Death of a M1031

[biggestc69]

I have a little time at work today and thought I would share the story of what happened to the M1031 contact truck that was assigned to me while I was active duty. I was stationed in Babenhausen Germany as a heavy equipment repairer. I signed for the truck after arriving to my unit in late 2000. It was CHERRY under 4000 miles and everything worked like a champ! PTO, generator everything. I loved that truck and took EXCELLENT care of it. The beginning of 2003 our unit was called up to go to Iraq. We rail loaded the truck and picked it up at the port in Kuwait. I drove over 2000 miles while in Iraq and the truck performed flawlessly (except the starter relay sticking in downtown Bahgdad). It came time for me to leave and sign the truck over. There was another platoon in my unit that need a contact truck so we did the inventory and I said my goodbyes. After waiting for a flight and out processing a week and a half later i was back in Germany. I was shocked to see the SPC I had signed the truck over to with a bandaged up neck. I asked him what happened and he said he totaled my truck. Apparently they were using a one lane road as a two lane with traffic on both sides driving halfway in the ditch. According to him the front drivers side tire blew out sending him into a head on with an up armored hmvee. He lost. I was PISSED, he got airlifted out and one of our buddies was able to get the pic's of the truck after it all happened. Here's the before, after and the hmvee.

 

[SouthernSteel]

My Condolences, Another one bites The dust. :[ such a sad shame im glad the soldier survived though.:]

 

[biggestc69]

Ya it was pretty amazing that nobody got seriously hurt. The occupants of the hmvee had no injuries at all (nobody was standing up in the crew serve ring thank God!) And the shot gun in the M1031 was a little stiff. The driver was wearing his seat belt and wound up with some stitches. Nothing major but he's got a nice little scar.

 

[Keith_J]

So sad. One of the most useful CUCVs.

Mine was an EOD variant so it lacks the bottle racks and has the radio rack in the right front compartment with antenna mount. But it only had 1.4 hours on the generator with 9009 miles on the odometer.

I remember the old M888 Dodge SECM, that was a piggy hunk of junk. Dana 44 axles plus it was loaded a bit heavier.

 

[M1031CMT]

That was no little accident for sure. I don't think a new bumper and coat of paint would have fixed it sadly.

I am sure you were not happy to hear about the old girl being totaled, but at least no one was seriously hurt.

I have loved the M1031's ever since I first saw one. Just great trucks. It is the one that gets used the most in the yard. She also gets the most love.

 

[wayne pick]

Thank god the guys were not badly injured, what a shame, it was a sweet truck that was well taken care of. You almost wouldent care if it was a junker.

 

[SCSG-G4]

Sad!

 

[doghead]

It's better the truck gave it's life for them, than them give their lives for the trucks.

 

[biggestc69]

Exactly Doghead! I was sad to see it go but glad that my buddies were ok. Since the military was phasing them out I couldn't get parts for it. So the entire time we were in Iraq it never got an air filter (just knock all the powered dust out of it twice a day), oil filter or fuel filter. We changed oil had to reuse the old filter. But get this, as you all know the military is hard on CUCV hoods and roofs if there is a shelter/box on the back. Because of loading up camo netting for FTX's. Well one day during PMCS I put down that I needed a hood and out of all the parts that I really needed guess what I got? As you can see in the before pic it had a brand new black primered hood. It was a tough truck, grossley overweight with 4 peoples gear, the usual tools and since we were on the wrecker team most of the "need to get in a hurry items" from the wrecker, chains-j hooks etc. It was so overweight that if you stopped in the 8" deep dust powder and tried to go again it would just slip the tranny. Wouldnt even try to spin. It ran for at least a week straight during the invasion and it worked right beside us putting in 17+ hours a day once we reached Tikrit. More than you guys probably wanted to know but this is when my rabid obsession with CARC paint on beefy trucks comes from.

 

[rickf]

And to add insult to injury what do you see in the last pic of the totaled truck? FORKLIFT damage! Go figure.
Those guys are real lucky that nothing come through the box and back of the cab. I have seen a lot of accidents with those types of trucks where the stuff in the back comes right through and the end result is pretty gruesome.

Rick

 

[biggestc69]

Ya they are RUTHLESS with the forklifts. I have a friend that used to work at Rock Island government liquidation as a fork lift operator and she told me they were told to really smack into the trucks to make sure they were on the forks. About made me sick. And your right rickf, as much stuff that was crammed back in the box they were lucky it all stayed in the box instead of making its way into the cab.

 

[Whitey]

Like the story and the pics. Glad nobody got too badly injured.

 

[Matt1031]

So sad. One of the most useful CUCVs.

Mine was an EOD variant so it lacks the bottle racks and has the radio rack in the right front compartment with antenna mount. But it only had 1.4 hours on the generator with 9009 miles on the odometer.

Mine's a a former EOD truck also (Still has the EOD unit markings on it). I always assumed that the State University that owned it after the Govt. took the cylinder rack out. Interesting.

 

[biggestc69]

Is the removal of the cylinder rack the only difference? Besides the contact trucks I have only seen one other M1031 variant. It was for sale on Purple Wave about a year ago. The Junction City Kansas police dept had it. The data plate said M1031 but it had a shelter box on it with heat and AC. It was a really sweet set up. Under 5k miles and in really good shape. I was in the market and for a CUCV at the time and bid it up to 9 grand. It went for over 10 and with sales tax and auctions fee's was around 12. WAY outta my budget.