Another CUCV Daily Driver thread.

[pred8tr]

It looks like this has been covered a number of times and the general consensus is that the M1009 makes a decent daily driver. The axle gearing makes it able to travel at decent highway speeds and the mileage is okay at 20mpg.

I came here initially trying to determine whether or not an M1008 would make a good towrig / daily driver. Most of the info that I have found indicates that an M1008 has the axles for pulling, but that the engine is fairly lacking and as an overall solution the truck pales in comparison to a modern 3/4 truck, like, say a Dodge RAM 2500 with a Cummins Diesel.

I was hoping to use the M1008 mostly to be able to haul other project vehicles home with, and have the ability to pull a goose neck with a couple cars on it on rare occasion. I would also like to be able to haul a ~30' travel trailer.

From what I have read here the m1008 would be slow going some of the above and unsuitable for the rest.

Also, as someone who used to thoroughly enjoy offroading I was hoping that it would be able to fill the void that selling my Jeep XJ with 35's left.

It sounds like the m1009 will not meet my expectations, but short of the towing needs an m1008 may be a better choice.

Does anyone have any info about the m1008 I may have missed that would make it a better candidate?

I was really hoping the m1008 would be a good truck for me but it sounds like it just wouln't be.

 

[kentuckycucv]

I use my truck for fun and I do some daily driving with it. I drive 70-80mph on the highway with no problems. I haul a (2000lb empty )16ft dual axle utility trailer with brakes.... I love it. I drive at 80mph to my hunting spot, with my wet dirty dogs, lock in the hubs put it in 4 wheel low and climb steep muddy hills, then go home. Perfect versatile vehicle., that you dont have to worry about scratching the paint or getting the inside full of mud and dog hair.
I bought mine for $1500 bucks with 42,000 miles on it.
Cheaper than a quad four wheeler, and with this site I have been able to fix everything.

 

[hobie237]

The 1008 is fine for towing almost any reasonable load, the only drawback is that it doesn't have much in the way of highway gearing, though. Pretty darned capable off-road, within the limitations of it's size and weight.

If you're looking for a beefy, relatively inexpensive truck that can take most anything most anywhere, it's a great solution. If you're looking for something with modern conveniences and more modern hardware, it's not a great solution.

It does amaze me how people jump on the fact that it doesn't have all that much power, though. For it's day, it had plenty good power. 60hp was enough for the GPW, 120ish was good enough for the M715, now if a truck doesn't have 300+hp it's not all that capable? Yeah, more power beats less, but I can't imagine much in the way of normal 1-ton pickup usage that the M1008 couldn't handle.

 

[pred8tr]

Well. It's prolly too late for me to get a CUCV on this auction. Nearly all of the "WAS RUNNING WHEN BROUGHT IN" units are over $1000 which was my cut off for this auction. There are still 1 or 2 m1008's I could bid on, but most of those are listed and "don't run".

There is also a black m1008 and a m1009 that are list as don't run but they are both around $600... I am still thinking pretty hard about those two...

 

[pred8tr]

Okay. Here is my m1008 question.

Assuming I know how to read a data plate... and I may not then the attached image from an M1008 tells me that:

The Gross Max Weight is 8800 lbs.

This is the combined weight of the truck, it's passengers, it's cargo, and whatever it towing behind it. Correct?

The Curb weight is 5900 lbs. This is the weight of the truck itself with fuel.

So... Doesn't this mean that the truck can only two a 2900 lbs trailer?

My buddy says his wife Ford Windstar can tow that.

Maybe I am reading the data plate incorrectly. I really wanted an m1008 to be the truck I wanted but unfortunately it appears it may not be.

 

[Bobert]

Max payload is what's in the bed isn't it? So you can haul almost 1.5 tons in the bed.

I know they can tow at least a 8,000 lb trailer Because my 81 c20 with a 350 hauled that. You definately do not want to haul anything too big unless you get a better hitch.

It should meet your towing and pleasure needs.

 

[hobie237]

Ok, I'm confused. You mention wanting to get a newer, 3/4 ton Ram, which would be likely be better for you- an M1008 will get the job done, but the newer Ram would likely do it better- and then you say your limit is $1000- something tells me that you couldn't get a newer, more capable truck for that. CUCVs are bargains if you're willing to put up with the tinkering that owning any 20+ year old vehicle involves, but they're not exactly the most capable trucks on the face of the earth- they're good, solid, 1-ton pickups.

As far as the trailer, you don't mention what kind of cars would be in it, whether it's aluminum, or anything else. If the trailer and the vehicles are relatively light (like if you're pulling sports cars to races on the weekend) the CUCV will be just fine. If you're talking about a couple old Cadillacs decked out with chrome, the CUCV will get the job done, but you'll likely be looking for something that's a little better for towing.

 

[hobie237]

Okay. Here is my m1008 question.

Assuming I know how to read a data plate... and I may not then the attached image from an M1008 tells me that:

The Gross Max Weight is 8800 lbs.

This is the combined weight of the truck, it's passengers, it's cargo, and whatever it towing behind it. Correct?

The Curb weight is 5900 lbs. This is the weight of the truck itself with fuel.

So... Doesn't this mean that the truck can only two a 2900 lbs trailer?

My buddy says his wife Ford Windstar can tow that.

Maybe I am reading the data plate incorrectly. I really wanted an m1008 to be the truck I wanted but unfortunately it appears it may not be.

GVWR is the weight of the vehicle. Has nothing to do with tow rating, it means you can have 2900 lbs of stuff in the cab, bed, etc. You're thinking GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating), and I'm not sure what it is. As I recall, the 1008 is rated to tow 3500 pounds off road, 9500 on-road, but I'm not going to swear to that.

