M932A2 and Mk-48 Cab conversion

[Nick02]

I have been having fun...
A little too much fun, up till midnight working on this thing everyday for the past two weeks.

Had a squeaky squeaky noise so I changed the water pump and she has been running great. Took it shooting!


Time for the camper, I have been moving SUPER fast, this thing is my full time residence now haha!

All the bolts holding the 5th wheel on were rusted solid so I cut them off and hammered them out.
I then used some 2x6" boxed tubing to prepare the trailer frame mount, the main mount is secured over the rear axle and welded to the 5th wheel outriggers, the camper will follow this mount when articulating. The rear pivot is a 2.5"" solid bushing in a half inch thick 3" sleeve with 3/8" plate gusseting it to the frame. The front pivots are GM transmission mounts.

Here is the camper, a 1988 Fleetwood 20' 5th wheel, it has a really low ceiling height and that's why I chose it.

To keep everything as low and compact as possible I decided to cut into the engine doghouse and remove the ROPS, a GM lQ4 automatic transmission mount sits atop this and takes some of the loading of the camper.


I then cut the axles and tongue off the camper and lifted it into the air with a forklift and my Cummins swapped C60 with a Holmes 600 wrecker.
I slowly backed the truck under the sucker, got it right on the second try, it was fun!!

Here it is not mounted but sitting on all of the mounts, the total height is 13' with the A/C and 11'8" to the roof

Nudging the camper into the final position.

Main mount burned in.

Rear pivot mount, this will get gusseted to the rear bumper/departure angle structure.

As she sits

 

[agazza2]

Nick,

I did not realize you were this far with the expedition vehicle. I think I will have to stop by and see it this weekend. It is coming along nicely. Great fabrication work.

 

[silverstate55]

Good job! My wife has been bugging me lately to keep our M931a2 and put a camper body on the back....

 

[srodocker]

That is awesome!

 

[Nick02]

I have been working on the rear bumper, frame and side skirts, the internal structure of the rear bumper is 1.75" 1/8" wall DOM. The frame was extended 48" with an extra rear pivot for the extra weight of the massive spare and will serve as the recovery/tow point.

 

[agazza2]

As always Nick, excellent craftsmanship. I will send you a text message to see if you have time for me to come out and check it out. I have a few data plates I found.

 

[Nick02]

So I got a few things buttoned up, spare tire carrier moved, got a generator on the truck and extended the frame with an extra rear pivot to support the weight of that spare. Ready for adventure!
We took the truck out for 4th of july weekend, Ran great on the highway even though it was 111degrees and humid (monsoon season) outside, filled the tires up to 70PSI before the trip.
This vehicle gets wayyy more attention then anything I have ever driven before, 10-15 mins extra at any gas station or public stop to answer questions.
When we were on the highway people would hang outside cars with cellphones recording, folks hiding in blind-spots taking photos... its funny!
So we go offroad, a few miles of bumpy roads, hillclimbs and off camber situations, the truck does excellent, the stick and tin camper is really lightweight so the truck stays planted even when off camber.

We transitioned to a normal dirt road, rolling along at 5mph and a big sidewall failure occurred (BOOM!). It was not violent, I thought I blew an airline as the truck barely dropped even though it was riding on the rim.
The tire looked fine with no chunking or anything out of the ordinary but it was dated from 2005, opps!

Thank goodness that Allan included a socket, jack and a couple breaker bars to get the lugs off. We ended up bending both and coming up with creative methods of getting the tire off.
I transplanted the spare tire carrier to the back of the camper, it worked great.
A good guy came to our need when I didn't have the correct wrench to remove the CTIS guard, he also helped us break some more lugs as we started to get symptoms of heatstroke.


Unfortunately the jack did not have enough throw to lift the axle off the ground even when blocking the jack so we had to dig a hole so the new tire could be installed.


Got the tire back on, I really like the look of the Michelin vs the Goodyears


A few lessons learned but it was a great trip and we had a good time. I got a bigger Jack and planetary reduction wrench so tire changes will no longer be an issue.

