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Emerson's "Safari" - The Recovery

3dAngus

Well-known member
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63
Location
Perry, Ga.
Today, I recovered my first ever Deuce and a half, a M35A3 from Ft. Benning. I arrived at 11:45 after setting up an appt. at 12-1PM, and found I was just in time to interrupt the good Sgt from his lunch break coming at 12. Didn't mean to do that. Anyway, my good friend, who is always there for me, Allen went along with me for the recovery operation calling it an "Adventure" to be had, which motivated me into going this morning in lieu of canceling due to not being able to make contact at Ft. Benning all day yesterday due to some phone issues. So, we left for the new adventure.

I call her Emerson's Safari due to my father, back in the late 50's in Alaska, naming a hunting trip in a M37 with a M101A1 trailer, the same name. I posted a black and white photo of it here in another thread.

The deuce was ready to go. I checked it out thourally without moving her prior, and all fluids were go and everything seemed to work but lights and tires were low on air. I turned CTIS off and pumped up the front tires manually to 42 pounds, and left the back tires alone due to the impending lunch break coming on. The good Sgt. used his special lock picking tool to get us on the way, and we promptly took off and followed some unusual path home via the GPS, which is totally worthless on a military installation. The normal 90 minute drive took almost 3 hours due to the new roadway we followed blindly on the GPS (all my fault) and making a few pit stops to check things out along the way. At 50 mph, it had a horrible wobble coming from the rear end, so I stopped off the road and Allen pumped up the tires that looked full upon visual, but only had about 22 pounds of air in them. It helped a lot, but still had a wobble periodically along the way, which not only went left to right but up and down creating quite a bounce. There was no indication of any problems with the front tires or steering.

Only other issue is windshield wiper right in front of my face and I couldn't seem to get around it. I'll adjust those out tomorrow after I get another tow bar painted and shipped. Not sure about fuel mileage, but I did stop for diesel and put $100 in to fill er up. Fuel gauge is unreliable, but all else works great. I read the manual and learned how to turn on the electronic lights. Previously, I never hit the "Enter" key, and once I saw that I knew what to do upon recovery. Anyway, I'm thrilled to have my first deuce and will be driving it and lots of green stuff to the Ga. Rally. Thanks to PapaBear for the help (sorry I missed ya again) and all the good advice given by Gimpy and others. Here's some pics for ya too, along with the "Safari" in her final resting place, a place called Home.
 

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rchalmers3

Half a mile from the Broad River
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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Location
Irmo, South Carolina
Lock pick my foot!!!

Wow, she looks really clean in the pics. Looks like there is very little rust.

And I spy an M1061 trailer! I have trailer envy!!!

Congrats and enjoy!

Rick
 

3dAngus

Well-known member
4,719
101
63
Location
Perry, Ga.
That M1061 is in the classifieds by the way. With or without the tower. The flat acoustical panels in the rack for the MEP-003 are not included.
 
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