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GMC M221 recovery

M215

Member
478
3
18
Location
Spotsylvania, Virginia
Hey SS,
The M221 was brought home this past Saturday, overall the recovery went well. The seller had positioned the truck and removed the drive shafts for me, all we had to do was change out a few tires and hook up the tow bar. Weather was good on the trip over, the M813 made about 55-60, pyro temp stayed around 600-900 degrees. Changing out the three tires, hooking up the tow bar, safety chains and light bar took about 2 hours and we were ready to leave the farm. At this point the skies opened up with a hard rain which was off and on, mostly on for the entire trip home. The route home required crossing the Shenandoah mountain range on Rt 33. The trip up the mountain was slow, 3rd gear the pryo topped 1200 degrees, dropped the transfer into low range and climbed the mountain in 4th gear at 20 mph, pryo stayed under 900 degrees. The trip down was white knuckle, stayed in 4th low range and keep the speed under 25 mph, in heavy rain. The M221 weighs in at 12,000 lbs and you could feel it pushing you down the mountain. The rest of the trip was un-eventful, keep the speed under 45 mph. This was my first flat tow and was happy it went well.

Thanks to my neighbor Tony for the extra hand and to Jason Peacook for the use of his tow bar.

Later this week I'll reinstall the driveshafts and fire up this old dog! The truck was made in 1953, has a three digit serial number and is actually a XM221.

Enjoy the pics, Karl
 

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Ferroequinologist

Resident railroad expert
Steel Soldiers Supporter
4,808
740
113
Location
Liberty Hill, SC
Good looking rare truck! Must have been one hell of a mountain to slow down the 5 ton like that...

I have a M146 for sale in the classifieds that would look good behind that truck...:-D
 

nattieleather

Well-known member
1,882
144
63
Location
Cleveland, OH
As everyone else has said.....Saweet looking truck....eggsalad!! :lol: Very good find and mostly all there. Hasn't been to mucked up by civilian do gooders. I think with a shop trailer behind it (converted to camper) all done up green with stars would be just to cool. You are going to be the neat kid on the block with that truck! I'm so OD Green with envy...:)

As was also stated.....Please keep us posted with lots and lots of pics!!!!
 

M215

Member
478
3
18
Location
Spotsylvania, Virginia
M221 is alive!

OK SS,
I had some time to reconnect the driveshafts, drop in some batteries and rigged a temporary fuel can, she fired right up! Tranny shifts fine in low range all 4 gears, high and low reverse also. Did not try high range beyond 2nd gear, a little too fast for a vehicle without brakes.

Main goal is to stablilize the truck until time is available for restoration. Removed dirt accumulation from cab floor, tool box, glove box and interior of the doors. This will reduce rust causing moisture from developing. Drained the fuel tank, WOW, there was there a lot of crap in the bottom of the fuel tank, over 1" thick. I'll need to remove the fuel tank to really clean it out; the fuel pump tower body is good, I'm sure the pump is wasted. The fuel tank and pump tower are unique to the M221 / M215 vehicles, so these are hard to acquire.

Overall this M221 is in better condition than the M215 dumper when originally purchased.

Now the hunt for parts begains.

Karl
 
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Duke113p

New member
6
0
0
Location
Oklahoma
Does the fuel pump conversion work

Greetings all, new to the SS, just purchased an XM221, does this fuel pump conversion work? I wish mine was as untouched as yours. But its a solid truck like yours. Thanks,

Dustin
 
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