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What's your best 'that was dumb' moment involving your 5 ton?

M813rc

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Near Austin, Texas
MAdams, I'd bet money your truck (or at least part I can see) came out of the Marine Corps! ;)

My contribution-
Start M931, watch gauges. Air building, but will only go to around 50 pounds on the gauges. Visions of compressor failures, blown air lines, etc. flash through my mind, why isn't it building air?!?

Step down from cab to look for expensive things to fix, hear loud hiss from the rear. Go close the valve on the 'emergency' trailer air connection at the rear. :oops:
Truck then builds air like a champion.

Cheers
 

M813rc

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Near Austin, Texas
M813rc, what are you seeing that indicated its a USMC truck?
Tire pressure marking on the fender. The Marines usually mark their trucks "xx PSI" while all the other services usually mark "TP xx". I have seen some Marine vehicles lately with TP markings, and one that was marked "TP xx PSI"!

Cheers
 

dmetalmiki

Well-known member
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London England
Again, recently..drove out of the workshop and parked up. Nothing wrong with that you say? Well there is if the huge wall battery charger is STILL connected. (A shake of the head and a sticker on the windscreen later...)
 

74M35A2

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Location
Livonia, MI
Ummm, well, I'm thinking about posting one...not sure I can bring myself to do it. Let's just say be sure to set your parking brake when walking away from your truck.
 

Castle Bravo

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Arizona
A friend had me change some tires between two M931A2s because he was selling one and wanted to keep the nicer tires. So the task was to move 7 14R20s from one truck onto another. This was complicated somewhat by not having the correct number of jackstands available, so they had to be moved "one at a time," basically.

After some hours of working into the night, we had everything all switched and torqued down and ready to reinstall the CTIS on both trucks. Except I hadn't clocked the rear wheels correctly. On all eight rear positions. The fronts were "saved" by the fact that they can't go on wrong, but the rears certainly can. So 75% of the work was for nothing and had to be redone. I think it was 1 AM or so and the guy buying the truck was coming at 7 AM. So work began again...
 

juanprado

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Metairie/La (N'awlins)
my oops moment when I was new to my 5 ton was parking it in gear. Would not start the next time for some reson :)

Followed all the trouble shooting steps in tm till we got to neutral safety switch....

Great exercise in reading tm and following trouble shooting flow charts.....
 

therooster2001

Active member
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Location
Colorado
Again, recently..drove out of the workshop and parked up. Nothing wrong with that you say? Well there is if the huge wall battery charger is STILL connected. (A shake of the head and a sticker on the windscreen later...)
Also make sure the shop air compressor and line are disconnected from emergency air after airing up. While being dragged out, they tend to hit things like a small trailer that might pivot and break your to be installed windshield.
 
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therooster2001

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Colorado
Always check both sides of your tailgate is secured before using it as leverage to get up and over the trailer tongue to go get it undone on the "other" side, as when they are both undone, it tends to come down when pulled and hit you in the head, almost knocking you out. I had to go ask the wife if I was ok...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

Buffalobwana

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Frisco Texas
Oh! That can hurt!

Standing on top of bed rail, all of a sudden not standing on top of bedrail. Don’t know or remember what lead to this unfavorable horizontal position.

4 broken ribs, concussion, badly sprained wrist and generally, a lot of pain.

1.5 hrs from home. Still have to unload 7 16.00’s. Throw a strap around them. Strap to tree. And drive away.

First, do you have any idea, with 4 broken ribs, how bad it hurts to:
get in and out of truck
close the tail gate!! I tried 5 times.
Drive 1.5 miles in a 5- ton by yourself.
Face your wife, who you have called and asked her to
bring you a ladder to help get out of the truck.
 

Buffalobwana

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Frisco Texas
She did ... until then. I wasn’t halfway out of the truck before “we” were discussing plans to sell all of them.

So unfair of her to blame the truck. Like a man, I took responsibility, deflecting any blame away from the innocent machine that has served me well.
 