 

[99nouns]

Yeah been there done that, my breaker bar is bent like an S too, problem is with all that pain on the stud, I wish there was an easy way to remove it without damaging the threads...

 

[quarkz]

Great build Nick02. How much legroom in the cab? If you don't mind a tall guy asking.



99Nouns -Split Die Thread Chaser by Murray Tools, or any other thread chasing die for that matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4dErEGTAos

 

[HASSON1911]

Great build Nick02. How much legroom in the cab? If you don't mind a tall guy asking.



99Nouns -Split Die Thread Chaser by Murray Tools, or any other thread chasing die for that matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4dErEGTAos

I'm 6' 1" and about 240lb i fit pretty good, I have to modify where my foot rest for the throttle because the angle really hurts to hold it there too long. This is in my m977 of course and not his awesome truck.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[Nick02]

Great build Nick02. How much legroom in the cab? If you don't mind a tall guy asking.

I'm 6' 1" and about 240lb 8 fit pretty good, I have to modify where my foot rest for the throttle because the angle really hurts to hold it there too long. This is in my m977 of course and not his awesome truck.

Ditto, 5' 10" 150lbs here and the footrest is annoying but the stop plate is easy to move, but plenty of headroom so you could always move the seat up.

 

[Nick02]

Now I have a big tire dilemma! I am relocating to San Francisco in a month (maybe) or moving to Knoxville TN in a couple months and I am driving the truck there.

Three of the seven tires are good, dated from 2010 and are wearing fine. The rest of the tires are junk dating from 2005-2004, chunking really bad, throwing tread blocks.

Alpha Tread in Tuscon does not have anymore 14.00 R20's, which sucks really bad as I would only have to buy five of them. I like bigger tires but, I cannot go to 16.00 R20's as the extra height of the tire will hit the frame of the camper when articulated, but I can limit travel if I need too seems like the 16.00's are the cheapest option, looks like they are all over the place.

395's are OK with me I like the Goodyear MVT pattern, but I think a smaller tire looks silly. Alpha tread wants low tread take offs for $230 each or newish ones for $350, Pretty pricyy$$ as I can find them on ePay for wayy cheaper shipped.

It doesn't look like I can get four newer 14.00 R20's in the Phoenix area (or anywhere) in the near future so kinda stuck in between a rock and hard place, crap. So if anyone knows where to point me for tires in the southwest I am all ears.

 

[simp5782]

Check with csmdavis. He has some xzls that are new. You can keep my number handy for the area around memphis.

Sent from my SM-G860P using Tapatalk

 

[agazza2]

Nick, you still going to paint the back camo? I still want to come out and see it when you have time. I have been too busy lately to make it over, but now have some time.

 

[Nick02]

I drove out to Texas to get new tires!
Removing the rims from the old tires sucked to all ****, but I managed to figure out a creative method.

It was an entire week deal to get the new tires mounted, holy crap it was tough!


But she looks good on the new meats and noticeably quicker acceleration and way better braking.

 

[Nick02]

Well, I was sitting at my job with a bright future. I was promised to be relocated out to Knoxville TN to start a new life at a new factory in a location I would absolutely love and have been working on that relocation for five months prior.

However, my employer pushed my relocation date to the last week of the month that was promised so I was ready to go (and wanted to keep pushing it out) but I already ended my lease and turned in my daily driver lease too, moved my stuff into storage and helped move my mom (who recently survived and fought through ovarian cancer) move into a new smaller home that she was happy with.

Since my employer kept pushing out my relocation date I was living in the parking lot and was technically homeless and my manager would not do anything about it.

I also had a better paying, better position job offer in San Francisco working for a bus manufacturing company, a white collar normal job. I figured the senior level experience position would be totally awesome, I put a few hundred miles test miles on the dragon wagon and things were looking good!

So I just kept working and I spent the weekend doing a new paint job.
I then moved the tow truck, Unimog and trailer to a good friends house for the long term storage… it was so sad! I spend many months sleeping behind the shipping containers here and working hard for the company over the last six years, employee number 11 and now we have over 140+.

