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1600+ miles in a Deuce

silverstate55

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Last week my Dad & I took my Deuce on a long road trip to Oklahoma City, OK, and eventually to Dry Creek, LA. I had won several items in OK City, as well as an M931 tractor in Fort Polk, LA, and wanted to pick them all up in one fell swoop. We left Utah for Las Vegas, NV, and then connected with I-40 East. We were lucky to pick a time when there was a break in the weather across the midwest. The Deuce had several hundred gallons of mixed & thinned WMO/UMO (dewatered & filtered down to 2 microns) on board, and another 55 gallons in a drum in the bed. I had just installed a new 4-inch intake all the way into the turbocharger, and a 5-inch exhaust with Donaldson single-stage muffler that I wanted to road-test, so this gave me the perfect opportunity. However, my Deuce has no heater nor defroster, so I was hoping that it wouldn't be an issue...we bundled up in warm clothing for the initial 3-day drive to OK City & east Texas.

The new intake & exhaust made the engine perform quite a bit more efficiently, and the new exhaust really helped lower EGTs. Of course on hills it still required downshifting usually to 3rd gear, but what more do you expect from a 140hp engine and 395 tires? I was quite satisfied with the performance during the trip. I only had to stop twice to add diesel to the tank before shutting down for a cold night; I didn't want to have any hard-starting mornings due to fuel issues. It didn't let me down and started right up every cold morning.

In OK City I was only able to pick up an Oshkosh transfer case I had won; I really was excited for the 3 front drive axles from a MaxxPro MRAP, but the government had placed a restriction on them and I was refunded the balance...bummer!! Then it was off to Louisiana.

We caught a break in the snow in the drive from OK City to Dallas, TX, but there were dozens and dozens of cars and trucks still off on the right shoulder and in the median from the previous storm...we made it to Louisiana after 3 days of driving, including a pickup in OK City.

The only issues I had was that the fuel shutoff cable broke the very first time I tried to use it at the start of the trip; I had to open the hood and shut down the engine manually afterwards. And during a perpetual monsoon between Tyler, TX and De Ridder, LA, I thought that we were going down with the ship due to all the leaks in the cab! I even used some door/window sealer around the front windshield and other potential leak points, but I sure missed a lot of them. The electric wiper conversion worked well, except for the windshield wipers wanting to fall off due to a poor design...I secured them with some bobby pins I purchased from a convenience store. Towards the end of the drive, so much water was leaking behind the dash that the pyrometer started to malfunction, so I drove even easier & slower to not risk too-high of EGTs. I'll have to relocate the pyrometer to a drier spot.

Once in Louisiana, we met with fellow SS member Jeepsinker, who had picked up my M931A2 tractor from Ft Polk for me, and given her a quick once-over. We had lunch together, and then went to pick up my truck from his property. I was quite impressed with Jeepsinker's abilities and qualifications; if you ever have the privilege of utilizing his services, you won't be disappointed! I then prepared the M931 to tow my Deuce back to NV & Utah with my towbar. I stopped in Walmart to buy some LED trailer lights & wiring, as well as a few other items, then attached the LED trailer lights to some temporary mounts on the back of my Deuce. I scotch-locked the appropriate wires into the M931's rear lights, attached the towbar, moved the license plate to underneath the temporary trailer LED on the back of the Deuce, and connected the safety chains with several wraps around the front spring mounts and bumper (I also safety-wired the hooks to prevent them from falling off, just in case). I was wishing I had had the time to fab up some air hoses to connect to the Deuce's brake system, but it just wasn't happening.

I was debating having to disconnect the driveshaft from the Deuce while towing it, but as we were running short on time I decided against removing it...I shifted the transmission & transfer case into Neutral, and with the many stops we knew we would be taking, I figured that it would be OK. We took I-10 back west to avoid the snowstorms that were due to hit along I-40, but we were surprised by just how cold it still was across Texas & New Mexico...we ran into several ice storms in southwestern Texas, but made it through with no issues. I was just glad that the M931 had a working heater & defroster! The Deuce tracked perfectly and seemed quite content to be towed. After 1640+ miles and 3 very long days, we finally made it back. I am going to have to swap the seats out of the M931 though; my back is going to hurt for several days after suffering on the stock military seats. I guess the M931 wasn't ever intended to be driven that far for that long!

It all worked out very well.

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Warthog

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Great trip!!!

Wished you would have stopped in to say hi.
 

eagle4g63

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Nice trucks the both of them!! I love taking trips in my deuce, but I have to say you are definitely a braver man than I......I have yet to take a trip as long as you just did. I haven't taken any real trips with my deuce and the 5" exhaust I put on.....Did you notice a much better fuel economy with yours?
 

silverstate55

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LOL, thanks fellas! Warthog, sorry for the "driveby" but we were on a tight time schedule and there were several other members I wished I could have stopped to see but just couldn't fit it into the time schedule. I wanted to leave a couple of days on the back end in case of problems. Thanks for the invite, next time I'll leave more time to visit (boy, there sure is a lot of NEAT STUFF moving through that OK City warehouse!!).

