Recovery: M720 Dolly Set 3 Ton

[M1key]

Well, Tuesday we set off to nearby Ft McCoy (Sparta, WI) to recover the M720 dolly set (in the rain).

The whole trip was very good and pretty much uneventful, which is OK. The GL employee was hesitant to try to lift it with the silly short forks on their end-loader. We took some load rated lift slings that we had brought along, and rapped them around the center part of the frame on both sides. He then proceeded to lift the dolly via the slings and position it over the fenders on our trailer as seen below. The trailer has a 7' wide deck, 6' long fenders, so it fit just barely.

The dolly is in really nice shape, brand new tires and carc paint. Only thing missing is the electrical cable to connect the front to the back (brake light cable). So if anyone has a lead on that cable and a hard copy manual that would be appreciated (edit: found cable at Iola, and maddawg had the manual)

Hopes this might help someone else trying to recover a similar dolly.

 

[NEIOWA]

So what do you have planned for her?

 

[Hammer]

Good to see those pictures.
I just won a few, and was hoping they weren't too wide to load sideways like that.

 

[M1key]

So what do you have planned for her?

Well, we've been camping in our truck/shelter combo, but would like to free it up so we can just go for a ride or whatever. I would like to try to tow the shelter connected to the dolly, while camping with it.... but we'll see how it goes.

 

[NEIOWA]

Big hurdle is to find a shelter with brackets for the dolly. Most shelters don't have the brackets installed. I've been trying for a couple years with no luck to find the NSN for the bracket kit so I can try to buy some.

 

[M1key]

After doing some research on the site I found that my shelter has the lower brackets in place.
The lower ones would be the most important and hardest to duplicate.
Upper ones were never installed. I plan to fabricate/duplicate them using pictures.

 

[M1key]

Had the truck out this weekend camping and noticed a part number cast or forged into the lower brackets. I come up with this NSN#5340-01-136-4979
BRACKET,ANGLE 11588321

Hope this helps,
Mike

Big hurdle is to find a shelter with brackets for the dolly. Most shelters don't have the brackets installed. I've been trying for a couple years with no luck to find the NSN for the bracket kit so I can try to buy some.

 

[NEIOWA]

More than I've ever been able to find. Thanks

 

[SCSG-G4]

Something that is true with all the dolly sets - they are the dickens to back. Never go anywhere that you can't turn around by going forward without any backing involved. Building four box beams, two under and one on each side of the shelter might be a way around not having the brackets. Even better, permanently mount them on the dolly set and carefully drop the shelter in place. Only problem I see with the 720 set is that it's max weight is 6000 pounds and the empty S-280 is most of that. Does not leave a lot of furnishings by weight.