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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.





 
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#975 ·
I have the wiring diagrams which will be needed as we cant figure out how the damn thing is started with no starter. best guess is via the alternator or the hydro pump?
 
#978 ·
the M-88 has a V-12, if I recall, not a turbine like the M1 Abrams. so my guess would be hydro, unless you see a bleed air source of some kind. but even turbines and APUs on Blackhawks have starters.... bleed air for the engines and Hydro for the APU. that's strange that there is no starter.
 
#980 ·
Just a steel plate for the blockoff.

It has to be started via the big ass alternator/generator. It can start when the main engine (hyrdaulic power) is off... I might run an experiment if I have time...
 
#984 ·
Have been working on the mount for the PSC steering cylinder. Spent a little bit of time trying to figure out how removing the one-piece tierod is going to affect the ackermann. The ackermann with the stock one-piece tierod is within 1/2" of the center of the rear bogey when the inside wheel is at full-lock (35-degrees), but using a double-ended steering cylinder with two short tierod links is going to screw that up. All I can do is try to minimize that by mounting the ram as close to the axlehousing as possible.




Also spent a few hours creating a template of the axlehousing. If anyone wants a copy, you can download it here (right click -> save as).




And here's a screen capture with a few random dimensions on it so you can check the scale. Oh, and the vertical line below the origin (red) is the approximate centerline from side-to-side, but I haven't verified any of this stuff yet.




This is where I'm at with the mount. Similar in a lot of ways to others out there (stinkyfab makes a nice one). Saw a nice detail on the mount Tribe4x4 for their ibex, they added little tabs that keep the ram from shifting side-to-side. PSC's 3" Rockwell rams don't have those grooves machined into them for the mounts, so thought that would be a good feature to incorporate. Just need to verify a few last dimensions and add some drain holes and a few other little details.





 
#986 ·
I've seen some guy on here use only one end of a double-ended ram to move a one-piece tierod, sort of like a hydro-assist ram but balanced. If Ackerman is that big a concern, would something like that work?

Not sure how the ram was mounted, there was a pic on here somewhere though. Wanna say it was tjmark perhaps.
 
#987 ·
Yeah, considered that. Would be easy enough to make a trunnion-mount and had even started designing a mount that would position the ram behind the tierod, with a hole for it to pass-through. Would probably work pretty well. Just started designing this so I could make a comparison and decided to go with it.
 
#988 ·
been following along for quite a while now. great job jesse. always look forward to your updates. how did the pad dry?


came out of the woodwork just to see if the first picture of his last post (#987) is messing with anybody else's eyes? i'd swear that it looks to be vibrating.
 
#989 ·
Thanks for posting. Always neat to hear from people who have been following my projects. Put all this stuff out there and dunno who ends up seeing it. But this build-thread has been crazy-popular. Makes me wonder, you know?

The fab slab seems to be curing well. Hasn't fallen down yet, so that's good. Gonna erect those gate posts sometime next week, than I can start thinking about putting up the roof and the I-beam and trolley deal and all that stuff. Looking for a small shipping container that I can turn into a little workshop storage space behind the pad. Also going to cut a hole in the back wall of the garage and install another big roll-up garage door. Still miss the shop I had up in Bend, but have been working on this thing out in the driveway for the last few years, so having any kind of dedicated workspace is great.
 
#991 ·
So here I am bothering you again.

How did you digatilazed the shape from the cardboard when making the hydrostatic steering mount ?
I am making some storage mounting for my Patrol, and the floor has some ups and downs that are hard to measure, so I am not able to to a straightforward CAD.
Also if anyone could point me to any documentations (tuturials, whatever will help me get ideas) it would awesome.
Thanks, keep up with the dream build.
 
#992 ·
No bother, that's why I post this stuff.

First I created a template, then I drew that grid on it, then I scanned the template using a regular home office 8.5x11 print/fax/scan/thingy. Since the template was so big, had to scan one section at a time. That's why the gird is there. Then I opened those files up in Illustrator and used the grid and squiggle-marks I'd made to line everything up right. Then I saved that as one image, and imported it into Solidworks using the import picture feature. It allows you to insert an image on any surface or sketch plane. Have been doing that a lot more as I've been designing things like motorcycle fairings and stuff like that. Finding it really helpful to be able to take pictures of something (like a motorcycle) from a few different angles and then use those for reference, right there within the CAD model. Here's a screen capture of an image I took when I was designing a rollcage for my CJ5. The image is obviously only 2D, but the rollcage is 3D. So if I wanted, could take pictures of the jeep from the front/back/top and get a pretty good idea what it would look like from any angle.



