Bridge Trucks

I've been trying to find some more information about bridge trucks, like the M328 and more modern versions. Searching through this forum has been helpful, but I'm wondering if there are any bridge truck owners here who actually drive them around in all their overwidth glory. They look like they'd be right at home on a farm.

Member M543A2 has a bridge truck. I sold him my 14.00 NDT's for it. I think its on his avatar, but I don't know the model.

I have owned and driven quite a few of these

A few based on the M139 like this: https://www.easternsurplus.net/Vehi...Ton-Bridge-Truck-Army-Truck-6x6-allwheeldrive

some M812's like these - shown with bodies removed https://www.easternsurplus.net/GalleryDetails/68/M812-Bridge-trucks

and a few M945 https://www.easternsurplus.net/VehicleDetails/100/M945-Bridge-Truck

They are super wide- be carful going through a toll booth lol

they are much easier to drive and more user friendly than the 10 tons- I have always been partial to these!


Dave

country said:

They are super wide- be carful going through a toll booth lol
they are much easier to drive and more user friendly than the 10 tons- I have always been partial to these!

Click to expand...

Haha I hope you didn't find that out the hard way! In PA, do you have to put the "Oversize Load" banners on them while driving on public roads?

How big are the 5-ton bridge trucks compared to the 10-ton trucks? I know the 10-tonners are quite big compared to a regular 5-ton.

They are taller height wise. Not bad though. No different than a 917 or a 920. They are required to have the oversized banners on them.

Have 2. Used one for one season as a water truck before parking it permanently. Now serves as a parts truck.

We have one here as TobyS related powered by the 602 gas motor. His tires were a welcome addition to it, thank you Toby! We do not do any consistent road use with it anymore but used to. Comments about the size of the truck here are certainly applicable! I have a 1500 gallon water tank in it I fill every year at my creek, using it to water garden and to just be a standby water supply that is handy for grass fires, etc. I have a gas water pump mounted under the right rear corner of the bed to fill and pump out the water. I really like the 602. It has very much low end torque and once it gets wound up it wants to stay there, dropping very little in RPM under load. We also use the truck as an anchor for the M543A2 5 ton wrecker if needed when we recover stuck farm machinery or other heavy winch work for neighbors. I have always wondered why International did not use the 602 in a dozer. Everyone who sees it for the first time is like "WOW! about the size of the truck.

We happen to have two of these, one is our 4,000 gallon water truck (for construction sites) and the other is an M813 w/ the crane and winch for the sectional bridges which just sits. Also have an M139 parts truck.
Have driven the water truck around on the highway some, but with original old rubber (1961) we do not run it loaded. Clocked @ 62+ mph on a slight down hill grade once, but it still is not a real power house and if it has any load it really dogs down. With the 602 it also costs a small fortune to run any distance @ speed.
In most all of the states, you can't run a real bridge truck on the road w/o an over width permit w/ signage. On the water truck we singled out the rear ends which makes it just under the maximum width allowed. There are photos on this site somewhere I posted of this truck back a number of years ago.
Thanks