Real thoughts/experiences with military trucks

[Hay Dude]

Anyone have experience with them?
So much bang for the buck, but there’s a downside, of course, to everything.
Cant help but think this thing would be perfect for large square bale transport from soft fields to local delivery yards.
Civilian 6x6 is easily $50-$75k
This truck below runs excellent and is a whopping $9,000. 855 Cummins, Automatic, central tire inflation and a 40,000lb hydraulic winch. Street legal with taillights and state inspection. We have a local garage that knows them and services them.

 

[bcp]

SteelSoldiers

SteelSoldiers Forum

www.steelsoldiers.com

Bruce

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Off the top of my head, the first things I would say are, terrible fuel mileage (for what your are doing) compared to a "civilian" rig, and low final drive gear so low "highway" road speeds.

Not "fun" to drive, once the novelty wears off. It's like driving a paint shaker welded to a running jack hammer, compared to a modern civilian rig.

If you get one with a 24v electrical system, they are overly complicated to work on and parts are expensive if you can find them. Same goes with the inflation system.

Heaters barely work (when it's cold and you need them), the only A/C is the side windows (and the windshield if you get one old enough for them to be the pop out style).

I've never missed driving them since getting out.

 

[4570Man]

Off the top of my head, the first things I would say are, terrible fuel mileage (for what your are doing) compared to a "civilian" rig, and low final drive gear so low "highway" road speeds.

Not "fun" to drive, once the novelty wears off. It's like driving a paint shaker welded to a running jack hammer, compared to a modern civilian rig.

If you get one with a 24v electrical system, they are overly complicated to work on and parts are expensive if you can find them. Same goes with the inflation system.

Heaters barely work (when it's cold and you need them), the only A/C is the side windows (and the windshield if you get one old enough for them to be the pop out style).

I've never missed driving them since getting out.

Most short haul civilian trucks ride awful too. They don’t have the comfort features an OTR truck has. Anything with spring suspension, a bench seat and a solid mounted cab is going to ride awful. Most civilian short haul trucks don’t go very fast either. My F-750 tops out at 60-65 and that’s probably faster than average for single axels. There’s a few single axels with enough motor and gears to run faster but virtually all of them are under powered and under geared.

 

[oosik]

Drive it and see what you think. Otherwise - 2X what Slowpoke Slim said. During my early years in Alaska - I rode in several military deuce and a halfs. Have you ever heard the saying - "like pushing a flock of sheep down the road".

 

[MossRoad]

Back in the mid 80's I had a job driving rebuilt 5 ton military trucks out of the AM General plant in South Bend to railroad spurs all around the area. Longest trips were about 45 miles. I drove hundreds of them. That in your picture looks to be more modern, and possibly larger, so take this for what it's worth.

I had zero driving experience at the time and found them very easy to drive. They had bench seats, no air in summer (all open cabs, so wouldn't have mattered), heaters worked a bit, but again, in open cabs, didn't matter. We'd pick them up in a field at the plant and if no one was looking, instead of heading out the front exit, we'd head over to the off-road course where they tested the hummers, engage the front axle, and drive over all kinds of rough terrain, sand, mud holes, hills, etc. No one ever got one stuck. I'm sure you could sink them in a muddy field, but that never happened to us. We managed 55-60 on the highway but that was the speed limit back then. I doubt they would go any faster. But who cared? We were going 45 miles at most.

Drove them up on the ramps onto the flatbed railroad cars, chained them down and sent them all over the country.

So I guess I'd suggest you ask yourself how long are your trips, can you deal with limited heat and no air, will it haul what you need with minimal modifications, and is that low price worth the experiment? You could probably sell it for what you have into it with minimal loss, so it might be worth a try. Could save you some money if it fits your needs.

I see value in it. I see those types of trucks in use at several excavating companies hauling trailers with equipment on them, and specialized tanks for who knows what.

Good luck in your process.

 

[dirttoys]

Back in the mid 80's I had a job driving rebuilt 5 ton military trucks out of the AM General plant in South Bend to railroad spurs all around the area. Longest trips were about 45 miles. I drove hundreds of them. That in your picture looks to be more modern, and possibly larger, so take this for what it's worth.

I had zero driving experience at the time and found them very easy to drive. They had bench seats, no air in summer (all open cabs, so wouldn't have mattered), heaters worked a bit, but again, in open cabs, didn't matter. We'd pick them up in a field at the plant and if no one was looking, instead of heading out the front exit, we'd head over to the off-road course where they tested the hummers, engage the front axle, and drive over all kinds of rough terrain, sand, mud holes, hills, etc. No one ever got one stuck. I'm sure you could sink them in a muddy field, but that never happened to us. We managed 55-60 on the highway but that was the speed limit back then. I doubt they would go any faster. But who cared? We were going 45 miles at most.

