Today's Deuce Project

[msgjd]

This work has been on the back burner since 2008 .. Subject matter is a M49C tanker body and i just finished replacing all seals and bearings in the distribution pump .. Hand-made new gaskets with a large roll of FelPro gasket material I've had for a long time and obtained a new chunk of fuel-rated reinforced suction line hose for the manifold stem pipe that feeds the pump.. All the rubber donuts in the Vitraulic fittings were replaced not too long ago, and getting time to fix this pump has been a problem..

It's now ready to go back to work refueling a bunch of heavy equip but there's one bigger problem, the compartments are empty !! ... Okay people, line up single file, and don't bunch up !! One will get you all ! .. Get out two dollars each, I need 2100 of you highly-motivated soldiers in order to to fill this thing with two different products ! (and pee isn't one of them)

 

[tommys2patrick]

not clear from pictures, already mounted on a deuce rolling chassis? you must have a hungry fleet nearby or a big airplane like a c 130. i was also wondering about grounding while you fuel up and refueling other vehicles. is that all sorted out? and oh yes, i did just have my morning coffee and need to pee like an old tired race horse. don't worry though i ain't climbing up there to do it. besides my aim ain't that good anymore.

 

[msgjd]

not clear from pictures, already mounted on a deuce rolling chassis? you must have a hungry fleet nearby or a big airplane like a c 130. i was also wondering about grounding while you fuel up and refueling other vehicles. is that all sorted out? and oh yes, i did just have my morning coffee and need to pee like an old tired race horse. don't worry though i ain't climbing up there to do it. besides my aim ain't that good anymore.

ha !! good one.!. No worries, I can hoist you up there with my M62 !! .. You can pee ON the tank, but not IN it .. Aim shouldn't be an issue.

1: Yes, there is chassis under the tank in the shape of a 1963 Army Guard gasser M49C that got a total driveline replacement in 1990 becoming a M49A2C (multifuel) at that point.. I bought it a few years ago direct from GSA.. After the Guard it was with a State Forest Service.. They torched holes in the original tank bulkheads and yanked the pump equip to make a water tender.. Later, a State Park got it. They used it for dust control and campfire control.. They turned it back in to GSA the day it wouldn't fire and their shop didn't know where to look.. I discovered an inop fuel pump and the HH button was off...

2: The truck is mechanically A+ with 703hrs and 14021mi on a new dash-1D and a whole new driveline... I removed and sold the "ruined" tank body to a private campground , and replaced it with the intact OEM M49C tank body you see in the pics, which I removed from my retired/parted-out gasser M49C... Anyway, I finally have a "new" replacement I can go back to work with.. It will be carrying 200g of non-ethanol gasoline in the front compartment and 1000g of off-road diesel in the two rears as this tank body did when it was on my older M49C.

3: Yes, the grounding / bonding items are present and yes I was a qualified Hazmat hauler on the civilian side beginning in the early-80's .. During that same time on the military side of things I was using everything a heavy armor division fielded to handle and carry fuel, explosives, and 105mm willy-pete etc... We only used the bonding cable when dispensing mogas, plus the one time we did the aviation company's hueys during a special tactical move.. Most people say grounding, but it's technically called bonding, there is a difference between the two ..

We never bothered using the bonding cable with diesel even though we were "supposed to".. Was way too impractical when you are working alone and have a line of 30 or more mud-covered M48's or M60's in the rain and you have all you can do to not fall and break your neck while jumping tank to tank dragging a 2" or 2-1/2 inch hose through and across the slippery slop.. The consensus was a static spark was not gonna ignite uncompressed diesel fumes, but we had a habit of touching the nozzle to something away from the filler first regardless, because we were told some nozzles are bonded through a wire imbedded in the hose, and some are not... Never got a spark all those years except when I clipped a bonding clip to one of commos M882's, and the other time was the XO's jeep.. Those events are something you never forget happened.. Yes the radios and vehicles were shut off.. Probably a good spark is a daily occurrence for those refueling aircraft, I bet..

