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Wrecker bed modification

Csm Davis

Csm Davis

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zebedee said:
Ground spades slid in from the rear, down the sides of the frame rails ........ a la WWII M1A1 Ward La France heavy wrecker.

Body ends capped off for bed containment ...... a la '70's Australian M816 med wreckers.


Anyone who has studied, nay, just 'noticed' features of military wreckers over the years will have seen most modifications used at one time or another. Jeff, you will be able to verify whether "Hotel 8's" in the US army/USMC had/have enough free reign to mod as they saw fit. REME and RAEME 'wrecky mechs' pretty much do what they need to assist with improving their trucks so long as the mods don't take the truck out of operational service for too long.

NB. This is not a "do your homework" dig, just a pointer to historical info that can be expanded if your truck can be improved for you, without reinventing the wheel when you have an idea - it may have been done before and bugs worked out for you!
Click to expand...
Almost every wrecker i have seen has been modified in some way or other. Very few were left bone stock
 
lighten

lighten

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Just needs a turbo
 

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lighten

lighten

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This is what i started with. Mainly used for pulling out farm equipment, used the rear pto winch for a while until i cracked the housing on it, winch cable broke while pulling out a 60k lb cotton picker buried to the axles. Ripped everything off that was not needed put a hyd 45k winch on the rear in place of the old pto winch, modified the old level wind system to make it work with the new winch. Built some stiff legs out of 12x12x3/4 tubing, they will go about 5’ in the ground on a hard pull and dig a hole big enough to put a small car in in soft dirt. The winch in the bed is a hyd 55k dp 2 speed i think. The winches run off 2 large hyd pumps piggybacked, driven off the same shaft that the old pto winch ran off of. It will run both winches pulling hard at the same time in 4th gear with the truck idling. The small hyd winch on the stiff leg is for pulling the cable out on the big winches, pull the small winch cable to whatever is stuck, attach snatch block run small cable back to truck and hook to large winch cable. Cable in on small winch and cable out on large winch at the same time. One person can operate this truck. Truck has flipped hubs in rear, bridge truck wheel on outside duals and regular wheels on inside tires do not rub any, about 2” between them.
 

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Mullaney

Mullaney

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lighten said:
You probably could but it may be in the hood, I didnt try it
Click to expand...
I know ZERO about turbo's but with other exhaust, you can get more power by not restricting flow. Sharp corners = restrictions. Looks like you can weld pipe so it might be a good exercise to do it the way you did - then try it with the curves as "long and flowing" as you possibly can...

I would think that eliminating as many restrictions as you can is worth considering. Those curves are going to either "swirl" the air in or create "hot spots" on the exhaust out.
 
zebedee

zebedee

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Got to play with someone elses toys this week. [and felt I had to resurect one of my favourite threads]...20220414_144134.jpg
20220414_144118.jpg

M983 with fifth wheel pulled and a M936 body dropped in its place. 1st drive of a HEMTT...

20220414_144552.jpg

and of course there was some spannering to be done on this lovely old girl
20220414_111126.jpg
 
Csm Davis

Csm Davis

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So other than adding a ton of Truck-lite spot and flood lights, look for a separate post about RG-31 Truck-lite kit install, coming soon. I think next bed modification will be a steel exclusion ring around the base of the rotational parts. Probably as high as I can make it without it hitting the gondola. I am tired of worrying about crap getting caught up when swinging the boom, I still want to have all the storage I can have but not worrying about hitting something. Probably going to make it in separate sections and removable for easy access to rotational parts.
 
DeMilitarized

DeMilitarized

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