 
#994 · (Edited)
Well there are usually a lot of things you can use for reference-points in a picture. Like with that Jeep, I used that image to verify dimensions that I'd taken and plugged into Solidworks. The problem with pictures is the perspective and distortion. Try to minimize that by taking pictures from far away from a position that best approximates the view I want to use in Solidworks, then zoom-in to 'flatten' the image. Here's a screenshot of a few sketches overlaid on top of that image of the CJ5. Can see everything lines up pretty well.




And here's a screenshot that shows how I verified the scale of the rockwell template that I scanned. No concerns about perspective, so I was able to sketch right on top of that image. Essentially tracing it. Couldn't do that with a picture. Note that this screen-shot was taken before I traced the template in Solidworks, so only shows the rough sketch I had made before scanning and importing the template.

 
#996 ·
Hah, I wish! Still working away, but not much worth sharing right now. Almost ready to send some files out to have a bunch of sheetmetal parts cut, and then I'll have everything I need to get the truck back together and running/driving.

Have also been spending a lot of time thinking about the whole trailer situation, since it's about time to get started on that. But am wondering if a small dedicated workshop trailer is really the best option. Maybe I'd be better off building more of a move versatile trailer platform. Have some ideas. Will post-up about that part of the project soon.

Honestly though, it's mostly a lack of money that's holding things up right now. Have been putting it all into GatosBros, trying to help my brothers get that off the ground. Even selling off our bikes. So that's slowing things down, but the hope is obviously that it will all pay off in the future.
 
#999 ·
So I'm not sure if I'll be able to follow-through with these plans because I didn't win any of the auctions I was bidding on, but the idea was to buy an M1022 dolly-set and modify it to haul standard ISO shipping containers. There were a bunch of these things that came through Herlong, but govliquidation fucked-up my account and kept me from bidding last week, and today I watched the prices climb beyond what I was willing to spend.

What I was thinking though, is that I'd probably be a lot better off with a 20ft workshop container than a 10ft workshop trailer. The 10ft trailer I've got is small enough that I'd be able to take it everywhere, but might rather have a bigger workshop trailer, even if it meant I wouldn't be able to haul it out into the middle of nowhere. Would probably serve me better 99% of the time.

From what I've heard, those M1022 dolly-sets are not a great way to haul anything, but they sure are versatile. Wouldn't be a mobile workshop that I'd haul around everywhere I went, but those dolly-sets are rated to carry 15,000lbs and that's probably super-conservative, so I could build-out a pretty well-equipped little workshop.

If anyone knows where I can find a nice M1022 dolly-set, I'd sure appreciate it. Open to input if anyone has any other ideas too, as far as what I might want to use to haul shipping containers around. Has to be bumper-pull, although I did almost buy an M931A2 tractor this afternoon...
 
#1,000 ·
From what I've heard, those M1022 dolly-sets are not a great way to haul anything, but they sure are versatile.
Not sure how much I'd like long-hauling with a front-steering dolly like that, but thanks for the post, as I've never seen those before. What's the going market value for one of those?
 
#1,001 ·
does that require any kind of special permit to drive on the roads? I don't recall anything while in the military, but they can usually do what they want regardless of what is allowed, unlike being a civilian.
 
#1,002 · (Edited)
The M109 or the container dollies? The M109 is under CDL weight for DOT and other than a few places, can be driven without a CDL. The dollies are being used in the civilian world and are treated like a trailer as far as I can tell so not a big deal either.
 
#1,005 ·
Yeah, I read the same thing when I was doing some research about them over on steelsoldiers. And it's the older version that I'm interested in. The newer version is cool because it's already set-up to haul shipping container, so doesn't need to be modified. But it's also more complicated, and has a diesel engine to power the hydraulics. Would rather keep it simple/manual.
 
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