• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

What have you done to your CUCV today/lately - Part 2

Recovry4x4

LLM/Member 785
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
34,012
1,808
113
Location
GA Mountains
Drove mine 726 miles today. Only had one blowout and.fortunately, it was a rear and the truck has duals. Limped off to the next exit and did a jiffy change. These 6.2 trucks suck in the mountains. I thought the SM465 swap would be a welcome change but it was far from that. Once I got here (GA mountains) i parked the SECM and took the M1010 to meet the family for dinner. Much more comfy to drive but still sucked on these hills. Not a happy CUCV owner today.
 

cucvrus

Well-known member
11,473
10,434
113
Location
Jonestown Pennsylvania
Drove mine 726 miles today. Only had one blowout and.fortunately, it was a rear and the truck has duals. Limped off to the next exit and did a jiffy change. These 6.2 trucks suck in the mountains. I thought the SM465 swap would be a welcome change but it was far from that. Once I got here (GA mountains) i parked the SECM and took the M1010 to meet the family for dinner. Much more comfy to drive but still sucked on these hills. Not a happy CUCV owner today.
Sorry you wasted the time doing that conversion. i done it once and never again. I felt the same way. It is automatic going forward or I don't drive it. Stick shift days are behind me. I just seen a guy that was ordering a new 2016 Silverado in stick shift. I ordered my truck and I never even seen it as an option to order a manual. He said he is paying more as an option. I thought makes sense. Good Luck. Enjoy your trip.
 

86m1028

Active member
1,687
17
38
Location
Murphy TEXAS
Sorry you wasted the time doing that conversion. i done it once and never again. I felt the same way. It is automatic going forward or I don't drive it. Stick shift days are behind me. I just seen a guy that was ordering a new 2016 Silverado in stick shift. I ordered my truck and I never even seen it as an option to order a manual. He said he is paying more as an option. I thought makes sense. Good Luck. Enjoy your trip.
pretty sure gm stopped offering a standard trans in the 1500-3500 range in early 07.
I ordered an 2007.5 (new body style) gmc & there were no manual trans options.
 
Last edited:

rustystud

Well-known member
9,280
2,987
113
Location
Woodinville, Washington
In all honesty the manual transmission days are numbered. The latest craze is the variable ratio transmission for cars and at least a 6 speed for pick-ups. Semi-trucks have gone to the Allisons in mass. The training for drivers is halfed and the maintenance is also less then half that of manuals. What a lot of guys don't consider is the damage to the engines the clutch does. I have seen Cummins engines that when you pressed in the clutch the crank shaft moved out over half an inch ! On big riggs you also have to deal with double-disc clutches which are extremely expensive and costly in man hours to replace. I remember talking with the Allison rep. over 10 years ago. He said then that the manual transmission we know today will be gone in just 20 years. If you look at the hydraulic manual transmissions that the industry is using now they are basically a manual shift automatic. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a manual transmission basher. I spent half my career as a mechanic rebuilding manual transmissions and I love how they work. Watching how the gears interact with each other in a symphony of movement is a thing of beauty to my eyes, but they cost a ton more then an automatic to rebuild ! So for any truck owner or shipping company the cost effective thing to do is go with automatics in all their trucks. Personally for me, now in my "golden years" it is very painful to apply the clutch which takes away the joy of driving. So now I only drive automatics except in my Deuce.
 

Recovry4x4

LLM/Member 785
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
34,012
1,808
113
Location
GA Mountains
The SM465's fourth gear and the THM400's third gear are both 1.00:1, so unless you plan on rock crawling with its low first gear, why is this considered an upgrade?
Answer to your question is i don't know. Who mentioned uograge? I did the swap for a few reasons. First was I had accumulated all the stuff for anothe project that didn't happen. Second was for my 14 year old to learn how to drive a stick, he did and 3rd, it does cut a few hundred RPM off the top since the 400 has a non lockup converter.

Other folks who have done the swap really liked it. Said the 6.2 worked much better. I would have to disagree. I also have Ranger Torque Splitter that I could toss in there for OD and had planned that. Well, that 6.2 can barely move the truck along on flat ground. Adding the Ranger would only decrease power. Any overpass scrubs off speed and these small mountains here in N GA take me down to as low as 30 MPH.

