Saturday, November 14, 2015

Tana Upgrade, She's A Big Girl Now - - Rolling, Rolling, Keep Them Wheels a Rolling - Winter 2015-2016

Copyright 2015, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

As I have been saying all summer, whewie, have we been busy.  Or something.  

We left the stick built mid day November 3rd, and headed west to Elkhart County Indiana, Tana's birthplace.  It was time for the ole girl to get a bit of upgrading.

Man had arranged to empty our bank account, errr, have Independent Suspension (IS) and hydraulic brakes installed on the gal.

At, O-darky-thirty on the 4th, she got weighed, we discovered she is very well balanced. Very happy about that.  She had a few measurements done. And, in the shop she went.

Here she sits 12 hours later.  Yes, we were able to spend the night in her.


She was sitting sans wheels and tires, but, on some super sized bottle jacks all the way around.  I was nervous at first, but, soon discovered, she was super duper stable, and we spent a very comfy night resting.


Here are her old axles.  We were told that some of the workers at the plant take home some of the old dis-guarded axles and actually build new utility trailers on them. 


The next couple of photos show new structure that was added to Tana.  The metal at the bottom of the photo is new. 




This upgrade took 2 full days at the plant.  Here the wheels and tires are back on.  We gained about 1 inch between the tires, allowing our leveling ramps to fit better and allowing Man to smile large!


Next two photos, what the "IS" looks like underneath.  Note:  iPhone photos.  Lots of new metal, square tubing and I have NO idea what else.  You know, it's a "man" thing.



Here sits Tana fully upgraded, Man inspecting parts of the system that are stored in the front cargo hold.  


Man loves and I do mean LOVES the new disc brakes.  Tana grew a bit, she is now about 3 inches taller, she rides much more level with Jolly.  These are all good things.

Tana's a big girl now!

Next, we turn east and south.




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2 comments:

FranE said...

Nice. Upgrades are always (well most of the time ) a good thing.

Carol said...

This was one doozy of an upgrade, and we are very happy with it.