M353 MICLIC Trailer vismod build (rocket launcher)

[Steinmeister]

NDT, that would have definitely made the Texas Report on the nightly news...."Explosion on the 610 loop...overpass destroyed"....glad it didn't!

 

[fuzzytoaster]

I can load with a crane.

 

[lindsey97]

If someone can get it from fuzzy's place to my place @73098, then I will haul it to mwmules.

 

[M813rc]

Dave, if you are not in a big hurry, my son and I are going to go to Indiana to pick up a military trailer in two or three months. We'll be hauling an empty trailer on the trip up.
Looks like going via KC would only add about 100 miles to the trip, from the original route I had planned.

Because of routes, dropping it by Lindsey's place would only save about 12 miles, so I might as well bring it all the way, save offload/reload.

If that will work for you, Fuzzy is about 96 miles from me (in the wrong direction to stop by on the way out, unfortunately), so maybe someone can bring the box here to me, or I can slide down his way one day.

Cheers

 

[MWMULES]

I am in no hurry and either way would be great guys. If we can find someone to move it to Lidsley's AO that would be great or Rory I can drive the 100 miles to meet you on your way up as it sounds like you are going on I-44, and Joplin is straight south of me.

 

[M813rc]

Dave, I was originally planning to go up through Memphis, and that route, but coming up via you really only adds 100 miles to the trip. Rather than have an extra unload/load "somewhere in Joplin", I can bring it on up to you. I've done I-44 in the past, don't need to see it again. Haven't seen the more northerly route.

Anyone out there in SS-land coming from Houston area to Austin area who could haul the box up from Fuzzy in College Station and meet me somewhere?
Anyone? (Tap, tap, tap. "is this thing working?" Tap tap)

Cheers

 

[M813rc]

Anyone out there in SS-land coming from Houston area to Austin area who could haul the box up from Fuzzy in College Station and meet me somewhere?
Anyone? (Tap, tap, tap. "is this thing working?" Tap tap)

Anyone? (He says hopefully).

Cheers

 

[m715mike]

I hope this is making progress. Should everything else fail to come to fruition, I have a couple of "if's" to add to the equation.

I hope to attend the KAMO rally this year. IF I make it to the rally and IF your box is still at fuzzy's, I'll see about bringing it to the rally for you.

 

[M813rc]

Thanks Mike. If need be, I'll go pick it up myself, I'm just trying to avoid that extra 200 mile round trip.

In the interesting way the SS network functions, I will now be picking up some bulky stuff from Mwmules place, dropped off there for me by another SS member. Funny how this stuff works out.

Cheers

 

[Barrman]

Rory, I am almost exactly between Fuzzy and you. Colton and I are actually coming to Cedar Park tonight to look at a heavy duty sewing machine he found online. I forgot all about this thread. Sorry I can't help at this time. The next time I go to B/CS I will check this thread and see if it has moved. Then at least it will be that much closer to you.

 

[M813rc]

Thanks Tim.

Cheers

 

[M813rc]

Okay, looks like no takers, and my trip north is imminent, so.....

I've talked to Fuzzy, I'll head over and pick the box up Monday.

Cheers

 

[M813rc]

My son and I picked the box up yesterday from Fuzzy. Wreckers sure make things easy!

We ended up driving straight through, so we are now safely outside MW's place having a snooze and waiting for him to check his messages.

Cheers

 

[m715mike]

I'm glad everything went smoothly!

 

[MWMULES]

Well besides the fact that we both thought we had each others phone #'s, which we didn't it ended up being a smooth transfer. M813rc and son are back on the road headed for Indy which will take up the rest of the day. He is now has his van window parts from ZiggyO. The MICLIC box is on my trailer and will be on the way to the blaster later this week.

