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Fort Sam Recovery

4x4 Forever

Emerald Shellback
Steel Soldiers Supporter
These pics are of our recovery from Fort Sam Houston

Got a call this last Tuesday that the mother in law had passed away and that we would be going to New Orleans for services starting Thursday. The next day, I got word that my EUC for BOTH the Deuce and the CUCV had been approved…This is gonna be fun, I work 2 weeks on and get one week off, and I just started my week off. This meant that I would have to attend a funeral and recover these two on this week off, in two different states. We loaded the truck up and headed for New Orleans for the funeral, that was to last for 4 days. We got home on Sunday night.

Monday I was running all over Lake Charles for the parts I needed and stopping by Bryan70546 to get a good idea as to where everything is on the deuce that we would need to check before we got on the road with it. We left Lake Charles at midnight Monday and arrived at GLs office at Fort Sam at 7am Tuesday. Drove through rain all the way to the base and it poured on us every hour on the hour while we were working. Finally got to the trucks at 8am and started looking over everything to get a list of stuff we needed locally.

Of course, the CUCV was dead, placed new batts and tried cranking, no go.Took the list and went into town to get what we needed, new back tire (forklift), 15 gal of diesel. Strange, the CUCV had 1/4 tank and clean fuel!! Added the fuel and on the last attempt to start before we were going to trailer her, she started. I guessshe heard us talking about the trailer and she listened…

While we were working on the CUCV, GL push started the Deuce and brought it over to where we were and told us that they would let it run while we worked on the CUCV. This was all in the middle of a pouring rainstorm, we had just jumped in the chase truck to stay dry. The rain stopped 15 minutes later and we all looked at each other and noticed that it was awful quiet…the deuce had shut down! After futher investigation, they had turned the ingition off, so much for letting it run. :twisted:

Started working on the deuce, placed new batts, and she started right up!! We let her run while we were checking everything else out, diffs, transfer and tranny case. Checked the brakes, and low and behold, MC was full and we had good brakes! There was no water in the air receivers either! After checking alland getting a good handle on the drivability of the animals we decided to get on with it.

At 215pm we started off base and made it to I-35 and hit the on ramp and into traffic. My chief engineer was driving the deuce as he had driven them before, 20 years ago…Max speed was 30!!!!! Forgot to put the transfer case in High! :oops: After getting all going again, we took off, yeah! 55mph! Made it to I-10 and the deuce left us behind! We all thought the deuce was gonna be the slowest one but the CUCV was.

After making it out of town, we stopped for fuel to top off the tanks, and decided to place the CUCV on the trailer. At least we would make better time. Although we stopped several times to check things out, the trip was uneventful. I say that, but being passed up by everyone wasn’t fun and can anyone say DEUCE BUTT?? Made it back in town at 11pm…not too bad for a 23 hour round trip, and 357 miles driving the Deuce!!

I would like to say thanks to Bryan70546 and Frodo, they were conspiring on ways to get both trucks back here at the same time. I think one was put the CUCV in the back of the deuce..Some of the other ideas they came up with are not repeatable on SS or in mixed company!

All in all, their ideas, loaned parts, and support was much needed and appreciated! I called Bryan several times on the trip for questions and travel updates.

And a special thanks to all on the SS site that has contributed their knowledge,ideas, and experiences on their recoveries which made our trip easier!

Would I do it again? HE@@ YEAH!!!
 

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mkcoen

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
5,637
381
83
Location
Spring Branch, TX
Glad it went well for you. If you have another Ft Sam recovery in the future let me know and I'll be there to stand in the rain too.

Oh, and we only got 8.4" of rain between Jan 1 and Aug 31 so no dissing our rain.

MC
 

4x4 Forever

Emerald Shellback
Steel Soldiers Supporter
mk,

Thanks for the one up on the next recovery, it will be awhile. The wife just asked me what I am going to do with the deuce.....I just said show our 15yo daughter how to drive. :razz: I got raised eyebrows - thats enough for me to know I am not getting anything in the near future!! :evil:

Ive been watching the flooding the last month over your way, it has been bad. Was kinda wondering if it had flooded the lot...NOT! Man that lot is slanted and the rain runs off fast!!
 

4x4 Forever

Emerald Shellback
Steel Soldiers Supporter
I was wondering who won those two dark OD green 1008s...

They'd been sitting there for a long time.
I got the 82000 1008 and someone in New Mexico won the other. Guess he got his EUC at the same time, a trucker came by before we left and got it loaded. Seems someone at GL forklifted his tire as well, AFTER GL took the pic showing in the auction...

Funny thing about the EUCs, the duece EUC got approved an hour before the 1008 was approved and the deuce was submitted a month and a half after the 1008.......
 

Pawnshop

Active member
1,798
22
38
Location
Austin/Cedar Park Texas
I'm glad to see the pretty M1008 go to a fellow SS member, that sure is a looker. Your M35 looks good too, though the cargo cover end curtain is on the wrong end! I have a set of OD bridge plate numbers I will swap you for those yellow ones if you are interested (I need some yellers for the MERDC M109). The old "low range" trick will get you every time...
 

TexAndy

Active member
1,427
15
38
Location
Bee County, Texas
I got the 82000 1008 and someone in New Mexico won the other. Guess he got his EUC at the same time, a trucker came by before we left and got it loaded. Seems someone at GL forklifted his tire as well, AFTER GL took the pic showing in the auction...

Funny thing about the EUCs, the duece EUC got approved an hour before the 1008 was approved and the deuce was submitted a month and a half after the 1008.......

Gee, that sounds familiar.
 

bryan70546

New member
410
1
0
Location
Lake Charles La
:-DWoW Capt-N , now that is a pair to be proud of .Very Glad it all went well for you and Glad I could help you out , Man that cucv is one fine machine never seen one in that kind of shape before cant wait to see um in person .Now we can get us a club started in lake charles that makes what 4 deuce now In lake charles:-D
 

blacktop_one

Member
159
0
16
Location
Cypress, TX
So it looks like the folks at Ft. Sam will let you do quite a bit there on the lot to get your truck running. Looking forward to my deuce recovery from there once the EUC clears.
 

mkcoen

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
5,637
381
83
Location
Spring Branch, TX
Like I posted earlier just let me know and I'll do what I can to help with the recovery. I've got slave cables so you can skip the forklift push start.
 

4x4 Forever

Emerald Shellback
Steel Soldiers Supporter
Thanks for all the comps guys!

The GL people in Fort Sam are very friendly and helpful. My thanks go out to Chester and Rod, those two are some of the best people I have met! They checked on us every half hour or so. As long as you did not have to do MAJOR work, they are more than willing to let you get your MV going. Matter of fact, Rod called me an hour after we left to see how we were doing. I guess you could look at it in two ways, either to check and see if he won the bet on us not making it, or to see how we were doing. I think that it was the latter!!

Frodo, I'll pick one up for you but I'm not gonna let you have this one! As someone said before: you can have it when you pry it out cold dead hands!!

Bryan, guess we gotta start a club up for sure, but I thought it only required 1 deuce to start a club!! :razz:

MC, I wish I had known of you guys out there, next time I'm in the neighborhood or at a (THE) Texas rally I'm gonna look yall up for sure! The GL guys went looking for the deuce while we were working on the CUCV, we looked up and they were push starting a deuce and then drove it to us and said "here ya go"!!
 
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