Pirate 4x4 banner

mah deuce

1M views 1K replies 260 participants last post by  jesusgatos 
#1 · (Edited)
introduction

In December of 2008 I decided to pack it all in and hit the road. Load up my dogs and my bikes and go wander through what's left of the wild west, keeping an eye out for places where I might eventually like to buy some land and build a place to live. Had been living up in Bend, OR for the last 4-5yrs and spent a lot of time exploring different parts of the Pacific NorthWest (mostly on dirtbikes). Been all over the west coast wheeling and camping in different vehicles that I've built over the years. But my wanderlust goes back much further, to the days I spent playing in the wilderness as a kid, looking forward to a time when I'd be able to set out on bigger adventures. When I was about 19yrs old I started making plans to build a custom motorhome out of an old schoolbus. Was going to haul my bikes and my Jeep around in the back of it. Had it in my head that I was going to spend my life traveling around the country/world writing about my adventures, and would do this all under the Trails Less Traveled banner. Was almost exactly 10yrs later that I found myself in a position to follow-through on what it felt like I'd been planning all my life.

The decision to build a deuce and a half was a simple process of elimination. Did a ton of research on different vehicles and didn't find anything else that was comparable and I could, 1) afford, and, 2) get in the US. After finding out that I could buy a deuce for a fraction of what a decent 1-ton pickup truck would cost me, it was a done deal. After learning all about the different variations of these vehicles, I settled on an M109, which is just a basic deuce and a half (M35A2) with an insulated 12ft box on the back of it (instead of the regular cargo bed). Ended up finding one for sale, listed right here in the Pirate classifieds section. Drove down to Lake Shasta from Bend and bought mah deuce for $3500 from Ed (Hammer). You can buy trucks straight from military surplus for a lot less, but couldn't afford the uncertainty that goes along with buying surplus.

There's nothing particularly unusual about traveling/living in a motorhome, but the imposing nature of mah deuce tends to give people the wrong idea. A lot of people see a military vehicle and assume that I must be preparing for the apocalypse, and a surprising number of people try to relate to me like that nutjob in the military surplus store in the movie Falling Down. They want to tell me all about their bunkers and their stockpile of weapons and food and whatever. Like we're brothers in arms or something. Creeps me out. But this is just a motorhome, much like any other motorhome, except that I want to be able to travel and live unsupported for extended periods of time, in some pretty remote places.


This is what it looked like when I picked it up.





 
See less See more
3
#94 ·
kitchen sink & countertops

The other project I knocked out that week I spent at Duane's house was to fit the countertops and install the kitchen sink. Went with PaperStone countertops. Eco-friendly blahblahblah. I really just liked the way it looks and it's supposed to be super-durable. We found PaperStone to be REALLY difficult to work with. It's crazy-dense, and caused the jigsaw blades to overheat and dull pretty quickly. Not complaining because that's precisely what makes it so nice once it's installed.

Most of the countertops were cut by the guys at Davis Cabinets on their large tablesaws, but we had to hand-cut the sink cutout. The template they made ensured clean cuts though, which was important because I wanted to use an undermount sink. Only catch was that I didn't have an undermount sink. I had a regular sink that I'd bought cheap off craigslist (brand new, left over from a remodel). Was determined to make that work because and there was no way that I was going to spend $500+ on a stainless steel undermount sink. Attempted to modify the sink to be installed as an undermount, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that it wasn't working. Didn't stop until I ruined the sink and the countertop. Had to purchase a second sink and install it as an overmount in order to salvage the countertop. Should have just spent the money to do it right the first time. Would have saved money and gotten exactly what I wanted.








 
#95 ·
inverter

I'll go ahead share one more embarrassing goof-up with you guys tonight. So stupid it's funny. Bought a 3000 watt Xantrex Prosine 3.0 pure sine-wave inverter. Came with some mounting brackets that I needed to modify in order to mount the inverter in the electrical cabinet. Cleaned the paint off the ends where I wanted to weld-on some little mounting brackets that I made. Geez, what's wrong? Did I forget to turn on the gas? Nope. Holy shit, these mounting brackets are ALUMINUM. Yup. I tried to weld steel to aluminum. Didn't work so well. The second set of mounting brackets turned out much better.









 
#100 · (Edited)
Thanks, and yes. The RedDot heat/AC unit can be ducted to direct air forward into the cab and I'm planning on mounting some low-back Baja-type suspension seats on top of the factory 'springer' seat bases. Going to replace the stock springs and shocks with mountain-bike shocks though. Lots of other creature-comforts planned: things like having a water faucet built into the cupholders in the center console and that sort of thing. Was intending to cut a big hole for a pass-through between the cab and the box, but then I found that brand new cab and I just can't bring myself to cut it up. So I'm going to live without a pass-through for a while and see how that goes. Can always add it later.

 
#105 ·
axles/brakes

Had to flip the hubs on the rear axles in order to mount my new wheels and tires, and decided that would be a good time to service all the hubs and brakes. One of the wheel seals had failed and made a bit of a mess. Spent a LOT of time cleaning-up the axles/hubs/brakes with brake cleaner, wire brushes and a wire wheel on a 4.5" angle grinder. Was the first time I used the service manuals and I found them to be very easy to follow. They spell out every little detail, to the point where it's almost funny. But I guess that says something about who they expected to be servicing these vehicles...



















