71DeuceAK
Well-known member
- 1,492
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- Location
- Fairbanks, Alaska
OK, so here's the deal/backstory:
-I've been infected with the "Green Iron Disease" for about 20-ish months now. You know how that goes, it can strike at any time without warning and the incubation period is extremely short!
-In December of 2014 I got "hooked" and promptly had a brilliant idea: "What if I got a Deuce and a Half as my first vehicle, and daily drove it everywhere like any other vehicle?" I had heard of Steel Soldiers quickly of course but didn't even visit the site for the first time until about 10 days before my first post, in June of 2015. At the time, it looked like I might be getting a Deuce for more or less free as my first vehicle. (from what I had been verbally told I thought it was one at first but it ended up being a '72 Chevy flatbed AND it would have been more trouble than it was worth anyway; it ran and drove fine but there were other issues at stake). The second "I might be getting a Deuce and a Half as my first car" situation happened this past April; there was a '68 M35A2 in excellent condition on Craigslist in what's now my local area (Fairbanks, AK) though at the time I hadn't yet moved here. My dad actually was the one who found that one and at the time it looked like I might be living on 6 acres and a mile or so down a dirt road so it would have worked out well...but that didn't pan out for other reasons. (especially it ending up I didn't have a place to park the thing since I'm still living in the dorms). I would have considered daily driving that one too, with a 200-mile round-trip road trip between Fairbanks, AK and Delta Junction, AK each weekend to boot, just lots of screaming down the freeway in the rightmost lane redlining at 55MPH. Of course most sensible people just laughed at me for even considering such a thing. (For instance, a group of MV-familiar friends were gag-gifting me with Swiss-Army-Knife type tools, flashlights, and the like this past Christmas: "Then you will need these for sure"! or whenever I mentioned the idea of, say, taking a road trip to a particular destination, would tease me: "Yeah, in your Deuce and a Half!" The thread of that saga can be seen here: http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showth...-Future-71-Deuce-Owner-from-Alaska-California
To further explain my level of sanity, or should I say the probable lack thereof, I also had the wonderfully brilliant idea of daily driving something like a M923A2 or M925A2 on the same long trip once I got a CDL, required for air brakes in Alaska. (My rationale was that with the automatic transmission, power steering, etc. would make it a little less miserable driving the darn thing every day, though of course it would have been even less of a picnic to handle in shopping center parking lots and campus parking would have been even more difficult, but I think the universal joke about parking between two hybrids vs. atop two hybrids goes unsaid). Of course, people really laughed at me for that one. See here for that thread: http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?149418-M939-Series-5-ton-as-Daily-Driver&highlight=
So then, someone suggested to me I get an M37. Why I had previously never considered that, I have no idea. Same basic form factor but a little easier to handle in the shopping center parking lots, and once I actually get my driver's license the campus parking attendants might actually allow the darn thing in. (I'd love to see what the campus police would think of a 5-ton!). So now I'm sort of considering getting one. Any ideas/suggestions? (I'd probably still get a 5 ton later on just since I want one).
Just how easy are the M37s to come by, and what sort of maintenance headaches do they entail? I'm not afraid to tackle crazy projects, even though I'm mechanically ignorant at this point, as evidenced by my crazy ideas like daily driving a 5 ton!
Thoughts?
-I've been infected with the "Green Iron Disease" for about 20-ish months now. You know how that goes, it can strike at any time without warning and the incubation period is extremely short!
-In December of 2014 I got "hooked" and promptly had a brilliant idea: "What if I got a Deuce and a Half as my first vehicle, and daily drove it everywhere like any other vehicle?" I had heard of Steel Soldiers quickly of course but didn't even visit the site for the first time until about 10 days before my first post, in June of 2015. At the time, it looked like I might be getting a Deuce for more or less free as my first vehicle. (from what I had been verbally told I thought it was one at first but it ended up being a '72 Chevy flatbed AND it would have been more trouble than it was worth anyway; it ran and drove fine but there were other issues at stake). The second "I might be getting a Deuce and a Half as my first car" situation happened this past April; there was a '68 M35A2 in excellent condition on Craigslist in what's now my local area (Fairbanks, AK) though at the time I hadn't yet moved here. My dad actually was the one who found that one and at the time it looked like I might be living on 6 acres and a mile or so down a dirt road so it would have worked out well...but that didn't pan out for other reasons. (especially it ending up I didn't have a place to park the thing since I'm still living in the dorms). I would have considered daily driving that one too, with a 200-mile round-trip road trip between Fairbanks, AK and Delta Junction, AK each weekend to boot, just lots of screaming down the freeway in the rightmost lane redlining at 55MPH. Of course most sensible people just laughed at me for even considering such a thing. (For instance, a group of MV-familiar friends were gag-gifting me with Swiss-Army-Knife type tools, flashlights, and the like this past Christmas: "Then you will need these for sure"! or whenever I mentioned the idea of, say, taking a road trip to a particular destination, would tease me: "Yeah, in your Deuce and a Half!" The thread of that saga can be seen here: http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showth...-Future-71-Deuce-Owner-from-Alaska-California
To further explain my level of sanity, or should I say the probable lack thereof, I also had the wonderfully brilliant idea of daily driving something like a M923A2 or M925A2 on the same long trip once I got a CDL, required for air brakes in Alaska. (My rationale was that with the automatic transmission, power steering, etc. would make it a little less miserable driving the darn thing every day, though of course it would have been even less of a picnic to handle in shopping center parking lots and campus parking would have been even more difficult, but I think the universal joke about parking between two hybrids vs. atop two hybrids goes unsaid). Of course, people really laughed at me for that one. See here for that thread: http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?149418-M939-Series-5-ton-as-Daily-Driver&highlight=
So then, someone suggested to me I get an M37. Why I had previously never considered that, I have no idea. Same basic form factor but a little easier to handle in the shopping center parking lots, and once I actually get my driver's license the campus parking attendants might actually allow the darn thing in. (I'd love to see what the campus police would think of a 5-ton!). So now I'm sort of considering getting one. Any ideas/suggestions? (I'd probably still get a 5 ton later on just since I want one).
Just how easy are the M37s to come by, and what sort of maintenance headaches do they entail? I'm not afraid to tackle crazy projects, even though I'm mechanically ignorant at this point, as evidenced by my crazy ideas like daily driving a 5 ton!
Thoughts?
