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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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#1,176 ·
The Gatos brothers are terrible human beings.

The reason being that until this thread, I never particularly cared for the newer model trucks, preferring the classic deuce/five ton 'look'.

But now you have gotten me thinking, and to make matters worse I happened upon one for sale at a gas station. I drove right past.

Well, not really, I stopped to take pictures of the 'for sale' sign, phone number, etc.

So far, I have not looked at the photo. Forcing myself not to.

We'll see how long that lasts.
 
#1,179 ·
...never particularly cared for the newer model trucks, preferring the classic deuce/five ton 'look'.
Agree. Prefer the lines of the classic deuce frontend, and that M939 frontend was designed for the NHC250 engines in the original M939's and the A1 trucks, and understand the 8.3L Cummins in the A2 trucks is much more compact. Not going to get into anything like this right now - but...

1) Think it would be pretty cool to adapt and 800 series frontend to the M939. Would take a bit of work, as the M939 cab is wider, but you could do like the M35A3 trucks and rivet a strip of sheet metal down the middle. Same thing for the grill and headlights if the radiator is too big to fit the headlights behind the grill (use A3 headlight buckets).

2) A complete cab swap, over to something non-military, would be really neat for some applications. Bet you could fit a regular full size truck cab and frontend on top of one of these chassis with a little work. Or maybe something like one of those quad-cab international bodies that all the wildfire trucks are using. Replacing the military tub with a more civilized cab would totally transform one of these trucks. If I was planning on putting a ton of miles on mine I would seriously consider something like that. But the shitty military sheet metal suits me fine. For now.
 
#1,190 ·
So... are you guys done yet?


That's something that we've been thinking/talking about for a while. Going to make some kind of jacks for my M109 box, and will probably put it on top of the cargo bed, so will be able to use that after dropping the box. Thinking more and more about making some kind of rollback setup for the deuce. Out at the Yosemite fire right now, getting a lot of ideas being around these big trucks and all the heavy equipment. Frame width is the same on the deuce and 5-tons too, so we might end up making all this shit interchangeable?

We'd really like to get a bumper-pull flatbed trailer too. Something that we could haul 20ft shipping containers with, and I'm gonna use a dolly-set in the meantime. Will almost certainly turn a shipping container into our semi-mobile workshop, instead of building a dedicated workshop trailer. Versatility is the name of the game.
 
#1,193 ·
Was browsing a wacky thread in GCC and it hit me; why not rebody as a half track? Donor half track bodies are out there, as are repro parts. Stretch/widen the cab and box (roofed over), and with dual axles in the rear.

The strong front end design and slit windshield would really look striking.
 
#1,200 · (Edited)
I'm curious what you're doing about a CDL myself. If you rate it at 26,000 on the SF97 you can skirt the airbrake requirement of a CMV description but you're still stuck with 3 axles requiring a Class A.

I'm in the same boat with my M932A2, just not driving it too much for now until I drop an axle and make it 4wd.
Motorhomes, man. Register it as a recreational vehicle (legal term "house car") and you're good to go. CA vehicle code is pretty loose with the definition:

A "house car" is a motor vehicle originally designed, or permanently altered, and equipped for human habitation, or to which a camper has been permanently attached. (source)
A basic class C license is all that's required for a house car under 40'. (source, source)

If you've got a rig over 40' and up to 45', you need a non-commercial class B license. Note that even if it has air brakes "you are not required to pass an air brake law test..." (source)

Easy cheese.
 
#1,198 ·
if you're thinking about a rollback setup for a container, you missed the boat for the near-term... there were some auctions roughly a year ago for some Mk48 chassis (similar to a HEMTT) and rear units. that might have worked out really well for you. or, if you can find some PLS/LHS gear, you'd be good to go, just get a container handler attachment.
 
#1,199 ·
I'm curious what you're doing about a CDL myself. If you rate it at 26,000 on the SF97 you can skirt the airbrake requirement of a CMV description but you're still stuck with 3 axles requiring a Class A.

I'm in the same boat with my M932A2, just not driving it too much for now until I drop an axle and make it 4wd.
 
