1200 miles in a deuce

[Sumner]

Hi, been reading and learning on this site for quite a while now, and thought would post up a few pics of the truck I just got and the trip I made.

I had started searching for a truck last summer and contacted Andy at Army6x6. I have to say he was fantastic to deal with, and helped me out with so many things dealing with the truck. We worked out a deal on a nice 1970 AMGeneral, and he found me very nice set of 395 xml's and modified hemmt wheels for it, plus 4 extra tires as spares. My plans were to bring the truck into Alberta, Canada, and trying to find the tires up here is next to impossible. Andy also supplied me with a m105 trailer bed and a set of springs and hardware as my plans were to bob it, but I have to admit I am really liking the 6x6 and may not go this route now.

I originally was going to have the truck shipped, but since fuel prices had gone up shipping prices have skyrocketed. I decided that I would make a trip of it and drive the deuce back home. So we loaded my tools into the car and drove down on 17th and 18th, through some very ugly weather and saw some areas in southern Saskatchewan and North Dakota beginning to flood pretty badly, but made it to Owatonna, Minnesota with no trouble.

On the 19th we met with Jim, Andy's dad, as Andy's wasn't able to be there. Jim was great, and went through the entire truck with me checking oils and fluids. We gave it a good grease job and double checked everything, and loaded up the spare belts, hoses, and filters Andy had set aside for the trip. I have to say that at this point that I had 1200 miles to drive in a 40 year old military truck was really starting to sink in! I have a couple old vehicles that I have driven on some long trips, but never this far. So with some trepidation and a whole bunch of optimisim we headed out.

It was already fairly late in the day, so we only went about a 100 miles and stayed the night. I was pleasantly surprised to find the truck was excellent on the interstate, drove straight as an arrow and with the weight in the bed rode really nice as well!

 

[Maverick1701]

Congrats on the new truck!!
I drove about 1K miles when I did my recovery...take lots of pictures!!!
We demand pics!

Also what kind of hoops did you have to jump through to get the paperwork to have it xported out of the country?
I can only imagine the headaches....

 

[Sumner]

On the second day we got a nice early start, checked the truck over and everthing looked ok, fluids were still good and tires full of air. We headed down the interstate, cruising 60 miles per hour at about 2300-2350 rpm. I'm sure the engine is safe to spin faster, but I had a long way to go and didn't want to push my luck. Besides, 60 mph is fast enough in one of these.

I got some intersting looks going down the road, and a couple friendly waves. Although the spring seat was actually way more comfortable than I figured it was going to be, after about 4 hours driving I had to stop and stretch my legs. We pulled into a truckstop in Barnesville for a rest, and not 5mins after stopping a large group of military vehicles pulled in and parked around me. I really wished I had got a picture, as it was really neat to see. The deuce blended in quite nicely, and I got to meet a few really interesting people and checked out a couple of the modern military vehicles! All in all a really great stop!

We then headed back out on the highway heading for North Dakota. After a quick stop in Fargo for fuel, we pressed on to the border. At this point the truck was running fantastic, and when I checked the engine oil it hadn't dropped a bit. As we started getting close to Minot I noticed the truck was developing a few new rattles and noises. There was one right behind the cab that was driving me insane, but I couldn't locate it so decided to head north and see if anything developed.We found the water levels had gone up since we had passed through a few days before, and near Minot the water was over the highway and heard they were evacuating paople from the area, but the traffic was still moving so we continued on.

After fuelling up one more time at Kenmare (fuels way cheaper south of the border), we headed for the border crossing a Portal, ND. After ariving at about 9pm I surprised to find very little activity at the crossing, and was able to get through in about an hour with no difficulty. The Canadian border officer did inform us that the highway north was going to be closed soon due to the rising water and the worries that the bridge south of Estevan would wash out, so we headed out asap! I wanted get some pictures, but it was pouring rain and really dark out. As we travelled along we found that the border officer wasn't exagerating about the bridge. There was a couple inches of water over it at one end and we found out the next morning that the road was closed about an hour after we went through. Whew!! I wheeled into a hotel parking lot and shut er down for the night, got a room and i think i was sleeping before i hit the pillow!

 

[Sumner]

Day three........

After getting a nice early start and a fresh cup of coffee at Tim Horten's (any Canadians reading this will understand the power of a cup of Timmie's in the morning, lol), I checked the truck over for any problems. All looked good, except it looked like I was leaking brake fluid from the master cylinder. After checking the level, which was fine, I picked up a spare jug of fluid and a bottle of rainex for the windshield. It was looking to be a wet, ugly day. On top of that we found the highways on the shortest route home were washed out from flooding, and the only other way without heading east to Manitoba may be as well. Luckily a farmer that came into town from the direction we wanted to go said the road was still there, but there was water flowing over it. I wasn't too worried about the truck making it, but the car may have been a bit of a problem. After getting to it I wasn't too sure about trying it with the car, but then a car came from the other side and made it so we decided to give it a whirl. The detour already added about 60miles, and i didn't want to add another 50 or 60.

We headed north to Regina where the weather cleared up and the sun was shining! Was a beautiful day for travalling....except for that dang blasted rattle from behind the cab!! We pulled in for fuel near Saskatoon and checked the truck over. I was surprised to still see the nubs on the tires after about 800 miles! These things wear like iron!

After heading north for another hour we ran into some really ugly weather. I didn't think that much water could come down at one time! I now know exactly which cab seals will need to be changed. All of them!! Also, I found there's something almost therapeutic about watching the air wipers go back and forth! Lol. Luckily the storm only lasted about an hour and we were through it.

