This morning the giant crane pulled into our yard to load up the castle top and take it to it's permanent home. It weighed in at an impressive 6,500 lbs., an easy lift for the hefty machine. We loaded the rest of the pieces, cinched them down and began the journey up to the lake. It took some careful maneuvering to get the truck and trailer into the tight worksite and into position. Then the process was reversed as the pieces were unloaded and skillfully lifted into place. It took a while for the experienced crew to align the pieces and tighten all of the bolts. Tomorrow the tower tops and flags will cap off the tall castle. Once their crew finishes off the pool we will begin the onsite work to finish off the bottoms of the towers. It changes the look of the water park in a big way!
Success at last!
I get few of the complex things in my life right the first time. This is especially true if I am doing something for the first time. Failure does not discourage me however. Rather, the failures teach me and fire up my resolve to get things right. This afternoon I went back to the shop and started repairing the little Jeep. I didn't like the way the Jeep turned tight corners and so some major modification was in order. The live rear axel made it want to go in a straight line rather than turn. I went through our parts bin and found an unused trailer wheel hub. A little measuring and designing was necessary to create a sturdy bracket to hold everything in position. The MultiCam plasma cutter made the required pieces in a jiffy! After fitting and adjusting things a few times I cut off one end of the old axle and then welded on the new free floating hub. I bolted the wheel back on and checked everything over carefully. I didn't want any critical pieces falling off on this trip. :) Then it was time for a test drive. The little Jeep now performed beautifully, able to turn tight corners effortlessly. It was success at last! Now it is time for the bright yellow paint job to match the full sized Jeep and maybe a padded seat to smooth out the bumps!
Joyride
Sometimes things don't always go as planned... or at least that's the way it happens in my life. :) This afternoon, after many adjustments and tweaks it was time to give the little Jeep a test drive. I did a quick cruise to make sure everything worked, then called Phoebe for a joyride. We put the little rig through an off road adventure, around the vacant lot next door and had a b last bouncing through all kinds of rough terrain. After Phoebe left I decided to do one more quick run up and down the driveway to capture a video for the record. This is the result... I guess I missed tightening a couple of bolts on the axle. :)