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Recovery: Hooks TX to Norhtern VA

kboy

New member
10
4
3
Location
Manassas VA & Marietta GA
The trip was done in early May. We picked up the deuce from Hooks TX, and drove 2 days to my house in northern VA.
In late march, I won a GL auction for an '87 ex-Airforce M35A2C located in Hooks, TX. We knew the truck did not start, and the battery were dead, but beside some dent on the fender it looked OK.I did not expect that my EUC cleared so quickly,which put me in a bind, as I had several trips already scheduled which prevented me from pick it up within the allowed time.Fortunately one of this forum member provided me with a contact of a person in Hooks TX, who can retrieve the truck & store it in his place for a reasonable cost. He picked up the deuce, and notified me that it didn't start due to fuel problem, but he managed to trailer it to his place, which is about a mile away from RRAD.
I bought the $50 compatible fuel pump from ebay and sent it to the dude in TX. He installed it and cleaned up the tank, which was very dirty and had nasty red stuff. Once the tank is cleaned & the new pump was installed, I was notified thatit started and ran well. He also filled up the brake reservoir and bled the brakes, till it is functional, still need to pump once (someair in the lines), but otherwise works fine.
Saturday morning in the fist weekend of May I and a colleague, who have just retired from our office, drove my jeep 1150 miles to Hooks TX. My friend spent the first several days of his retirement helping me retrieving the deuce, what a dude.We carry all of the stuffs needed for deuce recovery recommended by this forum, including an air compressor and a generator, for just in case.
We got to Hooks Sunday afternoon, and went to check the duece; checked all of the fluids, and then started the engine, it ran fine. However, 2 sets of 24v towing lights I built (harborfreight's towing lights, with the bulbs replaced with 12-24v LED bulbs from ebay) did not work, apparently I connected wrong pins from deuce receiver connector to the 2 flat-4 connectors, that were used to power the 2 sets of towing lights. Got to buy a soldering iron from local Sears and fixed the connectors.
Next morning (Monday) we drove my jeep from the hotel to the deuce location, hooked up the (ibistek) towbar behind the deuce and to the jeep, mounted the two sets of towing lights onto the jeep's spare tire, and off we went. The first destination was a truck stop 8 miles away. We managed to run out of diesel in the parking lot of the truck stop, before we reached the pump. We did have 10 gallons of diesel in 2 cans in deuce bed, so we were OK, and could get to the pump on our own. We filled up the tank and our two 5-gallon cans, which saved us once more time, as later in the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] days of the trip, we ran out of fuel once again,somewhere in southwest VA. Driving out from the truck stop, we decided to deploy my aviation headsets (I am a recreational pilot,and already owned 2 sets of headset), and the cheap intercom I bought for this trip, again after browsing this forum. The trip was relatively uneventful, besides the emergency brake kept on loosing its nut, we lost the original by afternoon of the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] day.I bought replacement nuts (we used 2 nuts) from homedepot in Nashville TN, where we spent the night, and by late afternoon we lost the emergency brake again. We took turn driving the deuce, and reached my house in northern VA around midnight Tuesday. Other issue I noticed during the trip, were that of oil leaks from the rearmost pumpkin, the square gasket of the transmission, and the front hubs.And of course the brake still need pumping (one pump before it becomeeffective).
I've been busy with other things, and haven't done anything on the deuce. Haven't even registered it yet,though I received the Arizona title for the deuce (transferred to my name) from GL about 3 weeks ago, partially because my current insurance doesn't insure a truck heavier than 10k, so I will have to find other firm. I will be registering the deuce not as collector vehicle, as it limits the trip to 250 miles. I have another place in MA, the collector registration will not allow me to dive it there. If you folks have any recommendation regarding insurance please PM me, as I understand it is not allowed in the forum.


Cheers,
-k
 

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bonedoc

New member
502
1
0
Location
Bangor, PA
Congratulations on a successful recovery with very little problems. Welcome to the green addiction, I hear you about free time to work on it but once you get going you won't want to stop.
 
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