And I hope this isn't verboten but, again, since we're such a niche group...

I wanted to mention my buddy Mark was able to get a hold of a number of underbody protection kits. They're new in crate and are the version for trucks with a winch (will work on trucks without though!).

If you've looked at these, you know everyone is asking $1000-$1500 + freight. He's wanting to get $800 + freight each. Shipping would be through Fastenal. Dimensions are 65x31x12 and weigh 215lbs each. They will be shipping out of Fastenal store OHCI7. You should be able to get a freight quote to your local Fastenal with that info. Of course, you could probably do local pickup if you're near the Cincinnati area as well.

He has 7 available and can take either PayPal Gift or standard PayPal + 3%. Just message me if you're interested and I'll put him in touch with you or vice versa.


















Also, since I've got one of these kits for my truck, I'll have an extra fuel tank skid plate available if anyone is interested in that since I've already installed one of those on my truck. I'll send you the new one in my kit for what I bought mine for, $100 + shipping.

Ryan, I have been looking at the headset hangers used in aircraft such as these for a cessena or using a d ring mounted somewhere using these BMI Defense anchor straps. I have also been looking at the BMI Seat covers and sent them an email for pricing.

Thanks! Those straps are a great idea but I wouldn't buy those at $10/each. Those are definitely simple enough to make for a buck or two each since I've got spare webbing sitting around in my gear pile and can set snaps. Would just need to get those mountable type snaps which are common for boat covers and easily found on eBay and Amazon.

thanks for the info.  ill keep checking out this vic 3 lite stuff.  we had the bose triport headsets and vic 3, now that i look back over my photos.  

i dont recall wires and sets being a problem getting in the way, i wish i had photos of where all that stuff had been located.  

these trucks are addictive, man.  all these parts and configurations make them like one big collectable lego.  im enjoying my pickup truck configuarion for now, but i still find myself hoping that guntruck parts get drastically more affordable.  there is a slantback kit and most of the parts for sale right now that cost almost what my whole truck did.

Got in today a new accessory for my truck from my Carolina contact.





1kw pure sine wave inverter. Hooks up to the slave port.

Would be nice if it were a little larger capacity but, it is a pure sine wave inverter and it was only $200. The Hardigg case and slave plug/cabling are worth more than half that.


And a heads up in case anyone here is looking for camo netting. Got an email notice from Old Grouch's they have new production ULCANS netting in diamond and hexagon size. They don't come with the support systems though but those aren't too hard to find. I grabbed a hexagon one. Someone local has support kits so I got that too. Been wanting to get one and at those prices, that's not bad.


Also, my buddy Mark sent me these pics of a HMMWV on MRAP wheels/tires. Figured you all would like to see them!

Looks Bad ASS..
couple things come to mind
brakes, power steering pump/hoses, all the joints, haft shafts.
0-60mph-10 minutes
60-0mph-25minutes

Right?

It does look like most of that is in the body lift though... On the plus side, he'll have MUCH better top end!

Much better set up, totally stock

t_did_you_say_bigger_is_always_better_153 by Johnny Rotten, on Flickr

I'm a little behind the 8 ball myself but Jake, still dealing with Harvey cleanup, gave me a heads up that Southern Metals is no longer selling HMMWV parts. The contract is apparently over.

Guess I'll be going a different route to get a 6.5T/4L80E into my truck...

I do have a TCM I can get my hands on and there is one SS member that has made a wire harness whose brain I can pick for that.

well thats bad news.  did they just quit cold turkey or are they selling off the rest of the stock and thats it?  

i had planned to get some wheels/tires from there and check out the seats and doors.  and there was always that lingering thought of grabbing a 4l80 and all the fixings that i could for my 6.5.

Apparently the contract is just up. No more vehicles to scrap so no one else is taking over.

They're still selling off some stock but I doubt there's much. Sounds like they really only had some 6.5/3 speed drivetrains and some crappy tires.

I made it through the flood. The hmmwv wouldn't of helped as the water came up quick and was too deep, even if I had the fording kit. But I have been helping others out and hope to have the hmmwv back up and running soon. One of the people I helped gave me a 75 qt cooler to go in the back. Fits nicely and still have plenty of room.

