M270A1 Worst pickup story ever?

[jwaller]

well as many of you know I recently purchased a M270A1 from GL. When first thinking about this 875 mile trip I thought I would use the deuce and a dolley to pick it up. Deuce is faster on the highway and would get better milage than my 818.

well the deuce trans blew up about 350 miles into the trip and RDM helped out in spades with a loaner trans.

so I made the call that I couldnt trust the deuce to pick this thing up. GL was on my case about taking too long to get it and I would forfiet the trailer if I didnt pick it up soon.

so I got to work on the 818 to get it's power up and speed up. fixed the spider valve under the cab fixed the air leaks in the fuel system and I was off.
about 10 min into the trip I discovered the lights weren't going to work. the 3 lever switch had died.

made it to ft polk sunday night as dark fell after about 20hrs on the road.
woke up 6am monday to get to the base and use all the daylight to get as close to home as possible.

got to the right gate and I forgot my vehicle registration card. MP's wrote me a ticket so I could use that as a reg card and I wa son the base. pickup went good and I hooked up and hit the road. for about 150 miles. then I had a LF tire blow the tread off. all day before and that day the front tires were super hot. I had the correct air pressure but man you couldnt even touch them.

Another 200 miles down the road the cummins couldnt hold roady speed so I pulled over for a fuel filter swap and that fixed the problem.

Truck and trailer are now in atlanta to get tagged and insured and titled and I'll be going there in a week or two to finish up the trip and get them home again.

 

[Recovry4x4]

That sucker looks very long.

 

[jwaller]

49' 2" just what I wanted when I bought the truck.
I dont have any brakes on the trailer right now and I am trying to find a good copy of 9-8240 to help with getting them working.

 

[clinto]

Wow, that is a long trailer. Sorry to hear of your troubles, need any help?

 

[jwaller]

ya it's long. long enough to haul the deuce and another vehicle with some room left. I love it.

 

[Massm35a2]

Wow, that tire looks bad, glad you were able to control it and the tire didn't totally let go.

 

[jwaller]

ya I knew something had happened but the thing didn't lose air and I was able to drive to the shoulder and swap it with the spare in about 15 min.

 

[wreckerman893]

I'm sure it could have been worse.
Stay tuned for Wreckerman and Freighttrain's great adventure when we go to Fort Jackson to pick up my deuce.
At least you didn't have to open the billfold for a tow truck.
That sucker is a lot longer than I remember them being. Can you see one hooked to a M-246 wrecker?
We once hauled a small guage box car that was being used as a line shack here at Fort Benning on one.
It hung over about ten feet and that old 818 was grunting, but it pulled it.
I pulled a 53 foot van when I was trucking but the tandems would slide up under it for tight manuveruing.
You will run over a lot of curbs before you get used to it.

 

[area52]

HMMM... A M246 with a M270A1 is my dream combination. Take about 4 city blocks to turn around..

Nice trailer - so what are you gonna do with it?

 

[jwaller]

My plans are to haul my stash of cars to shows and to the drag strip. haul the deuce to shows and many get into local heavy hauling to make some $$$ with this thing.

I have already come close to taking out a few curbs but not yet. it def could have been worse but I did leave out a few details that I dare not disclose on the internet.

I think this trailer is supposed to go with this truck(81 and with the 819 under service with the air force as aircraft recovery platform. thats why it's as big as it is but doesn't have a super high weight rating.

 

[SierraHotel]

Yeah, I know about blowing tires...

 

[OPCOM]

Glad you made it home safe!! makes me think I want to find a place for my spare since it was dropped for the generator. When you do find out what let loose in the transmission, please let us know.

 

[Westech]

I had both front tires on my M220 go at the same time! I tell ya the old NDT's just fall apart. Even if not dry rotted try to keep "newer" tires on for the high speed stuff.

 

[citizensoldier]

That would have been a site to see going down the road on a dolly and behind a deuce! Talk about taking out some curbs! Glad you are home safe. Did the dolly make it back to ADR's? I think that trailer was worth the hassle? Dont you?

 

[ARMYMAN30YearsPlus]

I can tell you that the duece with my homemade dolly pulled the M 127 better than my M 52 did I am still trying to figure that out? All the way from Lakehurst NJ making 55 on the straight aways and 38 up the hills. I towed the trailer only 10 miles from where I had it parked waiting for the M52 and I swear it took me way too long to get up the hill on I95 going only about 25 and really pulling. I am leaving for Korea too soon to really find out if it was me or the truck but your trailer looks great and I am glad you are getting it home in good shape. S&P trailers are the best and you will love using it, mine is a temporary storage one now waiting for me to get back in 2008.

 

[cranetruck]

Was that tire a recap? The inner tube and pwr steering must have helped keeping things under control....
Congrats on a nice trailer.

Glad you made it home safe!! makes me think I want to find a place for my spare since it was dropped for the generator. When you do find out what let loose in the transmission, please let us know.

Patrick, you still have duals, shouldn't need any more "spares".

 

[pa.rich]

Wow, you could do alot with that trailer ! And dont worry too much about curbs, its the lite poles and buildings that concern me! If we see a small pile of bricks on the edge of that trailer we will be suspicious!

 

[Ferroequinologist]

At least you didn't try and leave through any buildings...

The Army still hasn't sent me a bill, starting to worry. My luck they will calculate every penny of inflation...

 

[SierraHotel]

Westfolk has so many toys....

 

[jwaller]

That would have been a site to see going down the road on a dolly and behind a deuce! Talk about taking out some curbs! Glad you are home safe. Did the dolly make it back to ADR's? I think that trailer was worth the hassle? Dont you?

the dolly is back at ADR's I didnt get a chance to use it thought I would have liked too. It was worth the hassle for sure. cant wait to get a chance to use it.