On the civilian side, there was no bonding equip on any of the trucks or trailers of the company I worked for who did diesel, fuel oil, and kero.. We fueled a lot of heavy equipment, cranes, and storage tanks for the paper mills, and dragging 100ft of hose through knee-deep mud and slippery paper processing slop, climbing up on slippery equipment was just as fun as doing the same with the M48's/M60s ..

4: I have what remains of my heavy excavation company.. The biggest equipment like the 2 cranes, 6 of the excavators, and one of the dozers were disposed of during the divorce starting in 2007, but I've been told I still have more crap than the county highway dept.. Still am operating on a limited basis (when my body cooperates) , but it's now mostly my own private road construction projects as large acreage parcels of the family farm get slowly divided and sold off, along with agricultural ditching and gravel pit/stone quarry/farmland reclamation projects these days.. So yeah, I suppose I could say you are talking with a professional explosives/fuel hauler and previous "combat" engineer here , who is supposed to be retired but having a real hard time letting go of it all (both of my sons are professional engineers living several states away, with no interest in what I have.. Except maybe a jeep or two .. We all want our kids to do better than us)

 

[tommys2patrick]

well sounds like we are in a similar boat except my pond is a lot smaller than yours. Since this state pulled the rug out from under MV owners i have to be a bad criminal if i want to go for a ride off property. Its a fine sight to see when a man can pull it back together after the big D. cudo's for making it happen and the 49c.

 

[msgjd]

well sounds like we are in a similar boat except my pond is a lot smaller than yours. Since this state pulled the rug out from under MV owners i have to be a bad criminal if i want to go for a ride off property. Its a fine sight to see when a man can pull it back together after the big D. cudo's for making it happen and the 49c.

it's good you have a small pond, I am envious.. My having a crapload of old "vintage" equipment is a fulltime job and a lot of stress trying to sell it off piecemeal.. cash poor, asset rich .. but only if the assets are still desireable items , and 95% of "buyers" waste your time or are no-shows, IME.. i am very concerned for all who are like you , living in a state that's anti-MV on highways .. Lousy knee-jerk politicians and bureaucrats certainly devaluate our investments, and they have no science nor stats to back it up .. In my case, military trucks & equip (as well as 1950's IH commercial and ag stuff) had been a gradually-increasing investment that started 40 years ago.. A little bit of it was already here from the previous family generation.

Prior to the divorce, the goal was to have a working museum open weekends to the public, and host special events such as being a place HCEA chapters could come and sling dirt, stone, or gravel, and local Antique tractor chapters could come and show off their stuff hard at work etc.. At the same time, my neighbor was to build a half-mile dirt track for vintage coupes in his cornfield next to my main pit to round things out nicely and end the event evenings right, and a large meadow surrounded by woods was in the initial development stages to become a campground for event participants.. But nowadays I sure as hell am not gonna ever get back what's been invested into obtaining/repairing/maintaining all the "stuff" and other long-term investments that went into growing the initial business and the prep for what the end result of what was to be by the time I reached current age.... To add to the popped balloon, my neighbor never got his racetrack built due to his divorce as well.. Both of our plans had the support of the town and others, but it all went down like the Hindenburg.. But that's how it goes.

So, feel lucky with what you have !! At some point all sorts of "stuff" can become a major burden, more-so on family if we pass before we plan to .. My sons have said they would have to throw "one big-a** four day auction" and call a scrapper for what remained after that .. yikes. I don't think anyone on here would want that to happen to their own "stuff"

 

[tommys2patrick]

The scale is different but all the same type "@&%*#$" nonsense has happened on this end. literally tons of generators, compressors,water pumps, heaters , spare engines, deuce parts, military trailers. unfortunately most of it is no longer popular or geographically desirable. kind of makes you feel like why bother when you can't even give it away to someone that needs it just because its too far away. which is even funnier when i think of all the road trips i took to far flung army depots and auction sites to collect all this. at least i had a smile on my face when i was collecting. the smile comes back for different things now. like you said, that's how it goes and life goes on. adapt and overcome--seems like that should be some sort of military rallying cry.