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that is a sweet slantback.  does the hatch reverse the direction it opens?  i recall firing live rounds from a moving slantback while two instructors stood in the bed behind the turret with the slantback open, berating me and my assistant gunner vocally while i took out my frustrations on tonopah nevada.  


the humvees are popping up around here...my wife saw one driving very close to our place the other day, and I spotted a different one on a farm being used by the maintenance dudes.  all of this in the georgetown, ky area.  


my empty radio tray is still haunting me.  so far ive discovered that sincgars radios from my era are unobtanium, even as a nonworking display.  a guy would have to go with the older rt-524 setup.  all i really want is to use a hollowed shell as a speaker to plug an ipod into but i lack the electronics skills to create my own.  

the intercom systems are also still taunting me.  looks like vic-1 setups are reasonably priced but i want to be able to use the same bose headset i remember from iraq, which was on the vic-3 system.  lowest ive found for a 2 man setup of that is like $800.  i think ill just shout at my passenger for now.

It does open both directions. I have only done it twice, once when installing and just now to take a pic.

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I agree that the radio trays need something and not an older radio. Sincgars and similar seem to pop up for sale in waves with some good deals occasionally. Same for the VIC 3 systems. I have been collecting VIC 3 lite parts for sometime and it seems to takes about 6 months to piece together a complete system for under $500 and sometimes a lot cheaper. Last year there were a lot of VIC 3 full size parts available but those have disappeared over the last 6 months as Ryan had to wait awhile to find the last crew station he needed same for power cables. My goal is to use the laptop and eventually get a military radio of some sort to mount next to it. I keep hoping to come across a Sincgars 1523e since they are half the size or get one of the docking stations that take the hand held radios but those seem unobtanium at this time.

ah good, so my memories of that backwards opening hatch werent wrong.

just got my a2 bumper, i have to get to fastenal this week with a list of bolt sizes so i can start to mount it.  turns out the trailer socket also needed an extra bracket so i grabbed one for 10 bucks.  ive got the teardrop shackles already but havent pulled the trigger on the outer shackles just yet.  may just go without until i find a killer price.

cant go without inner braces for too long though, cause it looks like they might mount behind the pintle hitch and be the only thing that gives it strength.  

can anyone with a complete bumper tell me what part numbers are on their inner braces?  according to my paperwork it should be a left and a right, 12340019 and 12342960.  or these may be for an older bumper.  im not sure.  i cant figure out why they even need to be a left and a right.  the outer braces are the same just flipped.  looks like kascar has the 12340019 in stock.  be nice if it would work.

looks like i gotta stay off the booze.  the inners are not a left and right, the older bumper takes 12340019 x2, and the A2 bumper (like i just got) takes the 12342960 x2.  

so the question is will the older inner brace fit the newer A2 bumper?  im betting it will.

Since I've got the rear winch setup installed my bumper doesn't use those but, running those numbers through MacMotor's website brings up only the latter ones. I'm guessing the former have just been superseded.

But, looking at the pics of both, the "older" one looks longer than the "newer".

Oh, my buddy Mark wanted me to let you all know that he's looking to move those underbody kits he's got so he said he's dropped the price to $750 + freight.

Also, my kit was missing the installation instructions but I got a copy of them from him and scanned it up into a PDF. So, if anyone gets a kit and it doesn't have them or if you've already got a kit and need them, PM me and I'll email it. It's 9MB. I've tried uploading it to Steel Soldiers but have been having some issues.

thanks for the info guys.  kascar has the 12340019 listed as in stock but the description reads "outer brace" which by all my TMs and outside info is just not the case.  but the pic is definitely not that stubby little 12342960 pictured on macmotors.  the inner brace proportions are longer and a little different on the diagram in the TMs as well.

im beginning to think the old brace extends from frame to the inside of the bumper surface, while the shorter newer brace only extends to the back of the bumper, and a seperate plate is needed.  maybe the reinforcement plate provides this surface but i was thinking it only bolted to the front of the bumper.  

part of the problem i think is that the TM diagram everyone has is for the older bumpers, and the current parts available (minus the sought after inner braces) are for the newer A2 setup.  

gonna contact kascar and see if their part is what its supposed to be, then maybe ill order and see what i find.

Just curious, what TM are you referencing the part numbers in?

