Operation Vortex/Aerotech "FENSTER-STEIN" is underway

[AshleyMckendree]

View attachment 3946
View attachment 3953
After pulling the waste tanks, there was at least 30lbs of corrosion under them.
After a little work with a wire-cub on the aluminum floor, it exposed numerous holes,
View attachment 3954
View attachment 3947
The fresh water tank is a BEAST, Im guessing it weighs north of 400lbs Empty, and WITHOUT the 100lb LID.
It will not be going back in, it will be replaced by a 70lbs Poly Tank.
View attachment 3948View attachment 3949View attachment 3950View attachment 3951

View attachment 3955View attachment 3952The plasma Cutter made quick work of cutting the dual tanks in half, I think it took less than 60 seconds.

Here is a general idea of how I will be laying everything out:
View attachment 3956

 

[GCCLee]

I love a good project!




Shut the dang door, itz cold out!


Sent from da middle of a Trailure park

 

[AshleyMckendree]

Its not cold when you have a 200k btu propane torpedo heater blowing on you

 

[dgardner]

What's your plan to fix the floor?

 

[dealtimeman]

We just wire brushed prepped and coated the floor.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Ashley you're very thorough in your rebuilds. Its going to be sweet once you get her set back up. 400lbs lighter should help with fuel economy too!

 

[Cleantechsk]

new layout looks good man

glad you went with the nickname Frankenstein lol

poly tanks hmm will you be pre heating the fresh supply ? or did the 777 even have that ability?

never was a fan of the 777 fresh tank " look " and the location of the recovery tanks.

Wish I lived closer, love giving a hand on that .

 

[AshleyMckendree]

What's your plan to fix the floor?

I will be Tig welding the holes with filler metal to close them off using our square wave tig setup.

As for the freshy tank, the 777 pre-heated the tank by simply placing the glycol HX inside the tank, causing all your heat to bleed off all the heat from the HX until all 200+ gallons had warmed up... We used up the water before it had a chance to heat up dual wanding, so I moved the Glycol HX from inside the tank, and achieved nearly 30f higher temps ATW.

None of my other PTO trucks ever had pre-heated tanks, not something I've ever needed.


....

 

[AshleyMckendree]

Also, as for the floor, it's heading to line-x tomorrow for there xf-300 liner, it's thicker and tougher than the standard line-x and helps deaden sound


....

 

[AshleyMckendree]

Ashley you're very thorough in your rebuilds. Its going to be sweet once you get her set back up. 400lbs lighter should help with fuel economy too!

I've estimated with all the changes, and going to a single waste tank, the truck will be 600lbs lighter, having the puny 135hp engine every lb I can shave will help


....

 

[AJR]

we have the same truck exactly, not sure if we would want to cut the amount of waste water storage down by half. we can go thru a full 8-10 hr day with two wands on the ground and not have to stop to dump. also nice to have 200 plus gal. of fresh water too if needed.

 

[tmdry]

I have a 120 gallon vertical poly tank in my truck and it does not weigh that much, maybe 40 lbs? I'd have to look up the specs. I spoke to Don @ Johns customs about getting a custom 250 gallon poly and he told me to just get another 100-150 poly tank if I already had one. I was worried both on taking up size but mostly the weight.

 

[Mikey P]

Great thread... Thank you!!

 

[JS41035]

Very cool project. Thanks for the pictures. I love this stuff. The Aerotech build was by far my favorite topic I've ever seen on a BB . I really wish Sapphire, Prochem and Butler would do similar build threads. I worked in fabrication and I love how easy they make it look. Maybe a time lapse video of the fab and installation process. I know I was punching numbers to make an Aerotech payment work for a few days. Fantastic marketing.


....

 

[AshleyMckendree]

A few hiccups in the project,

1. My NEW plasma cutter blew a capacitor, so Eastwood Co. Is sending me a new one, SO I have to wait for that before I do a few major mods to the V.

2. Line-X decided they wanted another $500 on top of the $1200 I was quoted, even though I'm doing all the floor prep and masking off 2/3 of everything so they don't have to,
So instead of Line-X im Acid-Priming the floor and laying down 1/4 Elephant Bark, Like what they put down in the 7000 H.A.T's

 

[dgardner]

The (expensive and hard to replace) capacitor always blows to protect the fuse. Heaven forbid the fuse would actually pop and protect the machine.....

 

[Able 1]

WOW, that's a big blower! Can't wait to see what you do with it..

 

[AshleyMckendree]

Thats just a 59, a 68 is going in its place
View attachment 4016

 

[Able 1]

Sweet!

 

[kingjoelking]

Thats just a 59, a 68 is going in its place
View attachment 4016

I cant tell how big that is. Can you set it next to a building so I can get perspective?

 

[Cleantechsk]

my feet are 13 if that helps Joel lol

 

[AshleyMckendree]

^ LOL!!!

 

[Able 1]

Size 13 and a 45..
View attachment 4018

 

[Cleantechsk]

Lol started a trend!
Who's next

sent via tapatalk.

 

[AshleyMckendree]

I normally use a banana for scale


....

 

[tmdry]

I normally use a banana for scale


....

That's what she said

 

[BradFenstermaker]

Awesome Name for the build thread Ashley.

BTW all the corrosion isn't all from me. LOL

By chance did you find a testicle while pulling all tanks??

I lost 1 the day I replaced that 59 blower a few months before you drove it North.

Hope the new layout is going to work great for ya.

More pics, More pics.

 

[AshleyMckendree]

Ask and yee shall receive

Decided not to order a new waste tank from AT and use the money for new roll up doors, welding the lid from the deleted tank to the bottom of the other tank so it will drain properly


....

 

[Nate The Great]

Did you rebuild that blower?

 

[tmdry]

What size poly tank are you gonna go with Ash?