 

[tommys2patrick]

by the way, the reason i mentioned the grounding issue was because i worked on an airfield in the army. helicopters and the odd small aircraft. our co at the time was shall we say extremely specific about how things were done. nothing but nothing was going to affect our units readiness ratings. till one day an FNG running a refueling deuce was hooking up a ground to a huey and the CO walked up just as the bond fell off the tanker. he reamed everyone on the flightline, everyone in the motorpool, even clerks that just filled out forms documenting what inspections happened and when. every one was taking bets on how long it would be before he had a stroke. I suppose it was good he kept us on our toes, but to be honest ass chewings did not always develop better practices or improve moral and attentiveness.

 

[msgjd]

unfortunately most of it is no longer popular or geographically desirable. kind of makes you feel like why bother when you can't even give it away to someone that needs it just because its too far away. which is even funnier when i think of all the road trips i took to far flung army depots and auction sites to collect all this

yep! exactly !! ... Now I know the feeling all those people and businesses that invested in tons and tons of WW2 and Korea surplus had felt when the 1980's-90's came.. So much got scrapped due to market and locations. 15 miles away from here was a large dealer with crates upon crates of M37, WC, and jeep axles and whatnot, much of it caked in cosmoline, filling up the barns there.. Had done great business right into the 1970's, then the demand for that stuff dropped way off, including interest in the G749's he refurbished. By the 1980's he had no room for the Viet-era stuff that was starting to be surplussed.

He was frustrated, tired, disgusted, mad, you name it, all the emotions .. In the late 90's he retired, sold the property incl about 20 acres of 1940's-1980's civilian cars/trucks in the used parts yard . .The new outfit came in and without any public notice "last chance warning," scrapped all of it including everything military regardless whether it was new or not.. But that's the way it goes.

 

[msgjd]

I suppose it was good he kept us on our toes, but to be honest ass chewings did not always develop better practices or improve moral and attentiveness.

yeah, sometimes chewings were unjust and only created hard feelings and negativity instead of helping develop a Soldier. Especially when Soldier is witnessed doing the right thing but the device fails at the worst time .. Some of those clips weren't the grippiest of things, some were sprung out or had rounded teeth .. Put little items like that down on the 2404 and often it didn't matter... "Live with it" was sometimes an attitude at the shop.

Talk about bad timing, I was a contractor working in a warehouse about 25ft up in the air in the steel rafters.. They required you to wear a hardhat no matter if you were working on the roof with nothing but birds above you.. I had been up and down the ladder a few times already to retrieve the hardhat and getting real mad because it kept falling off every time I looked up to see what I was gonna bang my head into as I climbed into places (the visor made a blind spot, of course) .. It was 98 or so degrees so I was sweating pretty good and the headband was slippery , tightening didn't help..

I looked up one last time to see the best route to go and take a measurement but the hardhat slid off again.. I caught it that time but lost my tape measure in the process.. Smash !! Sproing !!! .. By then I was so angry I flung the hardhat down to the concrete below wanting to shatter it into 100 pieces like the tape measure did.... A few seconds later I hear a voice yell from below , "You okay?" It happened to be the plant safety man with his clipboard .. He had to have seen the hardhat hit the floor at Mach 10

"The thing fell off," I replied. "...and I'm not coming down there to get it unless the roof is gonna fall on my head." The guy laughs and walks away .. Never did hear a peep about the incident.. Funny how there were some useless situations with hardhat rules, yet, jobsite fall-protection was completely unheard of at the time

 

[tommys2patrick]

let us know how she works once you get some go juice in her. seems like there is always something that needs to be sorted out on a big project like this. also some glamor shots from 10/20 feet away. maybe even some action shots feeding the thirsty horde. nothing too sexy as we have young ones to think about. ha ha!

