"Rescued" M816 Wrecker

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Haha will complete the tasks in order of functionality. The oil seeps seem to have stopped so they have moved down the list. Storage access, parking brake, spare tire, extra air tanks, and changing the rest of the fluids are highest on the priority list right now.

 

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Well had my first lift tow experience today, went successfully. Had to recover the M51 dump truck this weekend so took the wrecker out to the canyon to bring it back. M51 was parked towards the top of a fairly steep hill and had been sitting there for awhile. I'd rather tow a vehicle on a trailer (known brakes/wheel ends, safer) but this proved to me that the m816 can lift tow when necessary.

Plan A was to try and back the m816 up to the m51, air up the tires, hook up to it, lift the front end (buried), and drag it down to flat ground to set everything else up for a flat tow. Plan B was to park the wrecker in a safe spot and run the rear winch line out to the M51 and pull it free while someone steered the truck to flat ground. Plan A worked.

Backed up to the M51 and started off by airing up the 4 rear tires. Front tires have holes in the tubes so the plan to flat tow the truck home went bye bye. This picture is taken level to give an idea of the hill slope.





Picked up the front end and tried to drag the truck out of it's hole with no success, so ran a tow strap through the rear wrecker shackles and the front of the m51 and dragged it out. Brakes were dragging on the truck then finally decided to free up just before the bottom of the hill.

With the trucks now on flat ground started to setup for a flat tow. Realized quickly that with my current lack of wrecker BII there was no way to get a good towbar angle with the front tires still on the m51. So lifted the truck, removed the front tires/wheels, and loaded them into the dump bed. This allowed the front axle of the M51 to be roughly 6-8" off the ground with the towbar being flat, much better than the nearly 40 degree upwards angle the towbar was at with the tires on. Hooked up the safety strap at that point, checked over the rigging, then tossed in a pair of batteries for the m51 to have the hazards flashing, good there.

Hopped in the wrecker to test the driving, no steering. Having the m51 with winch hanging back there made the front end too light, even with the crane boom fully retracted. Thankfully another wrecker owner on this forum mentioned before that a easy way to fix this problem is to stuff some wood between the rear axle and the frame rail, to keep it from compressing and basically moving the pivot point forward. Set the m51 down, stuffed a 4x4 between each bump stop/frame on the rear axle, lifted the m51, and problem solved. Steering was back to normal so did some tests while on the dirt (all good) then drove onto the pavement. Took the back roads home at about 30-35mph, using low range through the mountain pass. Stopped to check the tires/hubs/rigging a few times but no issues were found.

Back at the lot set the m51 down in its parking spot then disconnected the wrecker and parked next to it.




Decent side by side comparison of the 395's and 14x20"s. 395's on the wrecker (right), 14"s on the m51 (left)

 

[Another Ahab]

That wrecker is earning it's keep.

 

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Indeed it does. More it's driven the happier it seems to run judging by the decreasing volume of smoke from the exhaust system.

Sometimes need a nap after working it....




This weekend headed up to Valence's place to take care of the last of my heavy stuff that was at his place. With the m103? flatbed trailer in tow we first loaded up the last of the frame sections from my old deuce and the rest of the scrap metal to drop off at recycling. After that we loaded up the 10 11x20"s that were on the wrecker, the spare 395, tcase from the deuce, bed winch/mount, and a drum with about 35-40 gallons of waste oil. Initially we stacked 4 tires at the front of the trailer but it was getting to be too tall so we changed it to 2 stacks of 3 up front and 2x2 at the rear with the other stuff in the middle.




I pulled into the trucks parking spot saturday night and decided it needs backup lights. Valence pointed out "why not just fix the crane lights and flip them on"


Also installed the replacement latch on the storage box under the driver's door

 

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Well this was an interesting July 4th with the wrecker. That morning participated in a parade, ended up towing a ambulance through the parade (clutch failed on the way there) so the wrecker got to show off one of it's capabilities.




