New M882

[RichM882]

Just a couple of pictures of her. How do you find out about her service history ?

 

[RichM882]

Still struggling to find some 16" wheels though. A dealer here in the UK has quoted me $200 for each steel rim !!!! I bet they are cheaper than that in the States ....

 

[MWMULES]

Bikeman can figure it out if it was ex Army just do what he asks in the first post http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?149710-2016-VIN-INFO-Thread-Please-Read

 

[Flyingvan911]

You'll want to carry a spare ignition module and ballast resistor in the truck. The are great trucks but those two components can fail without warning and put you on the side of the road.

 

[dmetalmiki]

And with all the hassle you've already gone through, you now need (deserve!) a "clear" run, or two..(or three or..) I am trying to source some used rims for you..Meantime Enjoy trucking to events near and far.

 

[catskillpond]

Ballast resistor a must where they mounted it was stupid we had the 880s always deadlined waiting on resistors good luck with it

 

[Flyingvan911]

My dad had a '74 Dodge W200 Club Cab on a 1 ton chassis. Went through ballast resistors like crazy.

 

[RichM882]

I had better ring Rock auto and order those ignition components. I found the wire for the washer bottle right where you guys said it was !!!

 

[RichM882]

Had her on the motorway (freeway) and she goes pretty well. 85 mph and more left !!!!

 

[M813rc]

I drove those a lot in the Marines, way back when. Good trucks, in my opinion, other than the items mentioned above.
We could have done with better tires, though. The stock ones tended to unnecessarily reduce off-road performance. In Norway, we had locally sourced mudgrip tires that greatly increased ability.

Cheers

 

[RichM882]

Yes Rory. I am rather pleased with her performance. Is it true that during the first gulf war the Dodge was deemed to have better performance than the Chevy and larger commercially available rims and tires were fitted in the field. I have seen a couple of photos of M880s with gun mounts and M60 machine guns fitted in the load area. Has anyone else seen anything of this in the flesh ?

 

[dmetalmiki]

If I (had to) own one of those trucks, first job after hearing of those repeated problems would be, Skip (as in bin) the ballast relay, and coil. And simply replace with a 12volt coil. Why suffer? Job done.
(Rich, Ah-lah Early Vauxhalls etc).

 

[Super Warrantman]

Had her on the motorway (freeway) and she goes pretty well. 85 mph and more left !!!!

You have an unusual M880 then. My experience of the type here was just about 75 mph on the hardstand (pavement) was all you could expect.The constant 4 wheel drive with no provisions to lock out the front hubs was probably part of the reason it was no speed demon. It was and is a good off road truck with the right tires, but it isn't fast and it won't pass many gas stations.

 

[Super Warrantman]

If I (had to) own one of those trucks, first job after hearing of those repeated problems would be, Skip (as in bin) the ballast relay, and coil. And simply replace with a 12volt coil. Why suffer? Job done.
(Rich, Ah-lah Early Vauxhalls etc).

? These are 12v already. Possibly there might be a radio equipped model that has a second battery and runs on 24v like the Chevy CUCVs, but the base model is 12 v and that is what mine is. I have heard too that the Electronic Ignition Module and the Ballast Resistor is a common weak spot on these trucks, but I haven't had any trouble since I bought mine in 2011. I have spares just in case though. Correcting electrical faults and making sure everything is properly grounded goes a long way to ensuring trouble free motoring.

 

[RichM882]

She is an amazing starter, even in the coldest weather she will fire up before the engine has turned one revolution...

 

[M543A2]

Weird how experiences can be different. I have had Mopar vehicles all my life and have never experienced the high rate of problems mentioned here with failed ignition modules or resistors. That is on M series Dodges, my everyday cars and trucks, and racing. I have used the stock ignition boxes on my daily drivers and the orange boxes for racing for years and many races with only one failure. I have had stock ones with some of the sealing polymer melted out of the back side that kept working. Nice that these boxes have rev limiters in them, the stock ones at around 5,000 to 5500, the orange at about 6500, and the gold ones higher but I have not used the gold boxes, never needed the higher RPM. The ignition system was never a concern, never carry spares as a common practice due to reliability issues because we have had no trouble. I think the advice given about being sure all electrical connections are as they should be is very important and may be the reason for the bad experiences. Now Murphy tells me watch this, your next drive will fail one!!

 

[M813rc]

I don't think my USMC experience with them would fit the bill of "high rate failure". It was an occasional problem spread across a fleet of trucks, so it became a well known one rather than a widespread one, so extras were carried close to hand. They tended to be very reliable.

I don't know how fast ours would go, I never took one over 65! (And yes, they did have "Max permissible speed 55mph" stenciled on the dash ).

Cheers