Steel Soldiers MV of the month 2021 - October VOTE HERE!

[patracy]

Welcome to the MV of the month poll sponsored by Consolidated Press. If you need decals, magnets, stencils, or anything printing related, please give them a call!




Now, onto the vote! Please vote for MV of the month! Feel free to campaign in this thread, but please keep it here and not via PM.

1. kendelrio

2. patracy

3. Migginsbros

4. Buffalobwana

5. Lady Maria

6. fuzzytoaster

 

[kendelrio]

Time to see how well @m715mike and @Tracer campaign for the girl... will they convince me to vote for Bertha?????

Time will tell!!!

Good luck to everyone!

 

[fuzzytoaster]

This Oshkosh M1070 HET aka "Super Het" was rebuilt in 2008. Before I obtained her, she was a mess with 6 MTVR rims, a complete mix match of tire treads, and all had blown out side walls. Bumper was bent out, electrical issues, and no fuel caps so tainted fuel at the very least. Operational status was unknown and pitiful. I sorted out 99% of the issues on site and replaced the tires bringing her not just back to life but back to the road. The HET has been in high demand for appearances to the local American Legion outings, Medal of Honor Parade, and much more. The Mayor of Midlothian (local city) was impressed and shook my hand for honoring patriots with this machine. She's due to go on display for a local elementary Veterans Day outing next month.

"It's not about the miles-per-gallon, it's the smiles-per-gallon" as I like to say and it's well worth it!

Medal of Honor Parade pics and video:

What have you done to your 10 ton this week?

Reference post 71 on lubrication: Hope you have a lube order so you don't forget anything. In addition to the aforementioned fitting on the bell crank for the air brake linkage there are grease points on the anchor pins for the brakes and many on the winch andn the winch driveshaft. If you can...

www.steelsoldiers.com

The Het is such a bizarre and unique machine when you look past the exterior. It was designed and purpose built for the role like no other truck before it. Counter steering rear axle, NBC sealed cab, and bunk beds to say the least! We have enough trouble keeping water out of our other MV cabs and this one basically gives you a 3 star stay at Oshkosh hotel. I felt it was deserving of a diecast model to put on the shelf in my office. (1:50 scale)

VOTE "SUPER HET" FOR OCTOBER!!

 

[Buffalobwana]

Buffalobwana’s 923A2

boight in Idaho, just across the border from Jackson Hole. Drove to TX
Mods:
- Hard top
- Satin paint job
- 18k Warn Severe Duty Winch
- Air ride seats
- AC
- VIC 3 radio/intercom with cell phone adapter
- Bose noise canceling headphones
- Served in the trenches of Hurricane Harvey rescue operation

 

[kendelrio]

Buffalobwana’s 923A2

boight in Idaho, just across the border from Jackson Hole. Drove to TX
Mods:
- Hard top
- Satin paint job
- 18k Warn Severe Duty Winch
- Air ride seats
- AC
- VIC 3 radio/intercom with cell phone adapter
- Bose noise canceling headphones
- Served in the trenches of Hurricane Harvey rescue operation

Very nice A/C unit!

 

[Buffalobwana]

Very nice A/C unit!

Thanks kendelrio,
The AC , VIC 3 and Air Ride seats make this a completely different vehicle. The VIC 3 allows you to have conversations on the phone and with passengers at highway speeds.

 

[patracy]

I'd like to campaign a bit for "Smokey" as I call it. My 1985 M1008. I've had it for a number of years. I've kept a build thread of it going here:

Introducing Smokey

I've wandered my back back into a CUCV. This time a 1008, ex- sheriff truck. I picked it up three weekends ago. I had to replace the IP, install batteries, install a tailgate, replace the radiator and oil cooler lines, and put a seat cover on it. There's still a lot to do, but it's got...

www.steelsoldiers.com

It was bought from @dan2002dd here that sold it as nothing more than a parts truck. It honestly was a bit rough and needed a few things to even run. (Radiator, injection pump, oil cooler lines, batteries, and I think an alternator) But here's the oldest pic I have of it when I got it at least driveable. It had served as a sheriff's truck (K-9 Drug enforcement) after it's military service. Thankfully it hadn't had much hacked up wiring.

I've had a number of 73-87 trucks over the years. But most of them honestly ended up with cut front fenders to squeeze tires under it. I swore I'd never cut the fenders on this one. So over the years it's had a lift installed. I also went to 36" HMMWV tires. (Side note, those things are horrible!) But happily went to 24 bolt HMMWV wheels and tires later on.

Lifted trucks with stock (well it was a hodge podge of mix-matched wheels) wheels look like the skipped leg day... (Also I just noticed how grown up the back yard is now)

Also I managed to find a brushguard to give it back one of the characteristic CUCV items.

