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Convoy Vehicles...

I figured I would start a thread to do with military convoy trucks cause they don't seem to be getting much love...HEMTT, HET, 915, 916, 920...Anything running the roads here in Iraq...

80% of my work here in Iraq is M1070 HET trucks (we have done over 30 since we took over on October 1), MAC time on an engine or tranny swap says it takes 13 hours just to pull the cab with 4 men, we have got it down to 1.5-2 hours with 3 or 4 men using mostly hand tools...We can pull the engine/tranny pack just after lunch and have the tranny ready to slide into the new engine before the end of a 12 hour shift normally (day 1), after installing the tranny you got to reinstall your hydro and air pumps (PITA) along with all your ancillary stuff (front pulley, alternator mounts, A/C compressor) and drop your pack back into the truck and hook everything back up and be ready for the cab by late afternoon, drop the cab, and start hooking everything up and have it almost ready to fire by the end of the day, (day 2) we double check all the fluids, test fire, troubleshoot if there is a no start (normally it wont start), fire and run it some, check fluids, bolt it together enough to do a test drive around the yard, bring it back and check for leaks, no leaks (yeah right aua) we recheck all the fluids and fill them up, put everything back on but the BII box and the spare tire and send the beast to QA/QC for inspection, after it passes we bolt the last 2 pieces of the puzzle together and put her on the ready line for pick up (day 3)...

For those of you that dont know what M1070 HET is, here is what one looks like...They are powered by a 500 HP 8V92TA 2 Stroke Detroit (700 HP C16 Cat in Europe for emissions) backed by a 5 speed Allison Automatic, 6/8 wheel drive (selectable), front and rear axles steer, the M1000 HET Trailer has 40 tires, each set of axles turns opposite of the trucks direction (it can turn around in spots smaller than some crew cab pickups with gooseneck campers) and the deck has 3 hydraulic controls so you can drop the curb side or street side angle of the deck for weight distribution and also drop the back half of the deck almost on the ground for easier loading, has about 30 inches of useable suspension travel on the trailer...Empty in full battle rattle it weighs just shy of 100K, fully loaded with an M88 Recovery Unit it weighs a svelt 280K pounds...Top speed is 48 MPH...

http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/HET.jpghttp://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/HET.jpg
You can see the deck lowered to load the M88 in this pic...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/HETT.jpg
 
Once I get to a MWR computer (corporate computer right now) I will post a bunch of pictures of us doing a complete swap...I even got some grainy videos of us firing off a new engine...sounded pretty good, I just finished up an engine swap yesterday that was plagued with multiple problems...We got another HET setting on the pad awaiting parts...

We got 2 HEMTT's right now getting engines put in them...Those are sooooo much easier than swapping HET engines...They are just hard to work on because there aint much room to move around...
 

Stalwart

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Sounds like a lot of work, I have mostly small armor which gives a new meaning to tight spaces. Still, I wouldn't want to have to change out the engine and trans in my HEMTT, but I'd rather do that than the engine in one of my Stalwarts. aua

Thanks for your service!
 

KsM715

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Its not that they dont get much love here, its that not many here have them or can affoard them. (When I win the lottery I will own an M1070)
 

emmado22

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Do you see many of the HET trailers that have have the "super singles" kits MWO'ed on them? I havent seen one in real life.
 

NDT

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Tell us about the 915's. Lots of us are picking these up lately. Lonesome715 used to send us pics and ops reports of these in Iraq. We are getting the AM General ones, not the Freightliners. Everything we are hearing is that they are taking a beating and still doing the job, even being 28 years old.
 
Sounds like a lot of work, I have mostly small armor which gives a new meaning to tight spaces. Still, I wouldn't want to have to change out the engine and trans in my HEMTT, but I'd rather do that than the engine in one of my Stalwarts. aua

Thanks for your service!
they aint bad (minus the little left and right side working room) as long as you got something that can lift the 4500 pound engine and tranny...

thanks for the pics!
no problem...

Its not that they dont get much love here, its that not many here have them or can affoard them. (When I win the lottery I will own an M1070)
I have been looking for a HET or a M984 Wrecker HEMTT

yea i love to see convoys...mmm a m915 or 920 :)
got'em below...

Do you see many of the HET trailers that have have the "super singles" kits MWO'ed on them? I havent seen one in real life.
I have never seen or even heard of it...I will ask around about it...I dont have a clue about what tires they would even use...

