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M818 Recovery From the Fort To The Farm

atankersdad

In Memorial
In Memorial
1,878
15
0
Location
Glen Arm Maryland
My sons and I recovered a 5 ton tractor from Ft Meade 2 weeks ago that encountered issues on the way home. We arrived at Meade at 0800 and was greeted by Sarah and her crew. We were escorted to the upper lot and found the tractor. It was inhabited with wasps and they had to go. After that the boys did the pre-trip inspection, dumped in 10 more gallons of fuel in the passenger tank, threw on a tag and off we went. The truck is one of the nicer trucks that I have seen at Meade and ran like a Rolex. I drove the parts and tool vehicle while Sean and Matt drove the tractor. Well we stopped and topped off the tank and around the Baltimore beltway we went. 15 miles from home Matt stated waying and we pulled over. The tractor had lost power and stopped. The cause: out of fuel. Well just the tank being pulled out of ran MT. Matt pulled the filter and primed it, we switched tanks and still is would not fire. I had always heard that these are a bear to get primed but we had to learn the hard way. It was now tow time. We rounded up a tow bar, another 5 ton and took the tractor to the farm acrosss the street. For several days afterwards I tried to prime the system per the TM and service manual. So on Saturday I set up a small diapram pump, used the deuce for ana air source and did the following.

1. Pulled filter, cleaned bowl and reinstalled.
2. Blew air from the filter inlet to each tank to verify the lines were clear, corrected marrked and that the selector swithch was not leaking.
3. Transferred all fuel to the drivers tank.
4. Broke the hose at the lift pump, and pulled a suction and fuel sysyem and primed it from the drivers tank.
5. Once I had a steady flow from the tank , thru the pump and back into the tank, I shut off the pump and reconnected the lift pump hose.
6. Hit swithch and it fired right up and again, ran like a Rolex again.

Sean put the truck immediately to work moving hay on the farm. Someday I may get to drive this again, but for now its a farm truck.
 

Attachments

grounded

Banned
928
0
0
Location
defiance oh
do you guys have the electrical working on that civy trailer? if so what did you guys do for the wiring adapter to fit the plug, and the 24v-12v change to it also?
 

atankersdad

In Memorial
In Memorial
1,878
15
0
Location
Glen Arm Maryland
Craig, we are not running the lights since we are just moving this from the fields to the barns. When we hit the road we have another truck behind us, use hand signals,its daytime and only a several mile run on farm roads. This is a great tractor that pulls this with ease and is great for pulling loads out of the fields. It came with 10 brand new tires. I could not be more pleased.
 

rat4spd

New member
652
10
0
Location
Evansdale, Iowa
My guess is it weighs a hell of a lot.My father in law used to get hay from a guy that had a converted F250 dually extended cab that pulled a 40' trailer with 300 small bales. That's a lot of weight, what prolly 20K plus trailer? That trailer sure looks a might bit bigger, maybe 40K?
 
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