Discovery Channel "Breaking Point" - M54 Forest Fire Truck

[cattlerepairman]

By chance, I found myself watching this episode and was on the verge of tears!
Breaking Point

These guys obtained a pristine up-armored M54 with a massive protective cage and first tested what the thing was capable of. That was the fun part. It cut a swath through the forest, snapping and pushing under trees that were over 19 inches thick, like matchsticks. The front of the truck was protected by the cage and the axle housings and underbelly protected by steel plate and the cage was designed to take the impact and bend the trees over. They hardly managed to scratch the paint on the cage - and they sure tried hard!

They shot lumber at the front of the truck behind the cage with a cannon; no damage; the front of the rad was armored and literally ripped the wood apart.

I am not sure what the engine was; they showed it only briefly, but the turbo was sitting up high on the passenger side, level with the top of the engine and the pipes crossed over the engine. I was thinking, maybe a turboed 250 Cummins conversion.

Then these idiots attempted to destroy the truck. They finally succeeded by subjecting it to a burnover (4 minutes of complete immersion in fire) and were left with a burnt out hulk. You can see the result on the link above; it is the cage sitting in smoke.

Anyway...the end of a quite incredible 5ton conversion.

 

[XanRa]

i dont like them.....

 

[Whitey]

All of my reactions are not postable.

 

[bratpackdad]

That show is not cool

 

[hdexpert]

I don't get the point of that show. Anything can be destroyed if you try hard enough!! One more show NOT to watch!!

 

[scooter01922]

The bomb around through the trees, ok cool i'll watch that. Never going to do that with my trucks but eh, its not really that destructive with the right cage on there. But why the **** would you light it on fire?????? Its kind of a given that you are going to burn it to the ground. It wasn't designed to be roasted. This show definitely goes on the "not to be watched and complain loudly about when you hear of it" list. Stupid destructive morons, same BS that the juvenile thugs pull but these guys have better cam equip and get paid.

 

[Sirblissfull]

Now I want the specs on that truck.

 

[Floridianson]

Yes Hollywood will put out anything that will keep you on the couch eating junk food and makeing mush out of your mind. The world is outside.
What about the Alaska Gold diggers that can't operate a machine. I think it was staged cause no one can be that stupid.

 

[wehring]

trees

I would like to see the path cutting on film...

Justin Wehring
979 997 3112

 

[MotorTMan]

Im thinking that was one of the rarer Mack powered M54A1 trucks....They had to pick that one, didnt they?

 

[srodocker]

any pics of it?

 

[cattlerepairman]

I would like to see the path cutting on film...

Justin Wehring
979 997 3112

They drove the truck into the forest fairly slowly and it would just push down whichever tree they hit and crawl over it. They said that they pushed down a total of about 250 tons of lumber while creating a truck-wide path where they were going.

What fascinated me was the way the axles themselves were boxed in; only the bottom of the diff pumpkins showed. Even the brakes were fully protected. The truck could scrape its belly over timber and rocks all day long and you'd only need a can of Krylon to fix it. The radiator armour was something you'd expect on an old-style APC. Massive frame with massive louvers that require an RPG to punch through.

The interior was clean and upgraded (better seats). The windshield frame was the typical Boyce truck frame with electric wipers and the fixed windshields with the rounded corners and wide black rubber seal. It ran on the stock 1100x20 NDTs.
This truck would have looked awe inspiring on super singles.

And, MotorTMan, you are indeed correct! I remember the filter thingy hanging on the passenger front corner of the engine, and, sure enough: http://www.dieselenginemotor.com/images/img_100_10.gif
The engine was indeed a MACK ENDT-623.

 

[schwenk industries]

Its kinda like myth busters, if the object they are trying to destroy or prove won't work under normal operating conditions, that is such as crashing through trees. Than they resort to things that are ridiculous such as a complete dousing of fire or packing with explosives. Such as that concreat truck they blew up stuffed the whole back with explosives. Which caused it to blow into a million pieces engine over here frame over there...i think it is all quite dumb.