jollyroger
Member
- 647
- 5
- 18
- Location
- Centennial, Colorado
So after 4 days and 2700 mile round trip we finally got the M-817 back to the farm. It was a running condition unknown truck so we were facing driving it or spending the $3600 to have it hauled. I did a bunch of research on SS before we left about the differences between the 2.5 tons and the 5 tons. Thank you all for the wealth of information I found on the SS site. I bought two D-8 batteries before we left as I was hesitant to spend $560 for 4 6TL's. Annyhoodle the towing company, Reeve Trucking, thought the truck was a fugitive from the junk yard and there would be no way we would want to drive it home even if we could get it running. The canvas top was ripped but I scanned the pictures pretty thouroughly before and after I bought it to assess the damage or needs for repair. It really came down to putting in batteries, trying to start it and checking fluids. We put in the batteries and nothing happened. We got some systems to power up but it was not going well. We drove straigh through to Stockton from Denver and were immediately working on the truck. The sneering from the towing company made firing the truck up an issue of pride. I need some fluids so we decided to go to Wal-Mart so we could get supplies and slow down and think. Oh, and we need some breakfast cause a fat kids gotta eat. We got the stuff and back to the yard we went. I dove in with the test light and dad started looking the systems over from the battery side. We were about to try and jump straight from the batteries to the starter just to assess the motor when Dad found we had wired the D-8 as 12 volt instaed of 24. This came about as we went from 4 6TL's to two D-8's and missed the need for a jumper between the two batteries. And we were pretty wipped out from the drive. I double checked with the volt meter and sure enough 12 V. We rewired the batteries for 24 and all the systems came to life in the cab. I hit the start switch and the truck immediately came to life. You should have seen all the guys at the towing company come out of the shop and the office when the ol' 250 Cummins sat there idling like it was brand new. Of course I had to hit the horn a few times like a proud popa with his new Baby Huey. We let the air build up, pumped up the tires, checked the fluids, checked the brakes, taped up the top, checked the dump to make sure it worked and I eased it over in front of the offices. I went inside to wash my hands and everyone was patting me on the back and saying good luck on your trip. So we left Stockton to head down to Lucerne Valley to see 100dollarman about a trailer he picked up for me and some other parts I was interested in. We made it to Barstow late that evening. The next moring we headed out for Hundy's. We got the trailer he picked up for me and a hard top he scrounged up for the dump truck and some other stuff he was nice enough to sell me. We headed out of his place and made it to St.George Utah where we stayed for the night. We were 650 miles from home so we got an early start, 0500, and eased on down the road. We made it home at 2015 hrs. Other than being a tedious trip the truck worked flawlessly. The truck also earned a name for itself. It is Private Gump. Private Forrest Gump.
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