Again, I'm not sure what you want, I'm not even sure that you're sure what you want, but I think you should do a good bit o' thinking about it before you throw down money.

 

[pred8tr]

Ok, I'm confused. You mention wanting to get a newer, 3/4 ton Ram, which would be likely be better for you- an M1008 will get the job done, but the newer Ram would likely do it better- and then you say your limit is $1000- something tells me that you couldn't get a newer, more capable truck for that. CUCVs are bargains if you're willing to put up with the tinkering that owning any 20+ year old vehicle involves, but they're not exactly the most capable trucks on the face of the earth- they're good, solid, 1-ton pickups.

As far as the trailer, you don't mention what kind of cars would be in it, whether it's aluminum, or anything else. If the trailer and the vehicles are relatively light (like if you're pulling sports cars to races on the weekend) the CUCV will be just fine. If you're talking about a couple old Cadillacs decked out with chrome, the CUCV will get the job done, but you'll likely be looking for something that's a little better for towing.

Thanks for catching that. Point being there is $1,000 is about all I am willing to invest in an internet auction purchase, site unseen, vehicle that I've never seen a similar model to in real life. There are a lot of unanswered questions. If I were to buy a newer Dodge RAM it would be a more conventional purchase without such uncertainties as "is there even an engine under the hood"... hopefully... and it would probably involve a back loan also.

As for the trailer, in the near term the only time I'd probably be hauling multiple vehicles at once is if I am pulling a couple of 4x4's to an offroad event like BigDogs or something. I don't own such a trailer yet so I really don't have all the details. I am trying to get this stuff figured out though.

 

[pred8tr]

GVWR is the weight of the vehicle. Has nothing to do with tow rating, it means you can have 2900 lbs of stuff in the cab, bed, etc. You're thinking GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating), and I'm not sure what it is. As I recall, the 1008 is rated to tow 3500 pounds off road, 9500 on-road, but I'm not going to swear to that.

Again, I'm not sure what you want, I'm not even sure that you're sure what you want, but I think you should do a good bit o' thinking about it before you throw down money.

Yeah, I want a bunch of stuff I can't have. lol.

You mentioned "Gross Combined Weight Rating" where would I find this information to solidify the details for me?

Thanks.

 

[hobie237]

Gross combined weight rating is the tow capacity plus the GVWR. Manufacturers list it on their websites for current models, the tough part is digging up the info for older models. Somewhere I'm sure you could just dig up the tow capacity, which, I'm pretty sure, is 9500 pounds on-road.

Hauling multiple 4x4s still doesn't tell us much- that could mean multiple fullsize Blazers, or multiple Wranglers, or Trackicks- one 3/4 ton Blazer likely weighs the same as two Trackicks or Wranglers.

Why not just plunk down the extra cash and buy a CUCV secondhand? That's what I did, because I wasn't looking for a CUCV specifically, I was looking for a diesel fullsize pickup, and there was a guy unloading a couple CUCVs down the road and one of them fit the bill. Since they were from a private sale, it was just like any other used vehicle purchase.

 

[LanceRobson]

As far as towing, the "book" answer, from the operator's manual, is that the M1008 is capable of towing a 3,000 pound M101 trailer. It dosen't really list it as a "maximum" towing capacity. Obviously, it can tow a lot more but the -10 is referring to military trailers that a unit would have in their motor pool.

I've no doubt that a stock M1008 would safely tow and stop a lot more weight with a brake controller. Zero to 60 acceleration would be measured in hours (in days up a steep hill) and based on the M1008 not wanting to hold 65 MPH up a moderate incline with a loaded M101 trailer, I doubt you'll be a popular person on hilly roads.

BTW, as a "belt and suspenders" kind of thing I put a big transmission cooler in mine when I replaced the transmission. I already had the bumper, brush guard and and grill off it to swap for better looking ones from the parts truck.

As far as cross country mobility, the first paragraph of the -10 states that the CUCV is capable of "extremely limited cross country mobility" but, remember, they're comparing it to humdingers and tracked vehicles. My experience has been that if you driving in sticky mud or snow, the tires are going to let you down long before the chassis will. If you treat it realistically and drive without any drama or rush, it'll take you to some pretty remarkable places.

I use the M1008 as a daily driver, and around the farm, when I don't need the brute strength of my F-350 dually or the Ford's ladder rack. The F-350 is set up to tow 23K with the gooseneck or 5th wheel, so I'll keep it 'til the wheels fall off.

Our 17 year old drives a very clean M1009 as his daily driver and has no problems other than the farmers, farm kids and hunters who are always drooling on it.

Lance

 

[Refalgren]

I just want to add this in. I recently PCSed from Fort Lewis, Washington to Fort Benning, Georgia driving my stock M1008 with a 14ft flatbed trailer. The combined weight of the fully loaded truck and trailer was 13,625lbs. Hefty load there i'm sure. When going up a five to six degree hill, I would actually bog down to 30-35mph. Sometimes I would even hit second gear, and have the slow-arse big rigs passing me. But my M1008 handled it fine, and still got 10-13mpg.

Of course, this isn't counting the $2,623 in electrical repairs due to the infernal starter relay melting down my whole electrical system about halfway through during my TDY stop...

 

[beaubeau]

You must do some research about GCVW. I have a 1Ton with a GVW of 14000 pounds. The GCVW {WITH trailer is 27000 lbs. It depends what your trl weighs and what it is rated for. My trl is rated for 20,000 lbs. I can haul a Deuce leagally and 2 M1008s Plus . If you add dual wheels, the GVW also goes up.