After entering Alberta a Lloydminster I couldn't take it anymore, I HAD to find that dang rattle! After crawing around underneath for a bit I tried moving the park brake pads around and sure as all heck they rattled and rang. Looking closer I found that there was a spring on top that was busted. Not being able to do anything about it I figured I just have to live with the noise for a bit longer. On the plus side I found where my brake fluid leak was coming from! It looks to actually be transfer case oil coming out of a small crack in the speedo cable directly abouve the master cylinder, so that was a relief!

We then headed another 3hours north to my aunt and uncles in Lac La Biche and stayed the night there, and I drove the last hour home in the morning.

I drove the truck over the scales in La Biche and found it weighed 16,200lbs with the stuff in the back. Cruising at 60mph the whole way the fuel milage worked out to 9.5 mpg. Not too bad for a truck weighing that much! And it didn't use any engine oil the whole trip either! All in all I couldn't be happier about the truck. Andy and Jim were fantastic to deal with and really went out of there way to take care of me!


-Kurtis

 

[Loco_Hosa]

On the 19th we met with Jim, Andy's dad, as Andy's wasn't able to be there. Jim was great, and went through the entire truck with me checking oils and fluids. We gave it a good grease job and double checked everything, and loaded up the spare belts, hoses, and filters Andy had set aside for the trip. I have to say that at this point that I had 1200 miles to drive in a 40 year old military truck was really starting to sink in! I have a couple old vehicles that I have driven on some long trips, but never this far. So with some trepidation and a whole bunch of optimisim we headed out.

I know the feeling! I leave on the 25th in my Deuce for Tacoma, Wa from riverside. I have made the trip 3 times now on an old motorcycle, but never in such an old truck that has been sitting for a while. Hopefully my trip goes as well as yours did!

 

[Sumner]

Here's a few more pics

 

[Sumner]

Yeah Loco, I don't think it could have went much better. I didn't even need to use any of the spare parts except for the new wiper blades. I hope you have a good trip with yours too and not have any trouble along the way.

 

[dodgedougak]

Great write-up, congrats on the nice truck

 

[Donald Poppell]

That's a long haul.
Thanks for the pics and congrats on the truck

 

[dittle]

Congrats on the successful recovery. I had that spring brake on my truck as well, actully someone in the military installed it incorrectly and the brake drum cut it in half. I also got my truck from Andy and as you said he and his dad are great to work with.

 

[M35A2-AZ]

Nice truck and write up, we always like pics!!
That was a road trip for sure
Good luck with the truck.

 

[eaw46]

Wish you would have let me know you were coming through we could have done a coffee. If you do another trip let me know and if anyone is comming this way I can offer some help if they need it or just some tips on the area. Eddy

 

[rrrr]

Andy and "DAD" are great guys. I got my 395's mounted on hemmt rims from them as well.

 

[wsucougarx]

Haha, I certainly loved my Tim Horton's the 7 days we were north of the border. Didn't know anything about TH. Then after seeing about the 1000th TH I decided to finally stop in to see what the deal was... I only wished I had hit every Tim Horton's I had seen. Oh, I got sidetracked. Great looking truck!!!

 

[cattlerepairman]

Well done! I did a three-day recovery with my truck from Virginia and can re-live the thrill.
It is an excellent shakedown trip for the truck. Any light seepage will accumulate over three days straight of driving and you get a really good feel for the truck.

 

[Billy Bobbed]

Looks like a nice truck,thats a long haul.You said you picked up some brake fluid make sure its dot 5,unless someone changed it to dot 2 or 3.They dont mix.

 

[Sumner]

Wish you would have let me know you were coming through we could have done a coffee. If you do another trip let me know and if anyone is comming this way I can offer some help if they need it or just some tips on the area. Eddy

Yeah, I never even thought to post on here before I headed out, otherwise I could have stopped for a bit. There was a few times we pilled over and waited for the worse of the rain to pass.

Andy and "DAD" are great guys. I got my 395's mounted on hemmt rims from them as well.

They sure are. The 395's Andy found for me were sure nice rubber. Most were brand new, and the others maybe had 5% wore off. The XML's sure have a gnarly lug on them, I swear I could feel every lug until I got up to speed. I may have to try putting a couple cups of antifreeze or some steel shot inside to try and get them to balance a bit. I know it works on semi tires, so it should work on these too.

Well done! I did a three-day recovery with my truck from Virginia and can re-live the thrill.
It is an excellent shakedown trip for the truck. Any light seepage will accumulate over three days straight of driving and you get a really good feel for the truck.

I've found a few small leaks, mostly from the speedo cable, and one of the rear axles is leaking at the outer flange just enough to mark the wheel and tire. I'm going to have to get the parts ordered up soon as I will have to take it in for and inspection. So far the list is the speedo cable and spring for the parking brake, and pull the rear axle and see whats needed to get it to stop leaking.

Looks like a nice truck,thats a long haul.You said you picked up some brake fluid make sure its dot 5,unless someone changed it to dot 2 or 3.They dont mix.

I actually managed to find some dot5 for it. I really should have brought some with me but it completely slipped my mind. As for the dot5, wow that stuff is expensive! I'm going to have to watch for somewhere thats having a sale and load up!

 

[RetiredNavy]

Great recovery Sumner. I have heard good things about Andy as well. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[LowTech]

That's how I get to know my Mechs, . . . take off on some adventure w/ them . . . see what they tell you.
I wouldn't know what it's like NOT to carry food, water, tools, parts (. . . maybe that compressor is going to go out this trip, off across some desert w/ a new mech . . . see what they can do . . . right?

Haven't gotten permanently broke-down or stuck yet

 

[swbradley1]

Good looking truck and nice recovery.