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M870A1 Acquisition Thread

fasttruck

Well-known member
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In an earlier life I used to deploy the m870 trailer with a M123 ten ton alone all the time. My tractor's winch would run without your hand on the air valve that controlled the movement of the captstan so you used the transfer lever to start and stop tohe truck while the winch ran. Pay out 3-4 feet of cable, mover the tractor ahead to take out the slack and repeat until trailer was on ground. It was easier to recover the trailer as you positioned tractor 3-4 feet in front, attached winch cable, started winching in while you rode the brake on the tractor lightly to keep slack out of cable. Winch tractor under trailer. If trailer had a moveable load on it such as a bulldozer tht would have to be on the rear end of trailer to raise or lower it.
 

Castle Bravo

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A friend of mine recently acquired an M19 multiple gun motor carriage. It arrived on a step deck trailer and to get it off of there, I backed up the 870 trailer to the step deck and we winched the M19 off.
 

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Supersize121

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Embarrassingly, the only thing I have put on it is that M114.
Fantastic work. Beautiful. Question a few post back you showed pictures with the neck down at a show. The winch cable was attached to the front of the trailer. For some reason I thought the trailer had a pony motor or a hand cranked winch to facilitate the un-folding of the front deck and then folding it back up. Is the only way down using the winch and cable? Meaning a guy couldn't use a tractor with out a winch? I'm confused. What type of paint did you use it lays down nice and has a smooth and reflective finish. It looks more durable than the OEM paint?

Thanks

Jim
 

simp5782

Feo, Fuerte y Formal
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Mason, TN
Fantastic work. Beautiful. Question a few post back you showed pictures with the neck down at a show. The winch cable was attached to the front of the trailer. For some reason I thought the trailer had a pony motor or a hand cranked winch to facilitate the un-folding of the front deck and then folding it back up. Is the only way down using the winch and cable? Meaning a guy couldn't use a tractor with out a winch? I'm confused. What type of paint did you use it lays down nice and has a smooth and reflective finish. It looks more durable than the OEM paint?

Thanks

Jim
Have to have a winch to pick it up and down. Unless you add hydraulic cylinders and a pump
 

Castle Bravo

Hundredaire Socialite
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Fantastic work. Beautiful. Question a few post back you showed pictures with the neck down at a show. The winch cable was attached to the front of the trailer. For some reason I thought the trailer had a pony motor or a hand cranked winch to facilitate the un-folding of the front deck and then folding it back up. Is the only way down using the winch and cable? Meaning a guy couldn't use a tractor with out a winch? I'm confused. What type of paint did you use it lays down nice and has a smooth and reflective finish. It looks more durable than the OEM paint?

Thanks

Jim
A winch is required if you want to lay the front of the trailer down. I had this trailer for some years before fixing the winch on my M916 and just loaded stuff over the back. There are no stock ramps or attachments for ramps, so some had to be added.

The paint is Gillespie. I would say it's not as durable as the OEM CARC paint.
 

Supersize121

New member
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A winch is required if you want to lay the front of the trailer down. I had this trailer for some years before fixing the winch on my M916 and just loaded stuff over the back. There are no stock ramps or attachments for ramps, so some had to be added.

The paint is Gillespie. I would say it's not as durable as the OEM CARC paint.
Thanks for the reply. Great information. Great looking rig.
 

fasttruck

Well-known member
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Location
Mesa, AZ
Originally the trailer was used with the M123 10 ton tractor as a replacement for the 25 ton M 172 trailers used up to that time. If a tractor with a winch was not available then either a forklift or wrecker would have to be used to operate the trailer. The military now has a RGN or removable goose neck trailer which has a pony motor to operate it so any tractor can pull it. It also has a double drop to get the floor level down so you can get under a 13' 6" bridge. M 870s and 172s have 36" deck height so the Army accepted the designs on the theory they would never have to deploy to any location with overpasses.
 

NDT

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The M870 was intended to be used with the M920 tractor, and in combination was called the Medium Equipment Transporter. The M916 was intended to replace the M123 10 ton to pull the M172 25 ton trailer and the combination was called the Light Equipment Transporter. The M123 was primarily used with the M15A2 trailer to haul tanks.
 

fasttruck

Well-known member
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636
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Location
Mesa, AZ
Post 118: Don't forget the M747 to haul your tanks. Going down the road with 170,000 pounds and a 300hp engine is a character building exercise . Eventually the Army applied a MWO to the M123 in the form of a exhaust brake and then you could upshift them and get them (the M123 to go.
 

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