Select Vehicles on Hold GL WHAT?

[bbf]

i just got my relase on a few trucks after waiting 60 day and 2 days later this list comes out and my are on the list as well

 

[atankersdad]

I just love reading threads like this. I suspect this will piss off some, but the primary blame in all of this is not the fault of GL. Also, I have met some very nice GL employees who go out of their way to help us on recoveries. It offends me when some on here bad moth the working person at GL who just wants a job. Sarah at Ft Meade has been very good to me and my sons and every SS who has went there. You cannot hold the Sarahs of GL responsible to what the Department Of Defense does. That is where your initial complaints lie. Now Corporate GL should refund or reimburse for destruction to an item that occurs after bidding, and I suspect all trucks with gauge clusters removed will go back on the auction block. That is my 2 cents and support for hard working people who have no dog in this fight.

 

[Recovry4x4]

I have a radium tach in my M108. It came out of a 71 parts truck. As Patrick explained, the white seems very dull and yellowed. You have to really focus on it to see that it does, in fact, glow. Hang tight folks, lets see what comes out of it before we all shoot the messenger.

 

[greenjeepster]

whats the official relationship with GL and the government/military?

The official relationship is that they are a private contractor that sells stuff for the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service

NH,

FMS or Foreign Military Sales already takes place before they go to GL is my understanding. Those countries find out what's coming out, and can buy or be given them, more or less before we see then. What we see or get access to have been picked over many times before.

That is correct: if you read the mission of DRMS it states "
Our mission is to provide the DOD's best value services and deliver great performance to our customers for the reuse, transfer, donation, sale or disposal of excess/surplus property." They use public sale "disposal" option after the others have been exhausted. All the stuff that hits GLs site has been offered to other government depts, states, or foreign countries first.

 

[stumps]

I have a radium tach in my M108. It came out of a 71 parts truck. As Patrick explained, the white seems very dull and yellowed. You have to really focus on it to see that it does, in fact, glow. Hang tight folks, lets see what comes out of it before we all shoot the messenger.

Ok, finally we are getting somewhere!

Not everything that glows in the dark is radioactive. I had a shelter clock that glowed in the dark, but it would not glow all night, and it was definitely not radioactive. I bought it hoping that it was

If you have access to a geiger counter, could you have it checked out? Or send it to me, and I can check it for you.

In the radium dial world, there are a few things that are dangerous. One is the radium sign kits that were used in some areas. These signs had lots of radium in them, and very thick phosphor. They would glow very brightly when new, and were used to mark bulkheads, and as room numbers on board battle ships.

The dials in aircraft instruments from certain eras are often radioactive. It is enough radium to make a geiger counter go nuts, but the amount of energetic photons (xrays) that come out of an entire dash full of these instruments is a very small fraction of the photons that come out of a birthday cake candle.

(yes, I know that visible light photons are less energetic than radioactive ionizing photons, but I use the candle as a reference. Think of the difference in the number of photons coming from a BD candle vs the number coming from your headlight.)

If the instrument is kept intact, the radium is relatively harmless. If it gets broken up, the danger increases because the dust from the radioactive decomposition becomes exposed. I wouldn't recommend keeping these dials in your pants pocket, or stored under your bed, but otherwise, they are harmless.

-Chuck

 

[pctrans]

After reading all these responses, one thing strikes me funny.....Why does it take up to 2 months or more before an EUC clears for so many people?? None of my 50 or so in the last year has taken more than 10 days.

 

[SCSG-G4]

pctrans,
on everyone's first EUC, they have to transcribe the info onto a National Agency Check form and send it to the FBI, the DOD personnel section, the State Dept, Homeland Security, etc. and they they sit back and wait for ALL those agencies to respond. In the meantime, they set up a folder for individual/company that has submitted their first EUC. Once all agencies have responded with 'no problems here', they clear the first EUC. Subsequent EUC's simply refer back to the paperwork on file in the folder. If they are busy with setting up new folders for new bidders, it may take a while (a week or two) to process those who are already 'in the system'. It's not rocket science, it's clerical procedures, and they are probably not as automated as they could be, so it takes more time.

GL is a bit more responsive on suggestions to automate a process. Look back at one I made about automating the SF-97 process. I even volunteered to write the code for them, and two months later they introduced the on-line process we use now. That replaced printing off a blank form, filling it out and either scanning/e-mail or faxing it to GL, and having them attempt to read it, transcribe it and send to DRMS for the actual SF-97 to be printed. (they did not use my code, but captured the concept reasonably well).

