The 1970 Deuce/Shop Truck (M109A3), I bought from Army Trucks Inc. (a prop company out of southern California), arrived a couple weeks ago, sorry I've been too busy to post about it until today.
Wow, now that's a truck! Would you believe I've never owned a truck of any kind in my life until now (my first vehicle was a 1970 International Scout though). But I always say, if you're gonna do something, do it right.
Army Trucks Inc needed to pick up a truck here in Utah from Hill Air Force base and so they agreed to have mine delivered to me for a very reasonable rate. So no recovery required!
Overall it seems to be in great shape, the engine looks good, as far as I can tell anyway, tires are in pretty good shape. Everything is clean. My main cosmetic complaint is that when they painted it for movie use, they were pretty indiscriminate. Lot's of overspray, inside and out. But as a bonus it seems to have kept the rust at bay, I'm pretty hard pressed to find much rust anywhere. Also, according to the paperwork, it had about 44,300 miles on it in 1997 when they bought it from the military, and now it has 44,600 miles. So needless to say, they didn't put very many miles on it.
When running all the gauges seem to land about where they should, with the exception of the volt meter going high into the red. Also, I seem to have recalled reading either here or in the manual about there being a low air pressure buzzer that should be heard up until the pressure is safe to drive. I've never heard a buzzer, is this normal?
The night it arrived I had to drive it from the street into the parking lot at my office, where it's currently stored. I had read the manual a couple of times and I thought I knew how to operate it, and I did okay, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to turn on the headlights. So I had drive through the parking lot in the dark. Back to the manual I went until I finally figured it out. (For the record, it was having to hold up the release lever that threw me).
Let me start by saying that my auto mechanic abilities don't yet extend much beyond knowing how to change oil on my car. That being said, I'm really excited to learn more and I hope you folks here don't mind me asking the occasional question.
I was able to get insurance from Safeco for a mere $81 every 6 months, and I was able to get it registered here in Utah as a Vintage vehicle. In fact my first drive in the truck was about 30 miles round trip through town to take it downtown so they could verify the VIN in person.
Now I've driven fairly wide variety of vehicles in my life, the biggest being a motor home. And I've driven close to a million miles in a stick shift, so I thought I was prepared for this, and in fact I think I did okay, but it was rougher, louder and harder than I had expected, and I thought I was prepared for a lot. Let's just say, I'm rather happy I didn't have to drive it back from California as my first drive, that would have been quite intimidating.
For you softie first timers like me, here is what I learned quickly. Be prepared to shift FAST. When stopped at a red light, I hadn't expected that I might need to shift 1st, 2nd and 3rd before I was even through the intersection. It really does feel like driving a semi-truck I think. And yes it is LOUD! Bring ear plugs and don't plan on having any meaningful conversations with your passenger.
Also, I'm accustomed to the steering wheel of a vehicle spinning back quickly after a turn, however in my deuce, you may need to help out a bit, or be patient. On one my first right turns at an intersection (I think it was the first intersection where it was green and I didn't have to come to a complete stop, so I already had some momentum), I just about oversteered into the curb on my right because the wheel didn't spin back to straighten out the truck as fast as I had expected it to.
Also, my truck shook a lot at first, especially as I approached 40mph. For now I'm blaming it on flat spots on the tires due to sitting for a week before it's first drive. Though it might be my font drive shaft (more on that below).
Watch your RPMs! It's really easy to go over the limit, especially in 3rd gear for some reason.
Hills can be a bit scary too, I only had one hill where I had to hold the truck from rolling backward at an intersection, while I waited for the light to change. Can I just say that drivers are stupid! Do you have any idea how close the car behind me got? I swear they were an inch from my bumper. Needless to say, I chickened out and held my position with the clutch and gas rather than the brake. I need to get some more practice on hills before, I do the the proper way.
Speaking of which, in the manual it says you can use the hand brake as a way to keep yourself from rolling backwards. I didn't find this to be very effective for me, at first it was too loose to do any good at all, and by the time I tightened it enough to have any holding power at all, it was too stiff for me to pull. (Probably doesn't help that my arm strength isn't all that, too many hours in front of computers…) Anyone have advise? (Other than hitting the gym)
Now to my big mechanical question, as you can see in the included pictures, the front drive shaft has a pretty significant dent in it and is also bent a bit. My guess is that somebody high-centered it on the drive shaft. How serious is this issue, especially if I'm not engaging the front wheels? Could this be contributing to the shaking that I was experiencing at higher speeds (though it did seem to get better after we'd driven for a while).
Last question for now, I haven't looked through all the manuals, and I haven't figured out how to get power to the shop truck part. I noticed there is a plug behind the cab, but it has a connection type I've never seen. Is this where you can plug in power? And if so, where would I get a connector like that?
