MV Road trip with a civilian chase vehicle

[Valence]

I'm planning ~700 mile round trip from northern Utah to western Idaho in my 1972 M35A2. I have a family member following me in my Dodge Dakota pickup.

I've done short, 2-vehicle "convoys" stints before getting firewood with my brother. He tried leading with his civilian pickup truck at first and that was obviously a bad idea. People who'd pass my deuce would end up behind him, assuming he'd be going much faster and then would brake suddenly/erratically. This was only slightly improved by him following my deuce as folks would tend to pass both vehicles. The problem, though, was that vehicles behind him would wait and wait, assuming he'd pass my deuce, which, of course, he wasn't. This would usually result in a sporadic, or even dangerous, impatient passing event when there wasn't much passing distance.

Even though it's only a convoy of two, this time I plan to place the "CONVOY AHEAD" sign I got from General Mcgregor on the rear of the my Dakota to help communicate to people "Hey, this vehicle is with others in front of it". I might even place the "CONVOY FOLLOWS" signs on the deuce's front bumper.



Is there anything else I should do?

I've considered looking to see if there is a magnetic, rotary light that I could place on the back end of the Dakota and maybe even power it from the trailer receptacle, but I'm not sure.

Thanks!

 

[Barrman]

I have several thousand miles of M35 driving with a civilian chase vehicle. When I am in the M35 I like the civilian vehicle in front. We always use two way radios. Unless you have an aviation type headset in the M35, you can't hear what the other person is saying. However, they can hear you. We would normally start out with the lead vehicle setting their cruise control around 52 mph or so. It is amazing how much easier to drive a M35 it is when you have an outside the truck reference for speed. At least to me. Not for over speed reasons normally, but to keep the speed up. A few miles an hour make a big difference over a several day drive. The civilian vehicle is most likely where the GPs telling you where to go is too.

I don't know how tall you are. But I am 6'2". My natural driving position in a M35 has the wiper motor in my line of sight. Leaning over the steering wheel but not totally laying on it is what works for me. Just having to watch the car in front and maintain spacing is nice.

Running the MV with lights on is pretty much a safety must in my opinion. 9 years ago Sermis, Boxcar and myself were flat towing 2 M35 trucks with M105 trailers in the beds behind 2 other M35 trucks with trailers in them as well. Basically, 2 Duece drivers and a Dodge 3500 driver. Speed was not something we had in abundance. There were your usual non thinking city drivers when we were in congested areas, but no real issues. The biggest problem was we were going south on I-35 from OKC toward Austin on a Sunday during football season. Texas had played the day before in Colorado. We would get packs of import cars full of students road tripping home going way, way over the speed limit closing on us and not realizing the closure rate.

We got on the radios and had the Dodge get behind us with the flashers going after the first car disappeared from the mirrors under the bumperettes. No impact, but it had to be close. That was how we went through the totally messed up traffic of FTW a bit later. A person going through town has to go all the way across the highway from right lane to left lane, then a bit later all the way back to the right lane and then back half way to the left. The Dodge would jump in a lane, flash its lights when the rear truck combo was clear and then they would flash for the front truck combo to change lanes.

 

[Valence]

That's really helpful information there Barrman, I appreciate it!

I like the idea of using the civilian vehicle as a sort of "set the pace" vehicle, but I think I like the idea even better of the flashing head lights as the "all clear" signal when changing lanes.

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Suggestion:
Enter CONVOY in the SteelSoldiers SEARCH BOX. There is a wealth of knowledge already posted and archived here.

 

[Jbulach]

YES!

There are a lot of magnetic amber beacon light options out there that you can plug into the cigarette lighter. I prefer the visual of a rotator but they are noisy, more maintenance, typically more expensive, and are much less common than LED's or strobes this day and age.
Put it on the right side of the roof, to keep it as high as possible to be visible for someone several vehicles back, as their peeking out to pass.
Stay off the interstates, and have fun!

 

[Trailboss]

On two-lane roads, keep enough space between the vehicles so that cars have room to pass one vehicle at a time rather than trying to pass the entire convoy at once. This also gives the everyone room to stop when they get cut off.

 

[M813rc]

I run amber blinky lights on all the MVs while on the road (check your own state for legality, it's legal here).
I like period correct rotating lights where possible, so I don't have any LED lights, thus no comments on them.
Some make some noise, but it doesn't bother me.

Some of my trucks have the standard convoy light installed, on others I use 24v magnetic lights.
It is easy to hook a cigarette lighter plug to your batteries and run a cable to the rear, and you're drawing 24v, so no differential battery drain.
On my own trucks, I have a 24v plug permanently wired in.
On top is best, but for tall vehicles like the M185/M109, I put the light on the frame below the rear of the box. I plan to put a shelf on the box rear, upper left corner, for a permanent protected spot.

The usual chase vehicle is an M1009 with a full amber lightbar on top, one has a Federal Jetsonic, the other a Jetstream (same basic bar, Jetstream doesn't have a speaker mount). The clear sections on the front of the one in the picture are four takedown lights. Both bars are period correct for M1009s, I've seen photos of MP trucks with those lightbars on them.

