February 1st, 2010.
I know I'm gonna get in trouble here, and I don't mean to offend our esteemed members, but I have to agree with Maddawg up above...... These trucks were designed for twenty year old GI's who were about 5'8 and 135-140 lbs, where most of us are larger then that and generally a lot older then the twenty years in and retired types, too.
Having said that, we can either abuse the trucks with modifications, or we can save ourselves by eating better, working out (even a good walk in the evening helps) and control how we take the stress.
I had a suck a-- job with a boss who couldn't find the difference between her tail and a whole in the ground, had less then 1/3 to 1/6th the experience in the trade that I had, and micromanaged me to death. Result? even as a diabetic I managed to eat wrong, exercise less and stress out.... I historically was about 200 lbs and 6'2", went to 245 and 6'2.... felt like hades and would soon have fit neither the Unimog or the deuce..... The results would not have been good, so I'm out looking for another job.... I don't regret being 52 and out of work, because the job would have killed me in a year or so... and it wasn't that great a job to die for. Now I'm down to 214 and going down in weight, the deuce fits better, and life's better..... Many a man or woman has eaten themselves into the grave because they were unhappy (like FatBastard on Austin Powers), but the easiest thing is to look out for yourself and take care of yourself, as life's only gonna be so long in the best of cases.
My wish for you gentlemen (and ladies), is that you might consider the lifestyle and eating habits changes, it's easier to reduce down to a fit in the deuce, as opposed to expanding up to fill a box, if you get my meaning. Your family, and friends, and fellow Steel Soldiers members would rather have you around here longer. If I have offended any member here, I would ask that they accept my apologies and consider why I tried to get the point(s) across that I did. Most Americans don't get enough exercise and good (enough) food, and it has impacted on our live expectancies and diseases, but these are things WE can make an effort to change, it's not easy, and sometimes it's harder to do then we think, but once we establish good habits, everything else will come fairly quickly.
Cheers, AND NO full calories beers tonight, unless you're 135 and 5'8....!
Sincerely,
Kyle F. McGrogan
N.B.: IF you really want a reason to lose it (the weight) and a real challenge, get either a Unimog S404.114, or a USMC M422A or M422A1 Mighty Mite, that last item will really make you sweat out the pounds, as the fit's much tighter then a deuce!