Tucson to Ft Bliss to OKC to Ft Riley to St Louis, and back.

[98G]

So, it was so much fun the first time I thought I'd do it again. The plan this time was fly to OKC and have Lindsey97 pick me up and then we'd go pick up a truck or two out of Ft Riley.

It didn't turn out quite that way. Instead of flying, I managed to sell my M105A2 to a fellow SS member in NM. The M105 was the one I had cherry picked to go with the M35A2C, but the truck sold and I was left with the trailer. As new, pristine, and nearly perfect. It also couldn't have found a home at a better time. So I towed the M105 to Roswell and handed it off.

 

[98G]

The drive out was delayed by some kind of hostage situation shutting down I 10. Dead stop for over 3 hours. Instead of arriving in OKC around 5pm, I got there at 0100 Friday morning. I had three 14.00R20s in the bed of redtruck. 2 were returning the tires Lindsey had given me for my flats on the last trip, and the 3rd was a bonus because I knew he needed a spare AT2. We got them unloaded in a short time, and then left for Ft Riley. I was running on 3 hours sleep from the night before so Lindsey drove, and his buddy slept in the back seat and I tried to sleep in the passenger seat.

We arrived at Ft Riley at about 0715 and got our passes. By 0830 we were at the GP lot.

Did I mention that our truck buying was successful beyond any reasonable expectations? We had cherry picked a "dead" M923 for Lindsey, and had presold the G177s off it to help finance the bidding. I had offered recovery services at rates way below unreasonably cheap to everyone I could think of....and had a buddy take me up on it and buy a truck out of Ft Riley. I lucked out and sold a couple of engine blocks and some chains and even some hmmwv stuff, all unexpectedly . So I had scraped the funds together to be able to chase a "dead" M925 I'd been eying up. So we had three M939 series trucks and a M1101 trailer to retreive.

As expected, the "dead" tan M923 was an easy fix - the master switch was installed 180 degrees off, so "off" was "on" and vice versa. A new set of batteries and it fired up.

The "dead" M925 that I had been stalking exceeded expectations in all respects. The truck is pretty much as new. It has the LWS cab reinforcement that wasn't shown in the pics, and rebuild tags from Kansas Readiness. It also had a broken fuel line at the primer pump. It would fire up on ether, but not run. So the M925 went on towbars behind the one M923 that was a known runner from the auction.

After some brief conversation with MWMules and some minor GP glitches, off we went to the nearest hotel, as we were all too tired to contemplate a 400 mile drive, and we wanted to do a more thorough PMCS before driving any distance.

 

[98G]

On the way to the hotel I was leading while driving the M923 with M925 on towbars like a persistent tailgater. Lindsey97 was behind me in the tan M923 and his buddy followed in redtruck with M1101. I was going from memory as to route.

I screwed it up and we ended up about 10 miles off course. To make matters worse, I ran out of fuel. I'm dead in the middle of the road at the bottom of a hill. Personally, I'd have just stayed put and sent redtruck for fuel. Lindsey had other ideas, and bluntly, his ideas were better.

He went around me in the tan truck, jumped out and grabbed one of those ungodly heavy chains I've been selling. I grabbed a shackle and we hooked the chain between the left bumperette on the tan truck and the front shackle mount of the M923. Lindsey97 proceeded to tow the M923 towbarred with the M925 up and down several steep hills for a couple of miles to a safe place to pull off. Every time I had to hit the brakes I was looking uncomfortably at the air pressure indicator. Lindsey97's tan truck really proved itself on that one, pulling 45,000lbs plus itself uphill without problems.

Redtruck came back with fuel, and we dumped 10 gallons in the tank and got it restarted without problems.

We made it to the hotel next to the truckstop and planned PMCS and departure for the next morning.

 

[CUCVLOVER]

Good luck buddy.
It sounds like this is just any other day at work for you.

 

[98G]

A more detailed PMCS the next morning revealed a leak in the radiator of the towing M923. It leaks about a gallon every 200 miles.

An all day drive has us to Lindsey's in OK. We pulled the G177s off his tan truck and mounted my 16R20's in their place (I knew they'd find a good home).

It was 2300 by the time we got done, so I gave up any hope of getting out of there early the next day.

 

[98G]

Loaded the g177s the following day, and loaded some other stuff for some other SS members to transport back towards Tucson.

Changed a flat on the M925, using the inner dual to lift the truck.

 

[98G]

Redtruck and the M1101 are staying in OK until I can get back there to get them.

I left Lindsey's towing the M925 with the M923, destination Socorro NM to drop the G177s. I stop every 150 miles or so and top off the fuel and the coolant. I went about halfway and slept.

The following day I made it to rgs20inophir 's and delivered the G177s. He's something of a chef, and greeted me with some kind of grilled chicken and walnut salad, and sent me on my way the next day well fed with bacon and eggs.

I made it home last night. Today I unhooked the trucks and did a few things around the house.

The M923 gets delivered a couple of hrs away on Saturday. The M925 is an exceptional truck and will be a keeper. I'm thinking I'll even leave it on the g177s.