I looked up the bumper assembly in 9-2320-387-24P which covers the A2 trucks and they reference 12339186 as the inner brace.

MacMotors shows that measuring out to 27.375" which is very close to the 28" 12340019 one on Kascar's site and, they both look like they attach to the same point on the frame. 12340019 actually does look to be the outer brace.

Now I'm starting to think that the short 12342960 is actually for the non-bumper pintle setup.

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hmm.  im working off of 9-2320-280-24p-1.  its for sure not the A2 bumper, now that i look at it.  no reinforcing plate and the shackle stops on the ends are triangle instead of round.  

i was hoping the 0019 brace was the older inner that might still fit the newer bumper since i actually found them in stock.  but all my other components are NOS A2 parts.

ill check out the newer TM youve posted.

EDIT N SUCH:

after much teeth gnashing, a local part dealer told me that one of the TMs has inner and outer braces reversed, and it appears kascar has the p/n reversed but both descriptions, pictures and measurements line up if you take that into consideration.  provided they are actually in stock, im going to probably order a set.  not cheap but i wanna wrap the thing up sooner than later.  

thread bumper hijack, concluded.

In the diagram Ryan posted, parts 3 and 4 work for either style of the Airlift bumper with 3 being the shorter inner brace and 4 being the longer outer brace. The only part that is different between the A1 and A2 bumpers is part 14, the outer bracket as the A2 style has a hole in it for the shackle.

While sorting parts for the engine swap I ran across a pair of light pod mounts that attach to the windshield hinge. It's an alternative to lightbars or just a place to mount more pods similar to what you see on a lot of jeeps.

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Balad, QRF in 2009? I was Lion 1-6!

yup.  i was 1-7 2009 into early 2010.  i was bravo truck 240 gunner.

so i was surprised to find that when it comes to zinc grwde 8 bolts, nuts and washers, kascar pricing wasnt that far behind fastenal.  in fact the 1/2 13 nuts were half as much.  

the bumpering will take place in a week or so!

My ewc was approved today,i think the soonest i can pick up the truck is Monday,been lurking and watching your upgrades.now it is time to start myself.

Keep up the good work guys

Pete

Congrats and welcome to the club!

What did you pick up?

1997 m998 4 door soft top/doors green,says 2700 mi doubt it is true mileage,seems to have the ho alternator 6.5 l motor and is in running condition. Overall a nice truck.
I have already picked up a few mods for it in the form of ir lights and antenna mounts,although i think im going with a cb and cb antenna.

Can't wait to get it home and check it over.

Pete

I was on the fence about spending the big money on an intercom but I found a great deal on new bose triport headsets and new bailout cables so I guess I've started to gather parts for it.

they showed up today and I was actually pretty giddy about it.  It brought back alot of memories!  Like the one time I was lazily sitting down on the padded gunners seat traversing the turret and it caught a crewbox (MRAP) and ripped it off, thus screwing up our comms and we had to RTB!  I never used that sling seat again.



Thanks to Ryan_Ruck for saving me from accidentally buying a TOCNET crewbox the other day.  A little bit of searching says that TOCNET is alot more complicated and expensive than the Vic system so I'm glad I didn't get shanghaied down that path.

Check g503 forum, there is a guy selling the Vic 3 lite box for $200.

thanks for the heads up on the crewbox, but I didn't check back for part of a day and a few users swooped in on the seller.  Seller says he might has a MCS available if it is in working condition, so thats interesting.





Decided my bumper was painted well enough to go ahead and mount.  I'm fairly sure its galvanized steel but its faded some and had some surface rust inside the bolt holes and on the inside where it must have been sitting face down.  I cleaned and painted the steel parts of the body mount pieces that I reused from the existing "bumper" and I'm still painting the pintle while I wait for the rest of the airlift pintle assembly to come in.  I have the long clevis shackles coming in any day as well.

During disassembly I noticed two thicknesses of oak fence plank fit really well between the frame and body so I cut some pieces to fit out of my way until the new brackets were installed.  Worked like a charm.  

In the end I may paint the bumper to match the 3 color woodland when I paint the truck.  I saw a picture of some avenger system humvees like that and it looked pretty cool.  The yellow zinc bolts probably won't hold the carc paint though.  they may just stay the way they are.

