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Ray and Ray’s next Adventure
Well, this is a little after the fact because I don’t have internet where I am now unless I go into town.
I won a M373A2 from Ft. Stewart in early June, two days before I was leaving to go to North Carolina for the summer. There was no EUC on this auction so after getting my paid invoice I called to arrange to pick up the following Tuesday. Since we keep our RV in Montezuma, GA at my brother-in-law’s, I decided to take my wife and stuff up there Friday so we could start getting ready to go and I planned to come back home Monday and drive up to Ft. Stewart on Tuesday.
I had asked RAYZER if he felt like going on a short road trip to GA with me to pick up my trailer and being the adventurous type, he agreed. I picked up Ray in Lake Mary a little after 6 am Tuesday and we headed north.
The trip up was uneventful except for a little traffic slow down on the I-95 by-pass east of Jacksonville. 5 hours after leaving Lake Mary, we got off I-95 at exit 76 at about 11:30 am. I stopped at a truck stop near the interstate to fill up and call the GP rep. He told me since I was driving a tractor I would need to go to the commercial gate which is according to signs, 14 miles around on the west side of the base from the east side gate.
Anyway, we get to the commercial gate and there was no one ahead of us so I gave the guard our paperwork and while I was waiting for it to be processed, I asked one of the guards where the building we were looking for was. They have a map of the base and he explained the easiest way to go. I wrote down the route and looking back, 30 minutes later, I should have taken a picture of the map (the guard said I could) because at least one street name was different than what was on the map.
I called the GP rep from the gate and tell him I’m on the base and should be there in 10 minutes. Well, that was the plan, but like I said, one of the street names was different and we couldn’t find the place. Finally I gave up and called him back and he came and met us. Turns out we were only a couple of blocks away.
We got to the trailer and looked it over, it looked pretty good, so I did a more complete inspection while Ray worked on cranking the landing gear down enough to line up with the M915. They must have brought it in with tactical tractor, because it was about a foot higher than the M915’s 5[SUP]th[/SUP] wheel.
I brought a poly 5[SUP]th[/SUP] wheel plate and we installed that after I scraped off all the grease from around the trailer king pin. After hooking up, I told the GP rep that I would pull it out the gate and we would finish up there so he could leave. The GP rep was very nice, easy to work with and didn’t rush us while we were looking things over and hooking up.
Ray and I checked brake lights and tires, one tail light was out (missing bulb) and one tire was flat. Ray put in a bulb while I got out the air hose to try airing the tire up. Much to my surprise, the tire aired up and held air! I checked the pressure in the other tires and they were all good so we packed our stuff and headed for the gate.
After sweating our A’s off in 100 degree heat, the AC felt pretty good. We got back to I-95 and hit the McDonalds for a quick meal and to check the tires and hubs on the trailer, then headed south.
Here we are tooling down the road. This is probably the last picture of Ray as we knew him.
The M915 rides a LOT better with a trailer on the back. Even though the weight at the king pin is only around 4K, it made a big difference. The ride back south was actually pleasant. Well, until we got back to Jacksonville. There was a big storm and traffic was a mess. It took an hour to get around town, and we never saw any sign of an accident. The automatic transmission is nice in stop and go traffic.
Once we got back on the interstate, I figured we would not make it back before dark so we stopped to check the rest of the trailer lights (I originally only checked the brake lights because I expected to be back before dark) to see if they worked. Everything worked fine except the wires for the running light and blackout light was switched on the left tail light. We fixed that in about 5 minutes and were on our way.
We got back to Ray’s about 9:30 pm more or less, I don’t remember but I’m sure Ray will chime in to add anything I forgot. It had been raining on us right before we arrived at Ray’s AO, but lucky for us, it stopped so we could drop the trailer without getting soaked.
Total distance was about 500 miles round trip and about 14 hours. The M915A1 got about 7.3 mpg on the trip up and I estimated little over 5 mpg pulling the M373A on the way back, all at about 57 mph.
I'm very happy with the trailer. Thanks for your help Ray!
