Everyone has "One Of Those Days" every once in a while. I had one yesterday. It started normal enough when I decided to lay out the body frame and do any adjustments needed prior to taking everything to the powder coater.
I laid everything out, cracked out the instructions, and arranged the main frames on the jack stands and began fitting things together. The instructions just say to assemble the lower frame first and then add the upper parts.
So I started at the front of the frame and fit the first cross beam, then went to the back and added the member back there. The problem occurred when I tried to add in the middle cross beams. They did not fit! The two beams are the same length, and yet measurements just seemed to be off. I tried all sorts of combinations and then took a bunch of pictures and made a fool of myself in an email to Lynne at STW.
I actually thought that production mistakes had been made, and I would need to cut and/or re-drill holes.
Then I gave up and went to bed.
There is no way in hell that STW would have screwed all this up. No How, No Way. So I was missing something. I had noticed that the ends of the middle beams were beveled, or slanted. I had chalked this up to sloppy cutting, WRONG, it is because the frame sides are tilted. This first came to light when I looked at the drawings, and there was an insert that discussed the future attachment of the sides, but also showed that the mounting plate for the leaf springs was at a slight tilt.
It would have been nice if STW had called this out in their instructions, or at least told you to begin with the two middle beams, then the front followed with the rear member.
They are a little hard to see, but the protractor is reading 0 degrees, or plumb. You can see the amount of tilt on the side frames.
It is kind of hard to see, but the ends of the middle beams pull the sides into the tilted configuration that then made the front "spread" apart. This allowed the easy addition of the front beam.
So - Another lesson learned: TRUST THE DESIGNERS. This is NOT a one-off. This is NOT their first rodeo (Western US Euphemism). If something is really off - you are missing a point somewhere. Some mistakes may be made in the manufacturing process, but usually not something that requires any re-design on your part. If you do not see it - walk away, kiss your wife, clean your tools, come back to it.
I know this may sound a little "preachy" but sitting back at my table on the patio the next morning, I was glad that this type of mental course correction came at the beginning of the build. I can only imagine the amount of pain I would have caused myself if I had not taken a time-out.
So - I sent another set of emails to STW, apologizing for being a dufus, and moved on to actually accomplishing something.
ONE LAST THOUGHT - (at least for now).
My internal nagging voice has been grumpy about the fact that the instructions from STW are a bit sparse in the fine details on the assembly. I think that it is a fine line between too much and too little information. I did not enter into this project looking for a "LEGOs for people with too much time and money on their hands." Where every nut and bolt is meticulously annotated and drawn in a contrasting color so you can not miss it. But, what I am finding is that there could be "just a little" more detail. Like "Start at the middle and work forward and backward." Also I am seeing parts in my kits that are not annotated on the drawings or in the notes. The placement is shown, but only clear after you figure out that the little line actually is the edge of the part.
So I am taking the attitude that this is a PUZZLE. You get the parts, you get a sketch, you get a little verbiage, and you have to use "what's between your ears" to put it all together.
My lovely wife does word puzzles and Sudoku to exercise her brain, this build will be my way of cleaning out the cobwebs.
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