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WSUCougarx's M561 Gama Goat Acquisition and Build Thread
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wsucougarx
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Thanks, yah he didn't have any Cargo covers when I inquired about them. Picked up a set of end curtains.
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wsucougarx
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11.00x18 Tires and Gama Goat Recovery Trip
Looks like everything is a go for my recovery trip that'll take me across four states (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and down into Utah). I'll be driving a mere 1700 miles roundtrip to recover ten 11.00x18 Gama Goat tires w/95% tread and some various Gama Goat parts. Due to an unforeseen work schedule, Memorial Day Weekend, and my impatience, I will be doing a LOOOONG recovery trip. This trip will mimic the recovery of the Gama Goat in several ways. Just as with the M561 recovery, I will be doing a marathon trip to my destination. I will be leaving this Friday after work. I work a 9 hour day (0800-1700 hours), come home and jump in my truck and drive 13 hours straight (740 miles). My plan is to be at my first destination by about 0800 hours Saturday morning (lost an hour due to time zone change
). I will need to strategically plan this trip accordingly to avoid the masses during the Friday night Memorial Day exodus. I've got three routes to choose from, but from all indications I'll be taking a back road rather than head over Snoqualmie Pass or through Portland. I'll be taking my son on this non-stop journey into the night.
I'll be taking my trusty M101A1 in tow. I've had to do some work to her over the past couple days to get her prepped up for the trip. I added a military trailer plug to the truck so I can just hook up the military plug for lights. I also added a license plate light by tapping into the military harness. Had to fork over some money for a new spare tire.
These recoveries never get old. I'm really excited to finally get some tires on this goat. Three out of the six tires are stamped with 1971 date stamps and are showing it!!! I'll update this thread more as the recovery trip is in progress.
Looks like everything is a go for my recovery trip that'll take me across four states (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and down into Utah). I'll be driving a mere 1700 miles roundtrip to recover ten 11.00x18 Gama Goat tires w/95% tread and some various Gama Goat parts. Due to an unforeseen work schedule, Memorial Day Weekend, and my impatience, I will be doing a LOOOONG recovery trip. This trip will mimic the recovery of the Gama Goat in several ways. Just as with the M561 recovery, I will be doing a marathon trip to my destination. I will be leaving this Friday after work. I work a 9 hour day (0800-1700 hours), come home and jump in my truck and drive 13 hours straight (740 miles). My plan is to be at my first destination by about 0800 hours Saturday morning (lost an hour due to time zone change
). I will need to strategically plan this trip accordingly to avoid the masses during the Friday night Memorial Day exodus. I've got three routes to choose from, but from all indications I'll be taking a back road rather than head over Snoqualmie Pass or through Portland. I'll be taking my son on this non-stop journey into the night. I'll be taking my trusty M101A1 in tow. I've had to do some work to her over the past couple days to get her prepped up for the trip. I added a military trailer plug to the truck so I can just hook up the military plug for lights. I also added a license plate light by tapping into the military harness. Had to fork over some money for a new spare tire.
These recoveries never get old. I'm really excited to finally get some tires on this goat. Three out of the six tires are stamped with 1971 date stamps and are showing it!!! I'll update this thread more as the recovery trip is in progress.
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When we lived in Kent the Friday exodus was never as bad as the Sunday return. It took us 5 hours one year to go from Ellensburg to Kent and traffic was bumper to bumper the entire way. I got a little bit of deja vu last week going through Houston. For being the 8th largest city in the country, San Antonio traffic is quite mild.
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Have a safe trip, look forward to the AAR.
combat32
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Yeah I'm interested in how those tires turn out.
wsucougarx
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Just got back an hour ago. Drove 2,000 miles solo in the past two days. I'm a bit tired. When I get some rest I'll post more info.
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Glad you're safe! That's a LOT of windshield time! What happened to your co-pilot?
wsucougarx
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Smith and Edwards Trip 27MAY16
Here are some of the exhaustive details of the Gama Goat tire and parts trip. As mentioned earlier, I made the trip after work on 27MAY16. I was able to get off work at 1600hrs instead of 1700hrs. I figured the extra hour should offset some of the Memorial Day Weekend travel traffic. I left the house around 1700 hours and was on the road.
I had three different routes to choose from:
1) Tacoma-Puyallup-I90-Ellensburg-Kennewick onto Utah
2) Elma-Centralia-White Pass-Kennewick onto Utah
3) Elma-Portland-East onto Utah
I check the Washington DOT app and saw options 1 and 3 were out of the question to traffic, construction, and lane closures. Ok, White Pass it was. Luckily the traffic was very minimal but had a nice surprise when I approached Morton. Evidentally, it was their annual city wide yard sale and a yard sale it was errr Morton County Fair? There were thousands of people lining the streets going from vendor to vendor and walking onto the highway like it was their sidewalk. This was a bit of delay but once I cleared the town it was open road.
