The REO F20 Truck Get's Some New Rubber
You can download the stl files for the new TPU rubber parts I made for the truck here:
https://tinker-tinker.com/downloads.html
Wow did this take a while. I had to make some new lug nuts when I went to change the front tires. Couldn't find a source for the ball faced wheel nuts this truck uses. Dismounting and cleaning up all the wheels was really rough. But I finally got some new tires for the truck and made a few replacement rubber parts using my 3d printer. Just can't get some things new for this truck. While I was changing the front tires I found out the kingpins are really really worn out. That's going to be fun to fix. I installed some new grease fittings and pumped some fresh grease into them for now, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to mill out my own replacement brass bushings and try to reuse the old kingpins. On the bright side I temporarily patched up the vacuum lines that run to the rear differential. The truck runs much better without the vacuum leak, and the 2 speed actuator actually still works! Granted the metal vacuum lines that run back to it are so rusted they are like swiss cheese and still leak a lot. I was finally able to take the truck for another drive around the yard on it's new tires. Much less bouncy this time. Still really hard to steer likely due to the kingpins. I'm going to take a brake from some of the not so fun stuff for a little while now that I can move it around more easily and work on some of the fun stuff. Mounting these tires was a bit terrifying, but I think the dangers are way over hyped. They are talked about online like they are ticking bombs just waiting to go off with the slightest bump. After seeing how they lock together you would have to be pretty dumb and careless to cause one of these to blow apart. That said I by far prefer the design of the older Goodyear split ring wheels to the one newer Firestone split ring wheel. They are just overall made much better and I trust the locking ring on them far more. The Goodyear wheels lock in a way that prevents them from being pushed in as well as pushed out. The Firestone wheel only keeps the ring from expanding. There was a very noticeable difference when I first aired up the tires on them. When I would let the air back out of the Goodyear wheels everything just stayed in place. Every time I would let the air out of the Firestone wheel the bead of the tire would drop down off of the split ring. That tells me if the pressure ever get low in that tire the ring will come off. So I'm going to end up getting another new tire, and I will put that Firestone wheel in the spare tire cage so I don't have to just hope it stays together while driving. At the moment I'm working on the headlight buckets. Since I have to take them apart to fix the socket and replace the bulbs, may as well fix them up. After that I'll be removing the stake bed so I'll have better access to the back of the cab and the frame for doing more cleanup and repairs over the winter.