Well the famous (or infamous) Highpoint M125 wrecker finally has a new home. It was delivered to my house here in NW Michigan about 2:00pm today (3/4/200
after about 16 hours on the road from Union City NJ. For those of you who didn't catch the earlier threads, it started out in life as a 1957 Mack 10 ton M125 cargo truck. Somewhere along the way the cargo body was replaced with a M816 wrecker bed. It apparently passed through a few hands until it ended up at Highpoint. I don't know if they used it much, probably used it mainly as a mobile billboard and toy, but they did a nice commercial paint job in white with red lettering and trim. I guess the owner eventually got tired of it and put it up for sale and I snapped it up.
According to the driver, the trip out here was interesting. Highpoint decided to ship it on a 10' wide heavy duty lowboy trailer, so they had to get overwidth and overweight permits to move it. The driver told me the combination scaled out at 85,300 pounds (that trailer is HEAVY). He got pulled over 2 times in PA, 2 times in OH, and 3 times in MI. None of the LEOs were at all interested in his permits, they just wanted to take pictures of the wrecker and jawbone about the big trucks they drove when in the military!
Highpoint was a little stingy on the gasoline, I ran out of gas as I was moving the truck next to the Deuce for a photo op. Fortunately I had a 5 gallon can of gas on hand, poured it in the tank and it fired right up after I let the intank pump run a few seconds to refill the fuel lines and carburetor.
Now for the good, the bad, and the ugly. The engine starts and runs fine but seemed to have a little misfire, hopefully just needs a tune up or a good run (hard to say as I only drove it the length of my driveway, about 300'). The trans and T-case (actually an integrated unit) shifted fine, although I need to brush up on my double clutching technique as neither is synchronized. The front drive axle is manually engaged/disengaged with a lever next to the trans shifter lever. The body is in great shape but the doors sag a bit when opened and the door latches and window crank mechanisms all need at least a good cleaning and lubrication or replacement. There are several hundred toggle switches added in the dash, none of which are marked and none of which seem to perform any noticeable function. The manual throttle cable is completely missing. The windshields are glued shut with some type of white caulk, looks like toilet and bathtub sealant. The rear pintle was torched off, they needed it off to fit it on the lowboy and couldn't break the hut loose. Looks repairable with a little effort though. The tires (14:00-24) look like they are the original set from 1957, have decent tread but are severely checked and dry rotted. I hate to think what a new set of tires will cost me! On the other hand, if the rear hubs can be flipped, a set of 16:00-24 (if such a size is available) would make a great set of super singles and solve the overwidth problem at the same time. The current 14:00-24 duals are 114" wide!
After a bit of investigation I managed to figure out how to power the wrecker crane. I immediately discovered a problem when trying to play out the boom cable. The winch drum would turn but the snatch block would not move. The cable was mislayed on the drum, with cable crossing over cable and loops of cable sticking out here and there. By hooking the block to the truck, running the boom out and elevating the boom while playing out the cable (with my 11 year old son on the controls and me guiding the cable by hand) we eventually got all the cable played out. Then I relaid the cable properly by guiding the cable by hand while my son ran the winch control. It appears the cable is not properly routed at the front level wind roller as the cable does not contact the roller at all. The rear roller seems to work fine. I'll post pictures of the front roller later and I'm sure someone will be able to identify the problem. I also have to reroute the cables through the snatch block, as both cables are running in the same groove in the sheave.
Unfortunately I did not have time to take many pictures. I will post the few I have here, and repost the original Highpoint photos immediately following. I will keep posting more photos in the days following as I get more time to spend on the truck.
VEHICLE SPECIFICATIONS (updated 04/08/200
(Here I will list the pertinent vehicle data, updated as more information becomes
available)
CHASSIS: 1957 Mack 10 ton cargo truck/prime mover (cargo bed removed for wrecker body installation)
INTENDED USES: Heavy cargo hauler, prime mover for heavy towed artillery
UNITS PRODUCED: 552 (only produced for one year period spanning 1957-195
ENGINE: Le Roi TH-844 gasoline V-8
TRANSMISSION/TRANSFER CASE: Mack integrated unit, 5 speed trans, 2 speed transfer, non synchronized
AXLES: Mack, 9.02-1 drive ratio, full floating double reduction, capacity unknown
BRAKES: Full Air
TIRES: 14:00-24, 20 ply, split rim, 10 each
WINCH 45,000 lb drag winch, front and rear
FUEL SYSTEM: 2 tanks, 166 gallons total capacity, approx 2 mpg
COOLING SYSTEM: 64 quarts
CRANK CASE CAPACITY: 18 quarts
WEIGHT: 33,789 lbs empty (stock M125, 40,540 lbs with M816 wrecker body)
PAYLOAD: 20,000 lbs X-country, 30,000 lbs highway
TOWING CAPACITY: 25,000 lbs X-country, 50,000 lbs highway
LENGTH: 328-1/2" (stock M125)
HEIGHT: 131" (stock M125)
WIDTH: 114"
BODY: M816 wrecker, 20,000 max boom capacity, 45 degree elevation, 270 degree rotation, extendable to 18"
M125 Wrecker has a new home!!!