Tell us about the 915's. Lots of us are picking these up lately. Lonesome715 used to send us pics and ops reports of these in Iraq. We are getting the AM General ones, not the Freightliners. Everything we are hearing is that they are taking a beating and still doing the job, even being 28 years old.
The early model 915's (essentially a RWD light version of a M920) ran a 400 Big Cam Cummins engine like the 920 does, though it uses a mechanical Allison instead of the 16 Speed air over hydraulic manu-matic Caterpillar tranny, not a bad truck though the newer Freightshakers are alot nicer inside and have electronic transmissions (which can be problematic some times)...The newer ones use a Detroit Series 60 rated at 435 HP...Probably one of the best trucks ever built and can really take a beating, though if you run one empty you better expect to take a beating too, any person that drives one of them for a while will NEVER have kidney stones...

This was from the old blown engine...I was not happy...


This is the truck running after taking the muffler off and floating what oil I could out of it with water...This was not fun either...But boy did she roll some smoke/steam...


This is a M920 that got a T-case put in it...


Here is a top view of the 16 speed manu-matic shifter...


Newer 915 that got an engine swap done a while back...


Pulling the cab on a HET...


Another HET with the cab on the ground...


This is why the military shouldn't work on their stuff sometimes...
 
Here are some of KBR's Convoy trucks...They are loading JP8 at FOB Cedar II...I worked there for about 11 months...I was a mechanic for 2 months and the other 9 months I ran all of the maintenance operations at the worlds largest fuel farm on Cedar...11.8 million gallons at 100% capacity on the ground, 7.4 million at around 75%...Capable of moving 2 million gallons of fuel a day...

Mercedes Heavy Armor...


Volvo Heavy Armor...


International Eagle Heavy Armor...
 

dittle

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Thanks for the pictures. That trailer with the M1 on it looks a little overloaded though I did just notice extra sets of tires on it.
 

Green_gator

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Nice looking photos. I like all the extra lights on a couple of the trucks. Guess that you can take the boy out of the country but you can not take the country out of the boy.
 
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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Logan, go make friends with the contract Firefighters on your base. They are most likely WSI or KBR. If the guys are anywhere as nice as we were to soldiers, they will let you use there internet connection whenever you want.
 
Thanks for the pictures. That trailer with the M1 on it looks a little overloaded though I did just notice extra sets of tires on it.
Those are civilian "HET" trailers, as we call them over here...They actually load and haul pretty good from what guys have told me...They actually have 4 axles under them (2 down each side) with 4 tires per axle (inner and outter duals), instead of like a normal trailer where it would be 2 axles with just a set of duals on each side...

Nice looking photos. I like all the extra lights on a couple of the trucks. Guess that you can take the boy out of the country but you can not take the country out of the boy.
Well that is out of necessity more than want, and I have seen convoy lead trucks have twice as many lights on it, I counted 12 forward lights on a HMMWV one night at CEDAR...You can't kill what you cant see, I would go into further details about them but due to OPSEC, lets just say those trucks see more dark than light...Oh and the Hellfire lights mounted on the .50 cals on the HMMWV gun trucks put out enough heat to burn you 10 feet away...

a MOGAS tanker????????????????????????????????
yes...non-tactical vehicles do require gasoline...I just did a service on that trailer this week and it is actually a Goverment funded piece of KBR equipment, and it is used to transfer fuel from the bulk fuel yard to retail fuel...

Thanks Thanks Thanks keep 'em coming! Love the Mack Granite pulling the M1
Logan, go make friends with the contract Firefighters on your base. They are most likely WSI or KBR. If the guys are anywhere as nice as we were to soldiers, they will let you use there internet connection whenever you want.
They are WSI, I am with KBR, we have Sniper Hill internet service here on base and I got a new HP Laptop, I just haven't got my antenna yet, I am due for RR here shortly so I will be shipping me a antenna back along with some other stuff...
 
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emr

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WOW!!!!!!!!! THANKS!!!!!!!! U are awesome !! really thanks for those photos and info. that is what it is all about, a long shot , u do not know Dan Muchmore by any chance, He is a KBR guy, i know it is a needle in a hay stack, but he is such a nice guy and BIG U would remember Him, thanks again...Randy
 
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