Utah HMMWV recovery, Helmet Hard top install, and build.

[Milcommoguy]

Helmet Top and Rihno = Pain in the butt. Every time you want to get to the ice chest, Ya got to crank the wrench. Reach in and grab two beers. One to open, one to close. I put my mud flaps on the front side of the bumper. didn't like the gap - fit-up either. No Problem, No funky look.

Fly with flaps up front,

CAM

 

[M1078MAN]

Helmet Top and Rihno = Pain in the butt. Every time you want to get to the ice chest, Ya got to crank the wrench. Reach in and grab two beers. One to open, one to close. I put my mud flaps on the front side of the bumper. didn't like the gap - fit-up either. No Problem, No funky look.

Fly with flaps up front,

CAM

That's what we did to our 1151's except we mounted the IBIS TEK ice chest swing to the left rear, and spare tire carrier to the right rear, with mud flaps to the inside.

I got a picture laying around somewhere of one of our trucks.

This is just a picture I found laying around

 

[FKAM]

I've seen pictures of trucks with the mud flaps and tire carrier and searched to see more details of how they installed both, but I could not find any details. It looks like you sandwich the mud flap bracket between the tire carrier and bumper. That leaves a gap behind the carrier and makes that side stick out a little more than the other.
View attachment 737940 View attachment 737941
Has anyone else noticed this? Did you install it differently? Would it matter that the mud flap side sticks out slightly more than the other side of the bracket?

Not exactly what you are looking for in an answer, but on mine I have a reinforcement plate that covers all the way across the lifting shackles and the four surrounding mounting bolts. This made it level with the mud flap mount. I actually had to wait and get the mud flaps before I could mount the carrier because of the same problem you have but in reverse. I didn't know it at the time I bought it that the plate covered that far across the bumper. All of the other ones I have seen only make it to the bolts on the inside of the lifting shackles. I haven't ever seen one like mine since I got it. I thought you would have a problem getting the resting mount and carrier to line up if you mount it at an angle. But it looks like you can lock it down now that I look again at your pics. Mine is mounted on the plate also so everything lines up. In the end I think you should put a spacer plate behind there.

 

[BradIXXI]

I finally got some time to work on the HMMWV again. I wanted to be able to tow regular trailers so I bought one of those add on receiver hitches that bolt behind the pintle hitch. Has anyone tried those? When I put it back on, the bolt on the pintle wouldn't screw on far enough for the cotter pin to go in. I thought maybe the hitch would not allow the chain hook plate to be re-installed so I tried it without it. That didn't work either because the bolts that came with it were now too long and I wouldn't have been able to get it tight before it bottomed out. I finally ended up installing it with the chain hook plate and left the washer off the back of the pintle, but even then the nut would only go on far enough for half the cotter pin to fit.
View attachment 687033View attachment 687034View attachment 687035View attachment 687036
I took a picture of the bumper and hitch. I've heard there is a reinforcement kit available to beef up the trailer towing capacity. Does an M998a1 already have that installed? Has anyone added one and are they still available anywhere?

I added the same receiver hitch this weekend and ran into the same issue did with the Castle Nut and the Cotter Pin. I tightened the Castle Nut then turned it so one of the "flats" was lined up with the hole, marked and drilled the Castle Nut. The Cotter Pin is in the same hole in the hitch but with less threads by about 3/8". Just wondering if anyone else has tried to solve this issue?

 

[CUCV_ut]

Hello I was out looking at the hitch today. I have the airlift bumper, the reinforcement plate and the receiver hitch. On mine the cotter pin did make it in the original hole. I left off the plate with the safety chain hookups and the thin plate that the pintle swivels against, the two added up to about as much thickness as the receiver hitch. I put a slight bevel on the edge of the receiver hitch hole where the pitnle swivels, this was mostly to make it fit nice like the original plate.

 

[CUCV_ut]

I finally had time to work on the HMMWV again. I have added a roof rack, it was originally from a jeep but was a larger model. I'll add some pictures of how I did that. It's getting cramped inside the HMMWV,so I decided to move the hi-lift jack up to the roof rack.


My next project that I never get around to is adding a heater. Since I added the hard top on the truck the heater doesn't nearly heat the full interior. There's a local guy that has some CUCV arctic kits at reasonable prices so I bought another personnel heater. I wasn't sure about the vibration from the heater so I made a mounting plate with vibration dampers.



I'd appreciate any input on the exhaust. My plan is to use a hole saw and cut a hole larger than the tube in side of the hard top then take an aluminum plate with a hole for the exhaust pipe the go through and secure it to the hard top. I do have some of the heat pipe insulating wrap I could wrap around it to help keep the aluminum plate from getting too hot on the fiberglass. I'll add some more pictures as I get the rest of the parts ready. I've mounted a small fuel pump behind the heater to draw diesel from the fuel tank using the arctic heater pickup tube , or for now I may use a cap for the scepter cans to draw it from one of the fuel cans in the back.

 

[Mogman]

The hood reinforcement kits were created to compensate for the added weight of the armored grilles. If you have the standard grille, the kit is likely unnecessary.

Congrats on the new acquisition.

I just installed one of the hood kits, the kit states that they are for mitigating existing cracks in M998 and other hoods, does not mention armored grills.
When I installed the air lift bumper I figured out which of the "castle" slots would be correct and just deepened them.

 

[Mogman]

Those helmet top side doors are pretty unique, post some more pictures of them.

 

[CUCV_ut]

Those helmet top side doors are pretty unique, post some more pictures of them.

Do you mean the tool box doors on the hard top itself?

 

[Mogman]

10-4

Do you mean the tool box doors on the hard top itself?

10-4, have not seen any with an X on them

 

[CUCV_ut]

I'll post more pictures of the helmet top tool box doors soon. It looks original to me, maybe an early model or something. I'll see if I can find the original sticker with NSN on it.

