loose with an acetylene torch, and things come apart... fast. The fenders were gone in maybe 15 minutes, max. The trailer’s wood decking, which dates to the trailer’s manufacture in 1997, desperately needed replacing, so that was removed in pieces. Nothing surgical about it; long pry bars and some leverage blocks pretty much broke all the deck boards loose from the trailer. (The remnants were cut into short lengths for wood stove fuel.)
The trailer has two 5,000 pound torsion axles. Torsion axles have what I'll call a lever arm that attaches to the axle at roughly a 20º angle from horizontal. During manufacturing one could position the arm pointing down, for more ground clearance and a correspondingly higher trailer deck height, or position it angled up, for less ground clearance and a lower trailer deck height. They were positioned up on this trailer.
After a fair amount of kicking around the best way to modify the trailer, we decided on several changes to the axles. We wanted to shorten the axles to bring the tires closer to the trailer’s main frame. By flipping the axles upside down we could re-orient the torsion lever arm down and that would get us four inches of the height we needed. (The lever arms point to the rear so flipping the axles upside down also means turning them around when installing them.) The axles were cambered and flipping them upside down means they needed to be cambered the same amount in the opposite direction. When they were originally built they used a length of 3” square tube and bent the tube in a press. We cut several inches from the axle’s length in the middle, and Scott positioned a short length of 2 1/2” square tube inside the cut ends of the axles. They were moved into position and carefully checked for alignment while simultaneously positioning the axles at a slight angle to create 5/8” of camber. Then he welded the axles and the splice tube together. By using the splice tube he was able to get a full penetration weld for maximum strength.
I'm a welder “wanna be”, which means I possess limited skill. (I can picture Scott reading this “Limited? Try none!”) Scott would make the root pass and I was tasked with the cover pass. A good welder makes welds that are both strong and cosmetically appealing. Yeah, well mine aren’t so appealing, so I end up doing a fair bit of grinding. That provides an incentive to really try and make better welds.
As part of the axle mods we added a 12” long length of 10” rectangular tube to space the axles down from the frame. Due to shortening the axles, which moved their mounting plates inward, we had to add some brackets to the frame for that rectangular tube to weld to. We used 2” x 3” x 1/4” thick pieces of steel angle for the brackets.
Here’s a pic of an axle cut apart and shortened prior to re welding with opposite camber. Note the rust. Ugh.
Here’s the trailer with the first axle modified and tack welded in position. Note: If you look toward the rear of the trailer you can see the trailer’s ramps stored perpendicularly between frame crossmembers.
And with both axles modified and tack welded into position.
The next step is to weld in a length of 4” channel on both sides to bridge the gap where the fenders were. Then the space occupied by the fenders will be filled in with pieces of steel diamond plate.
