Yermo to SLC in a 7 ton MK23

[JonM934]

I hope this story might help somebody or at least provide some entertainment.

I was on PTO last Thursday and Friday (12/05/2019) so I could drive to California to pick up my Military truck. My son and I drove down to get it and we brought a bunch of tools, two new batteries, and one spare tire.



This is my son Jason as we were getting the truck ready to go.



This is me after we picked it up in the storage yard.. BTW, they have hundreds of acres of government stuff for sale down there. The weather in Barstow was nice – no jacket needed.

While at the yard, Jason and I inspected the truck and saw several things that needed to be fixed. One big thing was that one tire looked very bad and we had brought one spare tire and so we talked the shop at the yard into replacing the tire for us. We also dumped 10 gallons of diesel into the 80 gallon tank so we could make it to a truck stop to get fuel. The trucks only have a few gallons of fuel when you pick them up.



Here we are putting fuel in it. I could not find a truck stop so this is a regular gas station. The truck was very dirty and the top of my to do list was to wash it but we were running late so I did not wash it. There is sand on the side of it, maybe from Afghanistan.

So we started driving up I-15 towards Las Vegas. We had just crossed into Nevada when the front tire blew out. It was crazy and really scared me but nobody got hurt and I was able to get the truck off the road.





The tire was destroyed but we had already used our spare tire and the tire we took off before was in very dangerous shape so we could not use that. We tried and tried to find a tire around Las Vegas but no even knew what we were talking about and could not help us. So Jason and I had to leave the truck and drive back to my house in Herriman to get another spare tire. Then on Saturday morning after a few hours of sleep we got up and drove back to the truck. We had only made it about 60 miles before the tire blew out.

We finally found a semi service company that would help us change the tire and so they sent somebody out to help us. It took 3 hours for us to get on the road again and by that time it was dark. So we drove all night and nothing else really bad happened. I ran into rain and sleet and snow when we got to Utah but the truck just drove through it. We finally made it to Herriman at 7am Sunday. We had been up for 22 hours at that point.



The 7 ton home at last!

 

[Nomadic]

Bad ass truck!

Just curious, how much is one brand new unmounted tire?

 

[MAdams]

Dang that's a story! Too late now but I have a tire here you could have used. Glad the rest of the trip went well. Curious, did the truck pull to one side when the tire blew? Also, how far did you drive on the tire after it blew?

 

[JonM934]

Bad ass truck!

Just curious, how much is one brand new unmounted tire?

I did not buy a tire. I went home to get one. I had purchased 10 tires on a previous Gov Planet auction so I had some spares. I have sold some of them and I was charging $250 for an OK tire mounted on a 7 ton wheel. I know Boyce Equipment here in Utah sells new ones for $800.

I need a tire for my 7 ton soon because one or two are worn down. But I can wait because I think I will not be driving it much in the Winter. I don't want to spend $800 for each one so I think I will wait until I see some used ones.

Jon

 

[JonM934]

Dang that's a story! Too late now but I have a tire here you could have used. Glad the rest of the trip went well. Curious, did the truck pull to one side when the tire blew? Also, how far did you drive on the tire after it blew?

Hi Mike! I was going about 65 when it blew and I wish I had hooked up my dash cam so it would have been recorded. But we were running late and I wanted to get going so the dashcam was not hooked up.

There was a TON of traffic! I guess everybody was leaving California and heading to Vegas.

My recollection is that at first I didn't even realize it was my truck. I heard the explosion but I was looking around to see what blew. Then I saw pieces of tire flying from my right front and I realized it was MY truck. The truck was very controllable and did not do anything strange. The one thing I remember is that shortly after the explosion, the truck started to pull to the LEFT, away from the bad tire, and into traffic. So I turned the steering wheel to the right and the truck easily steered to the right. Then I pushed the brake to slow down and again, the truck did what it was supposed to, stopping on the shoulder.

I am glad my son was following me in the Tundra so he could react and slow down traffic behind me.

It scared the crap out of me but the truck reacted well.

 

[JonM934]

And just to clarify, once the tire blew I drove about 300 feet - just enough to stop the truck. I guess the sidewalls on these tires are not very strong because it completely fell apart. The back side of the tire is fine.

 

[Efituned]

It's a love/hate relation when I see post like this....love that you got your truck and things went okay...hate that I am still waiting for my EUC to clear.

On the trip, did you run 65 mph most of the time?

 

[M35A2-AZ]

Glad you guys are ok!! I blew a tire on my M925, but I was only going 50 mph.

 

[JonM934]

It's a love/hate relation when I see post like this....love that you got your truck and things went okay...hate that I am still waiting for my EUC to clear.

On the trip, did you run 65 mph most of the time?

Hi Efituned,

Yes, I tried to keep it at 65. There are some steep grades south of St George Utah and going up them the truck maxed out at 55 but it was OK.

Speaking of the speed, it seems like when you are driving it is going so slow. I don't know if it is the tall cab, or the big tires, or what but it seems like the truck is going 35 when you are going 65. I had my son double check what speed I was going and yes, the truck speedometer is correct, I was going 65. MAN, it seemed slow.

BTW, I bought my truck in Late July and the EUC cleared just before Thanksgiving. So it was like a full 4 months before mine cleared. I got my truck directly from the Marines and I am told that they are slower. I also filled mine out wrong the first time and it took like a month to get it all straightened out and submitted to the Feds. So I guess it really only took 3 months.

Jon