36" HMMWV wheels and tires are certainly not something I'd suggest. Unless you like rough riding, flat spots, and vibration.

And honestly the best mod I had done to it so far was the civy 6.5 turbo setup....

Finally I wised up and moved up to 24 bolt wheels and 37" radials. You can also see some of the rust issues in the cab corners the truck had. Also you can see Reese my old dog. I miss him....

After this point I honestly just used (abused) it more as a truck than anything. But I did tend to a few things here and there like the twisted up back bumper. I also added a towing hitch while I had it all apart back there. As well as a brake controller.

Then I picked up a gooseneck trailer for it after I installed a hitch in the bed.

Smokey has been used countless times with a little sideline work I get into pulling out old broadcast transmitters. But sometimes I've used it to tow way more than I should....

But it never lets me down. I honestly wanted to get it back to being "right" once more. So my buddy @Spot_ll gave smokey a work over. Both cab corners got replaced. And in the pic above you can kinda see how mangled up the bed corner was from the bumper. He replace that too.

I'll let him share some of the stuff he found in the cab corners....

I have always just painted all my vehicles just 383. But I wanted woodland for this one since that's what I remember them first as.

But Joey ended up painting it woodland for me after he smoothed out the bodywork.

But that wasn't enough. We installed a dash to replace the busted up into thousand pieces stock one it had and put a cover over it.

Also he moved the tach and boost gauge I lazily had sitting on top of the dash into proper mounting places and installed a stereo.

The bench seat in it had seen better days, just like almost all of them. So he used a more modern 60/40 seat he had out of a suburban in it. It's amazing how much more comfortable that alone made the truck.

Also the gauge backlights have not worked in, well, forever. So those got new LEDs swapped in. Also he polished up the lenses to remove the scratches. (Yes the shift indicator is out of it, more to come)

The bodywork was just about to finish up with some stencil work. Tire pressures on the wheel wells.

But the coolest part of all of this was this right here. My father's unit markings on the truck. He's recently had a knee replacement so we kinda surprised him with this.

He thought it was the neatest thing. I always wanted to do something to give him a nod back with the vehicles. This just worked out perfect. Once he's able to navigate steps a little better I'll be taking him for a ride around town in it. Also back in the 80's the 209th out of Rome, GA would have been the first time I came in contact with any CUCVs. So it's also a nod back to that as well.

So where does things lead for Smokey in the future? Well, there's a few things to cover. First, I don't think I'll ever part with this truck. But if I do, Joey gets first shot at it given the transformation he's given it. There's just a few things I'd like to do to it now at this point. I'm wanting to swap in a 4l80e. I've already got a stand alone controller for that. I'm going to install some rear speakers in the cab of the truck as well. Outside of that, the only other thing maybe would be trying to figure out how to install AC into it and keep the 24v setup.

I truly love this old truck. I bought it more on a whim than anything. Never expecting to grow so attached to it. It'll be 10 years I've owned it at the first of the year. Here's to decades more!

 

[Spot_ll]

I’d also like to campaign a little for @patracy ‘s truck Smokey. I’m a lineman by trade, but I grew up around bodywork. I’ve been in and around 73-87 trucks for half my life, and Andrew has been asking me for 2 years now to work on his truck. While I’m currently out of the MV ownership status (sold my M880, and I’m fixing to start my own CUCV-II Suburban clone soon), I’ve always been interested and admired the M serious Chevrolet trucks, because of my love for the 73-87s (I also used it as an opportunity to learn something about the MV side of them). So I finally found the time to get his truck back the way it should look, and add a few things the he wanted it.

He’s already shown and explained most of the work done. Cab corners, bed corner (there is a reason I cut and replaced it the way I did with the tail light hole, the stamping of the tail light hole didn’t match the original stamping, and would have looked off), seat, added a radio, ect. But some of the coolest things were what was found in the cab corners when I cut them out.

Passenger side: A new pack of tax free Marlboro Reds, and a package of blue ink pens. The smokes being tax free tells me they are from this trucks time in service. Question for the vets here, are tax free smokes available all the time or only on deployment overseas? Reason I ask is there was also a good bit of powdery sand not like the sand I’ve seen here in GA, and not like beach or play sand. Maybe this truck got deployed to the Middle East in the early 90s?

Drivers Side:
A brand new glow stick. I know the military uses these for various reasons, or possibly the sheriffs dept used it while in police service?

Some pretty cool artifacts in my opinion. It has been an absolute pleasure to work on this truck for Andrew. My favorite part of the truck is the unit marking. When he told me his father loved seeing it, that made my day. I hope everytime he sees it, it brings him fond memories of his time in service.