Late night fab, I made oshkosh tow bar mounts for the Dakota… may be a bit overkill!

I decided to go to SF. I gave in my resignation letter and said goodbye to all my friends, they were all very proud I had the balls to leave the comfy job for the unknown. Lots of them believed in me and the crazy idea, the CEO even came out.




And I hit the road on Wed, new job on Tuesday!

First day, truck is not running good, I started loosing ALOT of oil, somewhere on the injector side of the 6CT it just started and got worse. I traced the problem down to a loose oil cap, I tightened it and it seemed to get better but I did see some bubbling of oil between where the head meets the block. No sign of overheating, cross contamination or zero drop in oil pressure so I think its ok.



I started driving again and my headlights started flickering, then went out! This was bad and because it was dark as **** out. The headlight selector turns on, trips and will reset after a couple seconds in the run position. I tried to trace the wiring issue but there seemed to be a serious short circuit in-between the headlamps and running light to the chassis. Could not figure it out so I had a really bad night at a full truck stop sleeping in a no parking area and decided to continue during daytime.

No photos because I was so stressed out and to top it all off I developed Strep throat, man ****ty!

When I woke up I had another suprise, overnight the left front tire on the HEMTT rim went flat…. the one behind it was low so I had to air them up, I think the o-rings slipped or something weird happened to them internally but it was going to be a small issue compared to what I was about to face.


Hundred miles later I was driving along the highway I started to smell gear oil. I started looking for spots to pull over (on the crazy I10) and within a minute the entire cab was filled with thick white smoke, like the truck was on fire. Suddenly, the the truck started shaking violently, so I pulled over on the side of the road near the wind generators in Palm Springs, fire extinguisher in hand.

This is what I was greeted with…. luckily there was no fire, just red hot smoldering metal!


My transfer case input bearing took a dump and the input yoke welded itself at a 15 degree off angle…. yea…..

Still had fluid in it so I think the oil pump got clogged, took a dump, or maybe the bearing had a bad defect, I will find out later.
Here is the fun video with the rear driveline removed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jEtQ4nEi4k

I knew I was done, so I put out a social media sign for help. The problem is that I left Phoenix so unexpectedly that I never did put good attachment points on the front of the truck so nobody could help me.
I called several heavy wreckers and none of them wanted to touch it, I thought I was really screwed…
Then I called a family run place called Mohica Towing, they were not afraid of the challenge but had to go a couple countys over to bring a heavy wrecker with axle clamps! Luckily chartering the truck was only $200 an hr so the total bill was not super bad.

They said it would be cheaper if I pulled the driveshaft myself so I did it in the hour it took to get the heavy wrecker, the step throat was getting to me however.
I disconnected the Dakota (now covered in all sorts of fluids) and followed my pride and joy down the highway.

We had to go pass a weigh station and get 42 miles to Redlands CA. Luckily, one of my good friends, Buddy, had a temporary spot I could park it at until I figure out what to do.

It was now Friday so I had to get to SF so I could recover from my sickness and start my job. Luckily the property I was going to park the truck at had a trailer in the backyard and thankfully my landlord was willing to let me lease it out.

So yeah, that is the current state of things, broken transfer-case, questionable wiring, questionable engine (hopefully just the oil cap) and 6.5 hours away )-;

After two weeks out here in the bay life kinda sucks. I mean traffic is on a third world level and everything is super expensive! The job is just not for me as I just do BOM and part number modification changes all day. Being a BOM engineer is soul crushing, mentally draining and sucks. I am not even designing parts anymore but rather, modifying lots of them. I was hired for a design engineer position and I feel that what I am doing is super different.

However the new job, has its upside, like learning good process, being around transit buses, heavy axles and big motors! My supervisors are great people and everyone in this company works hard, but I know that is is not for me, I miss being hands on.

