Infinity Cleaning Mobile 3.0, aka Truck Norris

eh, it’s the devil I know. I had wanted to move to Georgia when I was in my early 20’s, but I don’t think I could’ve dealt with the hurricanes. I’ll take my copious amounts of precipitation in solid form, please :snowflake::snowman:

Btw, you haven’t really lived until you’ve blown donuts in an icy parking lot.

  1. Parking lot of Piggly Wiggly . Got almost 6 inches of snow that winter. snow plow had pushed it into a pile in the center of the parking lot about 4 ft tall. midnight. 1976 Jeep cj5 with a chevy 350. Me driving and three other stupid teenage boys. With me so far? I had this vision of plowing thru the snow bank and coming out the other side. Was doing about 30mph when I hit the completely packed mound of ice. Airborne for about a half second. Upon landing the oil pan caved into the pavement when the front tires folded out. Stunned silence, blood flowing from busted noses. My wrist hanging at an odd angle. From the corner of the parking lot head lights and blue lights come on. Car rolled over a hundred feet. His first comment, “I really thought that was going to work out for you”. I hate snow and ice.
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Dying! :rofl:

“Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a boy”

I’ve had a few close calls and an accident or two relating to snow and ice. But I still love the stuff :grin:.

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I’d rather hang out with @SchertzServicesLLC Chris’s naked cat.

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Me tomorrow lol

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It’s done. Mostly. Sort of. :grin:

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What’s left to do:

  • Hardwire tail lights
  • Order factory tow hitch bolts from the dealer, to replace the 6 we borrowed for the mounts.
  • Install fenders and/or mud-flaps
  • Clean up the mounting for the fuel filler (we just bent the mounting tab down for now, so it can sit below the bed)
  • In the spring, we’ll be taking the bed back off and painting the mounts and doing corrosion prevention on the frame.
    • there’s also some fabrication left to do for supporting the recessed water tanks. I’ll be mounting them on top of the bed until we get around to that project.

And of course, I’ve still got the rest of “the build” to do: underbody boxes, mounting equipment, etc.

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I hate surprise snowstorms. Had to postpone a window job and throw together some sideboards for our equipment.

That said, the flatbed is already 100 times better to work out of than the factory bed.

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Before you drop the blower on your toe, drill some holes and drop a bolt in to pin those ramps to the bed. Y’all did good work

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Great suggestion :+1:t2:

And thanks!

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Ok … I give up ! What’s GVWR?

So here’s my preliminary review of the Aluma bed:

It’s a good bang for the buck. You can tell where they were lazy with the final fit & finish, but overall it seems like a solid option if you have a midsize truck. I would probably go for a pricier brand like CM if weight capacity was a big concern; if I was doing a fullsize truck with a 300 gallon tank or whatever.

Here’s what I mean about finish:

But that’s nothing that a few minutes with the flap wheel disc won’t take care of:

Just for you, Mike :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Gvwr

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That’s not lazy that is somebody that can’t weld aluminum.
I would be checking for stress cracks after you load it up and give it a bit of a hammering.
I paid heaps for a beautiful alloy tray on a Toyota landcruiser utility a few years back , everyone commented on it and I was proud. Then in a moment of questionable wisdom I got a couple of alloy toolboxes made up by a cheaper guy as my usual fabricator was busy and i would have had to wait a few weeks.
Drawers dont close properly, doors dont close properly etc etc …

I was mostly commenting on the jagged edge left behind, just sticking out there. (I’ll get a profile shot later to better show what I mean)

All of the welds I looked at appeared to have good penetration and I didn’t see any indication that they had burned through in any spots. Some of the beads were a little sloppy and unsteady, but I believe they are all mechanically sound. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for stress fractures, though.

Did the cheaper boxes have any structural failures, or was it just a matter of them not fitting together properly?

Was that a Norweld tray you bought? Those things are pretty sick.

I’ve been watching a bunch of tig welding aluminum and spool gun welding videos since you started this thread and I tried to talk you into coming to Kansas City to build a flat bed.

I’d look at the terminations on the weld beads. If any end beads have a little dimple or pocket you’re virtually guaranteed a stress crack in anything that vibrates and especially on aluminum. At least that’s what I’ve gleaned from 3 weeks or so of intermittent research. Otherwise, I’ve seen some pretty ugly beads in some videos and they stress test them and the original aluminum fails before the weld does.

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Your story telling skills are more eloquent then your advice giving deliveries. Very nice.

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Advice gets mundane

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Sorry Infinity didn’t mean to bag your tray or give unwarranted advice, just thought the welds looked pretty substandard and hoped they payed more attention in other areas like where it attaches to chassis.
I fully understand not getting a flash tray when its going to get SH etc splashed all over it.
The cheaper boxes I got are warping due to insufficient bracing but not cracking.
Couple of shots of the tray I had custom made by my mate Dan Shuker at Absolute Fabrications it had a full length undertray drawer which was cool.

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Now, I am jealous! :grin:

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