Here are a few more pictures that I hope encourages you to vote “Smokey” for MV of the Month!

 

[patracy]

I think it's funny there's been (empty) packs of cigarettes in every MV I've owned. Finally got a full pack... too bad the mice got to them.

 

[Spot_ll]

I think it's funny there's been (empty) packs of cigarettes in every MV I've owned. Finally got a full pack... too bad the mice got to them.

Yea it is. They’re in your truck. I made sure you had them for laughs.

 

[Tracer]

Guys I volunteered for this assignment along with my partner in crime m715mike. In the past I have entered my M35A2C and M38A1. So doing an MV of the Month on Ken's M923A2 Bertha is a new challenge. I have never owned a 5 Ton, but I want to do Bertha right. I'll start with some basic information I researched on the M923A2 family of trucks.

The M923 (M925 w/winch) was the standard cargo version of the series. It had a 14 by 7 feet (4.3 m × 2.1 m) body with drop sides so it could be loaded from the side by forklifts. It had a bottom hinged tailgate. Side racks, troop seats, and overhead bows with a canvas cover were standard.

The M927 (M928 w/winch), with an extra long wheelbase, had a 20 by 7 feet (6.1 m × 2.1 m) long box. There was no drop side version. Side racks and overhead bows with a canvas cover were standard but no troop seats were fitted.

More to come.

 

[8madjack]

Man, tough one this month! Gotta say, a HET in suburbia makes me happy!

And being a 5 ton guy, love Buffalobwana's in cab mods! upgra

 

[Migginsbros]

Hello to all your MV enthusiast. We campain our " Feldumschlaggerät 2,5 t (FUG)". Its an all terrain forklift with 4 wheel drive and diff.locks. Driven by a Klöckner Humbold Deutz 6 cylinder aircooled engine direct injected 4 stroke diesel . 107 HP at 2300 rpm and 345nm torque at 1600rpm.
Trany is an automatik ZF 6speed foreward and 2 reverse with electric/hydraulic shifter. It is an all steel body with mostly up to .400 inch sheed metal which brings it up to 8,8 tons weight including all aditional on vehicle mounted stuff (exept the dozerblade). Since we get this heavy metal piece some years before we love it and we can´t imagine a life without him.


Pictures from the special additional stuff like Cranehook or dozerblate will follow.
Thanks for voting.

 

[Migginsbros]

We want to use the cranehook feature for our forklift build in 1987. We had a little help by the excarvator because the hookassy
has a weight of 200 lb.
To fold out the hook pull the Pin. But he was sitting for years.
After all we were glad that we can now use it.
There is also a dozerblade for light work on sand or snow


It´s a Steinbock FUG 2,5 Y4. Introduced in 1982, the quickest all tarrain forklift in the world with a topspeed of over 30 miles/hour produced by Steinbock/Boss.

 

[Migginsbros]

Migginsbros Steinbock FUG 2,5 Y4 forklift. This vehicle was build to drive also in convoy. Due to the rule that every vehicle in the convoy must take two armed soldiers the special dual cap was develloped.
For street use it is nececary to rest the mast totally back between the cabins. Then it is possible to install the onbord stored front bumper and drive street legal at 30 miles/hour in puplic traffic.
Anyway driving this no suspension, rear axel steering, 8.8 ton heavy thing "fast" on the road requires plenty of attention and some courage.
Still it is an eyecatcher on patrol station.
Even it is possible to ride it on the street you are better to piggyback it on a truck. This climbing task is performed by this MV very easy on its own.

 

[patracy]

Jack says vote for the CUCV.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[Guyfang]

Spot_II,

Did you save the sand? Here in Germany we have the garden spot of the world. Its called Graf. Short for Grafenwöhr. A very large training area, that has a white dust/sand that once you have seen it, lived in it, ate and drank it, you will never forget it, in your life. The light stick wrapper is the same type we had and used here. I still have several in the cellar.

 

[Spot_ll]

Spot_II,

Did you save the sand? Here in Germany we have the garden spot of the world. Its called Graf. Short for Grafenwöhr. A very large training area, that has a white dust/sand that once you have seen it, lived in it, ate and drank it, you will never forget it, in your life. The light stick wrapper is the same type we had and used here. I still have several in the cellar.

It’s not exactly white, it’s closer to the sand paint color. Here’s a pinch I just got from the vacuum cleaner. It’s a lot finer than sand we have here in Georgia(USA), and finer than play sand. I suspect either Middle East, or Western USA desert. But I’m not a sand expert, lol.

 

[Guyfang]

That's not Graf sand. Not even close.

 

[Spot_ll]

That's not Graf sand. Not even close.

There may even be some dirt mixed in, giving it a darker color, but the picture does it no justification. It’s almost powdery like.