March 7th, 2008.
New MV Guy, man, I wish my truck's plate looked that good, you didn't happen to restore the engine, by the way?
And yes, most honorable GimpyRobb, I am quite certain many of you gentlemen have low mileage motors. Mine's at 22,840, when I got it in October from Jay Bennett in Colorado it had 21,840, when the 300QMC-88RRD got i in 2002 it had 19,340 (all after the 1989/1990 class rebuild), and for a diesel 22,840 is low, but its the sitting around that kills them. Given that my truck was built in 1971 by KaiserJeep, I'll bet she racked some miles up before the rebuild, and it's likely not the original engine anyway, but when a truck's driven by many different drivers they wear in very strange and unpredictable ways.
A truck driven by one person only, particularly a careful person, will age vastly different then these machines do, as they are not assigned to just one G.I. all their lives, so not everyone does the small things to make them live longer. However, the engine design itself is not the same as a modern diesel, as the engineers today have often refined an engine to the highest degree, and with computers theycan pare excess weight from the components to just above the failure threshold in the name of weight and cost savings. Ferroequinologist (the engineer fella), will tell you that the modern railway diesels are miracle machines, but if they act up on the road, there's little the engine crew can do to limp them home (the old diesels forgave much and brought you back most times). Ditto with the new technology in Army trucks, but I think I would rather have a rebuilt M35 with good tires then an FMTV
in a hairy place. Either way, it's good to know some of you guys have out of the box machines.
Regards,
Kyle F. McGrogan
1963 Mercedes Benz Swiss Army Unimog S404.114
1971 Kaiser Jeep M35A2 Wo/W "Saddam's Nightmare" Desert Storm and Vietnam Veteran Deuce.