@JohnyRotten,
Found some video of the truck in your pic in action! It popped up on my YouTube feed.



That thing can really move! Plus, seeing it next to a HEMTT really shows how tall it is!

at first glance i wonder if they didnt put the body on a mrap chassis.

so anyone have an A1 airlift bumper (with the triangular shackle stops on the ends) that needs some outer shackles?  i have a nice set of unused ones that totally do not fit the a2 bumper!

Ryan if you posted that on Steel Soldiers the comments would be all over the place with a majority negative even though it is military. I was watching the Dirt Every Day thread and it was typical SS.

I did notice how high it sits and that would have been awesome with the floodings we had here. Just wouldn't fit in the garage, but it would fit in my parents barn.

Not going to lie, the thought crossed my mind...

And you're absolutely right about that Dirt Every Day ep thread. I knew as soon as I saw someone post it where it was headed.

i posted my little jeep there after i first got it.  the comments were negative about the semi gloss paintjob.  even though it is correct for the usmc and the era.  

when i did the unit insignias i purposely stenciled them crooked and by hand to match what i saw in historical photos, and what i knew the quality of work of a 19 year old enlisted man to be.  i bet it would make SS heads spin.

@Aguas

There is a VIC 3 dual crew box on ebay right now. Search VIC-3 Interface Unit. This is for the lite system.

Updated to add, there is now a Vic 3 Lite Master Control Station for sale. Not cheap but they are showing up again. Search for VIC-3 Military Intercom Master Control Station.

I just upgraded my commutations station...LOL....Can you hear me now......

2017-09-26_03-21-31 by Johnny Rotten, on Flickr

i about tripped over myself on those vic-3 listings, thanks for the heads up.  didn't realize they were auction items at first so i was reaaaal excited at the prices.  ive never fooled with ebay auctions so im going to see how it goes.  

im surprised the short highway cables are so hard to find.  ill eventually need one of those to link the mcs and crewbox together so im hoping more appear.  im $100 in on two headsets and bailout cables so far but im starting to see that complete systems for $800 may be the same result as piecing together.

I literally don't recognize anything in this picture except the Oakleys and the steering wheel.

I would NOT pay much more for the control station than he started at and I would not go any higher on the crew station. These have been popping up constantly over the last few months.

Now if you want a cool item at a buy it now price this $100 Check 6 taillight with thermal camera is cool @Ryan_Ruck would have to tell us how to piece it together.

Nice! Looking at that lens it looks like there's something going on with it. I guess I could ask them for a better pic of it.

Also, can't tell if it's the color camera or thermal model. Part number isn't giving anything specific either. Color camera would be more useful but thermal would be cooler. Have a feeling it's pretty useless without the control box, especially the thermal version. The color camera version could probably be made to work if you could get the pinout figured out.

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Maybe once I'm mostly done with the truck I'll try playing around with some of these.

If you are interested might want to grab it now. There were two, but one sold earlier.

I would but just dropped $250 on a TCM my buddy Dave had a spare of. Didn't want to chance not having one with SM getting out of the drivetrain business.

Per Greg (86humv), if it has a blue ring then it's thermal. If no blue ring then regular color camera. The one listed has the blue ring it's just faded from the sun. Still trying to find the controller as those should pop up for sale too.

Did not know that. That's good info!

Hey guys I wanted to jump in on this conversation and see what your thoughts are.

I have a company truck and my personal vehicle gets 5k max on a good year maybe. I refuse to pay 40/50k on a used truck and a new one I just won't pay that kind of cash. I'm looking at getting a four man hard top truck or even slant back just for my new personal vehicle. The most miles I'll put on it is to and from the deer lease 40 miles away about every weekend from October 1-Jan1 right now. Later down the road I'll make it more of a vacation vehicle when we go camping.

List of things I need this thing to do.
1-Get me from point a to point b.
2-haul a 6-8k travel trailer. (this will be later down the road after I get a duramax/Allison swap)
3-seat 4 people comfortably(seat swap)
4-a/c after I clean up and rhino line the interior and put new seats in
5-i like the radio headset setup. Nothing would be more impressive than rolling down the road with my 5 year old in his booster seat with a radio headset on with the doors off.

