Whats Allowed???????

Hello everyone, for future use, just what are you allowed to do on GL property when you go to pick up your deuce? Just jump start? Fix flats....fill with air???? Fix corroded cables or replace batterie?

One last item. I am looking for a diagram or pic of proper battery cable placement on the batteries. Have searched first but to no avail.

Thanks for your help here.

It varies site to site. You'd have to call the individual site to ask.

akguy said:

Hello everyone, for future use, just what are you allowed to do on GL property when you go to pick up your deuce? Just jump start? Fix flats....fill with air???? Fix corroded cables or replace batterie?

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It all depends on the location, ask the GL rep when you are setting up your appointment what you are allowed to do. Remember it is your truck, I can't believe anyone would say that you couldn't air up your own tires! At my recoveries I had to air up a tire and use a slave cable to jump the truck. The GL rep had a cable and drove a good truck over so I could jump mine!

I can't believe anyone would say that you couldn't air up your own tires!

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I can. It is their lot though. Some are great, some are not. Consistency is not a given.

GL rules are that you may not do anything but load the truck onto a trailer, or tow truck. They especially don't want you driving the truck anywhere on their lot, and the rules forbid driving the truck off of the lot.

The rules are often broken.

-Chuck

As everyone else has said, it all depends on the site and whether or no the GL site manager is working. I've been to 3 GL sites and they were all different. All of them allowed me to check fluids and THATS IT. You'll need to speak to someone at the site.

Of the two deuce recoveries I made, one in WI and one in PA, both were really cool about letting us crawl all over the truck and check all the fluids and diffs and tire pressures. We didn't spend time gawking at other vehicles and BSing with everybody, just got down to work. And in my humble opinion, the most important thing is to follow one simple rule...the golden rule....do unto others...

Be kind and respectful to the site people and friendly and they usually respond in kind.

dont have a diagram for the batt. hookup, but its simple. they are hooked up in series which gives you 24v. conect poss batt. cable (which comes out from the frame toward the front of the batt box, MAKE SURE IT IS THE POSS CABLE) to poss post of front batt, neg cable (which comes out from the frame toward the rear of the batt box) to the neg post on the rear batt, this now leaves poss and neg batt posts which get a short batt cable connecting the two.

the voltages are wrong in the photo but its the same idea for 12 volt batteries to get 24 volt

Just for clarification, are you asking "what's allowed" or "what can ya get away with?" Technically, you're only allowed to perform those maintenance actions which will enable you to remove your item from the storage facility by closing time. What you can get away with is entirely dependent upon how attentive the GL personnel are and how evasive you can be.

Thanks for the response's everyone. Are there any particular base's that have good reputations down south here. Say around Georgia,alabama etc?

Again, thank you for your time and input.

Two things, Jonathan is absolutely right about not monkey butting around ~~ and some of the battery systems were 4 6TL's wired two in series and then the series pairs wired in parallel. In order to get in and out of the pickup yard as quickly as possible, we take two good 8D's to either jump start or install if the original batteries are so bad they suck up all the jump batteries can deliver. So far we have had to install the 8D's on every truck except the gasser which only had two 6TL's to make the 24 volts (it had been drained of all fluids and needed to be hauled out.) The four 6TL battery set up usually provides enough cabling to wire in a pair of 12 volt batteries with leftovers. However, we take some connector cabling to make sure we can get things installed.

From what I hear the folks at Fort Polk, LA are pretty nice and if my phone conversations with them are any indication I willl have no problems. I hope so.

Both my recoveries have been fine and easy, Mike at Ft. Indiantown Gap is a great guy and Roger in Indianapolis is pretty straightforward and gets down to business fast.

We checked all fluids, were allowed to slave cable jump the trucks, and air up tires off the glad hand of the truck...at which point we signed the paper work and drove off the lot.

Most GL guys are nice people. Don't know which yard is the pickiest down south. As to your batteries, Positive cable out the front rear of box, Negative out the back rear of box. The inner connection is a short cable big hole on positive, small hole on negative. If you get nothing when you turn on the power, accessory switch, I would NOT jump start the truck. Shorted or dead batteries will over-work your expensive alternator and possibly cook it and other connections trying to charge at maximum rate. I took two regular sealed optima 12 volt batteries, and padded them so they couldn't move around. I had them fully charged in advance. I also took my post cleaner. Once I replaced the blown fuel pump fuse, it started fine, no problems. I've read many posts here about what to take for pickup. Because of this great info. site, I was out the gate in 30 minutes feeling confident I'd covered all bases and that my truck was as ready as it could be.

Try this link or search. It is for a 5 ton, but the same idea. You just won't have the cold start.
2 battery wiring on 818

One of the ladies at Ft. Sill impatiently tapped her foot while I swapped batteries (and that was it) on a deuce. I actually tried to weld my wrench to the deuce while tightening the posts down on the new batteries, I was so rushed.

Other places have let me come in before my euc came back and do some minor brake work and other stuff on a deuce.

None of them have ever had a problem with me driving them off post.

I think as long as you're reasonable in what you want to do and you don't make a mess or get in the way of other pickups, most of the GL employees are fairly accommodating. Remember, they're interested in getting the stuff off the lot ASAP.