crusty
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- New Castle, DE
I,m a little late in posting an account of the recovery of the M1009 I bought from Barstow CA.
The first thing I want to do is to thank those members who generously offered to assist in this project. I would have loved to have had enough time to meet with the members from SoCal. Since my time schedule was so tight, I thought it better to go with a commercial tow company. To that end, ARC Towing in Barstow seemed to have an excellent reputation, so I decided to go with them. I never had any cause to regret that decision. They were very courteous and professional.
This whole project started as a result of an entirely different interest. On E-Bay, I found a seller who had a set of wings for the Acroduster Too that included a center section with auxiliary fuel tank. My Acroduster was built originally with a 180 horsepower Lycoming and main fuel tank only. It was later converted to a 300+ horsepower Lycoming. It really needs the Aux. tank to extend it's cruising range. In any case, I "Won" the auction, only problem was that the wings were in Paso Robles California, and I am from New Castle Delaware.
After pricing crating and shipping options, I decided to combine my interests, buy a CUCV from the desert southwest, take some vacation time, fly out there, buy a Harbor Freight trailer, load up and drive back. Overall cost would be higher, but I'd end up with the wings, a new utility trailer, and a rust free M1009. What could go wrong?
Actually all things considered, not much did go wrong. The only changes I would make, If I were to do it again is to mail a key to the towing company instead of having them have a key made from the code, and make sure the tailgate window was fixed before flying out there. The key was pricey and the missing tailgate glass caused some carbon monoxide woes.
I have tried to post a few photos below. I probably should have taken more photo's but I had a long way to go, and a short time to get there.
The first thing I want to do is to thank those members who generously offered to assist in this project. I would have loved to have had enough time to meet with the members from SoCal. Since my time schedule was so tight, I thought it better to go with a commercial tow company. To that end, ARC Towing in Barstow seemed to have an excellent reputation, so I decided to go with them. I never had any cause to regret that decision. They were very courteous and professional.
This whole project started as a result of an entirely different interest. On E-Bay, I found a seller who had a set of wings for the Acroduster Too that included a center section with auxiliary fuel tank. My Acroduster was built originally with a 180 horsepower Lycoming and main fuel tank only. It was later converted to a 300+ horsepower Lycoming. It really needs the Aux. tank to extend it's cruising range. In any case, I "Won" the auction, only problem was that the wings were in Paso Robles California, and I am from New Castle Delaware.
After pricing crating and shipping options, I decided to combine my interests, buy a CUCV from the desert southwest, take some vacation time, fly out there, buy a Harbor Freight trailer, load up and drive back. Overall cost would be higher, but I'd end up with the wings, a new utility trailer, and a rust free M1009. What could go wrong?
Actually all things considered, not much did go wrong. The only changes I would make, If I were to do it again is to mail a key to the towing company instead of having them have a key made from the code, and make sure the tailgate window was fixed before flying out there. The key was pricey and the missing tailgate glass caused some carbon monoxide woes.
I have tried to post a few photos below. I probably should have taken more photo's but I had a long way to go, and a short time to get there.
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