Steel Soldiers MV of the month 2025 - May VOTE HERE!

[patracy]

Welcome to the MV of the month poll sponsored by Consolidated Press. If you need decals, magnets, stencils, or anything printing related, please give them a call!

Now, onto the vote! Please vote for MV of the month! Feel free to campaign in this thread, but please keep it here and not via PM.

1.cobra5

2. Robo McDuff

3. Lothar

 

[kendelrio]

Looking forward to a great, clean fight, no obvious punching, kicking, biting, scratching or use of weapons.

Now let the politicking begin!

 

[Guyfang]

No weapons??????????????? Oh man...................................

 

[cobra5]

The nomination photo I used was from the DLA auction site back in March 2012 and was at Fairchild AFB in WA. After I won the auction I had to wait until May 2012 to pick it up and yes it was on Memorial Day that I picked it up. Although DLA was shutdown for the holiday, the individual that I dealt with told me to come down and he would release it to me. I drove the truck 4 /12 hours back to Missoula MT and parked it at work because the rear main seal started leaking and the clutch started slipping. I eventually nursed it another 30 miles to my house in the evening when traffic was light.

This photo is with the mutt I finished in 2009. You'll notice I added the cargo cover to it. This photo is from Feb 2013.

 

[cobra5]

Remember that leaking rear main well I ignored it for now because that takes time to accomplish. So I did the next best thing and bought a trailer for the truck. Don't worry the truck wasn't driven much with the leaking rear main. Bought trailer Feb 2014.

 

[cobra5]

Remember the leaking rear main seal? Well I finally got around to it in July 2015. I was looking for an original hoist to take it out but couldn't find one so went to HF and bought a transmission jack. Can't remember what we put the jack on to get it up to the transmission but I can guarantee it was sketchy. I have photos of the transmission job but not of it coming out of or going in to the truck.

 

[cobra5]

Well since that job was done, it was time to put it in a local old truck show in Jun 2017. The deuce didn't win but the mutt took first place. Since this is about the truck I won't post the mutts award. The truck has done other odd jobs since then but I'll have to get with my boy to share some of the photos of the truck positioning conex boxes and assisting with pulling a pickup truck and trailer out of a ditch.

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Well, looks like we have one RUNNER in this month's three-horse race!
Hope that the others come out of the gate pretty soon.

Gotta LOVE the politicking part of these monthly "beauty pageants".

May the best MV win!


Carry on.

 

[cobra5]

Because you guys like photos. Here is one from my July 4th display and the other is my choice of license plates with the original registration number.

 

[marchplumber]

The nomination photo I used was from the DLA auction site back in March 2012 and was at Fairchild AFB in WA. After I won the auction I had to wait until May 2012 to pick it up and yes it was on Memorial Day that I picked it up. Although DLA was shutdown for the holiday, the individual that I dealt with told me to come down and he would release it to me. I drove the truck 4 /12 hours back to Missoula MT and parked it at work because the rear main seal started leaking and the clutch started slipping. I eventually nursed it another 30 miles to my house in the evening when traffic was light.

This photo is with the mutt I finished in 2009. You'll notice I added the cargo cover to it. This photo is from Feb 2013.View attachment 947025

Those two go together like Peanut butter and Jelly!! NICE!!

 

[marchplumber]

That brings back memories of me doing that to the "Raven" deuce! Except yours is much cleaner with less grass and twigs and such!!

 

[cobra5]

Seems like the less that is said the better. Anyway its all in fun and here are a couple photos of my big maintenance task of reupholstering the passenger seat. So if you keeping up I've owned this truck since 2012 and all I have done to it thus far is the rear main seal, clutch, oil change and seat cover. I don't drive it much because at 6' 3" with long legs its a bit to work the clutch. Back in the day when I first drove it from DLA, I had to grab my pant leg through the steering wheel in order to get my foot on the clutch pedal. Also when I raised my leg up my knee would hit the door handle and the door would open. I fixed that issue by repositioning the door handle 180 degree so my knee couldn't hit it anymore. Good thing the majority of the drive was on the interstate and the only time I had to grab my pant leg to shift was in town. Anyway back to my photos.

 

[Migginsbros]

Great campaigning cobra5. Althought we would learn more about the the other racers. What´s the story behind your special welding cart, Lothar?

 

[Lothar]

This truck was refurbished and built for my welding business. Motor was swapped out with a LBZ. Outfitted with a 400 amp Miller Pipe Pro, 100ft welding cables, 150ft. Oxy actylene cutting hose reel, a dual use propane/compressed air hose reel, 100ft. 115v reel and a mess of tools for fabrication.

 

[Lothar]

 

[Lothar]

DC Welding and 110v power run to the rear.

Lightbar and push bumper/brushguard up front.

 

[marchplumber]

View attachment 947193View attachment 947194
DC Welding and 110v power run to the rear.
View attachment 947191View attachment 947192
Lightbar and push bumper/brushguard up front.

Thats a pretty special, speciality vehicle based off an Army trk!! AMAZING capabilities!! CONGRATS!! SA-WEET

 

[Lothar]

 

[Robo McDuff]

Late start in the race. I was down for some days with a gallbladder problem, sleeping a lot and trying to survive, but things are more or less OK again. Wednesday we had to take care of 20 five- to seven-year old kids (including some North American kids) from an international school trying blacksmithing in our blacksmith workshop museum. And yesterday we were busy hosting 18 Americans from the Sierra Club in our Czech Emigration Museum, including serving lunch. Anyway,

A few very important pictures first and a quick history, the stories will come later.

This is how I found the dump truck in 2010.

At the second DoT inspection to get Dutch papers. The first time, the truck was there as original, this time, as a switchable M52 tractor.

To get Czech veteran papers, the truck only has to look nice, so we threw $40 in cheap paint on top of it.

History timeline:
M51-A2 Dump truck w/w/. Year of build almost certainly 1965. The truck was completely overhauled and "put back to zero" in 1973 (which as on the name shield), when it was assigned tot the 368th Engineers Battalion. Almost certainly in or after 1986, the truck was transported to the Netherlands as part of the POMCUS (Prepositioning Of Materiel Configured in Unit Sets) program. It ended up in POMCUS-set 6 in Ter Apel, province of Groningen, the Netherlands. There, it was stored for over 10 years doing nothing.

Probably in 1999, it was sold as surplus to a large camping site. In 2010, I bought the truck for a symbolic amount for our museum and railroad projects. Since then I have been slowly trying to restore it, a still-ongoing endless and frustrating and rewarding process.