August 21st, 2009.
TigerHawk:
Old man, if you wanted performance, you bought the wrong truck. If you wanted speed, you bought the wrong truck. The deuce uses a conservatively designed long stroke heavy diesel engine....it will do almost anything but take abuse. The problem you are having is in the engine design, transmission and final gearing... This truck will climb any wall you want it to, but at its own designed speed.
When a multifuel comes apart from over speed, the results are rather dramatic and there are a few of us on here that wouldn't mind the video, as long as someone else is buying the engine.
I don't know if the M35A3's with the Cummins or the Caterpillers are any more forgiving....
Just leave early and count the pull can tabs at the side of the road going up.... consider it a benefit of the design and the era of the truck...
I had a 1951 Ford F6 dump truck, and it could do a 9% grade at about 22 MPH empty and about 12 MPH loaded, same reason.... it's all in the gears and the engine.... but that truck, like my 1971 M35A2 is still going, when many faster and newer trucks are not.
Cheers,
Kyle F. McGrogan
N.B. The deuces in the woods of West Virginia do a lot less then 12 MPH on 12% grades, and some of ours are four miles long, so just get used to the design, or sell the truck and get an 800 or 900 like the Army uses today. You'll get up the hill faster then 12mph, and your wallet won't be such a bother to carry around either, because you won't have much money in there to spend either....!