Won M35A3 At Auction

[glcaines]

I bid on a 1993 M35A3 2-1/2 ton truck from the U.S Army and won it. It only has 2858 miles on it. The drivers seat still has parts of the plastic wrap on it from the factory. For those not familiar with the M35A3, this series of 2-1/2 ton truck was part of what was called the ESP or Extended Service Program. The manufacturer, AM General, took in three used M35A2 trucks, stripped them down and took the best parts to make one new M35A3. The multifuel Hercules engine was scrapped as was the Spicer manufal transmission. A new Caterpillar 3116 diesel engine was installed, coupled to an Allison 4-speed automatic transmission. The Rockwell axles were rebuilt or new. The ten 9:00X20 NDT tires and wheels were replaced by six 11:00 X 20 Michelin radials. There is also a CTIS or central tire inflation system on the truck. New dual brakes were also installed. My M35A3 is a winch truck and the winch is a hydraulically powered winch. New seats and power steering were also added.

 

Unfortunately, the truck is located at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, approximately 1000 miles north from where I live. I will be flying to the site this Sunday and hopefully will be driving it home to Georgia the next day. It has been extremely cold in the area where the truck is located, and the batteries are probably frozen. The truck ran fine when parked about two months ago. The following photos are from the auction listing. I'll provide better photos when I have the truck home.

[ferrettkitt]

That's a heck of a lot of truck good buy

[flywheel]

Good looking truck you got there, also a bit safer having the duel circuit braking system, tires look great, I've never seen one of these trucks in the U.K so i guess that they were never deployed in Europe

[deadline]

Have you won a GL auction before?

 

I have an M35a2 at Mechanicsburg awaiting EUC approval and have a car full of parts/tools to PMCS the thing before I leave the base.

 

Best of luck, are you a Member of SteelSoldiers.com?

[glcaines]

Have you won a GL auction before?

 

I have an M35a2 at Mechanicsburg awaiting EUC approval and have a car full of parts/tools to PMCS the thing before I leave the base.

 

Best of luck, are you a Member of SteelSoldiers.com?

I have bid on and won a lot of auctions through Government Liquidation. I picked up an M35A2 at Fort Indiantown Gap in 2009. I drove it home approximately 700 miles with no major problems. The truck started right up, all fluids were topped of and had recently been changed. I am on Steel Soldiers as GLCaines, the same as on HMVF. You will enjoy your A2. They are very dependable and a lot of fun. If you have never driven one before, be careful. This is especially true if you have never driven big trucks.

[deadline]

I hope I have your luck. I previewed my A2.. brakes to the floor, dead batteries. Hopefully easy fixes.

 

Annville is 20 miles from my house... wish I could have gotten one from there but Mechanicsburg is only 70 miles away.

 

Good luck and see you on SteelSoldiers.com.

[glcaines]

I completed the recovery of my M35A3 but not without incident! The M35A3 started without having to be slaved, but just barely. Ether did the trick. I checked the fluids, and all were topped off. The oil and coolant were obvously new and clear, but the brake fluid was discolored and brownish - something to change in the near future. No problems with brakes or lights. Everything worked, including the CTIS. It was good that the CTIS worked because it immediately pumped up the low tires. The Interstate U6TLs in the A3 are obviously in good shape having started the engine after having sat in extremely cold weather for a couple of months prior to the recovery. There are absolutely no leaks anywhere that I have seen on the A3.

 

I started off from Fort McCoy in Wisconsin at 11:30 AM on Monday January 3. The total trip was 1076 miles, start to finish. The first 700 miles went without incident, except for the extreme cold in the cab. The heater and defroster put out a lot of heat with good air flow. However, unless you put your hands right in front of the vent, you didn't feel much heat in the cab. It would have been much worse without the heater, however. After about 700 miles, the excitement started. I was driving down I-75 in Kentucky. Just before Exit 90 in Richmond, Kentucky, the front rear tire on the passenger side exploded. I was driving at exactly 45 mph, the speed I tried to maintain during the entire trip. When the tire blew, I lost control of the truck. The truck immediately dropped on the right side. For some reason this caused the truck to veer to the left, almost hitting a semi. I then zig zagged down the expressway back and forth over both lanes until I got it slowed down and shot for the exit. There was a lot of crashing noise coming from the blown tire and the back right side of the truck was hopping up and down. I pulled into a Shell station on the corner and shut it down. This all happened at 0430 in the morning. I had been stopped for about 5 minutes, when the tire then suddenly caught on fire. Mind you, this burning tire was the one next to the fuel tank and flames were all over the tank. Not having a fire extinguisher, I ran to the Waffle House restaurant about 250 feet away and they called the Richmond Fire Dept. They arrived within 5 minutes since the fire station was just up the road and were able to extinguish the fire, although it kept flaring back up every minute or so, even as they put water on it. Fortunatley, there was no damage to the truck, although it is hard to believe based on the amount of flames and smoke that was present. There also appears to be no damage to the wheel, but I need to do a closer inspection.