When I chase with a civvy vehicle, I have a magnetic mini-lightbar with two rotators and a central mirror. It is BRIGHT! There are several variations, the one I have is made by Star (model 9200HM), and was around $40 off ebay. Has a lighter plug and a switch.

The round 24v beacons came from beltfed34 on ebay. Federal Signal Sentry model 448144.
They are bigger than they look, around 7" at the base, very bright. They also have lighter plugs and switches. Military correct, because they are military surplus!

Make sure you avoid cheap lights (not inexpensive, cheap), they are cheap for a reason. Those little ones you can get at the auto parts store are pretty useless, maybe they can be seen at night, sure can't see them in daylight!

Use a good halogen bulb, with a vertical element if you have a light with a mirror that rotates around. A horizontal element gives a very narrow beam that is only brightly visible at a certain height. The vertical one can be seen from ground level up to passing bird level.

Cheers

 

[M813rc]

I neglected to mention - on two lane roads, if you are stacking up traffic behind you, and can safely pull over onto the shoulder, do that periodically. It doesn't cost you much in the way of time and let's those folk in too big a rush to enjoy following an MV have a chance to safely get by.
Since we are driving MVs ,and many folk don't know the difference between old and current, try to drive in such a way as to reflect positively on the military, and avoid anything that would reflect negatively!

Cheers

 

[Cape Coastie]

I just bought a complete set of convoy lights from Fleabay for $150 and is correct for my M923 and I think also for the deuce and a half. Shipping was $60 so for just over $200 I'll have a great set up. I really like the rotating lights instead of the flashers. Now to get the time to install. Just search for " military convoy lights"

 

[someoldmoose]

Extreme Tactical Dynamics -- Up to 80% off the competition.

Two amber led pods (or one longer one) on the left rear of the tail end charlie. ( I am going to have an "Arrowstick" type director on the top rear amidships )
The middle and / or lead vehicles should maintain safe following distance between vehicles and have their Hazard flashers on if more than 15 m.p.h. below the posted speed limit. ( in PA )

If some "tool" decides to get in between, that is on them. Maintain speed and safe following distance until they extract their cranium from their rectum and go on about their hurried lives.

I'm also gonna paint low on the left rear of the box, " 5 2 is all she'll do, If that brings you down . . . then GO AROUND ! " Yes, I pull over to let accumulated traffic around whenever possible.

 

[JDToumanian]

On two-lane roads, keep enough space between the vehicles so that cars have room to pass one vehicle at a time rather than trying to pass the entire convoy at once. This also gives the everyone room to stop when they get cut off.

This is what I was going to say. There's no reason for a civilian chase vehicle to be right near you making it difficult for people to pass. On my 1,700 mile HEMTT recovery, our chase vehicle stayed back about 1/4 mile on 2-lane roads for this exact reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hslg9WcHjRo

Jon

 

[Valence]

I would like to report that the trip was 100% successful! Since all the driving was in daylight, we didn't get a roof mounted flashing light and just placed the large, yellow sign "Convoy Ahead" on the tailgate of the chase truck. No incidents and no break downs of either vehicle - just a couple of long drives (not as long as some of you folks though!). Other than I when we set off, I had to exit the interstate at the very next exit and attach my driver's hood latch (the passenger's was attached, so that saved my bacon).

This was my first grand journey in my 1972 AM General M35A2. It was about 650 miles (total) witch translated into about 7-8 hours of driving each way, which took 9-10 hours total with stops. I ran a dash camera each way (to & from). The files are very large so I've just now only finished combining the 150+ video segments and uploading the first leg of the journey to YouTube (it was ~50 gigabytes). No, I don't expect anyone to actually sit and watch this, but I did it just for fun. I will upload the return when I am able.

In this video, I accidentally recorded over the first hour or so of the trip (I forgot to change micro-SD cards). It starts of north of Brigham City, UT, headed north on I-15 to Tremonton, UT. From there it continues on to I-84 north into Idaho, joins with I-86 and runs west up to Boise, ID and then finally to Meridian, ID.

https://youtu.be/ZLp4eRNBG78

End of the trip walk around:
Note: When I show two oil spots under the truck, you can't hear what I say over the noise of the engine. I only commented that the one on the left is from the crank case breather tube (aka "slobber" tube), and the one on the right was unknown, but after some initial investigation it appears to be a fuel leak from where the hard line from the primary fuel filter meets a hose that I replaced last year - and maybe some gear oil from the steering box that I just topped off.

https://youtu.be/N2ZGoLSXt6o

You can view all the pictures and videos as I get them uploaded:

https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showt...mp-Swap-Meet&p=2030415&viewfull=1#post2030415

 

[m715mike]

Congrats on a successful trip!

 

[speedfellon]

Congrats on a sucessful trip. I make a lot of 300-400 mile trips in the deuce alone. last week 300 mile trip. I keep a fuel pressure guage on the fuel tank so i can see if the in tank pump is working. 150miles from home with a overloaded 10k load. and at fuel stop the guage is at 0. crossed my fingers and pressed on. most of the trip was 3rd gear at 25mph. love them road trips. i also have them avm hubs, very nice.