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olly hondro

mad scientist
A nice one, professionally reman'd, cleaned and painted, is $50 000. The Acela's in literally like new condition are $100 000. Aren't these things $300 000 new???

The surplus units are very cheap. You can buy someone else's project for $20 000 easy, all the time. I think I'd rather buy a titled one than a surplus unit.



I'd be fine with that little foible. As long as it can air back up.

Cost to the Military:

original cost.jpg
 
[QUOTE="
If you can find a hydraulic pass through winch off of a FMTV .

Yes, I know where there is an FMTV with the mid mount hydraulic winch: can winch out either end. But I'm thinking "Modern tools for modern times" and go with the Warn electric, 24 volt option, 18K or so. Probably will put it on the back just because, on the trail, I know where I came from was good :)[/QUOTE]
I went hydraulic at both ends on my U500 and would never go back to electric on a heavy truck. Electrics are slower than hydraulic when fully loaded, emit shrieking noises and quickly overheat. My daughter took a video of me pulling a MB Actros semi out of the mud in Mongolia.
Admittedly I ordered the U500 with a hydraulic system.
 

olly hondro

mad scientist
Still struggling with the inside the cab cage/ exo-cage decision. Inside would use 1-3/4" x 0.120" wall, exo 2" (minimum) x 0.250" wall. Inside is more in keeping with the original "capsule" concept. Cost may be the driver, ultimately, as the 0.250" is $280/stick x 10 sticks = almost $3 K just in tubing. Also, the exo-cage would almost certainly have to be removed with a crane each time I want to service the engine. Am discouraged at the moment.

The most likely flight path will be inside, with some compromises.
 

chilliwak

Expedition Leader
Still struggling with the inside the cab cage/ exo-cage decision. Inside would use 1-3/4" x 0.120" wall, exo 2" (minimum) x 0.250" wall. Inside is more in keeping with the original "capsule" concept. Cost may be the driver, ultimately, as the 0.250" is $280/stick x 10 sticks = almost $3 K just in tubing. Also, the exo-cage would almost certainly have to be removed with a crane each time I want to service the engine. Am discouraged at the moment.

The most likely flight path will be inside, with some compromises.


Wow thats a crazy amount of money Olly. Maybe track down a source for used tubing? Cheers, Chilli...:cool:
 

olly hondro

mad scientist
Colors. Hmm....what to do.
Yellow would make it look like a school bus,
red a fire truck,
red & white a coca cola truck
brown a UPS truck,
blue or green is the color of garbage trucks here,
white just too plain. I like the look of turquoise & white, but there is a taxi fleet here those colors,
leaving it desert tan is too ordinary.

I am narrowing to two choices, though not convinced about either:

red, white and blue looks race-trucky,
flat black with neon green accents looks tough.
flat black.pngturquoise and white.jpgyello.jpgwhite.jpgredd.jpgred n white.jpg
 
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olly hondro

mad scientist
Well now...cab loaded up to go back home. The fabricator determined the project was too difficult. Will have to think about it some more.
cabcab.jpg
 

olly hondro

mad scientist
Yes, I know where there is an FMTV with the mid mount hydraulic winch: can winch out either end. But I'm thinking "Modern tools for modern times" and go with the Warn electric, 24 volt option, 18K or so. Probably will put it on the back just because, on the trail, I know where I came from was good :)
I went hydraulic at both ends on my U500 and would never go back to electric on a heavy truck. Electrics are slower than hydraulic when fully loaded, emit shrieking noises and quickly overheat. My daughter took a video of me pulling a MB Actros semi out of the mud in Mongolia.
Admittedly I ordered the U500 with a hydraulic system.[/QUOTE]

Yes, reconsidering based on your experience, as the truck is set up for mid mount hydraulic. It would be bolt on = no special fabrication, and can get one surplus. Modern tools cost modern $$$.
 
I went hydraulic at both ends on my U500 and would never go back to electric on a heavy truck. Electrics are slower than hydraulic when fully loaded, emit shrieking noises and quickly overheat. My daughter took a video of me pulling a MB Actros semi out of the mud in Mongolia.
Admittedly I ordered the U500 with a hydraulic system.

Yes, reconsidering based on your experience, as the truck is set up for mid mount hydraulic. It would be bolt on = no special fabrication, and can get one surplus. Modern tools cost modern $$$.[/QUOTE]

The factory winch is only rated for 11,000 lbs. in my opinion that’s not enough winch. I have a larger winch on my hmmwv. That weighs in at 5,500 lbs.

Plus the drum size is much to small to to have enough cable to rig the required pulleys into the system to use a winch that small.

While a hydraulic would be a better choice an electric 18k would be better than the factory unit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Grump E-Vet

Active member
that’s not enough winch

Yeh especially when they bolted on the RACK kits or other armor the winch was ********. There is a reason all vehicles overseas usually had recovery straps hooked up and zip tied to the vehicle.

I know of at least one time on my first tour in Iraq that one of these that was almost empty slipped down into a wadi and was unable to self recover with it’s ******** winch. Since the rest of the convoy was M1115 HMMVs and one M997 HMMV ambulance that we were giving to the IA it could not be pulled out with another vehicle from that angle either. Because it was getting to be night and the convoy was in a bad spot with no wrecker available, they had to pull the sensitive items out of the truck and thermite the engine block. I think the AF came back later and put 500 pounder into it, all because of the ******** stock wench. Well that and operating trucks that were too heavy on roads with embankments into canals...
 

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