 

[OPCOM]

About the radium, it burns the paint after some time, and even in the very dark, the glow might not be seen. However, under a microscope, occasional blue flashes can be seen even if the paint is dead. Geiger's better though. The rules in general are don't take it apart, don't scrape off the pait or make dust of it (inhalation). If one is broken, you can double ziploc bag it and throw it in the trash, handwashing, etc. There is a thread on this elsewhere.

 

[Desert Deuce]

To those of you waiting for your trucks, especially those waiting for your 1st truck(s), I feel your pain brothers!!

There will always be deuces for sale (lets hope) via private party. but I've got to say that the last few years of these sales has been truly amazing. It reminds me of the jeep in a crate stories, that's what got me interested so many years ago, but these were real.

I hope it all works out.

 

[Heavysteven]

Well, after thinking and reading the reply i have decided the following.

Money:
If the truck is modified (ie won't run) then i am going to disput the charges through my credit card company. I contacted them yesterday(Chase) and they said it should not be a problem. If some of the guages are missng then I am picking it up.

Plan of Action:
Honestly, I am going to do nothing. I know that sounds stupid but what can i really do. Only thing i can think of is to ask other members to check on my truck peiodicatly(Kentucy is 350 miles away). If the sales get cancled then it's going to be a different story

What I am Thinking
Why did i wait so long to buy......should have out bid higher on that one in Redstone when there was 300.....those were the good old days...

Below is my truck.?!(not sure which symbol applies)

 

[greenjeepster]

My plan of action is to wait it out as well; at least for a reasonable amount of time. Seeing as it took two months for the code review/change to go from just a code review to GL being told to hold all trucks I have a feeling that the inspections will take a while.

 

[roscoe]

I just got my notice as well and my trucks have been home for over 2 weeks. GL is calling me back but I'm supposed to put all work on them on hold W.T.F.? I guess I should be used to this kind of crap as I put up with it for 20 yrs anyway.
Got a couple of pics of my trucks in between rain showers

A3, you got some nice trucks there! Did you get them in Kentucky?

 

[Floyd]

OK, OK, I just read 16 pages of frustration. Sorry guys, but stop blaming GL and the people that work there. GL is in the business of making money. If they do not sell trucks there is little income (I’m aware they have your money). It’s not too difficult to see or imagine how they feel about this fiasco.

As most here know I’m not one of GL’s big supporters or cheerleaders. I see the need but the company lacks social grace among other things.

All those that wish to take legal action, who are you going to sue and why? Sorry I’m jealous in that you have enough money to take on the federal government. If in fact this is about radioactivity which is purely speculative at this point. DOD will prevail, by protecting the health and safety of the buyer and or user. DOD pulling bids and trucks is also a right they maintain and use. Most that purchase from and deal with GL are more than aware of this.

The only leg most have to stand on is the money issue. It has been kept and in return they have dolled out very little information about what its disposition may be.

Those that wish to still jump up and down and involve state and federal authorities may do so but remember that the 60 days will long be over before they respond and take action. The group that has had their EUC approved and the trucks are still held. By all means call and drive you federal representative crazy with pleas of undue hardship, financial duress, insolvency, martial problems etc.

Hey Ed, pass the pop corn. I think it went off long before it got down range.

Floyd

 

[roscoe]

(yes, I know that visible light photons are less energetic than radioactive ionizing photons, but I use the candle as a reference. Think of the difference in the number of photons coming from a BD candle vs the number coming from your headlight.)

Stumps, I don't think anyone is going to call you out on this. What are you? Some kind of a mad scientist / tree farmer? With your own gieger counter no less.

 

[stumps]

Stumps, I don't think anyone is going to call you out on this. What are you? Some kind of a mad scientist / tree farmer? With your own gieger counter no less.

Mad Scientist / tree farmer?... Yeah! That fits!

-Chuck

 

[x-ray]

I hope its not radium, I've done a fair amount of radium gauge and glow in the dark button remediation years ago. It can be a pain to cleanup on old devices, the radium creeps through watchglasse, etc. even if the device is intact. The alpa (emits alpha, beta and gamma) emission from it causes a recoil and the material creeps alongin thin amounts that you cannot see, but can detect by doing a wipe test. Sot of like rust cancer on a painted car body, a film of rust will build up in the paint around the rust cancer.