I can't say enough good things about Rory M813rc , this was not just a little jag off the road to get the box to me but a major detour of at least 160 Miles if not more !! I have a lot of closer friends that I have known most of my life that would not have done it, but have several casual friends that I see maybe once or twice a year at rally's or shows on this site that will go the extra mile and bend over backwards to help another. Just another reason I am glad I found this site years ago.

 

[MWMULES]

MIKLIC fun fact!

Here is a little fun fact, I went down to get some close up pictures of markings before it gets blasted. Everything is solid steel except for the lid which is angle iron screwed onto a sheet 3/4" plywood which is then covered with a sheet of laminate which will not be getting blasted


​

 

[M813rc]

Dave, you are a nice guy and treated me right from the first time I met you, glad I could help you out on this. And I've had people do a lot of good things for me over the years, so...

We showed up about four hours earlier than I had thought we would. No problem, I figured we'd give Dave time to get his breakfast, then give him a call. If I can find where I put his phone number.......
No number, resort to method 2 - a PM on SS.
We snoozed a bit, then a fella came by and asked if we were okay, we told him we were waiting on someone. We chatted a few minutes, then he said they had a collection of old restored cars a couple of blocks away and were about to hold a meeting, would we like to stop by?
This either meant there was a collection of old restored cars nearby, or we were being lured into a dark building to become the contents of Farmer Vincent's Fritters. Turned out there were old cars, lots of them, and beautifully restored. That's where Dave found us.

In due course, MICLIC was on Dave's trailer, and my M185 windows from Ziggy were in the truck, we headed off to Indiana to pick up the Humvee 5th wheel trailer.

That is where these words came back to haunt me-

Wreckers sure make things easy!

I'll give the short version-
When I bought the trailer, the seller said he had a tractor we could load it with. Great! We make the trip planning to load with a tractor.
When we get there, I don't see a tractor. "Oh, I sold the tractor".
Then the trailer is somewhat over 4" wider than what I had been told, which made it 3" too wide to go on the trailer we brought.
Not a huge problem, take the wheels off, then it will fit, sitting on the brake drums.
Except now the bodywork is too low, it won't go between the frame rails. Unless we put it up on some blocks.
So off to the lumberyard, which is only 25 miles away....
Have you priced 2"x8" boards?? After doing so, I realized we were not going to be buying enough to roll the Humvee trailer on uninterrupted rails. We ended up buying five 8' boards, and having them cut down to 2' sections, which was enough to make four blocks of five layers, all screwed together.
Back at the sellers place, we began using the large tie-down straps as mini-winches to drag the Humvee trailer, inch by inch, up the ramps and onto our trailer, from one block onto another. The Egyptians would have been proud of us.
The seller, who is watching, announces "This would have been easy if I'd brought my wrecker over!".
"You have a wrecker?!?!?".
"Yes, a 5-ton, M936. It's great, I can lift up all kind of heavy things...blah blah blah.."
"And you're going to go get it, right?"
"No, I'm going inside now. Try not to make too much noise". Last we saw of him.
So, a loadout that could have taken 30-45 minutes took us over 6 hours. But we did it, and as my son said "Just like a Marine Corps team building exercise!"

I truly remain mystified by some people, though. If you promised to load with a tractor, but sold it, and had a wrecker instead, would it not seem reasonable, knowing you had folks coming to pick a trailer up in a few days, to bring the wrecker over?? I am thankful that kind of behaviour is not the norm for the folks on this site.

From there we went to North Carolina and welcomed my younger Marine son home from his deployment. That went well, he didn't know anyone was coming, so a pleasant surprise for him.

All told, in eight days we covered exactly 3750 miles (according to the GPS), drove for 65hrs 56min, and went through 15 states of our beautiful nation. Spent some great time with my sons, met up with some great folks and one twerp.

Cheers

 

[gimpyrobb]

I remember that trailer...








wow.

 

[DanM7890]

Cool looking trailer!

 

[mkcoen]

Rory, nice trailer and what a 5th point of contact that guy was. Hopefully my trailer recovery will go a bit smoother on Thursday.