Wrench Wench
New member
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- Location
- Indiana
Wow. First, let me just say that I'm in about a dozen web forums already, but this one takes the cake. The depth and breadth of information here (within its milieu, naturally) is the best I've ever seen of any web forum, even CrownVic.net. The forum search tools are the best I've ever seen.
Anyway. Hi. Yes, I'm a girl. I'm also a "carguy", as might have been guessed from my being a member of CVN above. I'm also on Pirate4x4.com.
The one thing that brought me out of the woodwork... well, It's a little hard to pin it down to just one thing. Definitely a love for machines and wrenching there upon, but I also love designing and building new ones.
The new one I want to build requires that I be able to lay hands on a functional M814 as a starting point. From there, I would remove the 20' bed, sling a couple of bogey wheels under it and a military hitch so I could actually tow my M814's own bed behind it like an out-sized M105. (Oh, and I'm not entirely competent with the military nomenclature, so expect me to screw it up from time to time. Before I was born, my mom was a crypto-clerk in the Air Force and tells me she never even picked up a weapon in all the time she served. I know. I was appalled too.)
For a temporary bed replacement, I could see bolting on a 20' corrugated steel shipping container painted to match and outfitted for roughing it, but eventually, I'd want to skin the truck right down to its chassis.
The cab, fenders, hood, all of it goes bye-bye. Add on a front hydraulic winch if it doesn't already have one (and maybe one on the back). Swap the military issue wheels and tires for same diameter and twice the roadway contact patch super-singles. While I'm at it, swap out all of the drums for some big pizza pan disk brakes. And this is the tricky part, try to find a way to strip down the NHC250 and sling it behind the right-rear tires and its radiator on the left . I know, I'll be doing violence to my take off and approach angles doing all this, but it'll all make sense in the next paragraph.
Once what can now only charitably still be called an M814 is working mechanicly soundly in its new configuration, a pair of Z cuts to the chassis rails and a stretch of about 12 feet or a combination of 12 feet before and after the double axle makes the truck's new overall length 45', the legal maximum for an RV. Get an aluminum skinned 45' high cube shipping container, bolt it on top of the new lengthened chassis. Add three inches of so of rigid blue foam insulation and a fresh aluminum skin screwed and rivetted over that and it'll be the legal maximum width of 8'6". the HC shipping container is 9'6", so as long as the top level of the chassis can be suspension tuned to no more than 4', then I'll stay under the legal maximum height of 13'6".
A little work with the plasma cutter, angle grinder, sawzall, and mig welder for the foward windshield and the side door, and the renovations can begin in ernest.
Go ahead. Tell me what a lunatic idea it is. I need a little naysaying to keep me grounded in reality. The hardest part for me conceptually will be off-angle motor mount. Maybe a replacement transfer case of some description can get the final drive shaft angle out there in line with the rear pinion plate. Maybe when I inevibly Z-cut the rear of the chassis to lengthen it, I'll just spread it so the engine can fit comfortably between them.
Then, there's the issue of steering, but when the new driver's position is going to be so much more forward of the original driver's position, that was a foregone conclusion. Are completely hydraulic steering linkages DOT approved yet?
I'm working on cleaning up some diagrams from some TMs so I can pit it all together in a Flash animation at some point. Curse my OCD that won't let me use half-assed diagrams, they have to be dimensionally perfect. As might be obvious, I think while I'm writing, and I tend to write what I think.
Anyway. Hi. Yes, I'm a girl. I'm also a "carguy", as might have been guessed from my being a member of CVN above. I'm also on Pirate4x4.com.
The one thing that brought me out of the woodwork... well, It's a little hard to pin it down to just one thing. Definitely a love for machines and wrenching there upon, but I also love designing and building new ones.
The new one I want to build requires that I be able to lay hands on a functional M814 as a starting point. From there, I would remove the 20' bed, sling a couple of bogey wheels under it and a military hitch so I could actually tow my M814's own bed behind it like an out-sized M105. (Oh, and I'm not entirely competent with the military nomenclature, so expect me to screw it up from time to time. Before I was born, my mom was a crypto-clerk in the Air Force and tells me she never even picked up a weapon in all the time she served. I know. I was appalled too.)
For a temporary bed replacement, I could see bolting on a 20' corrugated steel shipping container painted to match and outfitted for roughing it, but eventually, I'd want to skin the truck right down to its chassis.
The cab, fenders, hood, all of it goes bye-bye. Add on a front hydraulic winch if it doesn't already have one (and maybe one on the back). Swap the military issue wheels and tires for same diameter and twice the roadway contact patch super-singles. While I'm at it, swap out all of the drums for some big pizza pan disk brakes. And this is the tricky part, try to find a way to strip down the NHC250 and sling it behind the right-rear tires and its radiator on the left . I know, I'll be doing violence to my take off and approach angles doing all this, but it'll all make sense in the next paragraph.
Once what can now only charitably still be called an M814 is working mechanicly soundly in its new configuration, a pair of Z cuts to the chassis rails and a stretch of about 12 feet or a combination of 12 feet before and after the double axle makes the truck's new overall length 45', the legal maximum for an RV. Get an aluminum skinned 45' high cube shipping container, bolt it on top of the new lengthened chassis. Add three inches of so of rigid blue foam insulation and a fresh aluminum skin screwed and rivetted over that and it'll be the legal maximum width of 8'6". the HC shipping container is 9'6", so as long as the top level of the chassis can be suspension tuned to no more than 4', then I'll stay under the legal maximum height of 13'6".
A little work with the plasma cutter, angle grinder, sawzall, and mig welder for the foward windshield and the side door, and the renovations can begin in ernest.
Go ahead. Tell me what a lunatic idea it is. I need a little naysaying to keep me grounded in reality. The hardest part for me conceptually will be off-angle motor mount. Maybe a replacement transfer case of some description can get the final drive shaft angle out there in line with the rear pinion plate. Maybe when I inevibly Z-cut the rear of the chassis to lengthen it, I'll just spread it so the engine can fit comfortably between them.
Then, there's the issue of steering, but when the new driver's position is going to be so much more forward of the original driver's position, that was a foregone conclusion. Are completely hydraulic steering linkages DOT approved yet?
I'm working on cleaning up some diagrams from some TMs so I can pit it all together in a Flash animation at some point. Curse my OCD that won't let me use half-assed diagrams, they have to be dimensionally perfect. As might be obvious, I think while I'm writing, and I tend to write what I think.
opcorn:
I'm also partial to the Steampunk aesthetic, so I don't mind being called a saucy wench... in the right context.