I have a few options
#1. Stick it out here, deal with the bad job, crazy work hours (5am-3pm), maybe find a new job (good market for that out here) and get the truck closer (pay someone to lift it up on a cradle or add tow-bar points), find a place close so I can replace the transfer-case and bring it here to live in it.
#2 Quit the job and go to LA, drop the T-case and directly drive the rear axles from the transmission output, get a new driveshaft made and deal with no overdrive. I think the air dryer may be in the way too, but I think I can get away with the operation angles.
#2 Quit the job and go to LA, replace the tcase (but I dont have the equipment to do so and cant really work on it where it is parked).

 

[marchplumber]

Wow.......


Sometimes when ya roll the dice, it ends up snake eyes. Contact former employer? Try to use S.S. express shipping and get it back? Use S.S. Express to move truck where repair is possible. Put out help wanted message for members in your area to get her back on the road. Sure there are some folks who can help repair, offer wisdom, or store. Work provides funds. Funds provide food and parts. Parts fix truck and food feeds ya. Try not to "rush" any decisions. Ask for help. Super cool vehicle. Please get WELL first and go from there. We'll try to help as best we can. "First things first and never surrender!"

 

[Nick02]

Wow.......


Sometimes when ya roll the dice, it ends up snake eyes. Contact former employer? Try to use S.S. express shipping and get it back? Use S.S. Express to move truck where repair is possible. Put out help wanted message for members in your area to get her back on the road. Sure there are some folks who can help repair, offer wisdom, or store. Work provides funds. Funds provide food and parts. Parts fix truck and food feeds ya. Try not to "rush" any decisions. Ask for help. Super cool vehicle. Please get WELL first and go from there. We'll try to help as best we can. "First things first and never surrender!"

Cant go back to the old employer and don't really want too.

The old job was awesome (hands on startup with great pay) and I worked with some talented experienced mentors, coworkers and engineers that I had a ton of respect for (from NASA, Intel, Tesla, Google, Mercedes Benz, great fabricators etc). We were really making some ground breaking products and survived through the bad economy because of it! I loved my job prior to 2014. But then the board of directors stepped in and ruined the magic sauce, "fake it till you make it" became acceptable and marketing ran the company; subsequently, all the talented people left. I found myself working for a startup financial machine and they started outsourcing all the engineering work... I knew my days were numbered.


But good news, things got better in the last 30 minutes!
A good friend of mine, Buddy took it upon himself to move it to a storage unit in Redlands. Buddy is a crazy Baja trophy truck racing driver and drove the sucker 8.8 miles to a nice covered storage unit!


So the truck is safe now and that is a big sigh of relief when you are six hours away.


I prepared created a good cash buffer to help me out in times like these and can get by on a year going unemployed and maintain my current lifestyle.

 

[agazza2]

Nick,

Things will get better for you Nick, you have a lot to offer the right company, and a great personality. I think it would be great if we can get the SS members together and help get this on the road for you again soon. You are truly a person that after meeting one wants to remain friends with you......(and learn from you

When it comes to working on it. let me know if you need a hand on the weekend. I can come out to So-Cal to help you over the weekend. Maybe ahead of time someone could build a 4 x 6 structure to attach between the frame points on the top to hook a hand winch to and we can lower the transfer case down if you can find a replacement before then.

There is a guy in S-Cal that has the MRAP front tow brackets that I was looking at. It may be a quick way to get tow hooks put on once the frame is drilled. Let me know if you need that info, as it is one the big auction site. Let me know what I can do to help.

 

[Nick02]

Thanks to Allans heads up I scored a brand new Rockwell T1138 transfer case out in Barstow CA.

Picking it up from GL was interesting, Full vehicle inspection, crazy entry check but I got it! The container is gigantic and heavy as a lead brick. I did not even open it because I had to drive back to work instantly.

Plan is to buy a scissor lift table and weld some brackets to it so I can raise and lower the transfer-case from below the truck frame. The storage facility is not super cool with me working on it there but if I can knock it out in a day it will be fine.

Still kicking it at the new job just trying to get through the probationary period. I am trying to break even finance wise (the Bay Area just sucks money out of you like nuts) the taxes out here are crazy too. I shop at the dollar store and try to walk everywhere but I am just scraping by, haha. CA is crazy expensive!

Fingers crossed!