Mark3395
Member
- 229
- 2
- 18
- Location
- Geneseo Illinois
Quite an education.
Haven't been to Camp Dodge in decades but found the folks there great to deal with.
'71 M817 looked great... nice paint, solid body, one full tank of diesel, most tires OK, but it needed a pull start. Got that done and headed out for Illinois. Had a 200 mile drive ahead of us.
I'd never driven a 5T with Cummins, and still don't know if it's typical. Took a while to get shift points down. Shifting was smooth, but I tended to let RPMs drop too far before downshifting and then fighting to regain speed. The truck seemed to be a real pig... not as perky as a deuce (!) and I don't know if it's due to heavy weight of the dump truck or a weak engine. DA2404 reflected "excessive blowby" of the engine, but it sounded great and I didn't notice venting. Fuel economy seemed OK and exhaust was clean. 200 miles took about 5 hours at an average of 40MPH. Chase car reflected speed as high as 60 though. Gotta check it out with a GPS system.
So I've got a nice dump truck but still need to get used to driving the thing. I mostly got it to tow the odd deuce but question whether it's strong enough.
Lots of fun though. Still learning.
Haven't been to Camp Dodge in decades but found the folks there great to deal with.
'71 M817 looked great... nice paint, solid body, one full tank of diesel, most tires OK, but it needed a pull start. Got that done and headed out for Illinois. Had a 200 mile drive ahead of us.
I'd never driven a 5T with Cummins, and still don't know if it's typical. Took a while to get shift points down. Shifting was smooth, but I tended to let RPMs drop too far before downshifting and then fighting to regain speed. The truck seemed to be a real pig... not as perky as a deuce (!) and I don't know if it's due to heavy weight of the dump truck or a weak engine. DA2404 reflected "excessive blowby" of the engine, but it sounded great and I didn't notice venting. Fuel economy seemed OK and exhaust was clean. 200 miles took about 5 hours at an average of 40MPH. Chase car reflected speed as high as 60 though. Gotta check it out with a GPS system.
So I've got a nice dump truck but still need to get used to driving the thing. I mostly got it to tow the odd deuce but question whether it's strong enough.
Lots of fun though. Still learning.