 
#106 ·
axles/brakes

What a mess. The front axle was covered in grime, but I've been really lucky - haven't had to deal with a single rusted/seized bolt or anything like that. Seems like this truck was really well-maintained. Think it has a lot to do with the fact that there is anti-seize on just about every piece of hardware on this truck. Has got me in the habit of using it more religiously myself.

The bearings in both of the rear axles were in great shape, but the bearing races on the front axle had these weird chatter-marks. Posted some pics on steelsoldiers and then installed new wheel bearings and brake pads. That purple grease is Amsoil synthetic grease. Also replaced all the wheel cylinders with new parts while I was in there. Installed a set of those silicone boots. Hope they hold-up better than the zipper-boots. Planning on installing some sort of boot-guards.



















 
#109 ·
hubsteps

The hubsteps work on the front and rear axles (stock axles/driveflanges) Pointless on Mah Deuce, but I think they might be useful on a cargo truck or a tractor.

Figured out how to make a few improvements while I was making my new wheels.

1) The way my original hubsteps were designed, the wheels were kind of hard to slide over the hubsteps and onto the hubs.

2) The original hubsteps didn't stick out any further than the front driveflanges, which kept everything nice and tight, but the steps were a little too small to be very useful.

3) The teeth on the original hubsteps were not very sharp, and I found my feet slipping off them occasionally.

So I redesigned them. The single biggest and most improvement is that the new hubsteps should make the wheels a LOT easier to put on and take off. Should be an easy one-man job now. You just slide the wheel over the hubstep and then slide the wheels up the spokes, right onto the hubs. I also added a 1/8" tall lip to stop the wheels from falling off the hub when one person is trying to wrestle a wheel/tire on/off. I also made the new hubsteps a 1/2" wider, so there's a larger platform to stand on. And you can see, the teeth are also a lot sharper on the new version.








So here's how they went together:

Start by fitting each of the spokes into the slots in the inner step-ring




Then position the inner step ring and all the spokes on top of the bolt ring (the steps are keyed to the bolt-ring)


Then set the outer step ring down top of all the spokes (the steps are keyed to the outer step-ring)


Weld it up




Grind it down
 
#110 ·
hubsteps

Here's a picture of a new-style hubstep next to the old-style hubstep. Note that the new hubstep sticks out just a little bit further, and the spokes make nice ramps to help slide the wheels up onto the hubs.

 
#116 ·
amsoil

After finishing up the axles and brakes, figured I to complete the Lube Order before I put that 35lb bucket of Amsoil grease away. Then took one look at the all the zerk fittings under mah deuce and decided it would have to wait a few days (while I looked into getting a pneumatic greasegun). Ended up ordering a Lincoln Model 1162 and it rocks! Little bit messy to fill, but couldn't figure out any way around that. Made greasing all the zerks on this vehicle a breeze. Just hold the trigger down and it's full-auto, but it does have a variable-speed trigger so it's not just on/off.

Recruited one of my not-so-mechanically-inclined friends to help me with this maintenance, and that's when I started to appreciate the way the military service manuals are written. Printed out the section from the manual that he needed, loaded-up the greasegun, and turned him loose. He completed the whole job without having to ask me a single question, and I don't know if this guy has ever even changed a flat tire. Whole point is, these vehicles are NOT difficult to work on, and the manuals are almost idiot-proof.



















 
#117 ·
amsoil & Spinner II

Went through the rest of the rig and replaced all the fluids with Amsoil products. The plan is to take regular oil samples, but to see just how long I can go between oil changes without blowing-up my brand new 5-ton multifuel engine. Hoping this Spinner II Model 960 centrifuge lives up to expectations. CLick here to see how it works. They make some really bold claims about reducing engine wear and extending the time between oil changes, but unlike so many things, this actually makes a lot of sense. Centrifuges have been proven to be very effective in all sorts of different applications and I like that there are no consumable oil filter elements to change/replace. Just clean out the bowl and put it back together.

Know more or less where and how I'm going to mount this centrifuge, but have not made the mount yet because there are several other accessories that I'm going to need to mount in the same area, so it doesn't make much sense to install anything until I can install everything.









 
#119 ·
transfer-case

Drained the transmission and refilled that. Last thing left to do was put new fluid in the transfer-case. Figures that this is where I would run into problems. This is what I saw. Actually heard it first, draining fluid and thunk! thunk! thunk! chunks of metal falling into the drain-pan. There was a lot of it, and it didn't look good. Funny thing is, it never missed a beat. I didn't even know anything was wrong with it. Truck ran great. But it was a sprag-operated transfer-case, which isn't as desirable as the air-shifted transfer-cases they put in the newer deuces. So I was planning on upgrading eventually anyway. No big deal that I ended up having to do it sooner than later.

Posted-up on steelsoldiers.com that I was looking for an air-shift transfer-case and located one almost right away. I was all the way up in Portland, but the price was reasonable and it included one of the hard-to-find transfer-case PTO units.

Swapping transfer-cases was pretty straightforward. Parts are a lot bigger and heavier than what I was used to working on, but no more difficult. Sandblasted and painted the new transfer-case, installed new seals, and got it reinstalled without much trouble (except for the rain).









 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top