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M816 wrecker

red said:
Wreckers are great, their versatility is only limited by your imagination haha. The fuel was turned up in my m816 before I got it and it has some pep to it for a 40,000+ lb rig with only 250hp hahaha. Planning to install a turbo next year to help out, maybe test out a hx55 since it will spool early to cover the 800rpm gap between 3rd and 4th gear. Swap to a Eaton/Fuller RTOO series transmission would be a great upgrade.
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When you put the turbo on, make sure that, if your 250 is one with vents between the intake and the crankcase, you block them. When you pull the intake manifold you might see in each port that there's a hole drilled that ports bypassed combustion gasses from the crankcase into the intake. Most Army engines are threaded and plugged, or there's just a boss there in the casting, but there are a bunch out there that are open. When you put a turbo on and those holes are open it pressurizes the crankcase and blows oil past the seals and fun stuff like that. If they're open and not threaded, just run a tap in the hole and Loctite a plug in it.

On the fifth wheel, we had a dolly in the shop like the trucking companies use when pulling doubles. We had to modify it to lengthen the frame of the dolly to move the fifth wheel back so that a box van would clear the boom but that was the only thing we had to do to use it. Our aircraft recovery section had the M819 Wrecker, which has a fifth wheel for dragging a flatbed. Not as robust and versatile as an M816 though.
 
swinters said:
When you put the turbo on, make sure that, if your 250 is one with vents between the intake and the crankcase, you block them. When you pull the intake manifold you might see in each port that there's a hole drilled that ports bypassed combustion gasses from the crankcase into the intake. Most Army engines are threaded and plugged, or there's just a boss there in the casting, but there are a bunch out there that are open. When you put a turbo on and those holes are open it pressurizes the crankcase and blows oil past the seals and fun stuff like that. If they're open and not threaded, just run a tap in the hole and Loctite a plug in it.

On the fifth wheel, we had a dolly in the shop like the trucking companies use when pulling doubles. We had to modify it to lengthen the frame of the dolly to move the fifth wheel back so that a box van would clear the boom but that was the only thing we had to do to use it. Our aircraft recovery section had the M819 Wrecker, which has a fifth wheel for dragging a flatbed. Not as robust and versatile as an M816 though.
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I'll check out the passages when the Jake brakes go on in the fall. Between those and a turbo it's big improvements to the driving capability.

Yea a dolly is out of the question for me. Lack of space to store it, backing up in tight places, and I don't like them haha. The setup I'm copying will work for my needs. The eventual plan is to make the wrecker bed relatively easy to swap out for other beds as needed.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
 
swinters said:
Nope, not the Goat's fault. Pretty sure I didn't even imply that. It was just some bonehead company's way to try to sell a less than brilliant idea to the military. My only problem with the Goat is working on them. You have to roll it to get to all of the zerks in the driveline and by the time you get them all you're down the road a ways. And changing the engine oil filter (canister filter) is near impossible to do without getting some oil in the hull. The favorite trick in the shop for some of the guys was to wait for someone to walk by and then flip the bilge pump switch and nail them with a nice shot oil oily water from the bilge. I had to swim one to get licensed on them and man is that scary. They swim, but just barely. If you ever watch the movie Stripes, check out the Gamma Goat with the big red star painted on it that the Soviet (or was it Czechoslovakian?) border guards had parked there.
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Watch "Stripes"? Son, I know the movie by heart. I lived on Ft. Knox and know EVERY building and area used for location shoots. I'm a former Army Officer of sixteen years, Armor Branch. I did my Officer Basic Course there, was the Executive Officer in a 19D (Cavalry Scout) OSUT Company during one of my rotations, also. Prior to my Commissioning in 1982, I spent three years enlisted time as a Combat Medic in a Mechanized Infantry Brigade attached to the Fourth Infantry Division and I drove my own Gamma Goat ambulance as well as an M-113A3 APC ambulance.
 
Well, this morning sucked ass to put it mildly. 20 new wheel studs sheared off while driving on the highway, destroyed the wheels as well. 3rd axle went first at 50-55mph so stopped to chain it up and limp off the interstate. Less than a mile later the middle axle did the same thing.

No wheel wobble or signs of loose lug nuts. Shop Forman was trying to figure it out, I'm thinking bad batch. 250 miles.

20800058_10211743477875228_3559946360929537317_n.jpg 20770316_10211743479195261_7403686984587793396_n.jpg 20882080_10211743479435267_6478663631183717080_n.jpg 20747938_10211744451299563_2012384227716059802_o.jpg
 
Do we even want to know the tow bill for that? I was wondering what you would use to tow it...
 
Oh man. Sorry to hear that. Sounds like a bad batch of studs for sure if that happened to all of them
 
(!) I admire the plan to cover that you have in place.
 