Got home around 7pm and received a call about 9 from a friend. A friend of his was playing around with a m923a2 by a lake nearby and had sunk it in the lake to the grill. So I headed out with the wrecker to try and get him out there. Ground right up to the water was rocky and looked pretty solid. the 923 had backed up and sank once he was in the water.

So I parked the wrecker further up the beach and ran out the rear winch cable. the 3/4" cable's core had rusted through and snapped the moment any tension was applied. No injuries everyone was clear of the danger area. I was in the cab of the truck to operate the clutch.




So with both front and rear winch cables out of commission I backed the wrecker to the front of the m923 and hooked up my 44k tow strap. Tried a few pulls with no success, and my tires had only dug down about 4" into the beach, seemed to be strong enough terrain to hold the wrecker. So we disconnected the strap, setup the outriggers, and lifted the front of the m923 out of the water and shifted it about a foot to the driver side, got it out of the deep holes it was in. Bad decision. Turns out that after about 6" of rock the terrain gave way to soft clay and the wrecker had sunk to the axles. After trying to dig the wrecker out for a few hours we gave up and the owner of the 923 called in a commercial wrecker service. First guy showed up with a large tracked skid steer, which sunk next to the wrecker.



So he called another guy to come out with a 35 ton semi-truck wrecker. Pulled the skid steer out first pretty easily. Used a 4 line pull to get the m816 out with the truck idling in 1st/low to try and climb back up to the surface. Ripped off 2 valve stems in the process. Then another 4 line pull to get the 923 out of the water. At some point the fittings by the air dryer were broken off along with the CTIS hose on one of the wheels, making the rear brakes lock up on it. No pics of this part since my phone was nearly dead. All vehicles were recovered about 5:30am.





Needless to say the 816 will never be within 50ft of standing water again. And now I have to find a rear winch cable as well.

 

[painter paul]

Wow, sorry. Be careful also when lifting. The traverse mechanism is only made to rotate a load that is completely off the ground. Trying to rotate a load that is half on the ground can bend the boom or break the traversing mechanism. Sometimes you can lift a load then retract the boom or extend it to safely accomplish the same thing. It back up to the stuck vehicle at an angle, then lift and retract or extend! With some good 3/4" cable and good fittings you can winch a huge amount with good scotch blocks. We routinely winch out 80,000 lb semis with our M816.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

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The way I lifted the truck was first centered with the support legs then when airborn retracted the boom from 12ft-10ft. From there set it down, removed the support legs, rotated a few degrees, then repeat a few times. So a slight angled lift each time but nothing extreme.

This trip has pointed out just how bad all the cables are though. Already knew the front cable was broken and that the crane cable is well worn. Rear cable surprised me because it looked to be in the best condition and unused.

 

[painter paul]

Did the cable break or the end pull off? Those ends hold moisture and rust. Maybe you can oil the cable and put a new end on. Yes, good way to lift!!

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Broke within a foot of the end. I'll cut the cable further back and see how it looks

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[red]

Did the cable break or the end pull off? Those ends hold moisture and rust. Maybe you can oil the cable and put a new end on. Yes, good way to lift!!

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

Checked the rear winch cable today and it's done, rusted out. Cut off a 5ft section then another cut about 8-10ft from there with no change.

A bunch of parts for the wrecker arrived today as well. Now I need to figure out where to stow everything haha. Forgot to take a picture of the tow lights but the other items are:
whiffle tree
Complete medium towbar setup with 3/4", 1" feet and axle clamps
Crane support legs (those wont be moved much haha)
spades
All pins
5 snatch blocks, 3 doubles and 2 singles

 

[Another Ahab]

Those are some heavy-duty snatch blocks; they look like they'd be a job to manhandle.

What do those suckers weigh!?

 

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Haven't put them on a scale but around 100 lbs each

 

[painter paul]

I told a kid one time that they will never wear out!!(that's because no one is strong enough to use one enough)!
However I have had them save the day on a heavy,heavy winch out!!