Radium also decays to radon which is an inert gas, so the solid changes to a gas and purges out of the gauge, radon has a short halflife 3.8 days and decays to radioactive polonium and bismouth which are solids and plate out around the gauge area'

Radium itself doesn't glow in the dark, rather its mixed with a phosphor that is stimulated by its radiation and the phosphor glows. The phosphors usually can take only so much stimulation, and burn out and don;t glow anymore after a few decades. However the radium is still there (1600 year half life).

I think radium gauges faded out of use in the late 50s, and was replaced by tritium gauges, and tritium is much les energetic and emits very low energy beta radiation onlyy and is much safer and easier to clean up.

Hopefully its tritium gauges and not radium. Tritium also has a short half life 12 years

Do a search on radium aircraft gauges and clean-up sites. You will find some loud mouth gets some aircraft gague buisness in trouble and they spend literally millions to clean it up. In all reality, neither gauge (tritium and radium )are life threatening, but gov;t laws on radioactive materials clean up and disposal are very stringent.

recent changes in NRC interpretation on radioactive materials licesing have gotten insane after 9/11 and technically many exemtions for radium devices are recinded, but the NRC and agreement states haven't rounded up radium watches or clocks yet.

 

[nhdiesel]

So it kind of comes down to- if you scrape the paint off from 500 gauges, then swallow it, you might get cancer in 50 years...maybe? (being sarcastic, kind of...)

Jim

 

[x-ray]

So it kind of comes down to- if you scrape the paint off from 500 gauges, then swallow it, you might get cancer in 50 years...maybe?

So long as you dont ingest it, you would be fine. Radium behalves like calcium in the body and goes to the bone and has a long cycle to get out of the body because of this. Radium dial painters (women who painted radium dials on aircraft gauges in WWII) often died of bone cancer and leukemia, but they literally licked the paint brush constantly with their mouth to keep a fine point for painting those gauges.

If you don.t eat it, you would be fine.

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

I hope its not radium, I've done a fair amount of radium gauge and glow in the dark button remediation years ago. It can be a pain to cleanup on old devices, the radium creeps through watchglasse, etc. even if the device is intact. The alpa (emits alpha, beta and gamma) emission from it causes a recoil and the material creeps alongin thin amounts that you cannot see, but can detect by doing a wipe test. Sot of like rust cancer on a painted car body, a film of rust will build up in the paint around the rust cancer.

Radium also decays to radon which is an inert gas, so the solid changes to a gas and purges out of the gauge, radon has a short halflife 3.8 days and decays to radioactive polonium and bismouth which are solids and plate out around the gauge area'

Radium itself doesn't glow in the dark, rather its mixed with a phosphor that is stimulated by its radiation and the phosphor glows. The phosphors usually can take only so much stimulation, and burn out and don;t glow anymore after a few decades. However the radium is still there (1600 year half life).

I think radium gauges faded out of use in the late 50s, and was replaced by tritium gauges, and tritium is much les energetic and emits very low energy beta radiation onlyy and is much safer and easier to clean up.

Hopefully its tritium gauges and not radium. Tritium also has a short half life 12 years

Do a search on radium aircraft gauges and clean-up sites. You will find some loud mouth gets some aircraft gague buisness in trouble and they spend literally millions to clean it up. In all reality, neither gauge (tritium and radium )are life threatening, but gov;t laws on radioactive materials clean up and disposal are very stringent.

recent changes in NRC interpretation on radioactive materials licesing have gotten insane after 9/11 and technically many exemtions for radium devices are recinded, but the NRC and agreement states haven't rounded up radium watches or clocks yet.

That's A LOT of SCIENCE for most of us to digest....

In a nutshell, let's see how this might make some sense....

Standard Deuce Driver Seat places driver's crotch approx 24"-30" from cluster of radio-active gauges = No need for vasectomy as you'll be "fixed" after your second or third rally convoy! Right?

Hmmm Was this a government conspiracy to secretly control MV Enthusiast reproduction ? ? ? .....>.....>.....>.....>.....>..

 

[todds112]

That's A LOT of SCIENCE for most of us to digest....

In a nutshell, let's see how this might make some sense....

Standard Deuce Driver Seat places driver's crotch approx 24"-30" from cluster of radio-active gauges = No need for vasectomy as you'll be "fixed" after your second or third rally convoy! Right?

Hmmm Was this a government conspiracy to secretly control MV Enthusiast reproduction ? ? ? .....>.....>.....>.....>.....>..

I worried about this carrying a handgun with night sights almost everyday for the 20 years at waist level. Everything still seems to work OK.