Twisted Slee Jerry Can Basket

[greybeard]

Returning home from a recent trail ride I found the ladder mounted Slee Jerry Can Basket on my LC80 was twisted out of shape. It had been holding three 20 liter Waivian cans of gas. All fasteners were still tight as was the belt that holds the cans. I have bent it back into near original shape with my high-lift jack. In planning for the next ride I want to reinforce the basket to avoid further twisting or possible failure of the factory welds. I talked with the Slee folks, but they had no solutions or parts to aid me.

Has anyone experienced similar twisting and found an effective solution? Thanks!

 

[TheIcemanCometh]

No experience but will instead put on my very ancient Mech. Engr. hat on. The issue that I see is the basket is cantilevered out and is not adequately supported. That is the two supporting brackets should not be at 1/3 and 2/3 but at the ends (or at least further outboard). Because of their locations at 1/3 and 2/3 I could see the basket becoming out of balance depending on the state the cans relative to each other. That is, was there a full can outboard but empty can(s) inwards?

What I cannot discern is whether none, one or both of the support brackets is bent.

At the end of the day the corners need to be supported. The question is how? One issue is the support brackets are not mirrored*. That is both are the same rather than being and left and right bracket. If they were mirrored one could simply make two additional brackets that mounted to the ladder as the current ones but then went to the corners. But this case one additional "original" bracket is need that is mirrored.

As I think about it the fact that the brackets are not mirrored may be part of the issue. Being the same they do not provide the torsional rigidity required. Thus collapsing. And given the brackets point right but the collapsing is on the left makes me think that as well. The version being sold on Slee's site comes with mirrored support brackets. It is quite possible your basket came with the one "wrong" support bracket.

*By mirroring I mean the following when looking at the bottom of the basket from the rear (same as your picture). Both brackets bend to the right. One should bend to the left.

BTW I see you are in SLC, I am in da hood and would be happy to meet you as what I am trying to explain might make more sense in person.

 

[greybeard]

Thanks for your reply and analysis. I thought Slee had screwed up by sending the identical gussets, when the parts list states that a right and left were included.

There were three full cans of gas, so the weight was evenly distributed. I'm not an engineer, but my thought on the weak points match your analysis. However the fact the gussets are not mirrored and perhaps a cause did not cross my mind. The two gussets are not bent. The back side curved toward the front at each corner, and the basket bottom also gave some allowing the front corners to bend downward. I've straightened both the back and bottom using my high-lift and pipe clamps.

My plan is to have a local fabricator make two identical gussets, but having a left bend so that they mirror what I have. Those will be attached to a piece of angle iron the width of the basket, attached to the ladder so the new gussets are supported at the bottom at the extreme ends of the basket. New holes in the bottom of the basket at the far left and right will match the current mounting points. The existing carriage bolts line up between the cans so as to not wear holes in the can bottoms. I will place some 3/8" ABS in the bottom drilled to allow the new fasteners to fit into the holes and protect the two outside can bottoms from wear.
This may be overkill, and perhaps a single new gusset with a left bend would be sufficient, but I would rather not find out the hard way.

Thanks again for your input!

 

[Shoredreamer]

Did you try loosening all the fasteners and seeing if it’s bound up? Ive hit my Slee basket a few times and even bent one of the bolt on gussets but the basket has not bent. Hopefully if yours is you can get it reinforced and straightened out.

 

[greybeard]

Thanks for the idea. I've taken it off and reinstalled it several times to try to determine the cause of its bending. I think it's weak because 2/3 of the weight sits outside of the supports.

 

[george_tlc]

One of my ME sons' comment was "very poor design" followed by "even though it's a very simple part".

And yes, no structural rigidity and the support arms from the ladder are spaced way too closely together as has been surmised above.

Happy I have a subtank installed on my 80.

cheers,
george.

 

[greybeard]

A long range tank is on my wish list, but fairly far down.

 

[sleeoffroad]

Can you take a picture from below upwards to show the gussets? From this one photo it appears the outboard bracket is bent since it should line up with the bracket as seen on the inside of the basket. It might just appear like that from this vantage point. We have sold 100's if these and I have never seen this happen. We also never had an issue with the supports. Very early days we only supplied on support and we realized we need more, so we started shipping two gussets. Yours is an early design (the holes indicate that) compared to what we sell now but there should not be much difference in functionality.