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Yea they are heavy haha. But after looking them over a little more closely I've found out why



All but that 1 "little" single are sized for 7/8" steel cable, the one little single is stamped 5/8".



I don't like things rolling around unsecured and would like to have all the equipment accessible from the ground, tall list of storage requirements on a wrecker. Plus since 816's tend to get light up front when lift towing might as well move some of this necessary weight up there to help. So the whole list of tools/equipment (summarized) is:

Spades
Crane support legs
Whiffle tree
Tow lights
Snatch blocks
lumber
cutting torch
mechanic tools
chains
tow strap
complete medium towbar
air lines
spare parts
2 extra air tanks
cargo cover parts

Haven't figured out where the spades will go.
Crane support legs will go in their storage spot along the inside edge of the bed, driver side.
Whiffle tree is unknown.
Tow lights are unknown. A bit delicate so needs to be protected.
Snatch blocks will probably go up front behind the bumper. Figure 2 blocks per side should pretty well fill up the space.





Lumber will go up on the passenger fender. A box from a tractor will fit up there nicely.





I'm using a set of small bottles for the cutting torch. Will go near or inside the boxes at the front of the bed.
Tools are in the passenger side box at the front of the bed.
Chains will probably go to the open box at the rear passenger side.
Tow bar is unknown.
Air tanks will go by the spare tire mount.
Spare parts are in the tractor box behind the passenger fuel tank.
Cargo cover uprights/bows will go on top of the crane. Not sure where the cover will go yet.
The 2 rear storage boxes in the wheel wells are large enough for the air lines and towbar components.

 

[painter paul]

Some units mounted the spades on top of the boom

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True, but that's weight up high. I want to keep items like that down low and accessible from the ground.

 

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Been looking in the TM's and cant find the lift chart for the wrecker crane WITH the support legs attached. Anyone know where that info is? Would like to know exactly what the crane is capable of lifting with those legs in use.

Also finished wiring in the EGT gauge earlier. Mounted the gauge and plumbed in the probe a few months ago, finally wired it all up.

 

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Ran to a local hose/fittings store and plumbed in a air switch for the front axle disconnect. Little less wear on the front components is a good thing, will be better once there's a set of desplined hubs installed for the on-road driving.

Started off with a new air switch. The rear port is for supply so with the switch closed the air stops there, flip it and it flows freely through both side ports. Didn't have a plug with me so I rigged one up with spare fittings I have floating around in the truck.





Fired up the truck to build air and traced the 2 airlines from the tcase sprag to the transmission. Removing this line had air flowing with the transmission in forward gears/neutral, the line that I want to install the switch in. So swapped the fitting to a pushlock and ran a new airline up to the supply side (rear) of the switch.





Then traced the old airline to the tcase. Removed the old line/fitting, replaced with a pushlock, then ran a new airline from the tcase to the switch.



Reinstalled the tcase cover and currently have the switch sitting on the floorboard. Need to drill 2 holes in the floorboard/firewall for the air lines, and some holes in the dash to mount the switch.

 

[zebedee]

Red - have you tried to slide apart your new boom support legs yet? I recently tried to get mine apart with the winch + snatch block on my 916A1 and braced to the back of the lowboy - no go. Need to come up with a new, more powerful plan - they have been soaking for 2 years... I think I am going to have to weld on some tabs to use a pair of hyd cyls to get them to budge. May try drilling a hole to fill the inside with diesel.
I have heard stories of some being so stuck - two D8s couldn't even separate them. (Though purchase on the ground/traction would determine the max separating force which, even though it may be tons, may not be massive)

Worst case scenario, I'll cut off the outer and it's cast end, then remanufacture it...

 

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Haven't tried to slide those support legs yet. Have you tried heating yours up yet? Would be worth a shot to have 1 or 2 torches heating up the outer tube right before a pull. Would have to wear a mask with the CARC fumes