Ellsworth Deuce Recovery

[GoldComet6]

Congratulations on the Deuce and progressing recovery Glen!

She looks great and sounds like a nice rig!!

 

[91W350]

100 dollar fuel filter wrench....

We had a snafu Thursday morning, lets just say I did not have a wrench and had to have a diesel service bring me one to borrow. It costs 76 dollars an hour plus a 20 dollar service call... to have him watch us work. It got us a few miles down the road and she started bucking again. I will upload photos and more of the story when I get up and around tomorrow.

The good news is that we made it back to Salina and the only injury is to my billfold. It was definitely a learning experience.

Thanks for all the prayers and concerns, I am sure you guys helped me more than you know. Glen

 

[Pooch1128]

Glad you made it home, can't wait for update,sounds interesting..

 

[reb87]

Glad you made it home, I wondered if I may get a early morning call. Nice to meet you ...

 

[91W350]

The first thing I want to do is thank Karl, he not only drove several hundred miles to meet and ride along, he worked like most people just wished their paid employees worked. He was a great asset to my recovery and I can only hope to repay him someday! Karl has a beautiful deuce that he has restored, it was great to have that experience with me.

Once rolling, like I said before, it started missing occasionally. We pulled into a Case dealer in a little town of Parkston SD hoping to get some filters and fuel treatment. The old girl was way down on power and I felt like we would not make it to Deuceman 51's sanctuary. I was a pretty worried camper at that point. We explained the problem we were having and the owner said his shop was not full, we could run it in there. The kind parts gal managed to round up a secondary filter locally and that is what we had to work with.

Owner sent his grandson after a turbine space heater to heat the fuel tank, after that ran for about an hour, the fuel still looked cloudy. The owner thought what we had going on was gelling or wax separated from the fuel. He said the addictive is no help once it has gelled, you have to warm the fuel and agitate it a little.

While I was cleaning the ice and the newly iced filter up, Karl slid under and pulled the tank bung lose to see if we had water and we had lots off it.

We let it drip with the heater running for at least and hour, I decided to speed things up a little and slid under for my second diesel bath of the day. I would drain water until I could smell diesel and then let it set for 30 minutes or so, to repeat the process. We managed to drain off about five gallons of water. We never would have made it to Deuceman's.

I only brought two primaries and they were both shot now, so the only option was to wash and blow dry the new one. We replaced the second one and we were on our way. That old boy in that Case dealer was a trip saver, I could not have thrown enough filters and treatment at the truck to get by that much water. When we got to Deuceman's, I drained off the filters and did not get water, hopefully we got close enough to get her cleaned out with treatment.

The truck ran perfect the day before, lots of power, I filled with Premium, #1, winter diesel, whatever you call it in your neck of the woods at the I90 T&A Truck Stop. We pulled over to the motel and parked. It was ten degrees out when we shut down. One of two things had to happen there, I got five gallons of water in my 25 gallons of fuel or their tank was heated or deeper planted and the fuel was warm enough to melt ice off of the bottom of my tank.

When we checked the tank at Ellsworth, it looked like it had a couple of inches of fuel in it, maybe it was a couple of inches of ice and fuel. I would think running all day would have broke that up, especially since we fueled at the Flying J in Rapid City and a Truck Stop in Wall SD. Anyway, either I paid 3.93 a gallon for five gallons of water or it melted off of the bottom of the tank at Mitchell.

I dropped Karl off at Deuceman's to pick up his pickup and he headed north, back home to Fargo. I headed south. I drove from Mitchell SD to Yankton SD without a hiccup. Life was looking good again. I was sitting at a traffic light and a blue long nosed low Perterbilt kept inching forward, when I looked over, he was giving me the thumbs up.

 

[91W350]

I ran from Yankton down to Norfolk. I had not added any fuel since Mitchell and I had drained off five gallons of that, so I whipped in and fueled at a Cenex Truck Stop. I added some Power Service and drained the filters, no water here either, hit the road south. It was just getting dark, the sunset photo above....