Unfortunately the spacing of the gussets is dictated by the ladder but again I have not seen that happen. With the two 90 degree brackets bolted to the same plane on the ladder, then the top plane has to be flat and the basket bolts to that. From this appears the top surface is not flat and that can only mean something is bent.

 

[greybeard]

I have removed the carrier in preparation to have some fabricated as described above. The two attached photos show that the gussets are not at all bent; however I received two of the same either left or right, which as The IcemanCometh notes may have been the problem.

 

[TheIcemanCometh]

Unfortunately the spacing of the gussets is dictated by the ladder but again I have not seen that happen.

That is true of where the support brackets attach to the ladder. There is nothing preventing the support brackets from coming out at angle towards each corner.

FWIW - The term gusset is not correct. A gusset is a connection or reenforcement to an otherwise structural member. I have used the term support bracket because it is supporting the weight of the basket. Note a support bracket can have a gusset (which this one does, thus perhaps the confussion).

 

[sleeoffroad]

I have removed the carrier in preparation to have some fabricated as described above. The two attached photos show that the gussets are not at all bent; however I received two of the same either left or right, which as The IcemanCometh notes may have been the problem.

I really doubt that having one left and one right would make a difference. All it would do is move the upright flange about 1" outboard.

Depending on the age there might be more than one set of holes on the bottom of the basket itself. Is it possible that the arms were not bolted in the correct holes?

Where did you put the hi-lift when you straigtened it and what moved in the process?

Also when you removed the basket is it tweaked at all when you not attached? What does the back bottom flange (not the one at the ladder) of the basket look like.

As for the comment re: gusset yes probably not technically the correct term, but we consider that a gusset between the basket and the ladder, but the bracket serves the role of a gusset.

None of that changes that I am not sure what is causing the tweak. Something has to be bent, or an attachment point slipped on one of the slots.

 

[greybeard]

In my text when I refer to the back of the basket I mean, when mounted, that part of the basket closest to the tailgate.

When I first observed the distortion of the basket after arriving home, the first thought I had was the fasteners must have come loose. But they were all as tight as they should have been. You can see in the photo when the basket was mounted that the back is parallel to the ladder rung, so no slipage had occured there. By the way, I think that photo makes the gusset look out of allignment because the default setting of my iPhone is "LIVE" which may have distorted the appearance of that bottom fastener.

While it was mounted, I placed the high-lift jack so as to raise the two front basket corners. The driver's side had drooped substantially more than the passenger side. I think the comment from Iceman suggested the difference was because of the two identical gussets and if I had received left and right side gussets the distortion might have been even or maybe there would have been none.

In the two photos below, the first is taken from above while the basket sits on its back. The silver item is a metal straight edge and is resting against the bottom of the basket at the back side. Here you can see a slight bow of the bottom. The bow is not more than 1/8", but it may have been more before I straightened it.

The second photo is taken from above and you can see there is only one mounting option, where the gussets are fastened 7" apart, the same as the holes in the ladder. So the basket and its cargo have to be evenly centered.

The straight edge shows a remaining slight bow at the top of the basket back side. This is where I used woodworking clamps to squeeze the center of the back so it is more straight. I used square tubing on the front side so as not to distort it and it remains very straight. Before the squeeze, the bow of the back was probably 1/2" or more out of alignment. This is where the basket gave to allow the droop. It remained flat against the ladder where it was fastened tightly, and the corners of the back were pulled away from the ladder. The sides remained straight and were pulled down pulling the back away from the ladder and pushing the bottom of the basket down.

There is no sign that the bottom was distorted which surprises me, and the joints of all four corners look perfect. All the other edges and surfaces are very straight. Using a carpenter's square, I determined all the corners are square.

 

[sleeoffroad]

OK, that makes more sense. My suspicion is that the carriage bolts that attach the basket to the brackets and/or brackets to ladder loosened up and allowed the brackets to either move down on the ladder and the basket to slide on the brackets and thus bend that back flange, allowing it to droop away from the truck.

If you look at the brackets you can see witness marks of the washers being more than one location or slid on the slot. When you re-install I would make sure those are tight. Again I don't think a left or right bracket would matter.