I'm wanting to purchase a M-1009 CUCV for my hunting truck and back up daily driver. I was hoping for some advice about buying from Government liquidation dot com and what to look for in selection a good M-1009
I live in the DFW area and i need to find an auction that isnt too far away so All of the M-1009's I'm looking at are in the upcoming auction in jefferson city, MO, closest place i could find with M-1009's. Anyway all the M-1009's say "buyer loads", does this mean that the CUCV's will not start/Run? Also they are all listed as H7 for their condition. Looking at H7 is says unserviceable condition, should I wait for a different auction?
How much does a decent running M-1009 usually go for?
What are some things to look for during the inspection peroid, besides the obvious like starting the CUCV?
I have very little experiance working on vehicles, the biggest project I ever did was to rebuild an engine and replace a clutch on a 1984 toyota corolla, Given that how hard are CUCV's to work on and fix when things break?
Thanks
Tim
Welcome to the site. There a bunch of different threads in the search for this from various points of view. In general I think you will find most folks on here would agree the M1009 is a good choice as a hunting truck and back up daily driver. For me it is my primary driver and the only other vehicle at my house is my wifes mini-van. I've had mine a year and six months. The first six months were spent fixing it up but at a very very veryslow pace because of my job. Probably only had a week or two of work to do on it but just couldn't get time to do it.
GL is an easy site to get onto and it''s basically egay with a different name and owned by different people and selling different stuff. The buyer loads is there way of saying, if it starts great, if it doesn't, have plan 2 in place and immediately ready to act on. I was lucky. I bought mine sight unseen from a site 3 hrs driving time away. It started but I also had a truck there to haul it home in. So I drove it up into the back of the truck. I would plan on hauling it or using a towbar. If using a towbar, do a search on this website reference using a (military) towbar. Ditto if you plan to use one of those car dollies.
The location of the trucks is hit or miss. You may get lucky and have some show up at Ft Hood or their may not be anymore there forever. You can preview equipment but the GL rep may or may not allow you to start it. All depends on who it is. If Ft Hood or another base is nearby, I would make an appt with them to inspect a vehicle that is coming up for auction (even though you have no intention of buying it) and go just to see if there are any CUCVs in their lot. Might be someone on this site that knows the GL rep there and they can ask the question and maybe save some time.
Condition codes mean absolutely nothing as for these vehicles. They are being phased out of military service. The military has set their computer to list the allowable repair costs for these vehicles to zero dollars. So anything goes wrong, they either have to canabalize parts, fix it themselves, or find creative financial ways to beat the system. There is a thread on some of the experience many of us have had buying BRAND NEW equipment listed in code H. Don't expect these vehicles to be brand new though.
Price depends on condition obviously. I got mine for $856 and have put about 5K into it for repairs. That is what I budgeted and I did a lot of stuff that could have been deferred. I've seen a real decent looking truck recently go for under 500 recently but some not so hot ones go for well over that. Location has a lot to do with it and timing. Diesel cost is somewhat low now so the trucks may go for more. When it was $5 a gallon, diesel trucks weren't so popular.
As for problems, the biggest issue is rust. The rocker panels, toe boards, and front wheel wells. It cost me $600 to get my entire driver side rocker panel and a small rust hole in the toe board fixed. I had a rust hole in my wheel well and just opted to replace the whole wheel well. LMC Truck has most of the parts in an easy to use catalog and they have pretty decent prices.
Next issue is electrical system is kinda particular. Remember it is a commercial 12 volt truck modified for the military into a 24 volt starter system). So some systems are 12 v and some are 24v. The good news is the detailed technical manuals with the how to and parts lists are available on this website in the reserences. Highly suggest downloading them and at a minimum reading the -10 manual (basic manual) on how to inspect and operate the vehicle. The -20 is a unit maintenance manual. the -20P is the unit parts manual but it takes some experience and knowledge to be able to translate military parts numbers into civilian numbers. The -34 is the general support and depot rebuild manuals and they have their own 34P since the orgnaizations were allowed to order all the different parts. Internal engine work was a 34 job not a 20 job. I have my -34P on my laptop and just take the laptop to NAPA and say I want that part right there. Of course they rarely carry military specific items. Bottom line is you will have all the repair manuals and parts manuals at your fingertips.
Some folks have problems, mostly the 2 generators and the starter. The generators are special and you can find a vast amount of info on those and how to test them by doing a search. I have had mine rebuilt and would suggest always having at least one spare generator and starter. I also had a priblem with my drivers side windshield wiper suddenly stopping at the most inopportune time. I went through several used wiper motors before I found out the connector plugging into the wiper motor was deformed from wear. Replaced it and it's been good since. Heaters are also an issue in some but they are very easily replaced once you get the battery and mount out of the way. Front lights have these cheap clips that I guess the designer had a bad day. Bottom line on this is ...if you plan on replacing a headlight, plan on replacing the clips. My front parking lights went out recently and found info on this site about that being another issue of moisture getting into the bulb sockets. So that is being fixed.
Since you have rebuilt an engine and stuff, you should have very little problem working on these trucks. As a kid I help change the oil, brakes, starter, alternator, maybe a clutch, or regrease the front end bearings but I hadn't done anything like that in nearly 15 years. I was told I needed a hobby and always wanted to get better at working on vehicles. So now I have it but my new job, family, and new location keep me from spending much time on it. So as I go out of town on business today, I drop off my truck to a mechanic to catch up on all the overdue maintenance issues that I didn't take the time to do myself. Oh well, what the he11, my life is calm but tense.
Hope this novel proves helpful. Had nothing better to do for the last 90 minutes except listen to the wife snore.
