[AT] Can you hear me now? Rust

Steve W. falcon at telenet.net
Fri Feb 5 21:43:47 PST 2010


Cecil Bearden wrote:
> I used to read all the trucking magazines and I remember a
> advetisement about one of the trailer manufacturers who put all of
> their wiring in plastic flexible conduit and it connected in
> waterproof junction boxes much like liquidtight conduit.  Otherwise,
> liquidtight is out there why in the world wouldn't they use it on a
> fire truck.    On a brush pumper I cannot think of anything that is
> subject to more wiring problems.  The wiring should be run on top of
> the vehicle.
> 
> I recently was at a pecan harvesting machinery manufacturer, I asked
> why something was done the way it was when watching a cracking
> machine.   I was told to stick with engineering dams and reservoirs
> and he would stick to the mechanical engineering....
> 
> I almost told the smart a** that I had my first career in Mechanical
>  engineering and switched over to civil because all the jobs had gone
>  overseas..   Now I correct civil engineering mistakes in foundations
> and water retention embankments..
> 
> Cecil in OKla
> 
> 

 I WISH it was even close to that. I had high hopes for the 96 E-One we
got. It's a commercial chassis pumper. The body is welded aluminum
extrusions and sheet stock. It is holding up pretty well.

The wiring on the other hand HAD to have been assembled by a crew of
drunken 5 year old with poor eyesight....

Color code? Yeah right, you find 6 wires all of the same color doing
entirely unrelated things.

Conduit or tie stanchions? What are those? They used self adhesive zip
tie blocks to attach the wiring to the aluminum. Care to guess how long
that cheap white double stick foam lasted....

How about running the wiring out of the way of the pump controls? Sure,
they tie wrapped wires directly to the control rods!!!! Except for the
main harness bundle they hung directly over the main PTO shaft to the
pump. Ever seen what happens when a harness gets caught in a PTO turning
at 1500 rpm? I can tell you it ain't pretty, although I will say it
didn't kill the engine, EVERYTHING else yep, but the engine and PTO kept
winding right along. At least until the engine harness connection was
torn out through the cab floor....

That one got a visit from the E-One guys because I told them straight
out, if they didn't send out a couple techs to repair it and get it back
in service, I would personally use the rig to level their shop in
Saulsbury. And they KNEW I meant it.

I still have some repairs to do because they insisted on using the same
tie wrap block again. When I do the repairs I use a pull stud coated
with silicone that gets installed in a drilled hole.

-- 
Steve W.




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