I recently purchased a 1991 M1074 PLS with a winch, and a 1997 M1074 without. I have read most if not all the information on this site and others about these vehicles. I am waiting on the EUC to go pick them up. I plan on doing some interesting things with these, and thought I would start a thread to chronicle the experience. Does anyone else active on the forum have one of these vehicles?
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So here is the latest update. I took the M916 and a Step deck from Richmond, VA to Whitehall, OH to pick up the first M1074. The motor on the M916 started to smoke heavily. I limped it into the Cummins dealer in Whitehall, OH. After digging we determined that the motor suffered from "Lot Rot" and two sleeves were severely pitted. When I picked up the M916 from Texarkana, TX it ran great, but I have been noticing that it seemed to be loosing power as I drove it. I had the dealer rebuild the motor with ceramic pistons, and LPF liners. Some day I may want to turn it up, so this lays the ground work for future mods.
Now, I can go pick up the M1074. The mechanic said throwing a load on the motor and driving it would help the break in, so we loaded the 55,000 lb 10X10 and brought the total haul weight up to 110,000 lbs. We drove home without any problems, and the new motor sang a pretty song the whole way.
I was told the 1991 M1074 has "electrical issues" and would not start. I changed all the fuel with filters, all the oil with filters, checked all other fluids which looked great. I put 4 new odyssey extreme batteries, and connected all the cables. The alarm came on right away even though the start switch was not on just like I was told it did. I ignored the buzzing and turned the start knob and to my surprise it started right up. I think it did not even turn over once before it fired up. It is like it wanted to live.
We have spent the last couple of weeks using the crane to move trees, the PLS hook to pull tree stumps, the winch to drag trees from the woods. The unit is amazing! Everything works perfect. The CTIS airs up and down. The DDEC II adjusts the idle to keep it from getting to hot on these 100 plus very humid days.