Drove them up on the ramps onto the flatbed railroad cars, chained them down and sent them all over the country.

So I guess I'd suggest you ask yourself how long are your trips, can you deal with limited heat and no air, will it haul what you need with minimal modifications, and is that low price worth the experiment? You could probably sell it for what you have into it with minimal loss, so it might be worth a try. Could save you some money if it fits your needs.

I see value in it. I see those types of trucks in use at several excavating companies hauling trailers with equipment on them, and specialized tanks for who knows what.

Good luck in your process.

That right there was good informed advice.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

We use them around here. I like them. I want to put a manure spreader bed on one, tired of using a high geared road truck in the field.

 

[mikester]

If its road legal and keeping it on the road doesn't cost you an arm and a leg in parts and labour and insurance then go for it.

Here you need to get annual safeties and old beater trucks are cop and MTO magnets because the government is keen on getting rid of moving violations.

 

[Hay Dude]

There’s a guy somewhere fairly close by to me who converted one into a 16’ dump truck, but I don’t know him. Otherwise I’d give him a call and ask him how he likes it. He painted it white and decaled the doors with company name. Looks somewhat civilized.
If I did a 16’ flatbed, my scenario would be to load (8) 4x4x8’s @ 1500-2000 each (6-8 tons) in a field, crawl out and do a short trip, maybe 10 miles, to various drop off points.
No AC definitely sucks, but so many positives-cheap purchase price, traction, winch to pull out other stuck equipment, pretty simple engine & trans to service. There’s a company in Philly that sells them for 2-3 times as much, but they have been gone through, inspected and cleaned up. He can install AC in them, too.

I hear the central tire inflation system can be expensive to maintain.

Mikesters point about cops cannot be underestimated. If it looks old, cops flock to it like buzzards on a deer carcass.

 

[Hay Dude]

We use them around here. I like them. I want to put a manure spreader bed on one, tired of using a high geared road truck in the field.

Do they get out on the roads? Mine would have to do short OTR trips. Last one I saw was loud. You knew it was coming.

The brown one in the picture in post #1 is made by BMY

 

[Hay Dude]

Here is my IH4800 4x4. It was a good truck, but this truck with a flatbed and an automatic would be $50,000 now. It was only a 250HP DT466 with a 7 speed manual. No AC. 5.38 rears.
I would prefer a tandem 6x6 this time.

 

[Gem99ultra]

Anyone have experience with them?
So much bang for the buck, but there’s a downside, of course, to everything.
Cant help but think this thing would be perfect for large square bale transport from soft fields to local delivery yards.
Civilian 6x6 is easily $50-$75k
This truck below runs excellent and is a whopping $9,000. 855 Cummins, Automatic, central tire inflation and a 40,000lb hydraulic winch. Street legal with taillights and state inspection. We have a local garage that knows them and services them.

View attachment 722377

For the price difference, and no more miles than you expect to put on it, my guess is that it's perfect for your use.

 

[RoyJackson]

The brown one in the picture in post #1 is made by BMY

"BMY"
Now, there's a name I haven't heard in a long time...IIRC, it's Bowen-McLaughlin-York
I worked at the York PA plant for a couple years in the early 1990's. That shop built tracked military vehicles
Nowadays, it's called BAE Combat Systems, having gone through several owners since the early 90's

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

BAE...

Isn't that, British Aerospace E (forgot what the 'E' stood for, lol).

I worked on a radar set for them once, as a contractor.

That was a long time ago.

 

[RoyJackson]

BAE...

Isn't that, British Aerospace E (forgot what the 'E' stood for, lol).

I worked on a radar set for them once, as a contractor.

That was a long time ago.

Yep....I don't know what the "E" stands for either. My wild a** guess is "Engines"

 

[MossRoad]

Yep....I don't know what the "E" stands for either. My wild a** guess is "Engines"

Me neither, but it's complicated...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Systems

 

[Hay Dude]

I thought it was “Engineering”

 

[MossRoad]

Some back history...

"
In the late 1970s the M809 series 5-ton (4,536 kg) 6x6 trucks, based on a 1949 design, were becoming old and mechanically dated. It was still a useful type, with 35,000 in service. A "Product Improvement Package" was developed to rebuild and update the M809 series into the M939 series. A new cab and hood are spotting features, but there were also other improvements.

In 1982 AM General, who built all M809s, began rebuilding M809s into the M939 and M939A1 series at their South Bend, Indiana plant. They would rebuild 24,100. A follow-up model, the all-new M939A2 series, was produced by Bowen-McLaughlin-York/BMY in Marysville, Ohio. They would build 20,490. In 1991 the M939 series was replaced by the all-new design M1083-M1091 Medium Tactical Vehicles.[4][5]"

 

[Hay Dude]

This is the model that I found for sale
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M939_series_5-ton_6×6_truck