M1009 into a nice daily driver.

[84cucv1ton]

guess the lock up is it then. not sure.

 

[CARNAC]

I kept mine pretty much stock. I added tan seat covers from cabellas but that was more to protect the seat from me than me from the seat.

Suggest adding a dome light or in my case it was a pilots light with red/white filter. Using lights from an aromored vehicle, add fog lights. Add a cigarette lighter more so for recharging the cell phone. Add insulation under the hood. It was surprising how much quieter that made it. Line-x the interior. Improve the undercoating.

 

[84cucv1ton]

Improve the undercoating? just get a better one sprayed on?

 

[AllenEM]

electric back window, a/c, line-x (or similar) inside, tilt wheel.

 

[SETOYOTA]

One thing I did with mine was replace the steering wheel with one from a early 90's chevy. Made a big difference in comfort to me.

 

[84cucv1ton]

thanks for the ideas. this is all done now. he has a 95 s 10 to drive now. we put the 6" lift in and we got the 14b in today. more this weekend

 

[84cucv1ton]

got the front springs in, hangers moved up. new shackles. 60 is in. 2wd box is in. got the one arm on the 60. cant get the other one off yet. beating this thing. my arms are tired. still no luck. any ideas?

 

[colomil]

If you are trying to get a pitman arm to loosen it's death grip on the steering box output shaft, try the torch. Last time I had the same problem so I heated up the arm and used a air-chisel with a pickle fork attachement. It came right off.

 

[84cucv1ton]

ok will go get a air chisel first thanks

 

[Westech]

what I do to make my 09 a daily driver is put fuel in the tank and check the oil. Im stuck in 5 tons and hmmwv all day so really a CUCV is not all that bad.

 

[shamilton333]

if youre using a m1009 as a daily driver and are transporting your wife and kids as well, maybe looking into installing air bags wouldnt be a bad idea?

 

[Westech]

are you for real on the Air bags? I don't even know how much money that would cost or even if it could be done. All the sensors and the CU's to drive that system..... I would say no and that one ghost rider.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Kinda confused by that one as well.

 

[shamilton333]

yeah you're right. though it would be good to have protection especially for your passengers, its just not lucrative, especially since they werent built with any of the sensor systems as you stated. nevermind on that one, better off just getting a different car.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

yeah you're right. though it would be good to have protection especially for your passengers, its just not lucrative, especially since they werent built with any of the sensor systems as you stated. nevermind on that one, better off just getting a different car.

Huh? You're in a big steel box built the way the Big 3 only claim to make vehicles now-a-days. Only danger you and your family would face was collisions with larger vehicles and that just can't be eliminated. At 5000lbs of classicly made SUV you're better off than most in their fully "safe" vehicles.

 

[shamilton333]

sorry if i was unclear, i meant that although it would be good to have the added protection of airbags in the vehicle, it would be much to costly to install them, and that if you wanted them then it would be a better idea to just purchase a different vehicle.

 

[84cucv1ton]

its not a daily drive now. he has a s-10. this is going to to be a bit of a off road truck

 

[shamilton333]

oh. im thinking about a '94 k1500 blazer, with the 6.5 turbo diesel

 

[willey10]

My M1009 is stock I drive to work every day, no floor mats it's nice, no radio or accessories, I did dress it up I took a ammo can put it between the seats with a pad(part of a M151 seat cushion) for an arm rest and storage. and in the winter she gets the winter front put on . Keep it simple keep it fun .

 

[colomil]

The first thing I would do for better safety is add a rollbar/rollcage. Next I would add shoulder belts for the back seat (now that there is a cage to mount them to). If there was any steel tubing left over after the rollcage build, I would build a prerunner-style brushguard. This would act to deflect the M1009 up & over another vehicle rather than let it impact head on. You would be more likely to survive a tumble than center of mass head-on. If the M1009 hits another large SUV in a direct head-on, the brush guard would provide a little more crumple material (more distance to absorb impact=less g loads on the occupants).

As a firefighter, I have seen how smaller "safe" cars with airbags/ABS and all that were just not enough to save the occupants. It is simple physics. The small cars do not have enough distance between the driver and the front bumper to absorb the collision energy enough to yield survivable g loads. I have seen enough dead people sitting behind the wheel with an airbag popped out to convince me of this.

I would feel safer in a bone-stock M1009 than any brand new compact car with all the safety bells & whistles.