10 Ton M125 Repaint

[maddawg308]

ooooooohhhh....I need a cigarette after seeing that you have TWO M125s! Man, that's a cool truck, although it would require a third mortgage to finance the fuel bill. Glad to see you're bringing them back to life.

Also, great idea to honor the memory of your brother by dedicating the truck resto to him. Very fitting that some big iron gets restored for an iron-worker's memory.

 

[123mack]

It's a LeRoi TH844. A gas burner, all 844 inches of it . The same engine is in my 1956 M123. The transmission/transfer is a Mack TRDXT 72, a two stick 10 speed.

 

[houdel]

I thought the diesels were only installed in the M123A1C tractors. All the M125s were supposed to have the Le Roi TH 844 gas engines.

 

[Dirt71]

Decided to get into removing the cannon hitch assy. There was just to much rust in there and I wouldn't be able to clean and paint very well, so it had to come a part.

 

[halftrack]

Is the entire length of the frame of a 10 ton "doubled framed" or just the rear. Those are come pretty massive axles. Are 10 tons air brake or hydraulic like the 5 tons and M35s?

 

[CUCVFAN]

I thought the entire length was doubled. Air brakes, but not the newer spring-brake type like the 900's. Lose air and you lose brakes!

 

[maddawg308]

Just the rear end of the 10-ton was a double frame, mostly because of the extreme towed loads these trucks were supposed to handle. The artillery piece the M125 was supposed to tow was an 8-inch howitzer, with dual axles and about 15 tons of weight. When you get offroad and you're towing a load like that, you NEED a double frame to prevent the pintle from ripping off the back end of your truck and the gun rolling backwards down the hill.

Great pics, dirt71, you might want to consider using some POR15 on the frame in that area, after you sandblast all that rust out of there. It will prevent any rust forming in the future.

 

[Dirt71]

Yes the entire frame is doubled and the brakes are total air.And yes when you run out of air you run out ofBRAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

[USMC6062]

I've seen this truck in person, and I'm pretty sure it's double framed the full length.

 

[Dirt71]

Thanks Alex

 

[USMC6062]

We must have been typing at the same time.

 

[maddawg308]

Oops, my bad. I thought by double framed you meant that inner frame box for the pintle assembly. I didn't even notice that there is a C beam inside a C beam, I had to look closely. Wow, that must be a STRONG frame....

 

[steelsoldiers]

Any further progress Dirt?

 

[Dirt71]

I know how I started this post with - taking the 10 ton down a little bit. Well the more I took off the more I wanted to keep going, until I decided, if I had done so much work on a 5 ton bridge truck so should I on a truck like this. So here I am and I'm glad I did, I found some serious brake problems on the rear axle. This truck, believe it or not comes apart easier than a 5 ton, just much much much HEAVIER!!!! Still have to complete the tear down of the frame this week, I hope to have the frame sand blasted and primed next Sunday. My job is sending me to Germany on August 27th and I return on September 13th, so I wanted to at least have the frame done before I leave.

 

[maddawg308]

Keep up the good work, man! That's a great project you got there!

Wow, look at those rear spring packs!

 

[steelsoldiers]

Man, that's a lot of BEEF!! Thanks for the update. Travel safe.

 

[Dirt71]

I had one brake drum giving me trouble, so I made a drum removal tool and brought in some big muscle to turn the wrench. It took some doing but we got it off. Once again I have to say I'm glad I went this deep into this truck. I don't know what the deal is with this rear axle had some real lubrication issues. It's like the ass end of the truck was sitting in salt water. I'm glad I only put about 20 miles on it when it first got here. Look's like this storm is going to mess me up on sandblasting this week, so it will have to wait until I get back from Germany.

 

[CliffW]

sorry to hear of your loss.. As to TS Fay I got about 2 ft of rain and still coming down.

 

[FreightTrain]

You wanna sell that other 10 ton?For real....Looking for a new way to REALLY piss off the city of Gadsden and G-MA.

 

[KaiserM109]

That rusty bearing scares me! I'm going to have to get my '66 M109 indoors this winter and get a look at all mine.

Impressive work! It gives me new resolve to finish one of my "Let's do the whole thing while we're at it" projects.