Well, this is a little after the fact because I don’t have internet where I am now unless I go into town.
I won a M373A2 from Ft. Stewart in early June, two days before I was leaving to go to North Carolina for the summer. There was no EUC on this auction so after getting my paid invoice I called to arrange to pick up the following Tuesday. Since we keep our RV in Montezuma, GA at my brother-in-law’s, I decided to take my wife and stuff up there Friday so we could start getting ready to go and I planned to come back home Monday and drive up to Ft. Stewart on Tuesday.
I had asked RAYZER if he felt like going on a short road trip to GA with me to pick up my trailer and being the adventurous type, he agreed. I picked up Ray in Lake Mary a little after 6 am Tuesday and we headed north.
The trip up was uneventful except for a little traffic slow down on the I-95 by-pass east of Jacksonville. 5 hours after leaving Lake Mary, we got off I-95 at exit 76 at about 11:30 am. I stopped at a truck stop near the interstate to fill up and call the GP rep. He told me since I was driving a tractor I would need to go to the commercial gate which is according to signs, 14 miles around on the west side of the base from the east side gate.
Anyway, we get to the commercial gate and there was no one ahead of us so I gave the guard our paperwork and while I was waiting for it to be processed, I asked one of the guards where the building we were looking for was. They have a map of the base and he explained the easiest way to go. I wrote down the route and looking back, 30 minutes later, I should have taken a picture of the map (the guard said I could) because at least one street name was different than what was on the map.
I called the GP rep from the gate and tell him I’m on the base and should be there in 10 minutes. Well, that was the plan, but like I said, one of the street names was different and we couldn’t find the place. Finally I gave up and called him back and he came and met us. Turns out we were only a couple of blocks away.
We got to the trailer and looked it over, it looked pretty good, so I did a more complete inspection while Ray worked on cranking the landing gear down enough to line up with the M915. They must have brought it in with tactical tractor, because it was about a foot higher than the M915’s 5[SUP]th[/SUP] wheel.
I brought a poly 5[SUP]th[/SUP] wheel plate and we installed that after I scraped off all the grease from around the trailer king pin. After hooking up, I told the GP rep that I would pull it out the gate and we would finish up there so he could leave. The GP rep was very nice, easy to work with and didn’t rush us while we were looking things over and hooking up.
Ray and I checked brake lights and tires, one tail light was out (missing bulb) and one tire was flat. Ray put in a bulb while I got out the air hose to try airing the tire up. Much to my surprise, the tire aired up and held air! I checked the pressure in the other tires and they were all good so we packed our stuff and headed for the gate.
After sweating our A’s off in 100 degree heat, the AC felt pretty good. We got back to I-95 and hit the McDonalds for a quick meal and to check the tires and hubs on the trailer, then headed south.
Here we are tooling down the road. This is probably the last picture of Ray as we knew him.
The M915 rides a LOT better with a trailer on the back. Even though the weight at the king pin is only around 4K, it made a big difference. The ride back south was actually pleasant. Well, until we got back to Jacksonville. There was a big storm and traffic was a mess. It took an hour to get around town, and we never saw any sign of an accident. The automatic transmission is nice in stop and go traffic.
Once we got back on the interstate, I figured we would not make it back before dark so we stopped to check the rest of the trailer lights (I originally only checked the brake lights because I expected to be back before dark) to see if they worked. Everything worked fine except the wires for the running light and blackout light was switched on the left tail light. We fixed that in about 5 minutes and were on our way.
We got back to Ray’s about 9:30 pm more or less, I don’t remember but I’m sure Ray will chime in to add anything I forgot. It had been raining on us right before we arrived at Ray’s AO, but lucky for us, it stopped so we could drop the trailer without getting soaked.
Total distance was about 500 miles round trip and about 14 hours. The M915A1 got about 7.3 mpg on the trip up and I estimated little over 5 mpg pulling the M373A on the way back, all at about 57 mph.
I'm very happy with the trailer. Thanks for your help Ray!
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