71DeuceAK

Well-known member
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Location
Fairbanks, Alaska
Buffalobwana, someone I know has a similarly bad story of falling (I think it was a misstep from a stepladder to the bed) from the tailgate of his M923A1, I think broke a collar bone or tore a rotator cup. That said it didn't discourage him one bit.
 

Buffalobwana

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Frisco Texas
That is the initiation. Break some bones on your truck. Do you sell it, or carry on?

Those who sell were never meant to be FMV owners.
 

Lukes_deuce

Active member
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Location
Long Island, NY
This is my worst dumb movement. I was replacing the dog bones on my 813. So constantly underneath and getting out from the truck. I worked on the dog bones over a few weeks since they were so stubborn. One day, a few weeks into the project, the ground was muddy from rain. I decided to lay the tailgate horizontal to act as a work bench to hold tools and etc. Well after practically memorizing the motion to get out from underneath the truck without hitting anything, I forgot about the tailgate. Smashed my head on it. Man, I saw tweety bird and stars after that. Life lesson - should of brought a sheet of plywood for the ground. It was only 15 feet away
 

TechnoWeenie

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Location
Nova Laboratories, WA
Coming out of the back of my M934, I stumbled on the top step... Basically made a rolling dive off the top..don't know how I did it, but I managed to roll forward as soon as I hit the ground... Nothing hurt but my pride, and for a second there I thought I should try it again because it was so cool.... But immediately thought NOPE....
 

71DeuceAK

Well-known member
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416
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Location
Fairbanks, Alaska
The truck isn't my own, but the stupidity seems to be there nevertheless.

Mind you, I was having "one of those kind of days" to begin with...

Start trying to trace M813 dump conversion air leak. Decide it's coming from under trans doghouse. Consult TMs night before. Go out there with six-point socket. Get a few bolts out, place in glove box to prevent from being lost.

Drop socket in shifter boot.

At advice of owner/workplace boss who is letting me learn on these, take a peanut grinder to remaining rusty, stubborn bolts.
Avoid cutting finger off.

Later, drive truck without retrieving socket. Then walk the 1/8 mile long driveway looking for it. Dirt road, grass between tire tracks, hot dry dusty summer day.

Side note: As a toddler, (about age two) I did something my dad still gives me a hard time about, 18 years later. I got into the garage and his tool cabinet, and threw all of his sockets down the 37%-grade driveway.

After this I found myself texting Dad: "Just so you can laugh at my expense: I'm chasing missing sockets and fighting peanut grinders, working on the army dump truck" (He's been to my place of employment/current residence before).

It was primarily funny because I was reliving my two year old self...
 

Floridianson

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Interlachen Fl.
Dumb moment not quite. Stupid moment yes! M816 should not to be playing in mud pit. Played for a couple of hours and watching for any deep holes that others are staying away from. Time to leave and I cut across the side of the pit and what looked to be a hole maybe 20x20. No problem but wait why is the truck dropping like a rock and mud / sandy soil up the windshield and she is on 53's. Tighten my butt cheeks so nothing escapes and hit reverse fast. Nope not going to happen, she is stuck and I am feeling stupid so I call for help with her still running. It took one Deuce and two farm tractors to get her out. Just as she was coming out the motor that was still running started to act funny and cut out. What the heck now. Have the Deuce drag me back to higher ground and try and get her started buy putting her in gear and clutch. She is trying to run but something feels wrong and then she cut out for good. O crap better call Pete aka P&C trans. Where are you o wait I don't care where you are get your donkey up here from Tampa and get me out of here. As Pete always does, showed up winched me up on his trailer and off we went. Yes I did have to be scolded about taking the truck in the mud pit all the way home. Got home and found the problem. The dip stick was not tight and with the road draft tube deep in the wet sandy muck dip stick popped out and in ran sandy /muddy to the crank case. On inspection had sand on both sides of the oil filter so one trashed motor. Good thing I have a running takeout motor but I should have a tattoo on my forehead. "CAN'T FIX STUPID"
 
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