Okay that's it for the questions and advice for today here are some pics:
Wow, now that's a truck! Would you believe I've never owned a truck of any kind in my life until now (my first vehicle was a 1970 International Scout though). But I always say, if you're gonna do something, do it right.
Army Trucks Inc needed to pick up a truck here in Utah from Hill Air Force base and so they agreed to have mine delivered to me for a very reasonable rate. So no recovery required!
Overall it seems to be in great shape, the engine looks good, as far as I can tell anyway, tires are in pretty good shape. Everything is clean. My main cosmetic complaint is that when they painted it for movie use, they were pretty indiscriminate. Lot's of overspray, inside and out. But as a bonus it seems to have kept the rust at bay, I'm pretty hard pressed to find much rust anywhere. Also, according to the paperwork, it had about 44,300 miles on it in 1997 when they bought it from the military, and now it has 44,600 miles. So needless to say, they didn't put very many miles on it.
When running all the gauges seem to land about where they should, with the exception of the volt meter going high into the red. Also, I seem to have recalled reading either here or in the manual about there being a low air pressure buzzer that should be heard up until the pressure is safe to drive. I've never heard a buzzer, is this normal?
The night it arrived I had to drive it from the street into the parking lot at my office, where it's currently stored. I had read the manual a couple of times and I thought I knew how to operate it, and I did okay, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to turn on the headlights. So I had drive through the parking lot in the dark. Back to the manual I went until I finally figured it out. (For the record, it was having to hold up the release lever that threw me).
Let me start by saying that my auto mechanic abilities don't yet extend much beyond knowing how to change oil on my car. That being said, I'm really excited to learn more and I hope you folks here don't mind me asking the occasional question.
I was able to get insurance from Safeco for a mere $81 every 6 months, and I was able to get it registered here in Utah as a Vintage vehicle. In fact my first drive in the truck was about 30 miles round trip through town to take it downtown so they could verify the VIN in person.
Now I've driven fairly wide variety of vehicles in my life, the biggest being a motor home. And I've driven close to a million miles in a stick shift, so I thought I was prepared for this, and in fact I think I did okay, but it was rougher, louder and harder than I had expected, and I thought I was prepared for a lot. Let's just say, I'm rather happy I didn't have to drive it back from California as my first drive, that would have been quite intimidating.
For you softie first timers like me, here is what I learned quickly. Be prepared to shift FAST. When stopped at a red light, I hadn't expected that I might need to shift 1st, 2nd and 3rd before I was even through the intersection. It really does feel like driving a semi-truck I think. And yes it is LOUD! Bring ear plugs and don't plan on having any meaningful conversations with your passenger.
Also, I'm accustomed to the steering wheel of a vehicle spinning back quickly after a turn, however in my deuce, you may need to help out a bit, or be patient. On one my first right turns at an intersection (I think it was the first intersection where it was green and I didn't have to come to a complete stop, so I already had some momentum), I just about oversteered into the curb on my right because the wheel didn't spin back to straighten out the truck as fast as I had expected it to.
Also, my truck shook a lot at first, especially as I approached 40mph. For now I'm blaming it on flat spots on the tires due to sitting for a week before it's first drive. Though it might be my font drive shaft (more on that below).
Watch your RPMs! It's really easy to go over the limit, especially in 3rd gear for some reason.
Hills can be a bit scary too, I only had one hill where I had to hold the truck from rolling backward at an intersection, while I waited for the light to change. Can I just say that drivers are stupid! Do you have any idea how close the car behind me got? I swear they were an inch from my bumper. Needless to say, I chickened out and held my position with the clutch and gas rather than the brake. I need to get some more practice on hills before, I do the the proper way.
Speaking of which, in the manual it says you can use the hand brake as a way to keep yourself from rolling backwards. I didn't find this to be very effective for me, at first it was too loose to do any good at all, and by the time I tightened it enough to have any holding power at all, it was too stiff for me to pull. (Probably doesn't help that my arm strength isn't all that, too many hours in front of computers…) Anyone have advise? (Other than hitting the gym)
Now to my big mechanical question, as you can see in the included pictures, the front drive shaft has a pretty significant dent in it and is also bent a bit. My guess is that somebody high-centered it on the drive shaft. How serious is this issue, especially if I'm not engaging the front wheels? Could this be contributing to the shaking that I was experiencing at higher speeds (though it did seem to get better after we'd driven for a while).
Last question for now, I haven't looked through all the manuals, and I haven't figured out how to get power to the shop truck part. I noticed there is a plug behind the cab, but it has a connection type I've never seen. Is this where you can plug in power? And if so, where would I get a connector like that?
Okay that's it for the questions and advice for today here are some pics:
