If you look carefully at my Avatar, you will see how I, single handedly, got my M109 home from Ft. Riley, KS to Denver, CO in 2007. That's my '69 Bronco on a tow bar.
I won the bid one day and had planned, even arranged, to have it hauled home. The next day I got laid off; change of plans. I didn't know if it even had an engine, but I found out it did, but wouldn't start. My son and I made plans to go in my Bronco and were betting we could get it running; then he got a new job and couldn't go. I built a tow bar at a friend’s shop with a switchable end on it, a 2" ball receiver on one end and a pintle eye on the other and I set out alone.
The only thing wrong with the truck was rust in the master brake cylinder and a loose battery connection. The batteries were even charged up! Nothing ever goes exactly as you expect; the pintle eye was smaller than the hook on the truck. If I ground the hole out on the eye it would weaken it too much, so I ground the ribs off of the hook. By 5:00 PM I was pulling in at Salina, KS for my first civilian fill-up.
I had a good battery in the Bronco so I ran all night with its flashers on. I’d stop every 2 – 3 hr. and fast idle it for 30 min. in the parking lot of a truck stop. The one thing I would do differently, besides the right size pintle, is put an 8’ 2x4 across the front bumper of the Bronco with a bicycle flag on each end. I stopped several times just to see if the Bronco was still there.
BE SAFE!! If you’ve driven bigger trucks, you should be okay, but read up on the ABS brakes. They feel a bit different. You don’t need a CDL. Run the engine and pump up the air. Then shut it off and crawl under it, listening for leaks. Check all the fluids and grease all the critical stuff. My M923 had dry ‘U’ joints. I don’t know what kind of tires you have, but my 923 with XL’s has a stopping distance at 50 MPH of over 200 ft., more like 250.
Be safe, do good work, keep in touch.
