Hey everyone,,
Ive been lurking awhile and its obvious the knowledge here on these trucks is vast, so hopefully you all can help me out
I work for a municipal land management department and we have 2 military surplus trucks on loan from the state surplus program to use as wildland fire trucks, one is a 1977 M35A3 i think as it has a Cat motor and auto trans
The other and the truck in question, is a 2002 LMTV, with the Cat 3126 engine. I don't know what that specifically makes this truck model wise.
The guy that built these into fire trucks has retired so the general maintenance and upkeep has fallen to me. While our county has a significant fleet department, being that these trucks are not fleet assets, the mechanics there are not allowed to work on these trucks, so any work must be done by our small crew (me) or contracted out.
I have some experience in working on my own vehicles, tractors in past jobs, operating Class B trucks and a forestry dozer, as well as some hobby level small engine repair so bear with me if I screw up heavy truck nomenclature or procedures. I will be posting separate thread to address some other issues.
Anyway, the problem at hand is that the air over hydraulic system seems to be working for the most part, but there is a significant fluid leak from the front driver side kneeling cylinder, and more recently, from the hand pump shaft.
Rebuilding the handpump seems to be relatively simple, but ideally I would like to simplify the system if possible to make it more reliable and approachable by our less mechanically inclined staff as they use the trucks in our fire operations.
Is there a way to effectively delete the kneeling system in order to eliminate failure points in the air over hydro system. I feel like it would be dumb to rebuild the kneeling cylinders when I'm obviously never going to load it on a transport plane. In my reading on here, i understand the system has some challenges like common return lines or something but hopefully one of you experts has a solution for me. I dont care if the hardware remains in place as i understand the cylinders can be a nightmare to remove but can they be capped or something. Id prefer to not have to remove the entire air over hydro system as it definitely makes the cab lifting easier and more likely to be done by staff doing inspections but if making it an entirely manual system is the answer then so be it.
Ive been lurking awhile and its obvious the knowledge here on these trucks is vast, so hopefully you all can help me out
I work for a municipal land management department and we have 2 military surplus trucks on loan from the state surplus program to use as wildland fire trucks, one is a 1977 M35A3 i think as it has a Cat motor and auto trans
The other and the truck in question, is a 2002 LMTV, with the Cat 3126 engine. I don't know what that specifically makes this truck model wise.
The guy that built these into fire trucks has retired so the general maintenance and upkeep has fallen to me. While our county has a significant fleet department, being that these trucks are not fleet assets, the mechanics there are not allowed to work on these trucks, so any work must be done by our small crew (me) or contracted out.
I have some experience in working on my own vehicles, tractors in past jobs, operating Class B trucks and a forestry dozer, as well as some hobby level small engine repair so bear with me if I screw up heavy truck nomenclature or procedures. I will be posting separate thread to address some other issues.
Anyway, the problem at hand is that the air over hydraulic system seems to be working for the most part, but there is a significant fluid leak from the front driver side kneeling cylinder, and more recently, from the hand pump shaft.
Rebuilding the handpump seems to be relatively simple, but ideally I would like to simplify the system if possible to make it more reliable and approachable by our less mechanically inclined staff as they use the trucks in our fire operations.
Is there a way to effectively delete the kneeling system in order to eliminate failure points in the air over hydro system. I feel like it would be dumb to rebuild the kneeling cylinders when I'm obviously never going to load it on a transport plane. In my reading on here, i understand the system has some challenges like common return lines or something but hopefully one of you experts has a solution for me. I dont care if the hardware remains in place as i understand the cylinders can be a nightmare to remove but can they be capped or something. Id prefer to not have to remove the entire air over hydro system as it definitely makes the cab lifting easier and more likely to be done by staff doing inspections but if making it an entirely manual system is the answer then so be it.
