Since I have owned my M1078, I have benefited from lurking on this site. I now feel compelled to share my recent truck experience in hopes that fellow visitors to this site might find it useful. I know most of you on this site have years of experience with these trucks. But I hope this is helpful to someone ...
During the last few years I have slowly been chipping away at making a camper out of my truck. To that end, with the help of my WA state champion (3x) welding son I extended the stock frame three feet, built a stakebed and created an aluminum skeleton for the camper box. From there I sheathed the aluminum and built an interior. Though a little heavier than I had hoped … it all worked out well. We just completed a 1400 mile “camping” trip in Nevada. All of the systems on the camper worked as I had hoped. The 700 watts of solar panels kept our two 100ah lithium batteries topped off while providing power to our 3000w inverter/charger for some 120volt use. Our composting toilet (Airhead) worked great … avoiding the need for a nasty black water tank. All and all I couldn’t be happier with the camper.
The same goes for the truck. My 1995 M1078 came out of an Atlanta auction five years ago. Though I have done basic maintenance, I really don’t have much experience with components of a heavy truck (e.g.: CTI, air brakes, gladhands, etc.) It has definitely been a learning experience. So it was when we were just outside of Lakeview Oregon and the clutch fan rumble became a clutch fan double loud rumble. Turns out the six rivets that hold the fan onto the clutch fan mechanism had sheared. By flipping the on/off switch on the fan clutch I was able to limp into the sole repair facility in this out of the way part of Oregon …. Max’s Garage. The owner (Ray) is a great guy with lots of heavy truck experience. After quickly diagnosing the problem, the real challenge began …. Getting the right part to Lakeview Oregon. The first attempt unfortunately rendered a swing and a miss. A new fan was sourced by the parts people in Klamath Falls out of Michigan. Unfortunately after waiting two days for it’s arrival it turned out to be the wrong unit. Apparently the hub was correct …. but the blades were reversed. As much as I was enjoying Lakeview’s attractions, this was really frustrating. At this point I put a call into Walt Grigsby of Grigsby Trucks in Bend. If you are not aware, Walt specializes in working on these trucks. I can not thank Walt enough for his assistance. He graciously took time out of his busy schedule to consult with Ray to make sure we got the right fan ordered on the next go round. Delivered on a Saturday to Klamath Falls (100 miles west of Lakeview) …. I borrowed a car and went over and picked it up. Late that Saturday, Ray installed the fan and I was on my way out the door.
I took off the next day for a 500 mile drive home through our American outback … eastern Oregon. Between Lakeview and Burns Oregon, there is a stretch of 100 miles without ANY services of any kind. (for that matter there were no houses) Fortunately everything went great. Mostly I cruised around 50mph. (At one point I think I actually hit 57 mph) After about 11 hours on the road I rolled into our driveway in eastern washington.
So out of this adventure, I came away with the following lessons:
I hope this is helpful. (Honestly ... am a little worried I have opened myself up to the “know it all” trolls that lurk on forum sites … hopefully SteelSoldiers is different)
These are great trucks and I am looking forward to many more miles at that wheel.
During the last few years I have slowly been chipping away at making a camper out of my truck. To that end, with the help of my WA state champion (3x) welding son I extended the stock frame three feet, built a stakebed and created an aluminum skeleton for the camper box. From there I sheathed the aluminum and built an interior. Though a little heavier than I had hoped … it all worked out well. We just completed a 1400 mile “camping” trip in Nevada. All of the systems on the camper worked as I had hoped. The 700 watts of solar panels kept our two 100ah lithium batteries topped off while providing power to our 3000w inverter/charger for some 120volt use. Our composting toilet (Airhead) worked great … avoiding the need for a nasty black water tank. All and all I couldn’t be happier with the camper.
The same goes for the truck. My 1995 M1078 came out of an Atlanta auction five years ago. Though I have done basic maintenance, I really don’t have much experience with components of a heavy truck (e.g.: CTI, air brakes, gladhands, etc.) It has definitely been a learning experience. So it was when we were just outside of Lakeview Oregon and the clutch fan rumble became a clutch fan double loud rumble. Turns out the six rivets that hold the fan onto the clutch fan mechanism had sheared. By flipping the on/off switch on the fan clutch I was able to limp into the sole repair facility in this out of the way part of Oregon …. Max’s Garage. The owner (Ray) is a great guy with lots of heavy truck experience. After quickly diagnosing the problem, the real challenge began …. Getting the right part to Lakeview Oregon. The first attempt unfortunately rendered a swing and a miss. A new fan was sourced by the parts people in Klamath Falls out of Michigan. Unfortunately after waiting two days for it’s arrival it turned out to be the wrong unit. Apparently the hub was correct …. but the blades were reversed. As much as I was enjoying Lakeview’s attractions, this was really frustrating. At this point I put a call into Walt Grigsby of Grigsby Trucks in Bend. If you are not aware, Walt specializes in working on these trucks. I can not thank Walt enough for his assistance. He graciously took time out of his busy schedule to consult with Ray to make sure we got the right fan ordered on the next go round. Delivered on a Saturday to Klamath Falls (100 miles west of Lakeview) …. I borrowed a car and went over and picked it up. Late that Saturday, Ray installed the fan and I was on my way out the door.
I took off the next day for a 500 mile drive home through our American outback … eastern Oregon. Between Lakeview and Burns Oregon, there is a stretch of 100 miles without ANY services of any kind. (for that matter there were no houses) Fortunately everything went great. Mostly I cruised around 50mph. (At one point I think I actually hit 57 mph) After about 11 hours on the road I rolled into our driveway in eastern washington.
So out of this adventure, I came away with the following lessons:
- Make sure you have your SteelSoldiers.com password with you when you travel. Resetting it on the fly is a pain
- Carry basic spares (i.e.: belts, caging bolts, etc.) and know how to install them
- If you are going to take these trucks to out of the way places, be prepared to either fix a problem yourself or wait a long time for assistance and/or parts.
- If you are going off the beaten track … consider getting a satellite phone or satellite text message device (big parts of this country lack cell coverage)
- Carry copies of the military Tech Manuals on a thumb drive or laptop. Invaluable resource when a problem comes up.
- There are still great mechanics (Ray) and very helpful people (Walt Grigsby) that will help out if they can.
- There are more and more LMTV’s out there. Driving through rural Oregon I passed four M1078’s parked in small towns equipped with fire fighting equipment. At the event I attended in Nevada, I counted half a dozen LMTV’s of different variants.
- I am going to ask Santa for fast axles and good ear plugs.
I hope this is helpful. (Honestly ... am a little worried I have opened myself up to the “know it all” trolls that lurk on forum sites … hopefully SteelSoldiers is different)
These are great trucks and I am looking forward to many more miles at that wheel.
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