Why don't the brake drums have jacking bolts?

[cattlerepairman]

To answer the title question, it is this way likely to get troops to service the truck. Unlike road tractors, these are not oil bath bearings. As such, if it's time for the drums to come off, it's likely time to inspect and pack the bearings.

Good thought, actually. The aircooled VW flat fours have a serviceable oil strainer. The old engines had an oil drain plug in the center of the lid that holds that strainer in. Guess what people did! They took the drain plug out, drained the oil, put the plug back in and re-filled the oil without ever taking the lid off and cleaning the strainer. So, VW omitted the drain plug. Now you had to remove the eight 10mm nuts that hold the lid on, loosen the lid, slobber oil all over you and, since the lid was already partially off, you were now motivated to take it off completely and wash the strainer.

The downside is, that this sort of complicated reasoning seems to be too, ummm, brainy for a military application

 

[saddamsnightmare]

April 5th, 2015.

The Unimog S404's use bolts to bring the brake drums off the hubs, but the machining tolerances are so tight that without the bolts your mechanic is generally screwed. Most military trucks are designed to take tremendous abuse, but they are also designed for timely preventative maintenance. The Ordnance Corps engineers probably knew more about heavy duty truck design then ever did the Ford or GM engineers of the day, particularly when applied to off road trucks. Most of our 1960's White Construcktor dump-trucks were not too many years advanced in design over the M35 series, but they ran until they literally rusted apart in heavy off road service.
I have seen too many M series that did not get the correct PM, and the results over time were rather unfortunate. If it says do it at "X" miles or "X" Hours, you will benefit from following the manuals instructions!

 

[DavidWymore]

I posted in my thread, but figured maybe I should show it here too. The jacking bolt (there are two) is the shiny little yellow colored bolt. More work to remove and replace the drum, but much easier on the back, and easier to take the hub on and off the spindle without dragging anything.

 

[DavidWymore]

Also, the wheel bearings can be adjusted with better feel, without the possibility of the drum dragging on the shoes.

 

[rustystud]

Also, the wheel bearings can be adjusted with better feel, without the possibility of the drum dragging on the shoes.

That is a very good point David.