#1,201 ·
If you make everything swappable and can find a way to put the shipping container on jacks as well, you could make a nice little elevated "city" out in the woods. Connect each unit by a metal grate style bridge and you can tie the whole thing together with very little actual footprint on the ground and it keeps everything up off the ground and safe from most crawling/slithering animals as well as keeping everything up out of the water in the case of a nice sudden downpour!
 
#1,203 ·
Maybe we ought to start another thread to talk about that. Only thinking there's a lot to cover and it's an interesting enough topic that don't want to see it get lost in this build-thread. Would do it myself, but am out in Yosemite right now. So feel free to carry on with this discussion here or start another thread and post a link.
 
#1,212 ·
Been fighting for a few weeks now trying to score a M923A2. Today, I finally succeeded.

A nice big lot of 14 trucks were coming up in Fontana. Previously they've been groups of 5 or 6, and the bidding had been very competitive, so I figured a larger lot would alleviate that. Looked through all the lots, made my notes and sorted the list based on desirability.

When the auctions opened, someone swooped in on the nicest truck immediately. Expecting that to turn into a bidding war, I chose one of my other options. Placed a healthy bid, with an auto-bid well above that, and let it sit.

Two days later, with only a few hours to go, the activity increased. I got pushed out of my truck with a price higher than I was willing to pay. Checked my list and dropped a bid on a comparable truck with low activity and lower miles, but slightly crustier curb appeal. Refreshed the page multiple times throughout the morning and nobody was trying to steal my pick. Awesome!

Auctions end at 2:00 PM PST and I was glued to my screen for the last few minutes leading up to it. My bid was way lower than I expected this truck to go for, but there the timer went, counting down: 3, 2, 1...

14 minutes, 59 seconds

What the hell?! Someone tried to 'snipe' me at the very end, pushing my bid up by $200 and extending the auction another 15 minutes.

"That idiot won't try that again."

Figuring he'd learnt something about how GovLiquidation auctions work with his annoying attempt, I just had to hold out for another 15 minutes until this closed, paying only a couple hundred dollars more because of idiocy. Slowly, the timer ran out: 3, 2, 1...

14 minutes, 59 seconds

Are you kidding me?! Dingus bumped the auction up again at the last second by another $500 and left us with yet another 15 minute block to wait it out. Hoping this was the last time, I watched as the timer counted down: 3, 2, 1...

Victory!









 
#1,213 · (Edited)
I was watching three here on the East Coast that closed today. The one I had my eye on closed for $4200. Really wish I had the spare cash to have been able to go for it. It actually had double the miles (18,7xx) of another one which went for $5655 (7,4xx). Both of those were 1991s. Then there was a 1990 with a soft top on the cab and no rear cover. It went for $2,625.

Need to start playing the lottery or something so I have the spare cash...

The first one was the one I was watching (camo) followed by the low mileage one and the cheap one.
 

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#1,221 ·
Why this is my first reply in this thread I don't know. Been reading this for three days. Jealous of someone with that kind of "disposable" income (though I know you worked for it. I guess I'm more jealous that you have the freedom to do it than anything.)

Anyway, You guys are always talking about horsepwer on these trucks. Horsepower means so very little in the world of moving big trucks. It's Torque that gets the job done. What kind of torque do the 5 tons like yours have? It's gotta be a sh*tton.

Anyone (Jesse?) know what the smallest mil trailer is? I see a lot of the M105's on the gov site for sale. Not as many of the 103's. I've always wanted to customize one I could pull behind my WJ.

Great work, man. You need a Corvair powered buggy.
 
#1,222 ·
Jesse

Thanks for what you sent over. Was not expecting it!

I had a few cups of coffee and made this.

I dont know whatr your plans are for the APU at this point, but I got the wiring figured out.

I scored a NOS control box, but its from a slightly different vehicle, besides the pins on matching my diagram it should work nice.

This diagram is everything needed for the APU to start and charge.


Edit. its getting resized or something... I will put it on my google drive.

SEE HERE https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxpCsEaUvNDoN280blF4UHVsNHM/edit?usp=sharing
 

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#1,223 ·
The top left item is the cables from the apu . Bottom is the voltage regulator. (looking for one now, let me know if you want one)
RIght is the control box. Your electric guy can replicate this box.

Its just some switches, LEDs, and circuit breakers .

I will post the other page which is of all the connections on the apu itself to the harness in the top left.
 
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