Pig trike

[curtit]

Just thinking back, because of my frequent scrounging at land fills, dumpsters, and backroads, my mom used to call me Sanford. From the show Sanford and Son. I still pick up usable to me stuff but not so much after land fill closed and now have a transfer station to take our junk. Sorry for the hijack.

Bradley; I bought a 1959 Dodge one ton flatbed in 1972 for $100.00. I hauled junk, scrap metal, anything I could make a buck with. I supported my family with that old truck for over four years. I went to the dump so many times, that I was on a first name basis with the employees there. I always brought them "refreshments". It got so I was hauling as much of a load of metal out of the dump as I was taking trash in. I would always bring the straw boss half of what I got out of the loads. Shoot, I'd pull in, get directed to the unload site, then get directed to the load up site where the crew used a forklift to load my truck. Every body called me "greasy Robert", but we made money.

Be safe.

Robert.

[curtit]

Here are some more frozen trike pictures. My daughter wants me to pay all of the rent this month so she can catch up on the other bills. She had an on the job injury in about May, was cut off of Workers Comp, but was not released by the doctor so she couldn't go back to work. She slapped a lawsuit on everyone. She just collected on the first of this month. She owes $3850 in back rent, which she is paying Friday. I don't ask about her business, so I can't say how much she got from the settlement, or who, or what she owes. The gist of this is that there will not be many trike parts bought this month, and no garage heat either. Ferrell Gas has no deliveries in this area, they only have a filling yard for their trucks here.

[grandpanystrom61]

It does stink at times like that, not getting to do what we want, but it is life. I just got used to it over the years, and even now my adult children are back at home and my budget it tapped. I got real lucky with this machinist and his partner as they are doing my right. Letting me do as much work as possible and charging me as little as they can.

Now I learned there seems to be alot of work on the trikes that is just hard labor work. If you like a shinning engine, well lots of cleaning and what not to do there. If you want the frame to be looked over and repaired, lots of wire brush or wheel work to clean each weld so you can inspect them. Wow now that is done one can just do the rest of the frame and put a fresh coat of paint on it.

So you say your engine is froze up ? or just that cold out in the garage ? I thought I had rewired things right, not the best on some, so more work to get it right, seems to be the name of the game for me....

[LarryA]

no money for parts means, sneaking parts down to the basement. Get out the sandpaper/brillio pads etc, clean and polish ,disassemble and inspect parts. maybe a can of spray paint and a can of clear to keep cleaned up stuff from rusting. good luck!

[curtit]

It does stink at times like that, not getting to do what we want, but it is life. I just got used to it over the years, and even now my adult children are back at home and my budget it tapped. I got real lucky with this machinist and his partner as they are doing my right. Letting me do as much work as possible and charging me as little as they can.

Now I learned there seems to be alot of work on the trikes that is just hard labor work. If you like a shinning engine, well lots of cleaning and what not to do there. If you want the frame to be looked over and repaired, lots of wire brush or wheel work to clean each weld so you can inspect them. Wow now that is done one can just do the rest of the frame and put a fresh coat of paint on it.

So you say your engine is froze up ? or just that cold out in the garage ? I thought I had rewired things right, not the best on some, so more work to get it right, seems to be the name of the game for me....

Andy; Yes sir. Like we used to say in the neighborhood, "life's a beach, then you die, or something close to that.

Glad to hear that chivalry is not dead. Mice friendly machine shop you got there.

I'll try real hard to keep my problems out of my posts.

Your'e right about the work, RAT TRIKE sounds good to me right now, not really.

Be safe.

Robert.

[curtit]

no money for parts means, sneaking parts down to the basement. Get out the sandpaper/brillio pads etc, clean and polish ,disassemble and inspect parts. maybe a can of spray paint and a can of clear to keep cleaned up stuff from rusting. good luck!

Larry; for me it means going out to the garage, firing up the hot wrench, melting the parts, prying them off, then doing all that nasty four letter word stuff. (Work.) I was contemplating on how much I could really get done with my bellyaching and put the effort from that into elbow grease.

Thank you, and be safe.

Robert.

One of the trikes I built from the mid 90s.