I had called REB87 to see if I could meet him on the way home and he had a recovery of his own going on and was going to be gone. I like to meet SS guys when I get the chance, since I was many hours late, I gave him a call. We were about 15 miles apart, he was coming home and I was approaching his neck of the woods.

He drove his M920 into Stromsberg and met me there. What a great guy! If you guys get in his neck of the woods, he is an asset to all of us. He was headed south today and said if I had any problems to give him a call.

Armed with the fact I had help coming if I needed it, I headed to York Nebraska, fueled at the Petro and headed home. There was a cute gal there that approached me and asked if that was a deuce. I told her it was and she wanted to know if it was an A2 or A3. I told her it was a 2 and she asked if it had a switch on the left side of the dash. I asked which one and she called her boyfriend to find out. She said he has been aching to buy a deuce and wanted to know if it had a flame heater. I said it did and she asked about the air shift, yes it does. She said that was exactly what he wanted. I added another dose of fuel treatment and headed home.

 

[91W350]

The Nebraska weigh station was closed south of Hebron and the Kansas line never looked so good as I crossed. When I got to Belleville, I turned west on US 36 for two miles, south on a county road past the Kansas Port of Entry and then back east to US81. I turned south and ran home. Up by Minneapolis Kansas you can see the Salina city lights and that was a warm glow!

Before long I was reading the Salina exit signs, grabbed Crawford street and parked deuce, M1008 and all of my gear in the street. The generator ran out of fuel as I crossed I70 on I135. My heat was gone, I waited until I got home to go back and shut it off. I am sure my neighbors loved the 0130 turbo cool down.... All in all, it was a great trip and I hope to do another sometime.

I met some fantastic people through this site and I am thankful for all of the knowledge everybody has been so willing to share.

Thanks Karl, Gene, Richard, Troy, Rob and Jesse for helping me make this a successful run.

That Ray at Ellsworth GL is a fantastic guy to work with! Glen

 

[Bighurt]

Glad everything worked out...I was contemplating draining my fuel tank for my recovery so I knew what was in there. Your recovery makes me think that very wise.

 

[91W350]

If it is that cold out and it has water, it will not drain.... We worked with -10 to low 20's as temperatures on this recovery. I would recommend a generator and a space heater or heat gun at least. I was so lucky in many ways, it was unfortunate, but I was still very lucky. Glen

 

[Bighurt]

If it is that cold out and it has water, it will not drain.... We worked with -10 to low 20's as temperatures on this recovery. I would recommend a generator and a space heater or heat gun at least. I was so lucky in many ways, it was unfortunate, but I was still very lucky. Glen

My truck is in Alabama, temps are above pour point.

 

[camp9]

I bet it had froze water on the bottom of the tank that just let loose. I've ran trucks for years, and that case dealer putting the heater on the tanks was the best thing you can do. Sounds like you had some great support along the way. That in itself is a great feeling to have someone to call in case you need it. Thanks for all the picks, sure have enjoyed them.

 

[91W350]

I did have an ace in the hole. One of my longest running friendships is with a guy that owns a crane company. He has on in Rapid City that needs to be picked up and he made it pretty clear his truck could be there if I had trouble or needed help getting home. My truck could ride with his counter weight. That was great insurance, his trucks are equipped to load them dead or alive. I wanted the recovery though, I love those adventures. This was one of the best vacations I ever took, in spite of all the hardships. I had planned to have Karl drive the deuce if it dies and to use my M1008 to drag it off the road. Instead, my M1008 died and the deuce became mainline. I lost at least one injector, the 6.2 is flooding itself horribly. It ran great until I started it up again at Deuceman's on the way up. It was fuel hog after that. No power and lots and lots of smoke. Life in the fast lane....

 

[M35A2-AZ]

What a great story..and Karl is a great friend to ride along and help.
Also all the SS help along the way.

Thanks for all the Pics and story!!

