Best way to remove collapsed stabilizers? - Page 3

AirsDream · 01-06-2009, 05:17 PM

Well, we're all waiting to hear what happens in the next exciting chapter! What is his daredevil plan? Will it work out? Will the venturers be marooned on Venus?

Do tell all!

GoMopar440 · 01-06-2009, 06:21 PM

Muahaaahaaahaaa!!!!

SafariSS · 01-06-2009, 06:26 PM

I shoulda' known he was from Texas! Down here they do dental work with a torch!

You know the saying, if you aint oil field you aint sh*t...!

AirsDream · 01-06-2009, 06:40 PM

I dunno about that, but I've seen folks cook with oxy-acetylene! Not always a pretty sight!

I think he's tellin' us that he's plannin' to use the "blue tip wrench"!!!!! That, too may not be a pretty sight, but I betcha he gets the stabliziners off!

GoMopar440 · 01-06-2009, 07:00 PM

I'm just here as a temporary Texan again. I was stationed here at NAVSTA Ingleside from '92 to '96 and now again from '07 to Sept '09 when I finally retire from the Navy after 20 years.

I'm a military brat so I'm from all over the country. My dad didn't retire from the Navy till after I was already at my first duty station. If I had to call anywhere "home" it would be Maine where most of my relatives are. Of course, I wasn't born there either so...

GoMopar440 · 01-07-2009, 03:56 PM

Dang it! I didn't get to break out the torch.

I was able to put a bottle jack and a piece of 2x4 under the A frame and just slightly jack it up enough to get the front stabilizers to clear the paver stones. I pulled the stones out of the way and doused the long stabilizer screw with PB Blaster. When I tried to turn them, they actually came up! Enough to clear the ground for now anyway. I did the same for the rear stabilizers by putting the bottle jack and 2x4 just aft of teh big girder axle plate. The rear jacks also came up but since the bend in them is so severe, I only have about 6" ground clearance under the lowest point. Now I just need to unbolt them before trying to move the AS.

Sorry, no pics today. I forgot the camera at home.

CrawfordGene · 01-07-2009, 04:53 PM

That was much too simple for all the advanced thinking that has gone on here. Couldn't you pretend that you had to use shaped charges?

Gene

GoMopar440 · 01-07-2009, 05:24 PM

How about C4?

Silverwanabe · 01-07-2009, 09:14 PM

We still want pics

GoMopar440 · 01-08-2009, 11:20 AM

Good thing I didn't have to resort to this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwlNP...eature=related

AirsDream · 01-08-2009, 12:49 PM

Aw, darn! We were hoping for something exciting ... if not the Sawzall, then the torch or a plasma cutter or maybe some sort of low-yield nuke.

Well, in all, it sounds as if you've got the solution well under way. Congrats.

GoMopar440 · 01-08-2009, 02:54 PM

I don't have any pics of getting the stabilizers up since I didn't have the camera with me at the time. Today however, I had my wife and the camera with me. These pics should give you an idea of how low to the ground the trailer is sitting. I could only get under the trailer as far as my chest to unbolt the stabilizers. Half of the stabilizer mounting bolts snapped the heads right off.

In the second pic you can see how little ground clearance I had with the bent stabilizers all the way up.

And here's the aftermath...

wkerfoot · 01-08-2009, 03:01 PM

Hopefully you can salvage the stabilizers, they are not cheap.

Bill

GoMopar440 · 01-08-2009, 03:19 PM

I might be able to save one of them by swaping some parts around. Three of them have bent main beams and I'm not even going to try to straighten those out.