 

I called S&S tire service and they dispatched a truck to help me change the wheel for the spare. The whole operation took 3 hours in the freezing cold due to lack of an impact wrench strong enough to remove the lug nuts. They ended up using a 3-foot long 1-inch impact wrench. The two lug nugs securing the spare had to be broken loose with a five-foot torque wrench. There was no way possible for me to do this work with the normal tools I had with me. Unfortunately, one of the guys from S&S stripped out one of the brass fittings on the CTIS for the damaged wheel and now I need to find a replacement. I also need to find a replacement tire for the A3. Interestingly, the spare tire that came mounted on the A3 still had the paper sticker attached to the tread as the tire had obviously never been on the road. The manufacturing date on the tire was 05/88. Since the A3 was manufactured in 1993, it was obvious that a 5 year old tire was used on the truck straight from AM General. I haven't verified the manufacturing dates for the other tires.

 

The entire trip took 32 hours from Fort McCoy to my house in Hiawassee, Georgia. Subtracting three hours for the tire fiasco, I drove straight through for 29 hours. I tried to maintain 45 MPH and at no time exceeded that speed. However, due to the very poor road conditions with ice and snow, I was often going as slow as 25 MPH, hence the long drive time. Due to a bridge closure, I also had one significant detour.

 

If I had it to do over again, I can't think of anything I would do differently. I believe I was well prepared and the truck appeared to be in excellent condition. I was travelling alone, and that presented difficulties, but it is difficult to find anyone willing to drive a Deuce over 1,000 miles continuously without paying them.

 

Having driven an A2 in the Army years ago and having put close to 2,000 miles on my current A2, I have now garnered enough experience in both the A2 and A3 for a comparison, at least for highway driving. Offroad comparisons will have to wait. Here is a synopsis of my thougts on the two trucks.

 

1. A2 is a much better looking truck from the front than the A3, although the A3 does look good. It is not an ugly truck like some have indicated. The problem with the A3 looks includes the fender mounted headlights and the atrocious riveted hood.

2. The A3 does not have a step to assist in climbing up to service the engine.

3. The A3 seat is MUCH better than the hard plywood seat in my A2.

4. The tires on the A3 cause it to have a somewhat bouncy feel as you drive. The NDTs on the A2 feel more stable to me, expecially on curvy roads. The tires on the A3 did well on the ice and snow, but so do the NDTs on my A2.

5. Although I did not have any problems with the Allison automatic transmission in the A3, which performed flawlessly, I always seemed to be prepared for a failed shift. I inherently do not like automatic transmissions. That being said, the Allison transmission made the A3 extremely easy to drive.

6. The power steering in the A3 made it easier to steer, but I didn't like the smaller diameter steering wheel. This may simply be a matter of getting used to the difference.

7. While driving the A3 there is a somewhat squirrelly feel to the front end, but not overly so. In the A2 the front end is dead-on solid. This could be caused by poor alignment of the A3 front end.

8. I have west coast mirrors on the A2, but the mirrors on the A3 are clearly superior from a visibility standpoint and lack of vibration.

9. The engine in both trucks are extremely easy to start and do not use any oil.

10. The highway speed for the A2 is better than the A3. I believe they should have put in an Allison 6-speed transmission in the A3 with overdrive. The A3 accelerates very good and then suddenly you are at a low top speed.

11. The noise level for the A3 inside the cab is significantly lower than for the A2. However, the engine noise from the Cat engine in the A3 is noisier than the multifuel in the A2 while standing next to the truck.

12. The backup lights on the A3 are very helpful, but could be brighter.

13. The brakes on the A3 are significantly better than on the A2. In addition to having more confidence that the brakes would not fail due to the dual master cylinder, it took very little pedal pressure to stop the A3.

14. I have had zero leaks from any source on either the A2 or A3.

 

I have attached some photos of the truck and the damaged tire.

[Grasshopper]

Thanks for posting, glad all turned out ok after the incident.