Here are some the times I had:
27MAY16
Left home 1700 hrs
White Pass 1950 hrs
Kennewick 2216 hrs
Pendleton, OR 2310 hrs
28MAY16
Baker City, OR 0033 hrs (Half way point-mileage wise)
Boise, ID 1422 hrs
Twin Falls, ID 0512 hrs
Smith and Edwards, UT 0915 hrs (We made it!!!)
So, all in all, I only had a 15 minute nap on the 990 mile trip. My body is starting to tell me this is a young man's trip not a 43yo trip. But I like the adventure of it all. I had absolutely zero mechanical issues. My old 2001 Dodge Ram Cummins and trusty M101A2 performed flawlessly. My average cruising speed was between 70-75 MPH. I made some good time on the trip down but slowed it down a bit on the return trip. I think mostly due to fatigue more than anything else. I took my 12 year son along for the ride. He was more than willing to come and knew what he was getting to. He went with me on my initial recovery trip and had to come on this one. I'm not sure what the motivator was for him. Was it the trip, was it the unmonitored use of his ipad and Nintendo DS gaming, or did he just want to get away from the house. Whatever the motivation, it was great to have someone there to keep me company on those lonely Eastern Oregon, Southern Idaho, and Northern Utah roads. Man, no offense to anyone living in these areas, but what a boring drive.
Fuel Log:
Left the house with a full tank of fuel (35 gallons)
1) Circle K in Kennewick, WA 27MAY16 2159 hours 16.925 Gallons $41.62 ($2.459/Gallon)
2) Gowen Chevron in Boise, ID 28MAY16 0332 hours 20.246 Gallons $52.62 ($2.599/gallon)
3) Pilot #508 in Perry, UT 28MAY16 0856 hours 19.208 Gallons $49.92 ($2.599/Gallon)
Return Trip
4) Foothills Chevron in Mountain Home, ID 28MAY16 0855 hours 30.134 Gallons $78.32 ($2.599/Gallon)
5) Chevron West in Zillah, WA 29MAY16 1010 hours 27.819 Gallons $72.30 ($2.599/Gallon)
6) Montesano Quick Stop Montesano, WA 31MAY16 1553 hrs 13.626 Gallons $35.41 ($2.599/Gallon)
So for the trip I burned about 127.958 gallons (I filled up the tank upon arrival back home). I spent $330.19 on fuel. With these calculations, my fuel economy to the location (empty) was 14.828 miles/Gallon. For my return trip, my fuel economy was 14.180/Gallon Loaded. Typically without the M101A2 trailer, my truck averages about 20-22 miles per gallon on the highway. I'm surprised the empty vs loaded MPG was so close. That load of tires and parts didn't even bother that 5.9L Cummins!!! I'm stoked by these MPG figures. My truck is pushing 178,000 miles right now and she appears there's nothing stopped her.
Here are some of the exhaustive details of the Gama Goat tire and parts trip. As mentioned earlier, I made the trip after work on 27MAY16. I was able to get off work at 1600hrs instead of 1700hrs. I figured the extra hour should offset some of the Memorial Day Weekend travel traffic. I left the house around 1700 hours and was on the road.
I had three different routes to choose from:
1) Tacoma-Puyallup-I90-Ellensburg-Kennewick onto Utah
2) Elma-Centralia-White Pass-Kennewick onto Utah
3) Elma-Portland-East onto Utah
I check the Washington DOT app and saw options 1 and 3 were out of the question to traffic, construction, and lane closures. Ok, White Pass it was. Luckily the traffic was very minimal but had a nice surprise when I approached Morton. Evidentally, it was their annual city wide yard sale and a yard sale it was errr Morton County Fair? There were thousands of people lining the streets going from vendor to vendor and walking onto the highway like it was their sidewalk. This was a bit of delay but once I cleared the town it was open road.
Here are some the times I had:
27MAY16
Left home 1700 hrs
White Pass 1950 hrs
Kennewick 2216 hrs
Pendleton, OR 2310 hrs
28MAY16
Baker City, OR 0033 hrs (Half way point-mileage wise)
Boise, ID 1422 hrs
Twin Falls, ID 0512 hrs
Smith and Edwards, UT 0915 hrs (We made it!!!)
So, all in all, I only had a 15 minute nap on the 990 mile trip. My body is starting to tell me this is a young man's trip not a 43yo trip. But I like the adventure of it all. I had absolutely zero mechanical issues. My old 2001 Dodge Ram Cummins and trusty M101A2 performed flawlessly. My average cruising speed was between 70-75 MPH. I made some good time on the trip down but slowed it down a bit on the return trip. I think mostly due to fatigue more than anything else. I took my 12 year son along for the ride. He was more than willing to come and knew what he was getting to. He went with me on my initial recovery trip and had to come on this one. I'm not sure what the motivator was for him. Was it the trip, was it the unmonitored use of his ipad and Nintendo DS gaming, or did he just want to get away from the house. Whatever the motivation, it was great to have someone there to keep me company on those lonely Eastern Oregon, Southern Idaho, and Northern Utah roads. Man, no offense to anyone living in these areas, but what a boring drive.