 

[Karl kostman]

Hey guys a couple things about an adventure like this one is I learned a LOT for use when my next recovery comes along and I feel very fortunate to have been able to accompany Glen on THIS recovery, the truck is beautiful and darned near fully complete in every way, I met a few new people I can call MY FRIENDS, Glen got a really nice Deuce and THIS is the kind of stuff that makes THIS site an incredible resource! THANKS Glen it was a great adventure, and my honor to assist you in this recovery!
Karl

 

[91W350]

Glad to hear you made it there.

Nice looking truck.

Thanks Jeff, I cannot thank you enough for the use of your tow bar. I was going to try to make something, nothing I could ever dream up would touch that system of yours. I had zero worries about my CUCV back there and it worked flawlessly. Karl and I often spoke about how great that was built and worked. I had months to prepare for this one and your contribution made it so much easier. Now all I have to do is get it back to you. Glen

 

[KsM715]

Glad to hear you made it there and back.

Did you get to see the famous Corn Palace when you stopped in Mitchell?

 

[91W350]

I wanted to, I can remember my step grandfather telling me about it years ago. That deuce sure pushes the front tires on slick streets with the CUCV in tow, worse than it does empty. NDTs are scary creatures on snow packed or icy streets! I am sure I will be back that way. I owe Gene and Carol a meal now and want to return to the Needles. Glen

 

[KsM715]

The Needles hiway is about 7-10 miles from my mom and dads house. (Actually one can see the needles from their front yard) If you want to see something impressive go in the summer time and park at the needles eye parking area a watch the tour bus drivers squeeze those huge busses thru the tunnel there.

 

[GoldComet6]

Great story Glen - glad it all worked out for you in the end. Thanks for sharing.

 

[91W350]

Went through the toolbox and it contains the following. An adjustable jaw wrench, a bottle jack, a short lug socket, the regular long socket for inner and outer nuts, the long bar, a tool bag, a tow bar pin with a chain welded to it, a set of road triangles, a chain, an air gauge, an air line with a built in gauge, a first aid kit and a pair of pliers.

I was hoping to get some repair documentation in the glove box, instead I got a green document bag containing a green notebook with a TM 9-2320-361-10 manual for the M44A2 series trucks, a second bound copy of same manual, a TM 3-4320-204-12&P manual for the decontamination apparatus, portable, DS2 dated October 1986 and a TM 9-2330-267-14&P manual for the 400 gallon water buffaloes, the M 149, M 149A1 and M149A2 dated February 1981.

Under the seat is a collection of trash bags and loose papers with nothing significant that I can see.

The bed has a stake driver in it, the bed cover, two rubber tire chocks and chains and a wooden tire chock and chain. The driver's side had a rubber tire chock and chain, nothing hanging on the passenger's side. The bows look good as do the troop seats. My son had to try the troop seats today, he said it was too cold back there....

It has 9 new or like new Titans and one like new Denman tire. The spare is a new Titan.

Looks like a new J pipe, new transfer case, new radiator, and it is missing the guard for the flame heater.

The front seal on the rear differential is wet, not running down the case and dripping on the ground wet, but you can see that it is not completely sealed. The torque bars are all nice and solid. It does not leave any dripping anyplace other than the slobber tube.

Going through my fuel tickets and backing out the five gallons of water, it appears the truck made almost 11 mpg on the trip home and running around town here, in spite of all the extended idle time. That really surprised me, I did not expect to see it make 10 mpg. It is still full of oil and coolant, I cannot tell those levels have changed. The brake fluid is still full and clean as well. I did not get any water out of the filters today and very little moisture out of the air tanks.

The horn does not work, but I see that the wire has been riding on one of the horn bells and it has an arc spot on the bell. The wire is cut in two there and corroded. I am hoping a little clean up and solder job will get the horn to work. I found a tear in the bed cover, about 3" long. We will see how the local upholstery shop thinks that is best repaired.

I am very happy with it and feel lucky to have won it. Now the M818-M813-M920 itch refuses to leave me alone. Glen