Now, truth be told this truck has 4.10 gear and I ran 70 MPH the whole way except on any uphill grade. Even with the 400 (my last trip up) the grades still got me. On thing is for certain, if the truck is going to get driven on a regular basis here in GA as it does in FL, there will need to be a big jump in power. I love my 6.2s but they can't make the cut here. Turbo 6.5? Fuel injected 454? Not sure.
 
Last edited:

Another Ahab

Well-known member
17,999
4,556
113
Location
Alexandria, VA
Answer to your question is i don't know. Who mentioned uograge? I did the swap for a few reasons. First was I had accumulated all the stuff for anothe project that didn't happen. Second was for my 14 year old to learn how to drive a stick, he did and 3rd, it does cut a few hundred RPM off the top since the 400 has a non lockup converter.
The driving age in FL is 14?
 

cucvrus

Well-known member
11,473
10,434
113
Location
Jonestown Pennsylvania
Turbo 6.5? Fuel injected 454?
Duramax swap. Let the Dodge boys have the Cummin's. It is to the point that I dislike hearing a loud smoking Cummin's. There is something strange going on there. I just don't get it. All the hype,noise and bad smoke. Not this guy.
 

chief1983

Member
290
1
16
Location
Saint Charles, MO
Those are the 'diesel ricers' as my IDI group was referring to them. Been a bad rash of rolling coal videos uploaded, and the group generally lets each of those guys have a piece of their mind about how bad they make the diesel community look by running like that in public. In hunting class they taught us to be fairly discrete about handling the game as some people might not take too kindly to seeing dead animals in the back of a vehicle driving through their neighborhood. It makes sense, use good judgement and everyone's happy. They need to teach that kind of logic in driver's education too. If you have a diesel, tune it right, and maybe some day they'll relax the diesel laws a bit. Maybe we could have more diesel cars and small trucks if we could stop turning up the pumps like silly children.
 

3jumpjeep

Member
157
1
18
Location
Linsdale, TN
Those are the 'diesel ricers' as my IDI group was referring to them. Been a bad rash of rolling coal videos uploaded, and the group generally lets each of those guys have a piece of their mind about how bad they make the diesel community look by running like that in public. In hunting class they taught us to be fairly discrete about handling the game as some people might not take too kindly to seeing dead animals in the back of a vehicle driving through their neighborhood. It makes sense, use good judgement and everyone's happy. They need to teach that kind of logic in driver's education too. If you have a diesel, tune it right, and maybe some day they'll relax the diesel laws a bit. Maybe we could have more diesel cars and small trucks if we could stop turning up the pumps like silly children.
Just like the huge subwoofer types. The rolling coal idiots are starving for attention because they have nothing real to offer. A couple weeks ago I saw a guy blast a Toyota Camry with soot. He was surprised to find it was an off duty trooper with his family. That's gonna be a big ticket to pay, but now he's on the local "hassle" list and will get plenty of attention.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 

Recovry4x4

LLM/Member 785
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
34,012
1,808
113
Location
GA Mountains
I'm retired and no way I can afford a duramax swap. I think the turbo 6.5 will lack power comared to the 454.

Driving age in FL on public roads is 15 but he's been driving offroad since he can reach the pedals.
 

Sharecropper

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
1,836
987
113
Location
Paris KY
Those are great looking seats.

Where did you get the idea for those?
The factory bench seat was unbearable. 2 back surgeries, 2 hip replacements, and a knee replacement brought me to either changing the seats or selling the truck. I looked around and sat in the new high back HMMWV seats and really liked them, so I fabricated custom frames. I posted a step-by-step in my rebuild thread.
 

gottaluvit

Well-known member
Turbo 6.5? Fuel injected 454?
Duramax swap. Let the Dodge boys have the Cummin's. It is to the point that I dislike hearing a loud smoking Cummin's. There is something strange going on there. I just don't get it. All the hype,noise and bad smoke. Not this guy.
You mean there can actually be an engine noisier than my 6.2? My 8.3 Cummins in the M929 is much quieter.
 
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website like our supporting vendors. Their ads help keep Steel Soldiers going. Please consider disabling your ad blockers for the site. Thanks!

I've Disabled AdBlock
No Thanks