As for mileage, since I can't seem to find the 5-ton speedo adapters to correct my Deuce speedometer, my Dad was using his GPS app to roughly calculate our speed. I mainly drive by RPMs and my pyrometer, and I never rev over 2200 in my Deuce. Most of the time I keep things at 2000rpm, which with my 395 tires is roughly 55-56mph. 2200rpm came out to be roughly 59mph. So, on fairly level ground with no headwind, I was getting around 10mpg....yes, 10 miles per gallon (25 gallons fill-up after 250 miles, several times). When climbing steep hills in 3rd gear, naturally the mileage dropped to around 7mpg, which still isn't bad...

I pay close attention to my pyrometer...when the exhaust temps climb into the 900-degree marks, I back off to keep temps below 900-degrees. I like a large margin for safety, especially since I'm running finely-filtered WMO/UMO. I have the fuel turned up using the 2-quarter method, and with the new intake & exhaust this seems like a nice balance all around for this motor. It seems to run very efficiently, considering it's a 140hp motor trying to move a 17K-lb truck with oversize tires. I don't like to go any faster than I already do, as it just doesn't feel safe to me...I'd rather win the Slow-And-Steady Award than be first.

Doghead's point in another thread about more efficient airflow into the air cleaner doesn't mean much without a change to the stock 3.5-inch exhaust got me thinking about upsizing it...it seemed that 4-inch exhaust parts to fit the Deuce are much more expensive than 5-inch components (semi-truck pieces), so I went with the 5-inch...if nothing else, I knew that the larger exhaust would help to lower EGTs before shutting down (I wait until EGTs get to around 275-degrees to shut down, which usually means at least 5 minutes idling). Now with the 5-inch exhaust from the turbo back (I welded a 3.5-in to 5-in adapter to the turbo elbow) the EGTs drop immediately, but I still give it the 5-minute idle before shutdown to ensure that the oil inside the turbo housing is sufficiently cooled & circulated.

Now I'm looking to replace the stock 410cfm air filter with a fender-mounted one that has a higher cfm rating...I'm pretty happy overall with the performance from the MF motor and D-series turbo; if I start changing turbos then I'll have to upgrade head gaskets and other parts that I'm not anxious to do. I just wanted to make the existing components run more efficiently with less effort, and after this trip I'm confident I've achieved that goal.

The 4-inch snorkel came from Western Filters in Australia: http://www.westernfilters.net.au/4-air-raminlet-102mm-4/. Excellent customer service, they reply to emails right away, and shipping took about 2 weeks. I highly recommend them. It is rated for intakes 700cfm-1000cfm, so it definitely does the trick for the Deuce!

And, I have to admit, I did change the seats in my Deuce; I installed a set of Toyota FJ buckets on rebuilt spring bases, and they were very comfortable. I love those seats! Airbornebandsman has seen them and sat in them; they are quite nice. I wish I would have changed them over into my new (to me) M931A2, those stock seats were horrible! I had to use seat pads & folded-over travel pillows for lumbar support, and it was still painful...we made frequent stops just to stretch out and relieve the pain.

Thanks for all the kind comments!
 

mbehne

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Congrats on the safe trip! I'm glad your towing experience was good, the one time I tried it, it wasn't good. Pulled a dead soldier 30miles and it had 395's and wouldn't track behind my other deuce for anything, it wanted to go one way or another without someone steering it.
 

silverstate55

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Congrats on the safe trip! I'm glad your towing experience was good, the one time I tried it, it wasn't good. Pulled a dead soldier 30miles and it had 395's and wouldn't track behind my other deuce for anything, it wanted to go one way or another without someone steering it.
I forgot to mention that I did chain the steering wheel so it wouldn't turn much; otherwise the front wheels always want to turn against the direction you're going...so when making turns, I had to plan everything out for pull-through only and very gradual turns...no sharp turns and no backing up! Thank God for truck stops...

You have to secure the steering wheel, otherwise you'll have the problems you described. Ask me how I know, LOL!
 

Trailboss

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I forgot to mention that I did chain the steering wheel so it wouldn't turn much; otherwise the front wheels always want to turn against the direction you're going...and no backing up! ...
Actually, with the steering wheel tied down, I don't have any problem backing a towbar'd truck. You need a lot of room if you want to change direction, and may need to jockey back and forth a few times, but you can do it. Backing straight is not a problem if you're used to backing trailers.
 

Carlo

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palazzago italia
I think that with you making the trip with your dad was the highlight of the trip. Trips like this you will never forget. Priceless.
Do you have a film on the M35? I would love to hear what it sounds like with that muffler.
Thanks for sharing the event.
 
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