• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

What have you done to your 5 ton this week?

fuzzytoaster

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
4,299
3,132
113
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
Another old gal' finished ready to rejoin the workforce. It's not too often one gets ahold of an extra long wheelbase truck so comparing it, M1085A1, M1086, and M1089A1 to everything it really makes you go "huh, I guess some of these other trucks really are short wheelbases".
 

Attachments

Ajax MD

Well-known member
1,569
1,414
113
Location
Mayo, MD
Gave this one a facelift over the past few days: steam clean, grind, OSPHO treatment, rinse, paint Behr 383 Green. I'll finish the brown and black after it cures sometime next week as we have bad weather this coming week.
Did you see that someone paid $27,9k for a 923 at the Barret-Jackson auction recently? The truck you're painting is in similar good condition. Maybe you should take advantage of some wealthy person's stupidity and put that truck on the auction block! ;)
 

M813rc

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
4,218
3,255
113
Location
Near Austin, Texas
If you had a CH-53 or something you could take your truck with you...
Kendelrio, IF you get a CH-53 to haul your truck, make sure you pull the circuit breaker for the sling hooks after loading! If you don't, the electrical gremlin that runs around those birds might just go down there and pop your hooks open and drop your load unintentionally. You do NOT want to be part of a crew that, say for instance, dropped an M35 from a CH-53D over Camp Pendleton many many moons ago (and no, I do NOT want to explain how I know this. :) )

Maybe you could get an Echo though, I don't doubt that they fixed that problem in the CH-53E. And you can pick up even heavier stuff.

Cheers
 

DeMilitarized

Well-known member
372
977
93
Location
Gainesville, GA
I would be driving back to Utah so that is perfect! Can you send me a few more pics of the M923A2 when you have time? SIMP feels I should be buying one of the 5 tons with the removable hump in the floor of the cab to make a Big cam 400 swap with a manual trans a bit of an easier ordeal. I could care less of needing to hack and then fab a floor kit that fits whats left but he seems very knowledgeable and I think I should be paying attention and giving his advice great consideration. I did find a pic of someone who apparently had done what I was considering a couple of weeks ago who had swapped the drive train of an MTVR onto a M923?? or the cab of a M923 onto an MTVR since it looks like it has an MTVR bed on it too... Not sure. But if I am not going to go hog wild on modding a rig that M923A2 you have there is looking like my favorite choice and would be set to be a good rig for many years. BTW Thanks for the quick reply. I already showed my wife your pic and she said it is a long drive. LOL If I was able to buy either rig and choosing to ship the 814 what price to buy and what price do you see me paying for the shipping way up to UT? Thanks again. I am off to bed and am going to have a long work day tomorrow so will not see what you have back until 10 or so my time. Peace out!
View attachment 852929

That truck is a prototype MTVR. The Military made 5 prototypes and auctioned them off.
 

fuzzytoaster

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
4,299
3,132
113
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
Did you see that someone paid $27,9k for a 923 at the Barret-Jackson auction recently? The truck you're painting is in similar good condition. Maybe you should take advantage of some wealthy person's stupidity and put that truck on the auction block! ;)
I did see it and that was stupid of who ever bought it but that's just my opinion. If they want to pay that for this truck then fine by me.
 

Ajax MD

Well-known member
1,569
1,414
113
Location
Mayo, MD
I've sorted through all of my tires and finally have mounted a complete set with decent tread on the truck plus 3 spares with full tread.
I just stuck with the ordinary NDT's of stock size.

I installed a 24v - 12v converter to power small loads like a radio or cell phone charger. In the M809 series trucks, there are two available plugs under the dash that can be used for this:
  • #40 (male) ties to the dash lights. Dash lights must be on BRIGHT for full voltage to flow.
  • #27 (female) "Live" whenever the battery switch is powered on. (not tied to dash lights)
  • Be sure to fuse the wire supplying the converter for safety.
I topped off the coolant and inspected the engine bay. I plan on borrowing a duals jack so that I can service the intermediate and rear axles.
 

Micmada

Active member
159
211
43
Location
Florida
I got 4 goodyear M/VT 395/85R20 at auction and 3 former CTIS rims with M/VTs on them. Ordered a few rims from Feliz but they were the 10 bolters , not the 20 bolters like the CTIS ones.

