Light parade

[Truckoholic]

Any of you guys ever put your Military Vehicles in a light parade? Ha ha Every year our little community has a "Main street sparkle" the first part of December. They do the tree lighting at the court house, and have bands playing Christmas music, and Santa Clause for the kids, and most of the businesses on main street stay open way after normal business hours and offer free hot chocolate and things, and the whole community comes out and just has a great time.

And one of the things they do every year is have a light parade. It used to be strictly a "Truckers light parade", but they had such little participation, so they opened it up to everyone. I'd entered my logging trucks in the past. But this year I decided to put a couple of my military trucks in it. So I did my M813, and my 67 M35A2. I drove the M813, and my dad drove the M35. Our local college had a bunch of students that needed a place to ride in the parade too, so a bunch of them got in the back of my truck and had a good time.

We always do two loops around main street, and everything went fine on the first loop, but just before making the second loop the generator in the truck my dad was driving failed and all his Christmas lights went out. So he didn't make the second loop with us. But oh well. Got one trip out of it.

 

[eagle4g63]

That is pretty cool. Lots of lights!!

 

[M813A1]

Yes here in Edmond OK we join in the fun every years in the Parade of Lights !! It is a Fun time as all of the different parades we do are !! Great looking trucks..

 

[Cleptomaniac]

Looks good!

 

[DUG]

Pics from last night's parade. They really love that Kenworth air horn.

 

[phil2968]

This was not at night but we did have lights! This was the 2011 Clermont Florida Christmas Parade. I met our fellow Steelsoldiers member Herb, Steel Soldiers::Military Vehicles Supersite - View Profile: theoldman and his new Pinz there! He had his Pinz full of Boy Scouts.
http://youtu.be/Dg5fWI3QJy8
Maybe next year I'll tow the M105 as well.

 

[bmH1065]

Nice picture guys.

 

[maccus]

Just got back from our light parade. Not enough lights on the truck. So pics were not very good. The VFW folks did the light thing. Next year I guess I will talk them into many more lights. The kids seem to have fun however. I think they just like the candy part of the deal.

 

[SteveKuhn]

"... I did my M813, and my 67 M35A2..."

How did you attach the strings to get them to follow the fenders, running boards, etc.? Haven't found a little clamp yet that would attach w/out marring the paint.

 

[Truckoholic]

"... I did my M813, and my 67 M35A2..."

How did you attach the strings to get them to follow the fenders, running boards, etc.? Haven't found a little clamp yet that would attach w/out marring the paint.

Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I actually used tape. Clear packaging tape on the M813 since it has nice new paint and it would actually stick, but had to use masking tape on the M35 because the clear tape would not stick to the old paint. I don't like sticking tape all over my vehicles, and it is especially bad because since I go to all that work, I like to leave the lights on them til after Christmas and park them where everyone can see them, so by time Christmas is finally over, the tape is really good and stuck and leaves it's nasty residue all over the paint. There is no perfect way to do it, but the tape works decent.

Been driving me nuts though, I had litterally just gotten the heater installed in my M35 the day before the light parade, and I've been wanting to drive the thing more, but since it is all covered with lights parked in our meadow I haven't been able to drive it! So as soon as Christmas is over I'm looking forward to yanking all the lights off and getting to drive the thing again now with the brand new heater installed.

 

[big1096]

I didn't have any parades to join so my father and I made our own! We put a bunch of lights on and went riding around the neighborhoods. We got quite a few waves, cheers and blowing of horns!

Merry Christmas all!

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

I didn't have any parades to join so my father and I made our own! We put a bunch of lights on and went riding around the neighborhoods. We got quite a few waves, cheers and blowing of horns!

Merry Christmas all!

<applause>



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[Militoy]

I didn't have the time to join in our little local light parade this year - but here is a photo from a couple of years ago. I use a 24V inverter to run the lamps and stereo amplifier etc.