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FMTV Replacement Door Handle Upgrade

Awesomeness

Awesomeness

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coachgeo said:
must have gotten REALLLL frustrated. Took me dozen attempts to contact them to try to get a little information about an engine they sold someone..... finally made contact by phone and the person on other end was utterly RUDE and dismissive. Was completely unwilling to do anything beyond get me off the phone as fast as they could.
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Rudeness aside, my guess is that when they started posting initially, they really didn't think through who they were targetting. These are the guys at Acela, so by the time they posted here they had already sunk a ton of time and money into starting a real business to sell $100k+ trucks. Most of the private FMTV owners think of their trucks as "$10-30k trucks" and seem extremely frugal, and aren't going to pay Acela's premium to get proper parts and well-engineered solutions. So after they started a bunch of threads here, I think they realized they made a mistake, and they wasn't money to be made here.
 
Awesomeness

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Reworked LMTV said:
Whatever happened, it is a shame that they are not working with the DIY folk. Starting a business is a very hard job.
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Eh, I don't blame them. There is no money in it here, so it's not going to help their business much. The DIY community wants everything cheap or free, so it makes sense for them to chase the mining and oil companies with deep pockets (e.g. who want it done NOW, at whatever cost).
 
Cave Johnson

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Lots of this is dated. Im a new owner of a 1078, and have a passenger side handle with a broken actuation arm. The problem is it came off the surplus auction lot, so I dont have the broken off portion. If there is a new thread on this, please direct me there.

If anyone has a passenger side to sell, or would be willing to scan the lever arm next to a ruler, or send me one, I'd like to see if I could get these fabricated. They dont look all that complex, but I dont have a sample (afraid to tear out my driver side given it works)
 
Reworked LMTV

Reworked LMTV

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Cave Johnson said:
Lots of this is dated. Im a new owner of a 1078, and have a passenger side handle with a broken actuation arm. The problem is it came off the surplus auction lot, so I dont have the broken off portion. If there is a new thread on this, please direct me there.

If anyone has a passenger side to sell, or would be willing to scan the lever arm next to a ruler, or send me one, I'd like to see if I could get these fabricated. They dont look all that complex, but I dont have a sample (afraid to tear out my driver side given it works)
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Honestly, it is best to replace with newer handles. Not that hard.
 
Third From Texas

Third From Texas

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Reworked LMTV said:
Watch video. Purchase. Install.
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^this

It's a fairly simple mod to upgrade to a A1R-type handle. I bet almost half of the A0 trucks out there have or had broken handles. The old style are simply a poor design for the angle of pull combined with the amount of force used to open the door (ie: it's a weak "handle"...period). Factor in that that the $25 value A0 handle comes with a surplus wallet rape of $300 for a handle the army got sick of breaking/replacing. I can't fathom reinstalling an A0 handle. Honestly, 90% of the installation the newer handles is still required to install the old style. To me it's a no-brainer....

a) $500-600 for NOS A0 handles that *WILL* break again
b) $50 for the upgraded Trimarks that only require an extra 10% of work to install
 
Third From Texas

Third From Texas

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Cave Johnson said:
Yeah, I saw that video. Im the kind of guy that doesnt like throwing out a whole assembly when one tiny part is broken. A forum member showed me their fix, which is exactly what I had in mind. I can model that, and send them to a plasma table and have dozens and dozens of them burned out for a couple bucks each (mainly setup fees). In which case, I can mail them out to other people who have this problem and dont want to drop 180 dollars.

Not my first rodeo on that kind of thing. Replaced a number of failure prone plastic parts on exotic automobiles with fabricated aluminum before. It is my first rodeo on an LMTV though. This is fun.
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Rgr all.

Most of the time, when someone does that they go to the dark side and start charging other community members 2000x the cost of the part. Because <insert reason about supply, demand, cost of renting a warehouse or junk yard, blah, blah, blah>.

I tend to favor the $50 civilian solutions part that can be found by anyone online over the $600 scalper parts (that cost $50 at auction). But anytime I can make something, I do so as well. And I share the diy with anyone who will listen. :)

So good on ya...
 
BERZERKER888

BERZERKER888

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Cave Johnson said:
Yeah, I saw that video. Im the kind of guy that doesnt like throwing out a whole assembly when one tiny part is broken. A forum member showed me their fix, which is exactly what I had in mind. I can model that, and send them to a plasma table and have dozens and dozens of them burned out for a couple bucks each (mainly setup fees). In which case, I can mail them out to other people who have this problem and dont want to drop 180 dollars.

Not my first rodeo on that kind of thing. Replaced a number of failure prone plastic parts on exotic automobiles with fabricated aluminum before. It is my first rodeo on an LMTV though. This is fun.
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"This is fun"....????

give it a few months when your forced to sell your children to fund your "fun"... 😆
 
BERZERKER888

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Third From Texas said:
Rgr all.

Most of the time, when someone does that they go to the dark side and start charging other community members 2000x the cost of the part. Because <insert reason about supply, demand, cost of renting a warehouse or junk yard, blah, blah, blah>.

I tend to favor the $50 civilian solutions part that can be found by anyone online over the $600 scalper parts (that cost $50 at auction). But anytime I can make something, I do so as well. And I share the diy with anyone who will listen. :)

So good on ya...
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my remedy to the cheap pot metal door latch actuator, which BTW has been bullet proof for nearly 1 year, cost @$2.00 and 30 minutes of my life... I bought a pair of Tacoma door handles as suggested by Ronmar and attempted to go that route....yikes when the cut off wheel, cut off the tip of my finger...pass.. lol. as for the Trimark.. good on them , but $300+ and a shizzle ton of cutting and drilling..another hard pass...
 
Third From Texas

Third From Texas

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BERZERKER888 said:
my remedy to the cheap pot metal door latch actuator, which BTW has been bullet proof for nearly 1 year, cost @$2.00 and 30 minutes of my life... I bought a pair of Tacoma door handles as suggested by Ronmar and attempted to go that route....yikes when the cut off wheel, cut off the tip of my finger...pass.. lol. as for the Trimark.. good on them , but $300+ and a shizzle ton of cutting and drilling..another hard pass...
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I certainly wasn't suggesting anything that was $300 (that's what the scalpers are raping people for the old pot metal NOS junk handles S&S used). I'm sure the same scalpers are getting $300 for the Trimarks by tossing them up on their sites as "super rare LMTV door handles". LOL. The new style handles can be found for fractions of that price, that's what I was suggesting. I had some in my cart awhile back that were $50 but then the A1R fell in my lap and it already had them. Very sorry to hear that you cut your finger, though.

:)
 
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