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Last weekend the excellent Merrickville, Ontario car show - for the first time - had MVs on display. I brought my deuce, my friend had his brand-new-to-him M816 and another local collector had brought a couple of M1008s and a mule.
The M816 ended up with empty batteries, after having spent the night with the low air buzzer on. Murphy also ensured that, while everybody else has 2-pin slave setups, the wrecker has a single pin receptacle. A little charger hooked up during the day struggled to charge the four wrecker batteries enough for a couple of starting attempts, but it was not enough to get fuel into the engine.
I hooked the 36k lbs wrecker to my empty 14k lbs Deuce with my tow bar and pulled him out of the cramped, sloping laneway where he was parked. Low range, first gear. The 90 degree turn on the road was fun...I actually needed to engage the front axle, because the Deuce was laying down rubber with the spinning rears. I felt like a toy poodle pulling on the leash!
On the level street, I could shift to second and the wrecker driver did his best to spin up the engine in second and third. In the Deuce, it felt ...well...like the toy poodle getting yanked back. I stopped the rig gingerly, but on asphalt it worked quite well.
In the end, we needed to leave the wrecker behind; it seemed that clogged filters from a tank of what stank like paint thinner was the main cause for the no-start. We switched to the second tank that appeared to have a small amount of clean diesel in it and added some more, but the primary filter was too clogged already. M1008 maintenance truck provided boost support.
Those that have pulled a wrecker with their deuce probably think "so, what?", but I thought I post my experience because:
- if you have never done this, you might mistakenly believe that with your Deuce, you are driving a "heavy truck" and
- unless you have hauled heavy, you really have no concept of how heavy a lump of iron a wrecker is, and
- while on level ground the Deuce can pull the wrecker with relative ease in a straight line, do NOT slow down or stop in a turn
- all of the above will get you into a shi**y situation in no time. In a populated environment, you run out of room very quickly, if your rig doesn't stop or turn as you intend it to.
My conclusion: If you have to pull a wrecker with a Deuce, only do it only on level or very gently sloping ground. If getting going is already a challenge, think about how and on which road surface you will stop the rig. At any faster-than-briskly-walking-speed on level ground with good grip, the wrecker has enough momentum to simply push the rear end of your Deuce out of the way, if you brake too hard.
If you have gladhand equipped air hoses or can borrow them from a semi rig, DO hook up the front glad hands of the wrecker to your Deuce's trailer gladhands and enjoy full braking action from the wrecker! If I had had this setup yesterday, I might have considered slowly towing the guy home...
The M816 ended up with empty batteries, after having spent the night with the low air buzzer on. Murphy also ensured that, while everybody else has 2-pin slave setups, the wrecker has a single pin receptacle. A little charger hooked up during the day struggled to charge the four wrecker batteries enough for a couple of starting attempts, but it was not enough to get fuel into the engine.
I hooked the 36k lbs wrecker to my empty 14k lbs Deuce with my tow bar and pulled him out of the cramped, sloping laneway where he was parked. Low range, first gear. The 90 degree turn on the road was fun...I actually needed to engage the front axle, because the Deuce was laying down rubber with the spinning rears. I felt like a toy poodle pulling on the leash!
On the level street, I could shift to second and the wrecker driver did his best to spin up the engine in second and third. In the Deuce, it felt ...well...like the toy poodle getting yanked back. I stopped the rig gingerly, but on asphalt it worked quite well.
In the end, we needed to leave the wrecker behind; it seemed that clogged filters from a tank of what stank like paint thinner was the main cause for the no-start. We switched to the second tank that appeared to have a small amount of clean diesel in it and added some more, but the primary filter was too clogged already. M1008 maintenance truck provided boost support.
Those that have pulled a wrecker with their deuce probably think "so, what?", but I thought I post my experience because:
- if you have never done this, you might mistakenly believe that with your Deuce, you are driving a "heavy truck" and
- unless you have hauled heavy, you really have no concept of how heavy a lump of iron a wrecker is, and
- while on level ground the Deuce can pull the wrecker with relative ease in a straight line, do NOT slow down or stop in a turn
- all of the above will get you into a shi**y situation in no time. In a populated environment, you run out of room very quickly, if your rig doesn't stop or turn as you intend it to.
My conclusion: If you have to pull a wrecker with a Deuce, only do it only on level or very gently sloping ground. If getting going is already a challenge, think about how and on which road surface you will stop the rig. At any faster-than-briskly-walking-speed on level ground with good grip, the wrecker has enough momentum to simply push the rear end of your Deuce out of the way, if you brake too hard.
If you have gladhand equipped air hoses or can borrow them from a semi rig, DO hook up the front glad hands of the wrecker to your Deuce's trailer gladhands and enjoy full braking action from the wrecker! If I had had this setup yesterday, I might have considered slowly towing the guy home...
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