I installed the best 3 goodyears on the felz rims with beadlock, some borrowed from Sandtrail (which causes a few issue with inflating the tire but I overcame it). I test drove the rig for about 30 miles plus 6 miles in mud trails and was surprised how smooth it was compared to the G117 duallies. I am thinking the duallies were not balanced as well perhaps but it never seemed a big issue except for rocking the truck butt and forth sometimes.

I did not even need to go in 6x6 mode. The thing with those tires went through deep mud better in 6x4 than with the duallies in 6x6 - where it seemed to struggle a bit sometimes in sand before. I was surprised.

I also attached one of two towbars I got at auction at the front end. Cost me only $250 to ship from Colorado to Indiana with whiteline freight. That was a pretty good deal.

Oh yeah, the big box in the back is a 5 ton fmtv Allison tranny I got at auction for about $350. I brought it from Pennsylvania down to Florida. I don't have a fmtv but I thought maybe there would be a way to make it a spare for a m923 provided I got the modules which however cost twice as much as what I paid for the whole tranny. If not I'll try and sell it.

I still would use duallies for my trips between Indiana and Florida, though. They did fine in the Blizzard up the hills in Maryland, WV, Virginia, Pennsylvania etc. What a hoot. I had time so I pulled a couple people out of the snow in January that got stuck in the wee hours of morning of 2 am, in the cold what not. Did not have the heart to accept money, it sucks being stuck in a snowbank in the middle of Appalachians with gas stations 25 miles away enough. However it would be a nice business to hang out during blizzards in a 5 ton at places where the governor has no salt for his roads. Indeed, Virginia was a total mess and once crossing to West Virginia, the roads were all slick. So much for making fun of West Virginians being backwards. These people were pros compared to their neighbors who looked the schizos part.
 

Attachments

Micmada

Active member
159
211
43
Location
Florida
Had one of those “neighbor kid gets stuck mudding about a couple miles away, and other neighbor gets stuck trying to get him out the second day” request for help from my neighbors. The 5 ton did pretty good getting them both out, although I started getting a little worried when the sticky stuff caked up my thread that the tires were pretty much smooth and started slipping.

The first neighbor’s car was dead, no lights either and so I had to drag him back night time. That was a bit stressful, looking at my phone to see how to get back on the map. It gets so dark in those cabs. I so happened to turn on an hair pin road and the chain attachment came loose and drove off for about a mile before I figured I had lost them.

Came back and they were laughing about how I was dragging their big SUV like it was a small hotwheel car. They gave me 50 bucks for it, a good deal compared to the hundreds a special tow truck would have cost them, even for a 2 miles tow job. Smh, mom was almost crying not knowing if he was going to miss work the next day. What can I say, mothers have the force of nature behind them for their kids and nest, and it almost is impossible to refuse. Maybe is why these dictatorships go communist and do not want them Russian women or what not have kids to feel to protect, sheesh.
 

US6x4

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
1,234
2,244
113
Location
Wenatchee, WA
Today Bailey and I removed the drivers side hub to check the torque on the spindle nuts. I figured it's easier to do it when the wheels are 140 lbs than it is when they're 525 lbs. These were much closer to spec than the passenger side was; only took about an 1/8 of a turn to click off 150 ft-lb

20220327_110002.jpg

20220327_111009.jpg

I also did some spring cleaning pics type stuff and checked most of the fluids. It's almost ready to drive again!
 
Last edited:

Mullaney

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
Supporting Vendor
7,716
19,766
113
Location
Charlotte NC
Today Bailey and I removed the drivers side hub to check the torque on the spindle nuts. I figured it's easier to do it when the wheels are 140 lbs than it is when they're 525 lbs.

View attachment 862879

View attachment 862880

I also did some spring cleaning pics type stuff and checked most of the fluids. It's almost ready to drive again!
.
Looks like your sidekick Bailey was enjoying the job. In the shade. Observing. Super(visor) Dog. :cool:
 

Mike929

Member
820
22
18
Location
DFW, Tx
Today Bailey and I removed the drivers side hub to check the torque on the spindle nuts. I figured it's easier to do it when the wheels are 140 lbs than it is when they're 525 lbs. These were much closer to spec than the passenger side was; only took about an 1/8 of a turn to click off 150 ft-lb

View attachment 862879

View attachment 862880

I also did some spring cleaning pics type stuff and checked most of the fluids. It's almost ready to drive again!
Can you tell me where you picked up the holder/ yellow hoist plate? I'm not getting any younger and i could see that saving future back pain. :)
 
Top