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MEP-803A recovery and the first "long" trip in the deuce

zanther

Member
158
2
18
Location
Maltby, WA
So I got my Deuce on Monday. I have a different thread on that.

Wednesday I find I've won the MEP-803A out of JBLM up for auction on GP. Can you say Road trip? it's only 65 miles one way from my house to JBLM.

I had also negotiated with a guy for a set of troop seats, bows and a green cargo cover for the deuce. Located only another 13 miles past JBLM.

I paid for the generator, printed out my Release Form for GP and called to find out the actual address. Turns out it wasn't actually on JBLM, which made life much easier.

I greased everything up and checked fluild levels , one of the diff's needed one 90w. Side question, what's ya'llss preferred method of adding oil, using a hard funnel yesterday wasn't much fun and was quite messy, I couldn't find my flexible funnel.

Into the truck I go, along with my beautiful bride for her first ride in the truck, she thought it was hilariously awesome.

Drop the wife off at Uhaul where her car was getting a hitch installed. (turns out they did a crappy job so I'll be calling then today)
Check the hub temps, all slightly warmer than ambient which was about 75 at that time.

after about 15 minutes the truck really warmed up and I started getting a bit more power out of her than I had previously seen. From what I can tell, it's only had about 250 miles put on it in the 5 years since GL sold it to public. Sounds like what I read in most threads held true, these trucks like being RAN.

So it's me on the road, doing my best to keep up with the flow of traffic, turns out it's actually better to be in just a bit of traffic so that most folk aren't whizzing by at 75 even though it's a 60 mph speed limit. most of the trip was spent around 50 ish mph.

Get to the GP lot and spend a few minutes trying to find my new generator while waiting on the Yard guys to show up. Wierdly it's not in the row with the other generators. I start immediately thinking the worst has happened, someone put the wrong IronPlanet number on the generator or worse gave the my generator to someone else.

Turns out I had nothing to fear, the yard guys were using the generator to power their workshop! At least I know it makes power :)

hook up the trailer, bang the tires to check air pressure, and then it was the moment of truth.

Do the trailer lights work? I didn't test the truck side connector before I left so if things don't work, it'll be interesting. I do have some magnetic blinky red lights in the toolbox as back up.

Success! They work and so I'm off.

Get back onto I-5 SB and head to Zack's place to retrieve my new cargo cover and bows.

Meet with his Uncle Bruce as Zack's at work, quick exchange money and Bruce was kind enough to help me get it all loaded into the truckbed. I did put the cover in the passenger floorboard for the trip back.

And now back on the road again, stopping at my buddy Mac's house about halfway back to give the truck a break and check the trailer over.

Dang it ! I'm leaking fuel out of the IP again. I figured getting the metal warm would cause it to seal itself a bit, turns out I'm wrong.

So I hop back on the road knowing I'm dripping a bit of fuel but it's well away from the exhaust so I'm going to roll with it. It's the inward most IP line and it's a bear to get to, you have to remove an out line just to have room for your wrench. Not something I want to try doing when the engine has been running for about 4 hrs and everything is HOT. Side note, engine never got above 190, even with it being 91* out in late afternoon. I'm pleased with that.

I did notice a decrease in power, I'm attributing it to the leaking IP.

About 5 miles from home I hit stop and go traffic, not usual at this interchange. The interesting part is I've now got a slight squeak. Takes me a bit to nail down the pattern, but it's definitely in sync with wheel rotation. I'm rolling at about 3 mph thus not high RPM's and it gets a little little louder over the next 2 minutes. I'm worried but in a terrible spot to try to stop. So I decide to roll on and take her easy. after getting up to about 30 mph , the squeak disappears. During the last 3 hundred yards before my house, I slow way down again and to see if it'll reappear. Nothing, nada, zip, zilch.

Arrive at the homestead and while the turbo is cooling I grabbed my IR thermometer and measure the hub temps. fronts: 105, bogie and right rear 110 , Left rear is 120. 120 isn't burning my hand hot but it's uncomfortable. I'll need to research what other are running for a temp and rebuild it if needed.

Did I mention that I was think my alternator wasn't charging. my fears were correct, slowly saw the battery level drop over the course of my 7 hr journey. Part of the reason I planned it for the day time was so that I only had to run Service lights and not headlights. I know I also needed to power the fuel pump. but I had a 12 volt battery pack in the cab with me, I'd have hooked the fuel pump up to that if needed, it would have enabled me to limp home.

and for the final part, the generator! a quick PM check and she starts right up. I used these in Iraq to power my server farms so I'm pretty comfortable with Operator level stuff. It's a dream, while not whisper quiet, it is a darn sight quieter than the Home Depot-Dewalt special we've currently got. I'll get a thread started on the 803 install soon, planning do something like GlockFan did HERE . My house is already wired for a generator but I'm going to use this as an opportunity to upgrade from a 12 circuit subpanel to a whole house ATS and replace my original Zinco main panel. A thread on that when I get it started as well, though that'll likely be in Oct when my electrician father comes for a visit.

The recap,
A good trip, no major problems, new equipment and increased confidence in the truck.


Photos as soon as I figure out why when I upload them they don't actually show up. The computer I'm on is quirky so I'm going to blame it on this PC.
 
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