Thoughts and opinions welcome. Again, I drive maybe 5k miles a year on my personal vehicle. More when I start pulling the camper to and from some camp sites for the wife and kids to enjoy.

If you're going to do a hard top, a helmet top like this model is going to be what you want:
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Otherwise if you want the open bed style, you'll have to go with an aftermarket solution unless either you can fabricate one or you know someone who can. There's a couple companies out there, like Plan B, that are making them.

For a slantback to add on to a truck, be prepared to pay. A lot. Seems the tops are going in the neighborhood of $10k for a complete setup currently. A year ago they were $6-7k. Otherwise you could get one of the M1045s they're selling now but those go in the neighborhood of $16k-45k depending on condition.

X-doors are going up in price as well since Southern Metals was a big source for them and their scrap contract is now done. Plan B makes some but not everyone is a fan of them.

Once you take care of all the stuff your typical 20 year old truck needs like new hoses, new belts, new fluids, and replacement/repair of leaky seals you'll have a truck in good, solid operating condition. I've put about 4,500 miles on mine in the last year and 3 months with no issues except last year, an original cooling hose that developed a leak. Since then they were all replaced with new. Only thing I need to address is a rear pinion seal that leaks slightly.

It might be a little slow but, the truck should be able to do that stock assuming you install an H1 hitch, which is what I'm in the middle of doing right now actually. The H1 hitch is rated at 1,000lb tongue weight and up to 10,000lbs. It's a substantial upgrade over the standard pintle hitch.

Here's a couple pictures stolen from a SS member that show it nicely:

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This requires an airlift bumper be installed though!

The hardest parts are drilling the bumper brackets for the brackets that attach at the ends of the receiver and installing the brackets to the crossmember/control arm bolts. I did the receiver mounting when I installed my airlift bumper and, since I haven't needed to tow anything, am just now getting around to finishing with installing the crossmember brackets and support arms. The control arm bolts are a pain to get out and put back in but it can be done with a crowbar and a jack. You need to upgrade the 3/4"-4.75" bolts to 5" long ones.

It would be a good idea to make sure you have, at least, the 10k rated half shafts. When you do a Dmax swap, you'll definitely want to upgrade to the 12k so you could even do that straight off after you get it so you don't have to worry about that later. It involves not just swapping the shafts but also the spur gears in the geared hubs and a couple other odds and ends. Member @TexJeepTJ did a 12k upgrade to his truck and could probably advise on the details.

A M998A1 or M1038A1 will have the 10k shafts. The M1123s come with the 12k running gear and have the benefit of a 4 speed transmission. The M1045 slantbacks have the same running gear as the M1123s. The standard M998s and M1038s will likely have the 7k shafts unless they were repaired or upgraded to 10k at some point.

Upgraded springs might also be something to consider.

Lots of seat options! I've seen seats from Jeeps to Chrysler Pacificas installed in these!

If you go with a hard top or slantback, you'll definitely want A/C in Texas. The Red Dot A/C system is designed for the truck but the evaporator is a big unit that takes up a lot of interior space. The condenser side will mount on a slantback, helmet top, or 4dr hard top no problem though. There are some 24v universal A/C kits on eBay some of us have talked about that are reasonably priced but I don't know of anyone that's installed one and what's involved.

The intercom setups are nice! If you don't need a rugged/waterproof setup, you can go with a much more inexpensive aircraft intercom setup and accomplish a lot of the same as the VIC systems.

I think a HMMWV will definitely fit the bill for you so long as you don't mind turning a wrench!

Thank you for all that information. I'm a new member on steel soldiers and trying to get as much information as possible gathered before my purchase. Likely next year some time.

I'm not a mechanic and never claimed to be one but I figured this might be a good learning experience considering this doesn't take a BA in computer science to start working on.

I will second what Ryan said. A turtle top is perfect for camping and gives lots of overhead space. I would just spray the inside of the top with Lizard Skin sound deadener as they can be a little noisy. The slant back is another option as I like the weapons mount and hatch, but the prices have gone up way to high and finding a complete kit is hard. Even the lower priced 1045's being auctioned are not complete which hurts the supply chain even more. I am glad I got mine when I did.

As for reliability, just change all the fluids, hoses, and typical wear parts and you should be good to go.