I got caught up in the excitement of finding the 24 bolt rims and Goodyear MTR tires locally. The spare tire was a few years older than the rest and will not hold air at all. Here's a few picture of how it failed. It leaks air right out of the crack.


That being said, the other 4 are holding air fine. I don't see any cracks on them, and they are a couple years newer. Would you put the 24 bolt rims with MTRs on and run them? I currently have the 12 bolt rims with MT tires. Besides the fact they look neat, I liked the idea of upgrading to 24 bolt rims because I came out one day and one of my tires was flat and I noticed a single stud had sheared and the end and nut were nowhere to be found. If I did run the MTRs could would it be ok to use one of the MT 12 bolt rims as a spare? The HMMWV isn't really all that heavy so would it be a problem? I'll post a picture of the other tires and rims, they look pretty good (but so did this spare other than the crack).

 

[Milcommoguy]

What you have is a 14 year old tire.

Go slow... it's ready to blow, CAMO

 

[CUCV_ut]

Correct, that tire is definitely shot. If the other MTRs do not have any sign of cracking and are newer are they still at risk just because of the age? I've had plenty of MT tires much older that never have a problem.

 

[TOBASH]

Goodyear posted and even GovPlanet comments upon tire cracking and risk of failure.

Only one way to assure tire quality. Buy 'em new.

No amount of hand holding and guessing by forum members will be able to predict your future with those tires.

 

[Coug]

Two schools of thought.
1) tires are no good after a certain age, rubber oxidizes and whatnot.

2) Run them til they actually fail or show signs that they are going to.


It also depends on what you plan to do with them. If all you will ever do is drive on pavement and keep the tire pressure up, then older tires isn't as big of an issue. Just make sure your spare is good to go as well.
If you air down and like to drive off road a lot, then you're going to be putting more stress on the sidewalls and tread, so it's much better to run newer tires, or have multiple spares available.


Personally, my truck has 14 and 20 year old tires on it. Sidewalls and tread show no signs of cracking or wear, so I just keep a spare handy. I don't plan on airing them down, mostly just roadway driving.

 

[CUCV_ut]

Long term goal would be to get Baja TA replacements for them. Until then I will check them over thoroughly and keep an eye on them. I was mostly curious if a MT would be fine as a spare if the MTRs were on the truck. It's also interesting to hear other people stories about the MTR tires, seems like the Baja tires fare better. Also curious about the stud that broke on my new style 12 bolt wheel, what pressures do people run the 12 bolts at? Would being too inflated have broken a bolt or was it just a fluke?

 

[Coug]

doubt you broke the stud from pressure. More likely at some point someone over tightened it or assembled it wrong or something like that.

I run my 12 bolt MTs at 40-45PSI. Then again, I'm also an M1123 (heavy variant A2 truck) and have 2000+ pounds of shelter and gear in the back most of the time, so your results may vary.

You can get away with the MT as a spare, but treat it the same as you would a donut spare for your car. It has a different rolling radius/resistance than the MTRs, and I believe the TM (or maybe PS Magazine) specifically says NOT to mix and match them. Don't do it for everyday driving, don't leave it on there longer than necessary, but I see no reason why you can't use it just to limp home with.

 

[Milcommoguy]

Goodyear posted and even GovPlanet comments upon tire cracking and risk of failure.

Only one way to assure tire quality. Buy 'em new.

No amount of hand holding and guessing by forum members will be able to predict your future with those tires.

Famous quote "You have to ask yourself... Do you feel lucky" Or something like that.

I have had surplus tires 3 - 4 year old on my truck. No hot rodding, rock crawling. Just easy beer run stuff.

Twice now, failed great looking tires, full treadl, still with mold tits (can I say that?) air down for NO apparent reason ripped all to heck like a rag doll. The only saving feature was the runflats. A life saver.

Well...Do Ya, CAMO

No more trips to the liquor store for the HumV.

 

[TOBASH]

Famous quote "You have to ask yourself... Do you feel lucky" Or something like that.

I have had surplus tires 3 - 4 year old on my truck. No hot rodding, rock crawling. Just easy beer run stuff.

Twice now, failed great looking tires, full treadl, still with mold tits (can I say that?) air down for NO apparent reason ripped all to heck like a rag doll. The only saving feature was the runflats. A life saver.

Well...Do Ya, CAMO

No more trips to the liquor store for the HumV.

Hey Cam.... Did your tires explode before or after you made it to the liquor store on your beer run? Just wondering if your tires were ok BUT you pulled a "Harvey Wallbanger". (LOL)

Old rubber is not predictable. Tire pressure also figures into that... Just ask FoMoCo after their SUV's rolled over because Ford suggested 20 psi rather than tire manufacturer recommended 30+ psi on brand new tires.

USA has no standard, so just use common sense.

 

[Retiredwarhorses]

doubt you broke the stud from pressure. More likely at some point someone over tightened it or assembled it wrong or something like that.

I run my 12 bolt MTs at 40-45PSI. Then again, I'm also an M1123 (heavy variant A2 truck) and have 2000+ pounds of shelter and gear in the back most of the time, so your results may vary.

You can get away with the MT as a spare, but treat it the same as you would a donut spare for your car. It has a different rolling radius/resistance than the MTRs, and I believe the TM (or maybe PS Magazine) specifically says NOT to mix and match them. Don't do it for everyday driving, don't leave it on there longer than necessary, but I see no reason why you can't use it just to limp home with.

The main reason for no mix and match is load range D and E tires, D’s should not be on a 12.3 GVW truck.
there are 2 versions of 24 bolt rims too, even and staggered stud, staggered are for the M1151 heavys.
i see no reason you can’t mix and match rims on our unladen trucks.