 

[tobyS]

Comment on bone-yards. I saw a man take auto's apart, inventory them and put them in old semi trailers set up to make any part retrievable and protected from the weather. I could see doing that with a military bone-yard. Setting outside with trees growing up through is probably not going to sell. Set up the business and sell it to a young man.

 

[tommys2patrick]

sounds good. but like real estate its location, location, location. shipping heavy parts around gets expensive. you need to be in an area that has a lot of guys/gals that want to work on old surplus and has pro surplus laws. you need some good buildings to store and work on stuff. most of us are pretty independent and like our freedom and space so we are spread out in areas that may not be densley populated. I would happily sell cheaply or even give away a lot of my stuff. I have tried but I am not in the heart of the buying public so no takers. it would take me years I don't have to deliver this stuff onesy twosey to anyone who actually wanted it for a project. but thats just me. others may not be in the same fix.

 

[msgjd]

Comment on bone-yards. I saw a man take auto's apart, inventory them and put them in old semi trailers set up to make any part retrievable and protected from the weather. I could see doing that with a military bone-yard. Setting outside with trees growing up through is probably not going to sell. Set up the business and sell it to a young man.

My place became exactly that by default, no "set up" required... Since the late-1980's I planned for a certain percentage of the business equipment/trucks/machinery to provide retirement income.. By default, the "boneyard" is parked under protective pines and inventory grew over the decades.. Something breaks down, park it, grab a spare, keep going.. Fix when there's time, and obtain more spares or parts machines if the price is right.. For most of them, the available time for repair or restoration has not come...

There's semitrailers full of parts in support of the contracting (and farm) equip.. One expandable trailer has categorized shelves and bins and is stuffed full, there's a list inside the door of every section/level/bin/shelf and its parts.. Tons of "weatherproof" stuff sits outdoors on pallets, and pallets sit under other types of cover .. Most of the palletized had been stored in the lower level of our last-remaining dairy barn .. But without my knowledge my sister managed to get dad to emit the "maintenance and use" clause in dad's Will about the barn and my shop.. Thus upon his passing I lost parts storage, hay storage, as well as the shop I myself had built 15 years prior..

I then got wind her husband wanted to move his stuff into my shop and not lease me the spot it sat upon.. So I promptly took a chainsaw to my shop. The wall sections are still stacked high on two flatdeck hay wagons with the shingled roof sections perched up on top, some of it likely rotted by now... Principle of the thing... Never got time to rebuild anything thus an M109A3 became the machine shop portion.. My lathe, bench, drill press, tools, and torches barely fit but it does the job.. I still have hard feelings about my sister and her (now) ex.. She eventually sold the last remaining barn for quick cash, dismantled it for its beams, slate, etc..

I have been open to any young fella to buy what I have and run with it, but as you can imagine, 99.9% want the newer stuff they can readily market.. Stone quarries everywhere up here are always looking for used heavy trucks, equipment, and parts, but if it's not newer than 1990's, no deal .. Same goes with the dairy farms, they have grown large, modern, and computerized ...

Soon after my "needy" wife left, I was pursued by an attractive younger independent smartypants who lives 2-1/2 hours from me but grew up in a heavy-equipment/farm family.... Like a pesky fly, I eventually gave up swatting her away and let her buzz around because she proved she didn't bite...

But she was not gonna leave her ancestral home.. Nor will I ... It's been a relationship requiring weekly or bi-monthly travel for 16 years now .. Building her a big new 7-stall gambrel horse barn, fixing her equipment, as well as handling my own machines, I'd hate to add up all the time wasted on the road all these years.. Anyone have a UH-1 for sale? We take turns traveling, and I bet she could fly one better than me!

(it's a joke, I realize for every hour of aircraft flight there's many hours of PMCS among other things)