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"Jason Barron" <jdknetts@earthlink.net> wrote:
> I definitely plan on buying an M35-A2 within the next two years, so,
> I have to ask the questions- what can I do to prepare myself for
> this, what do I need to learn in that time
I've been collecting military radio gear for several years, but I just
bought my first military vehicle (or "MV") about 4 months ago (and my
second MV about 1 month ago!). My first truck is an M109A3, which is a
shop van built on the same chassis as the M35A2. I bought mine in a
sealed-bid auction directly from the U.S. Government, through the
Defense Reutilization Marketing Service (www.drms.com). In recent
years, M35-like trucks have been selling through them at insanely low
prices, though that seems to be very rapidly drying up due to recent
changes in the way equipment will be surplussed out. You may already
be too late to take my approach, and I think that a couple years from
now will almost definitely be too late. Don't despair, though. M35A2
trucks are available on the regular civilian market, they're just not
as cheap as the DRMO trucks have been. I paid $1751 for my truck
(!!!), and I think a comparable truck probably would have cost around
$3000-$5000 on the regular civilian market. That's still pretty cheap,
considering how much truck you get!
If you're planning to save up for a year or two, then you have plenty
of time to do your homework, and thus greatly reduce your chances of
biting off more than you can chew. I took a similar approach, and
ended up with a pretty good truck, IMHO. Manuals are available from
many sources. You can get quality reprints of the manuals from
Portrayal Press (www.portrayal.com). I recommend the latest edition
(the TM 9-2320-361-* series). The later versions of the older TM
9-2320-209-* series stink, in my opinion. I'm told that the very early
manuals for that truck were pretty good, but I don't know if they
would cover the A2 variant.
You'll probably learn a helluva lot just by watching the traffic on
this list. There are many extremely knowledgeable folks hanging out
here who should be able to help you when you get stuck. The support I
have gotten from the members of this list has been extremely valuable
as I learn about the care and feeding of old green trucks. I lurked on
the mil-veh list for quite a while before I suddenly found myself
getting my first MV (I didn't expect to buy either of my MV's until
immediately before I bought them... they found me when they were ready
for me!).
> I'm not much of a mechanic, though I do try to learn what I can
Before I got my M109A3, I had never done any auto work more
complicated than cleaning and adjusting the drum brakes on my Toyota
4Runner. As long as you're reasonably good with tools, I think you'll
do OK. In my opinion, a M35-like truck is a good vehicle to learn on.
Except for the fuel injection pump, nothing on it is very complicated,
and most parts are pretty easy to get to (it's hard to see the engine
in my Toyota, while I just climb into the engine compartment and start
swingin' a wrench on my M109A3!). Granted, everything is also big and
heavy, but that's what hydraulic jacks, wheel dollies, impact
wrenches, etc. are for.
Before I got my shop van, I was a bit intimidated by auto repair.
Getting my truck up and running turned out to be a lot less difficult
than I expected (even though there was a lot of back-breaking labor
involved in rotating those 200-pound tires!), and now I don't think
any truck or engine will ever scare me again. When I got my second MV
(an M998 HMMWV), I had no doubts that I'd be able to deal with any
mechanical problems it might have. The first one is always the
hardest, and the second time around, you'll know what you're getting
into, and how to deal with it.
I have the luxury of being able to park my truck indoors, in some
hangar space I'm renting at a (almost) nearby airport. Many folks
probably aren't quite so lucky, because it's hard to find indoor space
big enough for a big truck that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I'd
recommend that you at least find a secure spot to park your truck,
such as in your back yard (I wish mine was big enough!), behind a
locked gate. Remember, there's nothing but a chain around the steering
wheel, and of course you running out of the house with a rifle when
you hear it start, to keep anybody from driving it away. :-). If you
can arrange to park it on concrete, it'll be a lot easier to work
under or jack up the truck. I hope to move to a place where I can
afford enough land to park my truck in my own back yard in a couple
years.
Check into the vehicle code in your state. Here in California, one
needs a class-B commercial driver's license to legally drive an M35A2,
because it has more than two axles and is over 6,000 pounds GVW.
Hopefully, your state isn't run by liberals. Arizona, here I come...
:-) Keep in mind that your state may require you to pay weight fees,
which might be near $1000 per year. Here in California, I can avoid
the weight fees by registering my truck as a historic vehicle, but
only because it's over 25 years old.
> What are some good sites to visit to look up more info on mil-veh's
> such as M35, M54, M2 and M16?
I have information about my own trucks, as well as some generic
technical information about the M35-like trucks, on my web page (see
below). I also have a project status page for each of my trucks, where
you can get a feel for what I had to go through to get my trucks on
the road. The MVPA site (www.mvpa.org) has lots of links to other
sites, as does the Olive Drab (www.olive-drab.com) site. Joe Young has
lots of pictures on his site
(http://members.aol.com/MVTrucker/home.index.html). I've bought
manuals from him, and he's very helpful. There are probably many other
great sites that I missed, but I'm sure that other list members will
point them out.
A search of the DRMS site shows some 2.5-ton and 5-ton trucks up for
auction in Crane, IN. Is that near you? I can't tell from here if any
of them are any good (though some are definitely junk from the
pictures). A personal inspection is MANDATORY; the condition codes
they list are often wildly inaccurate. My truck was listed as "poor",
yet it had an engine one hour out of rebuild, and only 3400 miles on
the chassis. It looks butt-ugly, but it was running great after a
couple months of work with no major engine or drivetrain repairs. The
bid opening for several of them is near the end of this month. If
you're not ready to take the plunge, that's fine, but if you have
someplace to park one (with room for a LARGE tow-truck to back it into
place...), could write a check for $2500 within a month from now, and
could spend another $2500 before it was done, then it might just be
do-able. Maybe for less money, maybe more. My gut feeling is that
those numbers would be near the high end of what it would cost to have
a chance of winning the bid on an M35A2, tow it home, and then fix it
up. To see the trucks, go to http://www.drms.com/htbin/drmsrch, enter
"2320" in the FSC field, select "Crane, IN" in the location field,
select the "sort by catalog number" button, and click the "View
Report" button.
Good luck! You're already starting to experience the excitement that
nutcases like us get from fixing up and playing with MV's, and I hope
it won't be too long before you have one of your own!
-- Mark J. Blair, KE6MYK <mblair1@home.net> PGP 2.6.2 public key available from http://pgp.ai.mit.edu/ Web page: http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/ DO NOT SEND ANY UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL EMAIL TO THIS SITE
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