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Well, I picked up my “M119A1 Trailer, cargo, van” at Camp Shelby Thursday. This was my first solo recovery (Bryan 4583794589349889 wanted to come, but he was working about 200 miles offshore). It was a 3-hour drive each way in my M818, and it was nice bonding with the old girl. Actually, she’s about 20 years younger than me, but my wife isn’t jealous.
The only issues were caused by driver error. I set the redneck cruise control for a long section of open road. Worked real well until I came into Liberty, MS (the home of Jerry Clower if you remember back that far). As I approached town, I pushed the throttle/cruise control in and let off the gas, and it started to slow down. Then I went to downshift, but when I came out of 5th gear, the RPMs shot back to 2000!!!! I pulled the Emergency Stop since I didn’t know if I had a runaway , put it in neutral, stepped on the brakes, and pulled it over to a convenient spot between the Sheriff’s office and the county courthouse. Once things got quiet, and I pulled the seat cover out of my butt, I realized it had to be the throttle cable that was sticking. Popped the hood, jiggled the cable, reset the Emergency stop cable, and I was on the road again.
To keep the gear shift from hitting my coffee mug in the drink holder, I put the holder above the steering wheel. On the road about another hour, I grabbed the mug with my left hand, brought it around the left side of the steering wheel, and at that instant, the engine died. More seat suction, gear shift into neutral and searching for a place to pull over. This time it took about 15 minutes to figure out the coffee mug had hit the battery switch and flipped it off, killing the engine.
Got to Camp Shelby about 15 minutes late, but had to wait awhile anyway since they were really busy. Finally got to the yard, hooked up to the trailer, and started back to the office …….with the emergency brake on!!!! I could tell something was wrong and thought the trailer brakes were dragging, but all the tires were rolling OK. I pulled over to the shoulder again to check out the burning smell I thought was coming from the engine. As I turned in the seat to get out, I saw the emergency brake lever was still up. That was the first time I’ve done that, but at my age, it probably won’t be the last.
I was wearing my LA SS Rally tee shirt with www. Steelsoldier.com on the front, and Tony asked if I knew some other members, like Tim and another guy who was putting hemitt rims and larger tires on his 5-ton expandable. I told him I got the tee shirt at Timntruck’s place where the rally was held, and that I saw the photos of GoldenEagle’s truck with the new tires, and it looked great. Tony said Hi to you. He has always been a great help to me.
Had a pleasant 3 hour trip home with no further stupid driver moves to threaten heart failure. Turns out both the M818 and trailer unit markings are for the 367th Maintenance Co., so maybe I reunited an old couple! Had the wife take a photo of us today. You can’t tell, but my butt is sore – must be from all the sphincter muscle exercising.
The only issues were caused by driver error. I set the redneck cruise control for a long section of open road. Worked real well until I came into Liberty, MS (the home of Jerry Clower if you remember back that far). As I approached town, I pushed the throttle/cruise control in and let off the gas, and it started to slow down. Then I went to downshift, but when I came out of 5th gear, the RPMs shot back to 2000!!!! I pulled the Emergency Stop since I didn’t know if I had a runaway , put it in neutral, stepped on the brakes, and pulled it over to a convenient spot between the Sheriff’s office and the county courthouse. Once things got quiet, and I pulled the seat cover out of my butt, I realized it had to be the throttle cable that was sticking. Popped the hood, jiggled the cable, reset the Emergency stop cable, and I was on the road again.
To keep the gear shift from hitting my coffee mug in the drink holder, I put the holder above the steering wheel. On the road about another hour, I grabbed the mug with my left hand, brought it around the left side of the steering wheel, and at that instant, the engine died. More seat suction, gear shift into neutral and searching for a place to pull over. This time it took about 15 minutes to figure out the coffee mug had hit the battery switch and flipped it off, killing the engine.
Got to Camp Shelby about 15 minutes late, but had to wait awhile anyway since they were really busy. Finally got to the yard, hooked up to the trailer, and started back to the office …….with the emergency brake on!!!! I could tell something was wrong and thought the trailer brakes were dragging, but all the tires were rolling OK. I pulled over to the shoulder again to check out the burning smell I thought was coming from the engine. As I turned in the seat to get out, I saw the emergency brake lever was still up. That was the first time I’ve done that, but at my age, it probably won’t be the last.
I was wearing my LA SS Rally tee shirt with www. Steelsoldier.com on the front, and Tony asked if I knew some other members, like Tim and another guy who was putting hemitt rims and larger tires on his 5-ton expandable. I told him I got the tee shirt at Timntruck’s place where the rally was held, and that I saw the photos of GoldenEagle’s truck with the new tires, and it looked great. Tony said Hi to you. He has always been a great help to me.
Had a pleasant 3 hour trip home with no further stupid driver moves to threaten heart failure. Turns out both the M818 and trailer unit markings are for the 367th Maintenance Co., so maybe I reunited an old couple! Had the wife take a photo of us today. You can’t tell, but my butt is sore – must be from all the sphincter muscle exercising.
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Thats one cool pic of you and your new toy .Wish I could of been there .Glad you made it home .We need to paint that rig , NO SPRAY PAINT woo man that would take a while. Maybe next time which i am sure there will be 
