Welcome to MV Roadtrips

[Recovry4x4]

Hey gang! Welcome to roadtrips! This is a new forum for everybody to share their roadtrip stories in your MVs. Post pics, tell us the story of your latest adventure or one from the past. Post the pics and lets laugh. I know that some of the worst nightmare trips I've had are now called MV adventures. I know I enjoy reading the stories and writing them too. I'll surely have one after my trip to Aberdeen for the convoy and rally.

 

[Desert Rat]

Ken,
Give me about three weeks or so and I'll have pics of the trip to Houston. I'm looking forward to sharing the "moments" with y'all! I'll have pre-game and post-game interviews. Still looking for a half-time sponsor though........ Instant re-plays are at the discression of the reader. Sorry, no tailgate(ing) parties are allowed at this event.

 

[steelsoldiers]

I'll definitely have a good one after the Haspin Rally. Hopefully it will be all fun and no disaster. I look forward to seeing some Aberdeen reports from all of you guys[]

 

[Dieselsmoke]

Soon I'll be driving mine about 90 miles to Tower Park, that's about the furthest I take mine on the highways. Now logging trails are a different story.

 

[cranetruck]

A page from my Logbook.
Date: April 6, 2005

This was a 70 mile trip to pick up locust lumber for the M756 pipeline truck bed, which will soon be replacing the home made bed on my deuce.
I poured some cooking oil in the fuel tank since the weather was warm enough (60F plus). The mixture was about 5% veggi oil.

Tire pressures at 72 psi, stub axle removed, no freewheeling hubs. One image below show the gravel road, which sometimes require the front wheels to be engaged on the fly when I meet someone and have to pull over or stop.

The average speed for the trip was about 33 mph. Top speed about 60 mph. Fuel milage was about 7.8 for the 70 mile round trip.

The highest engine temp noticed was 201 deg F (long uphill) and the lowest about 180 (downhill run). At idle when loading, the temp dropped to about 176.
The winter cover was installed with the flap open.

Driving with the headlights on once again caused the circuit breaker within the light switch to trip when the turn signals were used. I drove the majority of the trip with the headlights turned off (they will be soon be separated from the rest of the lights with an override switch and their own cb).

As usual, after 10-15 minutes on the road, there is hardly any smoke from the exhaust. The veggi oil didn't make any noticable difference.

 

[ken]

Mabye i'll post after i get over the embarrisment!

 

[Recovry4x4]

Ken, if you learned anything then it was a success. On day I'll tell the story of buring up a 5 ton on the way home from a GSA sale.

 

[cranetruck]

Oh yes, embarrassing, like driving with the handbrake set, driving with loose lug nuts (a couple actually came off), overreving the engine thinking that the transfer was in hi and only looking at the speedometer, not noticing screech from the engine as rpm must have topped 2,800 (I don't put my headset on around town any more), taking off with outriggers dragging (cranetruck, you know).
When I first drove my deuce home from Camp LeJeune, NC in 1995, one headlight was (later) found to have been installed upside down and that must have ticked off a few people. Driving for a long distance not being able to change into slow lane when passenger side mirror decided to adjust itself. That's when it was an M49A2C and no way to see who or what was to the right of me.
When I first drove the deuce at Camp LeJeune, which was my first time since AIT back in '70, I thought for sure that the transfer was stuck in low and drove around the base a couple of times before realizing that "high" actually was supposed to be that low.
Driving with turn signals on long after a turn used to be a common thing. That little problem was solved with the buzzer gizmo.


The list goes on, all I can say is that you can learn a lot from your mistakes.

 

[Desert Rat]

Bjorn,
Sounds like you have learned from quite a bit of "experience". Any more you'd like to share (oh pleeeeeeezzzzze!)?

 

[ken]

Ok so taking out the fence at work when the brakes failed doesen't sound so bad now. Even though it wasen't a road trip.

