SomeWhatLost
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- Schaumburg/IL
hope this is the right place for this, I am a bit new here...
so some back story: in the summer when its nice out I usually ride one of my bikes ('01 Sporty or '14 1190RX) as my daily transportation... when the weather becomes inclement I then switch over to my truck (01 Silverado 2500HD)... and that setup has served me well for like 10 years or so...
but the last couple years or so, the Chevy has been increasingly unreliable, and it seems to always break when it is cold/inclement out and I least want to spend time on the driveway fixing it...
but it is a low mileage truck, and it still looks mostly new...
so I don't really want to replace it with a new truck, and new trucks (at least the ones I like) are OMG $$$$$....
so then I started thinking about getting a backup inclement weather vehicle...
my first thought was an M38 (or A1)... I had an Willys M38A1 in high school... as long as you had a good set of points, and a relatively good battery it would start no matter what the conditions were...
the cloth top/doors and the somewhat non-functional heater/defrost are a bit of a drawback in the winter though...
so I did some looking, and it seems that the only ones priced reasonably all look like they were left to rot in a field somewhere... and the nice ones are all really $$$$$
so somehow in my look for M38's, I stumbled across M35A3's....
wow, there is just something cool about the M35's....
but the CITS, and the Allison trans kind of scare me a bit... my truck has an allison... cost me alot of $$$ to get if fixed last time it broke...
so then somehow my search drifted over to the M35A2's....
the multi-fuel engine seems like a really good idea... why did they stop using them on the newer M35's?
the stock heat/defrost seems well not super great, would be good enough for Illinois winters... and the arctic super heater thing could be a fun future upgrade, but probably not really needed.... especially if I got a hard top and plugged up any air gaps...
and there are less bits to break on the manual trans...
I read through the tread about using M35's as daily drivers and it seems to be a slightly mixed message of sort, on the one hand there is the definite "no" camp, that brings up reliability issues with the motor and gas mileage...
what are the reliability issue with the motor? how long can you go between rebuilds?
and just how bad is the mileage? my 2500HD has the 8.1L, I currently get all the power of a diesel and none of that pesky gas mileage to go with it... how much worse could a M35a2 be?
(ie I get between 6 to high 8 MPG's... well, at least when it is running/working
)
so, I think I decided to look for complete/ready to be used M35a2's and I came across this:
http://ccsurplus.com/truck/522
it is a bit on the pricey side, but it sure looks like they spent some time going over and making the truck nice...
anyone here deal with C&C surplus? any customer feedback? it is a lot of money to spend, and I doubt I would ever get time to cruise over there and look at it person before buying it (assuming I can find some $$$ somewhere... need to start looking in the couch for all that lost change...)
so some back story: in the summer when its nice out I usually ride one of my bikes ('01 Sporty or '14 1190RX) as my daily transportation... when the weather becomes inclement I then switch over to my truck (01 Silverado 2500HD)... and that setup has served me well for like 10 years or so...
but the last couple years or so, the Chevy has been increasingly unreliable, and it seems to always break when it is cold/inclement out and I least want to spend time on the driveway fixing it...
but it is a low mileage truck, and it still looks mostly new...
so I don't really want to replace it with a new truck, and new trucks (at least the ones I like) are OMG $$$$$....
so then I started thinking about getting a backup inclement weather vehicle...
my first thought was an M38 (or A1)... I had an Willys M38A1 in high school... as long as you had a good set of points, and a relatively good battery it would start no matter what the conditions were...
the cloth top/doors and the somewhat non-functional heater/defrost are a bit of a drawback in the winter though...
so I did some looking, and it seems that the only ones priced reasonably all look like they were left to rot in a field somewhere... and the nice ones are all really $$$$$
so somehow in my look for M38's, I stumbled across M35A3's....
wow, there is just something cool about the M35's....
but the CITS, and the Allison trans kind of scare me a bit... my truck has an allison... cost me alot of $$$ to get if fixed last time it broke...
so then somehow my search drifted over to the M35A2's....
the multi-fuel engine seems like a really good idea... why did they stop using them on the newer M35's?
the stock heat/defrost seems well not super great, would be good enough for Illinois winters... and the arctic super heater thing could be a fun future upgrade, but probably not really needed.... especially if I got a hard top and plugged up any air gaps...
and there are less bits to break on the manual trans...
I read through the tread about using M35's as daily drivers and it seems to be a slightly mixed message of sort, on the one hand there is the definite "no" camp, that brings up reliability issues with the motor and gas mileage...
what are the reliability issue with the motor? how long can you go between rebuilds?
and just how bad is the mileage? my 2500HD has the 8.1L, I currently get all the power of a diesel and none of that pesky gas mileage to go with it... how much worse could a M35a2 be?
(ie I get between 6 to high 8 MPG's... well, at least when it is running/working
)so, I think I decided to look for complete/ready to be used M35a2's and I came across this:
http://ccsurplus.com/truck/522
it is a bit on the pricey side, but it sure looks like they spent some time going over and making the truck nice...
anyone here deal with C&C surplus? any customer feedback? it is a lot of money to spend, and I doubt I would ever get time to cruise over there and look at it person before buying it (assuming I can find some $$$ somewhere... need to start looking in the couch for all that lost change...)