Husker6.5 said:
Watch "Stripes"? Son, I know the movie by heart. I lived on Ft. Knox and know EVERY building and area used for location shoots. I'm a former Army Officer of sixteen years, Armor Branch. I did my Officer Basic Course there, was the Executive Officer in a 19D (Cavalry Scout) OSUT Company during one of my rotations, also. Prior to my Commissioning in 1982, I spent three years enlisted time as a Combat Medic in a Mechanized Infantry Brigade attached to the Fourth Infantry Division and I drove my own Gamma Goat ambulance as well as an M-113A3 APC ambulance.
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Son? I haven't heard that in a long, long time. I wonder whether we've crossed paths? I started wrenching on Army stuff as a civilian mechanic at the Ft. Lewis main shop in '77, and in '85 was picked up as a field representative for the Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command. I was assigned to Army units worldwide, deployed with VII Corps to the Gulf War and did two more combat tours in Mosul, Iraq with Stryker Brigades. Initially I worked wheeled vehicles and engineer equipment but eventually was assigned to combat vehicles. After my factory training on the AGT1500 (the turbine engine in the Abrams) I did the first half of my OJT at Ft. Knox (final certification was at Ft. Irwin) and spent quite a bit of time at Knox over the years testing mods and upgrades. My wife's a Nebraska girl from just east of you (Elmwood) and we're there visiting her family all the time so we should get together and compare notes.
 
Well, you know "Son" is just an Army thing. It could very well be that we may have inadvertently crossed paths. I enlisted in March '79. Basic at Ft. Dix, AIT at Ft. Sam Houston. Ft. Lewis for ROTC Advance Camp in summer of '81 and again on a temporary assignment in summer of '94. Ft. Knox '83, Ft. Bliss '84 back to Ft. Knox '85 (OBC), Ft. Riley, KS way too much till a TDY at Ft. McCoy, WI in '89 and Ft. Hood, TX till '95. Ft. Irwin, CA in '96 for a rotation through the NTC out in the box, then back to Hood till '98.

I have a friend and his wife who restored an old farm house a mile due south of Elmwood. We used to go down to his father-in-law's farm just south of Unidilla on the Little Nemaha River and shoot skeet over the river.
 
And you still probably weren't the oldest guy in basic? Lol
I had one that was about 36, Iirc.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk
 
haha nope far from I was 20 in basic, turned 21 while at tech school a few months later. Oldest was 32 ish.


With the wrecker right now I'm pricing out whether to stay with the military super single 395x85x20"s or swap them out for commercial 24.5" wheels with similar height or taller tires.
 
Military sized tires can have an advantage of buying them cheap from auctions or auction resellers. If there are plenty close to you then great. If not, it really sucks needing to have them shipped from far away and not really knowing it's condition until you have it and already paid for it. IF you stat with them, really plan on buying at auction yourself. Not sure what part of Utah your in, but A descent amount of stuff comes out of Clearfield, but never looked for your tire size before.

The other thing to think of is long term. My hummer has 37 12.50 16.5 tires. They used to be everywhere, and cost around $60 for descent 70%, $100 new. Now there is only a few places to get them so prices have doubled rising and are rising still.

If I had spent the money lost on The bad ones I got ripped off over time on some of the standard size rims cost, I could be buying tires that perform better and have longer life. Long term I would be $ ahead to have switched if I had done so way back when.

I used to go through tires quicker than normal because of some of the places I was off-roading simply tears them up. But also because a "new" tire that has sat in the shelf 4 years will wear quicker. Also possible dry rot issue too. I bought a few that looked absolutely perfect, 2 years old by dot code, and after 1 month of use the dry rot checkering showed up. Lost those tires do to sidewall fails when only half tread was worn.
 
Boyce Equipment is located in Clearfield Utah a bit over 1hr north of me and has decent prices on the military surplus tires. The tire size that is currently on the wrecker is 395x85x20"s, same as what is used on many of the current military vehicles so they will remain available for a long time as surplus.

But, I travel with the truck and replacement tires ain't always readily available. Compared to the 24.5" civi wheels which are a common size wheel with commercial trucks and available everywhere.

If I can find a set of tires for a cheap enough price that are at least 46" tall on the 24.5"s then I'll go that route.
 
Yeah, similar problem I had. 100dollarman used to drive past a town 20 minutes from me and He would load tires in his pickup, I would meet him there on his way to some vacation property he had. Then he sold the land and I am 6.25 hrs drive time round trip to go get them. Local supply sucked. 100dollar man is just like Boyce- they buy direct at auction then mark up.

If you are going to run the mil size, you have to pony up and carry more than 1 spare. Depending how long a set lasts you is when you buy another full set ahead of time and stock in your garage.

Boyce is buying at auction just like you can.
From this page:
http://www.govliquidation.com/
Select: Utah in the drop down arrow and hit search.
You set up appointment to inspect lot before bidding, then bid on it online a few days later. Add 12.5% plus any state sales tax on top of your bid.

1 or 2 tires isn't worth 4 hours drive time between inspecting (not mandatory, but worth it) and picking them up. But a full set would save you some nickles.

Either that or figure the value of your rims with worn out tires vs good tread, and decide when to sell them and go for the normal sizes. That was part of my problem. Not many people wanted my 16.5s 12 bolts. Only a Hummer owner would want my aluminum 16.5s, and most of them were moving up to 17" or 20"

I really wish the 12 bolts came in 17". Even thought about machining a 1/4" plate ring to weld onto the 16.5" to mod them into 17". Expense kills that quick.
 
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