 

[cranetruck]

Good grief, DR, but since you said please, here are a couple more.
Driving off road with tire chains. A tree root got caught in the right rearmost chain and got spun around taking off the emergency air glad hand in the passing. Had to walk home (not far, less than a mile) to get parts to plug the pipe.
Oh yeah, at Kenny's place in Florida a couple of months ago, I was exited over the new M103A3 trailer and practicing some backing up maneuvers looking over my shoulder, Kenny's deuce tractor got in the way. His front bumper got scratched up a bit.:blush: Didn't pay attention to where MY front bumper was going.
During the trip back home I had several opportunities to practice backing up with the trailer and started to get the hang of it. However, on another trip, Greenville KY, this time with the M756 bed loaded up (image below), I couldn't see the trailer turn until it was too far over. Spent 15 minutes in a motel parking lot trying to back out when I couldn't go around the stupid building. Learned then to bring stakes to put on the trailer to make its movements visible... Next morning to save myself more embarrassment I swiftly engaged front wheel drive and cut across a sidewalk to get out on the road without need for further "blind" backing up. "Off-roading in the city".

Later,

 

[Recovry4x4]

Is there anybody else here that wants to be as honest as Bjorn is here? I'm no stranger to mishaps myself. I've driven all over the neighborhood trying to outrun that clutch smell only to find out its MY parking brake. How about laughing at all the little 4x4s before crossing a flooded lot. When the truck started to bog down I flipped the air switch only to find nothing happening. After walking home to get my other deuce and towbar (I was alone that day) I found that I still had desplined hubs on the truck. I've learned that when backing, mirrors don't always fit where trucks do. Trees are stronger than deuce tailgates. Tailgates make decent skull protectors when cables break and the 1" clevis comes sailing back towing a 6" tow strap. They are sacrificial when doing it though! Still have the burnt up 5 Ton story left to tell too

 

[cranetruck]

Driving on a snow covered dirt road once I lost track of how my front wheels were pointing. I had hit a bump earlier and the steering wheel spun. I kept driving and soon realized that I had no control over where I was heading. Speed: very slow.
I stopped walked out and confirmed that the wheels were at full left rudder, but the traction of the rear (then) duals kept the truck going straight.
Often, when driving in snow or mud I would have to back up and try to take the turn again. This goes back to 1997 or so and the decision was made to change to singles.
No traffic, no embarrassment, just me and perhaps Connie Rodd peeking out from some old PS magazine.

 

[Rattlehead]

Last fall I went to move the deuce to the side of the driveway so my welder could reach from the garage. Backed up a few feet so I could get it turned to the side when suddenly, a dim light bulb went off in my head as I thought "where is my car?". Couldn't really see it in my mirror, directly behind the van box. Turns out it was less than a few feet behind the deuce. Got a nice dent/crease where the pintle hitch drug across the hood of my car. But don't worry, the deuce is fine!

I left on a weekend trip in the deuce last summer, and in the first 5-10 miles of a 250+ mile round trip, at night, with a heavy rain, I couldn't see an unlit construction sign sticking out in the path of my driver side west coast mirror. After the initial shock from the loud BANG and shattering glass, I realized what happened.

Well that's enough embarassment for now!

 

[painkiller]

yeah that parking brake is killer, i was going off road for about 5-10 min and on my way back down an old road to catch up with the rest of the people that i went with i start to smell something and i also figured it was the clutch because sometimes i get that in the car as well and think nothing of it, but when i stopped i got out and it was just so bad and i went to put the seatbelt back in, and i looked at the brake and did a double take at the fact that i was a moron for leaving the brake on all the time i was off roading :banghead: , thankfully it was not pulled all the way up and still works

 

[Recovry4x4]

One of my trucks had a light hooked up to it. The military used the lever type brake switch from an M151 and hooked it up to a red low air warning light on the extreme left side of the dash above the flame heater. I wouldn't mind doing that option on my current fleet. I was pretty obvious in the daylight and downright obnoxious at night.