[curtit]

Hay;

Played out in the garage for the last couple of days. Put this on Pig trike. Have to refine the trees, cut the Honda neck off because there were pieces of the down tube clamps broken, the down tubes wouldn't hold oil, and because I want to put the leading link front end on it. Then I have to weld the leading link neck on. It will be kicked out at over a 45 degree angle so I can turn without having to lean off of the trike withe wide swing of the handlebars. The leading link neck has Timken 07204 1" cup and cone bearings in it. It is a 7" long, thick wall, heavy gauge tube. The down tubes are two pieces of 2" round, by 5' long, cold rolled solid steel bars. Had the bottoms of the down tubes drilled 1" from the end through the center of the tubes for bolting the rockers inside the tubes. Had a machine shop drill and tap the center top of each tube for a 1" wide screw to hold the tube to the top tree. Had a machine shop drill a 1/2" hole through the center, 1" from the bottom end, and put a 4" tall slit through the hole in the tubes to mount the rockers into. I still have to figure out the length of the rockers, I have the metal for them cut and drilled, I'm just not sure I'll use them the length they're cut to. The front end was for the trike I was making in Lodi before I moved into my daughter's house. I brought most of it with me. The rest is in my VW in Lodi storage. At least I got this much done, no matter how many times I have to redo it to get it the way I want it.



It is just kinda bolted through the Honda neck with no bearings, and I still need to put the rockers on, but I can't find all of the bolts I got for putting it together.

Be safe.

Robert.

[curtit]

I apologize for the abrupt end of the pig trike tale.

I sold, traded the pig trike to one of my daughter's boy friends. He gave me a 1971 VW Beetle that had been hit in the back end, and $400.00 cash for the pig trike. The '71 wasn't running, and he laughed at me because he had got one over on "the old man". I adjusted the valves, did a compression test on it, (118 in cylinders 1,3,4, and 123 in cylinder 2), changed the oil, changed the trans axle gear oil, pulled the in tank fuel filter out and replaced it, changed the fuel, changed the in line fuel filter, and the fuel lines. I installed new points, plugs, condenser, cap and rotor. I bought a 550 cold cranking amp battery for it. I pulled the plugs out again and spun the engine over to bring the fuel to the carburetor, and the oil pressure up. The oil light went out in the speedometer, that was good. The boy friend brought over four of his friends to witness how he had cheated me out of the pig trike. My daughter bet each of them $10.00 that the bug would be running before dark. The boy friend was showing off and bet her $ 25.00 it wouldn't be. She told him she would take the bet, if he didn't get within 5' of me or the car. I told her that I get five cents from her combined bets, and nobody leaves the garage till the bets are payed. She agreed. The "boys" agreed not to leave without paying, or being paid. I put the plugs back in the heads, checked the firing order of the wires, and corrected two wires that had crawled from their correct places to the wrong places. I then connected up the wires, and pumped it twice, then hit the starter. It started, and idled good. I jumped out of the car and wattled very fast over to the only door out of the garage to stop the "boys" from leaving. One decided to push past "the old man", but the stun gun in my hand stopped that. Two of the "boys" said they didn't have any money. I told them to get out their wallets and prove it. One of the "boys" decided to test my accuracy with the stun gun. The stun gun was a 13 million volt non lethal weapon of defense. I hit him in the arm and he went down, then I stung him in the head for a second. I took his wallet from his pocket and took out the $10.00 to cover the bet, then returned the wallet to his pocket. The other "boys" paid right up. The boy friend wanted to pay my daughter "later", but I snapped the stunner by his ear, and he paid right up. One of the "boys" ask why I butted in on a private bet like that, and I ask my daughter go get my nickle for me. While she was gone I told the "boys" (ranging from around 30 to 40 years old) that it had been a while since I had been in Souix City on a Saturday night, and I needed the exercise. They did not get the point of the joke, so I told them I had a vested interest in the bet, and as soon as my daughter brings the nickle, they could all leave. My daughter brought the money for me and told the "boys" that she had warned them not to rile "the old man".

In the month of March, as soon as the roads were clear enough for driving, and no longer good for ice skating, I left Minnesota for the South eastern California desert by Blythe. I bought a house here, and am still driving the bug.

I had to leave the rear bonnet in Iowa because of the body damage from the wreck, it was no longer sealing around the rear of the engine, and it was getting hot. After I got here, I cut the whole rear end off after finding some cheap baja fenders and a center piece off of a wrecked baja bug.

I bought a 27 foot long, 1989, Winnebago Chieftain, motor home in Arizona. It sat in a back yard from 2011 to 2020. It took me a half of a day to get it running. All of the rubber pieces has to be replaced on it. I drove it from outside of Prescott, Arizona to Palo Verde, Ca where I live. After I get it fixed up a little, I'll start exploring the area in it, then graduate to longer trips.

I'm thinking of making a trike out of the bug.

Bye for now.

Robert.