Fuel Log:
Left the house with a full tank of fuel (35 gallons)
1) Circle K in Kennewick, WA 27MAY16 2159 hours 16.925 Gallons $41.62 ($2.459/Gallon)
2) Gowen Chevron in Boise, ID 28MAY16 0332 hours 20.246 Gallons $52.62 ($2.599/gallon)
3) Pilot #508 in Perry, UT 28MAY16 0856 hours 19.208 Gallons $49.92 ($2.599/Gallon)
Return Trip
4) Foothills Chevron in Mountain Home, ID 28MAY16 0855 hours 30.134 Gallons $78.32 ($2.599/Gallon)
5) Chevron West in Zillah, WA 29MAY16 1010 hours 27.819 Gallons $72.30 ($2.599/Gallon)
6) Montesano Quick Stop Montesano, WA 31MAY16 1553 hrs 13.626 Gallons $35.41 ($2.599/Gallon)
So for the trip I burned about 127.958 gallons (I filled up the tank upon arrival back home). I spent $330.19 on fuel. With these calculations, my fuel economy to the location (empty) was 14.828 miles/Gallon. For my return trip, my fuel economy was 14.180/Gallon Loaded. Typically without the M101A2 trailer, my truck averages about 20-22 miles per gallon on the highway. I'm surprised the empty vs loaded MPG was so close. That load of tires and parts didn't even bother that 5.9L Cummins!!! I'm stoked by these MPG figures. My truck is pushing 178,000 miles right now and she appears there's nothing stopped her.
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wsucougarx
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Smith and Edwards Trip (Cont)
Here are pics of what I brought home. The tires were 98% plus. Several of the tires still had the seem marks. I went through each of the tires and picked the best 9 tires they had. I hoped for 10 but the remaining new tires they had were all weather checked unfortunately. I paid $125 per tire/wheel. I ended up having to load them all up by hand. Luckily I had a 2x6 in the truck and the use of physics to get them all up in the bed of the truck. It wasn't until I had 7 loaded up did John come around the corner with a forklift and asked if I needed help. Guess I needed the work out. So I got 7 Goodyear and 2 United 11.00x18 tires. I also located some Gama Goat parts. I am most excited about finding two sets of bows and the ever rare and elusive fiberglass battery trays!!!! I picked up a driver seat frame for the adjustability for the passenger side. I was pretty stoked to find the M792 step for the tailgate as well. All in all I got some good parts
Here are pics of what I brought home. The tires were 98% plus. Several of the tires still had the seem marks. I went through each of the tires and picked the best 9 tires they had. I hoped for 10 but the remaining new tires they had were all weather checked unfortunately. I paid $125 per tire/wheel. I ended up having to load them all up by hand. Luckily I had a 2x6 in the truck and the use of physics to get them all up in the bed of the truck. It wasn't until I had 7 loaded up did John come around the corner with a forklift and asked if I needed help. Guess I needed the work out. So I got 7 Goodyear and 2 United 11.00x18 tires. I also located some Gama Goat parts. I am most excited about finding two sets of bows and the ever rare and elusive fiberglass battery trays!!!! I picked up a driver seat frame for the adjustability for the passenger side. I was pretty stoked to find the M792 step for the tailgate as well. All in all I got some good parts
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And parts for the truss kit. Nice haul!
After driving through Houston last week to get the LMTV I was missing those lonely WA/OR/ID roads.
After driving through Houston last week to get the LMTV I was missing those lonely WA/OR/ID roads.
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Good job, thanks for the AAR.
combat32
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Good haul!
combat32
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Did he have more tires available? Or any more seat cushions.
wsucougarx
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Smith and Edwards may have some in the warehouse. One of the workers hinted there were more but they were hard to get to.
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combat32
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Ok thanks
wsucougarx
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Well, it appears most everything is in good working order on this Goat. However, there is one issue that I am dealing with and I think I know the solution. As it would happen, the weakest link on this truck is the transfer case. It appears I may need to switch her out. She drives in Low and High range OK, however she will not stay engaged in gear! I am thinking she'll need to be replaced sooner than later. Any thoughts?
Amer-team
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Sounds like worn syncros on the transmission. Does it kick out of Low range or High range, or did you mean that when in low and in gear, when you let off on the fuel, it kicks out of gear?
wsucougarx
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The tranny stays in gear. The transfer case kicks out of gear. Both High and Low are kicked out when you let off on the fuel.
Amer-team
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Still sounds like something inside is a bit worn. Well at least is will be gold plated when you are done. 