 

I was following my friends M55 5 1/2 ton truck a few years ago when he had a complete brake failure at a major junction. There could have been a nasty accident but fortunately other vehicles were able to take evasive action. That truck still has the original single circuit system which we have since carried out a full overhaul on. Despite this I never fully trust it on the road (being single circuit).

[deadline]

You did not PM the truck before you left. :nono:

 

I'm gonna bet a warm diet soda that you blew the tire due to under inflation. Your own words:

 

"It was good that the CTIS worked because it immediately pumped up the low tires."

 

Did you manually check the tire pressure before heading out?

 

Not trying to be all preachy but this seems like it could have been avoided.

 

From what I have read on Steelsoldiers the CTIS is a PITA.

 

Looks like a good truck, get that brown gook out of your brake lines and figure out if CTIS is fibb'in to you.

[kpu121265]

Gary, good to hear that you got home safely. 29 hours for 1000 miles seems pretty good to me, i spent 23 hours a few ago on a return trip to Maidstone to collect a WW2 Brisith army marquee which was about a 440 mile round trip in the Landrover! Having said that, the weather was atrocious.....

Ken

[Joris]

Quite a trip to undertake in a new truck, let alone one bought at an auction!

 

Glad it worked out well in the end and thanks for taking the time to post it here.

[paulob1]

Quite a trip to undertake in a new truck, let alone one bought at an auction!

 

Glad it worked out well in the end and thanks for taking the time to post it here.

 

I did a similar trip with a 1974 star from poland, same problem I had a puncture. my fault I hit a kerb as I was not used to the truck and was driving it for the first time at night in road works and caught the kerb on a narrow section...the tyre failed some 100 miles later...I had all the right gear to replace the wheel and did so..but what a journey after that...

[LoggyDriver]

Gary, thats an awsome looking truck you have there. If only we could buy trucks like that over here, let alone at the prices you pay!!!:shocked:

 

These things happen. It's a shame that the tyre blew as it has plenty of meat on the tread. The truck looks like new, wish I owned one. Whats the MPG on that rig with the auto box fitted? Same or more than the A2?

 

Look forward to seeing some more pictures on it.

 

Cheers

 

Andy

[glcaines]

You did not PM the truck before you left. :nono:

 

I'm gonna bet a warm diet soda that you blew the tire due to under inflation. Your own words:

 

"It was good that the CTIS worked because it immediately pumped up the low tires."

 

Did you manually check the tire pressure before heading out?

 

Not trying to be all preachy but this seems like it could have been avoided.

 

From what I have read on Steelsoldiers the CTIS is a PITA.

 

Looks like a good truck, get that brown gook out of your brake lines and figure out if CTIS is fibb'in to you.

 

Sorry, I don't like diet soda, warm or cold!

 

No, I didn't rely on the CTIS. I was glad the CTIS worked because I was able to inflate the tires to 45 PSI without having to go get the air compressor to do it. All six tires were double checked with a manual gauge after inflating and the CTIS then turned off. I also checked the pressure manually several more times during the trip home. I already knew the CTIS systems can cause air loss, especially if left on when the truck is shut down, so I had no intention of leaving it on. The CTIS wasn't the cause of the failure. I believe the tire blew due to low tire pressure, but this had to be caused by something else. Perhaps I ran over something and didn't realize it.

[deadline]

"I'm gonna bet a warm diet soda that you blew the tire due to under inflation."

 

Its all elementary at this point... no one will really know. You risked a drive home and got bit by it.

 

But there are way to many factors pointing to low air pressure:

 

First: CTIS is a known culprit for low pressure.

Second: your tire was low at pick up.

Third: complete sidewall failure is not indicative or a puncture

Fourth: the burning tire can only be caused by a heat source. A puncture will cause no heat , a low pressure tire with flexing sidewalls does. It may have been ignited by dragging, but the tire tread does not show any sign of extended dragging, it most likely rolled (from the pictures presented).

 

Also, you stated that the truck veered left after the tire popped. That defies the laws of physics. The truck, on it own, would have either kept going straight (you had a flat on a non steer tire) or maybe pulled right (increased drag of flat on right side). So one must also question the accuracy of the incident as a whole.

 

These points are just for the sake of discussion. I am glad you are safe, and that they truck is relatively unharmed.

[Toner]

It's a nice looking truck and I'm glad you made it home safe.

[Enigma]

Just read yor road trip report.

Amazing the tyre caught fire.

It obviously had accumulated a lot of heat.