a fairground life(a stich in time...)

 Well were back at the mall for Easter. All equipment was moved on site Sunday night. The miami suspension seemed ok but it did run out of line by about 4-6 inches so I will have another go at aligning the spring hanger, well I'll have to check the U bolt nuts anyway. Alas though we did not get to the ERF front bump bump in time. "r" was driving it in and when he arrived I noticed that the wheel nuts were slack (assume from the bump bump) and had knacked the tyres disc, wheel studs and the hub on the lorry. The lips that catch the centre of the disc were worn down. "r" in his inexperience had not stopped to inspect the bump bump when it had got louder. Any how it was my fault for not getting to the problem sooner. So tonight after erecting the rides we stripped off the wheel. One stud was stripped and turning in the hub so we had to cut this off with the 9" grinder. Unfortunately this was also the stud that held the stainless wheel cap on, so this got destroyed too. With the wheel off we then removed the brake drum. The shoes were like new. We spun the remaining part of the hub, the part with the 9 remaining studs on it. Although there was no noise or slap or movement it did seem to run slightly wobbly. By about 2-3mm of wobble. Could this cause the bump bump? had the lorry been kerbed and buckled the hub? When I first inspected the lorry way back in December regarding the bump bump, I had thought it was slack wheel nuts, but they seemed tight. Were they in fact slack, with the tyres disc moving on the hub behind but the wheel nuts seized on the studs giving the illusion that they were tight??? Is it a faulty tyre (egged or with a flat spot) that has slackened the wheel nuts over the last few journeys due to the bump bump??? Or is it another fault that was too dark to spot tonight? I will have to take the final part of the hub off, I assume that there is a big castle nut under the dome in the centre but in the poor light it did look like all one piece. If only we had got to the problem sooner we could have saved about 90% of the damage.

a fairground life(a stich in time...)

 Well were back at the mall for easter. All equipment was moved on site late sunday night

a fairground life(spring replacement)

At 6:30pm we started to pull down. It was an easy night as only half the kit was up. We did the miami first and then onto the DZ. The rain started to fall as it got dark, I didn't feel it coming down, but against the glare of the spot lights the rain drops were clearly visible. Just prior to 9pm we left with the miami. I was taking it back to the yard to fix the spring. I had sourced a replacement from a scrapyard on Friday. I carefully drove off, very conscious that only one leaf was holding the middle trailer axle weight. On 10pm we were in the yard and set. The next morning we moved the DZ and on return to Glasgow "r" and I started on the spring replacement.

When I got under I could see that the other leaf had broken too during the journey. Luckily the broken ends had stayed put and jammed against the chassis to take the weight. Using the 3/4" socket set with extension bar we removed all the nuts from the U bolts, rebound bolts and torsion bar. Then using the rides hydraulics we lifted the ride up and away from the axle. It was still a tight squeeze under there but we jiggled the old spring out. The replacement was a good 8" longer so we trimmed it with the 9" grinder. It took about 20 mins to get it back into position. During the re build I noticed the torsion bar bush was kapute, so while "r" was tightening up the U bolts I nipped off to get another. That was easier said than done, a day later we got the replacement but to get the torsion bar to line up I had to drop the axle again!!! Any way it's all back together now.

As for the show, its 99% done. All I need is a dry day to varnish the paybox. It will take a day just to pick up all the rubbish laying about. Its funny how much debris is created when you start working.

a fairground life

The painting is still on going, the structure is done but now I'm doing the characters that decorate the panels. The work has also been interrupted by doing repairs on the miami. The footbrake valve has been replaced but I can't test it out as the batteries are removed from the lorry to get tested. It turned out that one was knackered. I also found a leaking brake cylinder hose on the trailer. This was also replaced but while I was under there I noticed a leaf on a spring cracked so that is another job. I did get the ride's spotlights repaired. Four were replaced altogether and a fifth was patched up from components out of one of the four removed. After that I took advantage of the sunshine and painted the floor. 

a fairground life

The weather has been unkind the last few days with intermittent showers. So it has taken longer to get the roof painted in preparation for re fitting the inflatable top. Those wet days were spent working inside the show instead. All the interior staircases were removed, as was some panelling and flooring. It was all rotten from the previous years of getting wet (usually on a Saturday afternoon when we were trying to get a few clods in). Any how I decided to beef it all up a bit and manufactured the new staircase frames from "L" iron. That will surely last longer than timber. "R" was not at uni today and with his help we finally got the top inflatable part of the show fastened back into position. A few days ago we raised this back up from the ground onto the lorry cab roof. That took 5 of us to do that and it was hard work (I was almost going to ditch it all together it was that heavy). Not much structural work left to do, then it will be paint paint paint.

a fairground life

The weather has been unkind the last few days with intermittent showers. So it has taken longer to paint the roof 

a fairground life

The weather has been unkind the last few days with intermittent showers. So it has taken longer to paint the roof