Death of a Bumper

rumplecat · May 8, 2010

Found time to work on the VFD monster bumper that was added to the M715/6217 I won in the Oklahoma Forestry Commission auction a few months ago. The firemen who built the bumper were at the compound when I loaded the truck. They wished me well on getting it off, the guy said they welded on that bumper for a full day, I now believe him, what a mess! The good part of the bumper was that when they did the engine conversion and added the power steering they pulled the winch drive shaft so the winch is in pristine shape!
James

rumplecat · May 8, 2010

cornrichard · May 8, 2010

Wow, good save. I thought you would have to remove the whole mess and start over. I did not even see the original bumper inside that cluster.

mhassett · May 8, 2010

Nice work. Well worth the effort.

rosco · May 8, 2010

Some things just aren't worth saving. They deserve to die.

M813rc · May 8, 2010

Good job Rumplecat. It is gratifying to see someone willing to put that much work into saving the original parts. Keep us updated on progress!

Cheers

hndrsonj · May 8, 2010

Wow, I never would have guessed the origional was there too. [thumbzup]

maddawg308 · May 8, 2010

Wow, man, that's a lot of cutting to get that monstrosity off. Now it looks like all you need is some disc grinding to clean it up and it will look good as new. Great work!

DieselBob · May 8, 2010

rosco said:
Some things just aren't worth saving. They deserve to die.

I think you could call it a mercy killing. Great to see that the original winch mounting was there.

rumplecat · May 8, 2010

The truck was a great buy, it was an ugly duckling, only after looking did I notice it had a winch, power steering, engine conversion, was an ex-contact maint. truck, so two PTOs and it had been converted to an NP205 by Uncle Sam. Too bad they VFD cut the bed for a cattle feeder mount. I guess they get to use the trucks for personal use as well as fighting fires?
James

kfdk14 · May 8, 2010

Those trucks are awesome. Looks like the bed doesn't match the rest that could explain the cuts depts pretty much do what they want before sending them back. Our old duece is going back without a bed and we now have an 818 with a duece dropside bed. :grin:

NDT · May 8, 2010

They are lucky that mess did not fold the frame in front of the spring mounts. Looks to weigh 600 lbs or more. Is your truck a M724? The contact maintenance trucks with the transfer case PTOs would have been that model. If so, the bed does not belong anyway.

rumplecat · May 8, 2010

It began life as a 6217 contact maint. truck, I am sure the OK forestry service scraped the maint. bed and replaced it with the std. bed, they did on the cheap, leaving the gas tank in the rear position. It is kinda sharp the way the transmission has a forward facing pto and the NP205 has a rear facing one! This is the third 724/6217 I have bid on and won . but the first one with the NP205 conversion.
James

NDT · May 8, 2010

Tell us more about the NP205 conversion . . . All the 724's I have seen have some kind of huge PTO where the emergency brake usually is, with a huge multi-sheve pulley driving the welder. Looks to be a full engine power (such that it is with a Tornado) PTO. Does the NP205 mount a smaller Muncie type PTO like what is on the transmission? This is how the later M1031's are set up, but they are not full engine power. Why was this 205 conversion done?

rumplecat · May 9, 2010

From what I understand some of the maint. variant of the 715 were updated to the newer NP205, my truck came directly from active/reserve use and it still has the double stick NP200. The newest truck has a single stick due to the 205 with a standard size pto and no emergency brake! When I head back to the cabin I will post some photos of the two different pto setups.
James

kennys@wi.rr.com · May 9, 2010

In the second picture with the truck on the trailer, is that a wall of Gama Goats behind it?

panama · May 9, 2010

Was that a piece of RAILROAD TRACK on that bumper? Jesus it musta weight a TON!

rumplecat · May 9, 2010

The railroad iron and the pipe and the 3/4 inch platform must weigh in at 3-400 lbs. The front end looks about the same level, but it is rated at 11/4tons so the springs are pretty stiff anyway.
And yes the OK Forestry Dept. compound has a wall around the 4-5 acre holding area made of Gamma Goats, most are unmolested,some even still have parts of their canvas tops on them. And the next answer is no, they can't sell them or even part them out. They are federal property they can't scrap or sale, our federal government at work.
James

NDT · May 9, 2010

Thanks for the "GSA coming attractions", I'll be looking for those adorable WWII single axle lowboys to come up!

pa.rich · May 9, 2010

I love those old trucks!

Death of a Bumper

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