What type of clamp and heat source is needed, plus any other advice is appreciated
There are places/shops that can straighten that, but it takes some real experience to get it right. What type/model of truck is it? Almost looks PacCar but not sure. Personally from my experience it's a re-rail on that side. I've done some and just not that bad to do. Even with a blank rail & mag drill it goes pretty fast, I replaced one in a 379 Pete-blank rail-drilled, slid into place by myself in a little over two days. A rail-$3,500 or more, I would bet at least $5,000 to straighten.
Thanks for the info, its a 2010 Iveco Stralis, my budget is only $1000-1500 and a fitter and turner friend said its not a big job to heat and straighten, unfortuantely he's on the opposite side of Australia from me. I just bought the rig and didn't see it when I first inspected as it had a trailer on it. I honeslty can't see it taking a pro more than 1 day ($1500 tops) to fix
Maybe down there, but here it would cost.
I'm no frame expert but I don't think frame rails are something you want to be putting a lot of heat in to. Seem to recall they cold bend frames to straighten them. I could be wrong on that though.
If that's on the tail end of the frame behind any axle mounts or the 5th wheel like I'm thinking it is would it be against good practice to cut the bad bit off and weld on a new end
So the big question..... How
Normally done on a hydraulic carriage built just for that purpose.
Trucks with high tensile frames say not to weld or heat them. I'm curious about the welds on this frame. It looks like it had a new section put in in the past. The weld is in an odd place and certainly doesn't look like a factory weld. It doesn't matter what someone wants to pay to repair it, if you want it repaired right you have to pay what it costs. If you try to do it on the cheap you might just be fixing it again the right way for even more money.
Ain’t no fixin’ that without a new rail. But, alas, my friends at Adeel’s Truck Repair in Paki, always prove me incorrect.
I'd love to make fun of those guys, but I've done so much work that looked just like that. Not the right tools, not the right supplies, but have to make do with what's available. Of course I had the benefit of at least gloves and boots with both a bottom and top side. But even their torch has had the head broken off and rebrazed on. That and they are fixing a crane, its got rear outrigger boxes, so they have to be good guys in my book. And I did chuckle at the other crane they brought in, operator was on his cell phone, chitty chattin with his side piece the whole time he was lifting.
Bending frames is a art and you really need to know *** you are doing and if it's not done right it can memory back. I watch that guy posted above and I've never seen him use heat.
I meant how did it get bent in the first place.
Well--that's a good question-the fact it's the top of frame pulled out, I would figure interference with a trailer-but I didn't see a fifth wheel.
That is a fact, correct. The owners dad has a tractor that was in a nasty about 2.5 years ago. It laid in a shop for three months-major repair with a issue on right rail-it had a stretch type bend which caused the front frame horn to rise about 3/4", it sat uneven on the steer axle. It went to two shops, both said they could straighten it, both had zero luck. Third shop ordered a factory rail and replaced it, all was good in the world. Before it was repaired it ate steer tires.
Whats with the weld inside the frame in the pic? I'd like so see a non close up picture, can't see much in a close up. Close up pictures is like putting a person in the middle of the ocean and asking them what do you think of the beach.
That weld area looks like the tapered ramp section at the rear of the frame and if so, the damage starts at the top of the ramp
I was lucky I worked for several guys that could and would do anything . Their work didn't fail . The first one I worked for was a great guy very good to me . He know I was really into what we did he would say you should be paying me for the schooling you're getting.