Mark,
1) Yes the hubs are for the front wheels.
2) I too recall an article about removing the rear axle drive shaft or removing the axle
shafts and then cutting them in half and re-installing them.
Yes the truck can get stuck more easily because you are now driving on the forward rear axle only.
Commercial trucks with dual rear axles have what is called an inter-axle differential that is controlled
by a switch simmilar to the air shift front axle. You have this switch in either locked ( which is what
your M35 always is ) or unlocked.
That being said, the forward rear axle is slightly different in configuration than the rear axle for the
housing
for this inter-axle differential. The 2 rear axles on the M35 are inter-changeable. I guess in the grand
scheme of things the army did not want to stock another type of axle and this way kept their costs per
vehicle down. Also one has to remember that these trucks were made for off road use on or in
places where the wheels can slip which compensates for the differences between the 2 rear axles
and the front axle even though they have the same axle ratios .
You did not say weather your tires are scrubbing when you turn a corner, this is reasonably normal
given the close axle spacing on the M35. Going straight ? This is not normal given the fact that you
have sized your tires close as possible.
Just my 2 cents, always open for correction.
Jim Wiehe , VA3JHW
mail to : j.wiehe@sympatico.ca
----- Original Message -----
From: <mblair1@home.net>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2001 12:03
Subject: Re: [MV] Deuce Hubs
>
> KAYE-RIVERCITY@webtv.net (Geof Kaye) wrote:
> > Don't count on improving your fuel mileage with the hubs.
>
> I'm brashly assuming that these are hubs for the front wheels (please
> correct me if I'm wrong).
>
> Does anybody make good-quality lockable/unlockable hub/axle
> combinations for the middle/rear axles? An article in MV Mag a while
> back stated that disconnecting one set of wheels made the truck drive
> a lot better on pavement, by eliminating drivetrain wind-up. On the
> other hand, I think some folks have said that doing that can make the
> truck get stuck a lot easier, due to the reduced traction. It seems to
> me that having switchable hubs on one of the rear axles might offer
> the best of both worlds.
>
> An air-switchable clutch between the middle/rear axles might be even
> nicer, but I figure that would be much more difficult and expensive to
> make.
>
> I balanced out the tire circumferences on each dual (within 1/4") and
> the average circumference between the two rear axles (within 1/2") as
> well as I could, but my truck still makes visible tire tracks on
> concrete. That suggests to me that the tires are scrubbing, and I have
> a hunch that disconnecting one of the axles might greatly reduce that,
> but I don't want to give up the ability to have all wheels driving
> under less-than-ideal conditions.
>
> Opinions?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 05 2001 - 07:13:50 PST