Who here bought these Hemetts?

[ScubaCat]

On Jan 19th I was coming down Rt 219 in Salamanca NY and saw 2 semis, each with a HEMETT on a flat bed sitting at a truckstop. I whipped my van into the lot and got a few picks as the trucks were warmignup to leave.

The cargo model HEMETT was in ok shape, some surface rust, mismatched paint but decent tires.

The tanker looked really nice. Good paint and tires.

Both had yellow grease paint written #s and such on the windshields.

I didn't get the feeling they were going to get re-habbed.... They ended up getting on Rt86E going towards Binghamton NY.

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7439/photoal.jpg
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/2417/photo2oak.jpg
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/50/photo3mn.jpg
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/1926/photo4sl.jpg
http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/8011/photo5lo.jpg

 

[southdave]

they are more than likley going to WI for rebuild

 

[mdlbldrmatt135]

Ahh another Oleander....... I'd say prolly headed for Drum??

 

[ScubaCat]

Ahh another Oleander....... I'd say prolly headed for Drum??

Hey, small world! Could be I suppose. The one just looked a little rough I can't imagine them letting it get like that unless they knew they were getting rid of it. Would they even do such re-habbing on base or would it sub'ed out?

 

[ScubaCat]

they are more than likley going to WI for rebuild

Hope not, they wre going in the wrong direction!

 

[fasttruck]

Iraq war returning equipment going to owning unit home station via common carrier ? Numbers on glass could be pier talley marks and no "euc required" signs suggest gl is not in the picture.

 

[319]

Saw this one northbound on I-75 near Florence Ky on Saturday. Also saw an M113 (sorry, no photo) on a flatbed southbound in the same area.

 

[ScubaCat]

Iraq war returning equipment going to owning unit home station via common carrier ? Numbers on glass could be pier talley marks and no "euc required" signs suggest gl is not in the picture.

Wish I would have gotten a shot of the windshields on each to get the markings.

There was absolutely nothing on the semis giving a clue to where they were heading and nothing noticable on the Hemetts. ??? Who knows. I figured there was some lucky SOB here that got some new toys....

 

[Stalwart]

Not a chance, they all go back to Oshkosh now for rebuilds, I'm told even the wrecked ones.

 

[ida34]

Wrecked ones are coming out but it has been a couple years since I saw one come out and it was pretty bad. There were a couple sold on GL a few years ago from Selfridge ANGB in Michigan. I saw them and they both had the engines taken out and they had been involved in collisions. The one looked like it had rolled over as the whole body and bed was bent to the side.

 

[emmado22]

I'll bet they were headed to Ft Drum with the 10th MTN bumper #'s on the back of the M977........ I also like how they are painted on the wrong sides.

 

[drdstny]

Any chance we could all learn to spell HEMTT?

You're typing it, not saying it, so why not type it right? Plus, it's an acronym, not a word.

Please? Pet-peeve shared by many here.

 

[BKubu]

You can find them if you want to pay the price. Or, you could pay someone to build one for you. I was doing that with an M978 fueler until I found my now-gone M977. I recently acquired an M983 Patriot tractor that only needed a motor and some TLC. I hope to have that truck ready by summer. It is not for sale, though.

 

[mudguppy]

[hijack] are you doing a resto' thread, Bruce? got a trailer to pull with it? [/hijack]

 

[BKubu]

Travis, it is not going to be a frame off restoration because the truck does not need it. A friend in FL is installing the motor and cleaning it up a bit for me. I would have liked to do the latter myself, but I don't have the equipment to install a motor. Rather than spend thousands moving the truck around the country, I opted to send it to my friend in FL. My friend was also the one who was building the M978 for me. He is VERY knowledgeable about HEMTTs and has built others in the past. Anyway, he basically disassembled all of the sheet metal and parts from around the motor and cleaned the entire engine compartment out. He, then, painted the radiator and shroud. He is installing two new fenders (I love new sheet metal!). He is basically removing all sheet metal parts (except the cab) and cleaning them up one by one and repainting them. Once he is done, the truck will be sent to John Winslow for re-CARCing. Eventually, I plan to mount new rubber on it.

With regard to the trailer, I am undecided. The tractor's fifth wheel takes the oversized kingpin and that limits me with regard to the trailers that I can get. I know an M172A1 would work, but I'd prefer not to go the overwidth route. I may actually have Winslow install a fifth wheel off a 5 ton tractor so I can expand my trailer options. I would prefer to leave the fifth wheel alone, but I just think that will make a trailer a non-option. I will keep the correct fifth wheel in case I decide to go back. I am told that the non-Patriot tractor had a standard size fifth wheel, but I am not positive of that. Travis, maybe you or someone else who is/was in the military can comment. I don't have firsthand knowledge.

 

[mudguppy]

sorry, Bruce - i've never even seen a 983 tractor while i was in, so no experience on my part. we never supported any Patriot BNs so we never had any come into the shop. all of the ADA units we supported were all MLRS. i've literally seen just about everything else [wheeled] because we've supported just about everything else at one time or another.

what's the repower - 8v92T?

 

[JeepMan]

Notice they don't have anyway of disguising the tanker
(unless they have a kit) for combat operations. Would be
a sitting duck marked 'Flammable' and looks like a tanker.

 

[BKubu]

Yup...8V92TA. I know some don't like them, but it is the motor that came out so I tried to find the right one to go back in. It set me back some coin, but I think it was worth it. It was a zero mile motor (govt rebuild) with dyno specs.

 

[mudguppy]

Notice they don't have anyway of disguising the tanker
(unless they have a kit) for combat operations. Would be
a sitting duck marked 'Flammable' and looks like a tanker.

no one does this anymore and hasn't for years. now that the fuel is JP8 it isn't near as volatile as gasoline so the concern isn't there.

also, how would you plan to disguise the tractor-pulled tanker trailers - dress them up like a giant twinkee? these trailers transport about 95% of the fuel in theater and during movement. HEMTT fuelers are mainly for Mech Inf and Armor units to keep up with the tracks. tankers get sprayed with a foam that slows leaks from small arms pot-shots. besides, dressing it up to look like a cargo truck accomplishes nothing - whether its parts or fuel, if it doesn't have a turret then it's a support vehicle.

lastly, fuel isn't a primary target anymore. with the amount of fuel consumption that a combat BDE requires, ambushing a convoy and taking out a 5k gal tanker is like a fart in a hurricane; we don't travel at the edge of logistics like we used to [in WWII] - we learned those lessons and we won't repeat them.

example: in '03 for the invasion, i headed up the MST element that was attached to 1 of 3 FLEs tasked to support the 2BCT maneuver (which doesn't include the fuel that the MSB moved also). our primary mission was to follow, support, and set up a fuel bag-farm to support the MSR. we left with 26 5k tankers, a dozer, forklift, and enough pumps and bags to set up the farm [i had a 984, contact truck, deuce, deuce w/ shelter, and parts van on my MST]. due to mechanical break-downs, we abandoned several tankers along the way, yet still arrived with over 100k gallons of fuel. this fuel was only a 3rd of the bag farm capacity, as the rest of the BN would bring more fuel with them when they came up a few days later. we then camped out along the MSR as a CSC - convoy support center. we offered fuel, maintenance, and recovery to units along the MSR. these CSCs were scattered along the MSR - a massive amount of logistics is prepared for movement before the first round is put down range.

 

[mudguppy]

that's a beautiful sight, Bruce!! just as long as you didn't pay what the Army paid...

is that a mechanical or DDEC motor? and is it an -A (aftercooled) motor? i didn't think the HEMTTs had coolers - if they did, they were air-to-water, i'd assume.