Military vehicles

CasterTroy

TJ Enthusiast
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Dec 10, 2015
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564
Location
Western North Carolina
I guess part of my hobbies should be "fabrication" and "goofing off with military vehicles" since a buddy of mine (who basically lived behind me thru the woods) is a reseller of military vehicles

He started with a regular 5 ton cargo (m923) he surprisingly won on Governmentliquidation.com a few years ago. He had no clue about how they worked or what went into getting them streetworthy but lucked up with one that fired right up. He got it for next to nothing (I think $3500) and so many people asked to buy it that he finally sold it for $7500

He used that profit to buy 2 more...and did the same thing again, but one of them didn't run. Well, he was working at RAM fabrication and doing some mechanic work on the side, so he figured he's take a chance. Several hours later and a solenoid purchase was ll it took and it ran great. So 2 MORE sales.

This time he wanted a winch so he found a M925, which was a little harder to source. But he got it for around $4500. But it didn't take long before he was offered $10k for it and had to give it up.

Anyway...since then he's done a few Bob's on 5 ton tractors where he's removed the center axle and ran the rear axle between where the 2 rears were

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and then he found this M920, 20 ton truck.

That's a 5 ton on 4x steroids. Just to give you an idea, here it is NEXT to a 5 ton

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Initially he put a box from an expansible on the frame for an RV

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But decided to quad the cab for his whole family to ride in....so I started helping

He purchased 2 BRAND NEW cabs for m916a1's which is essentially a Freightliner over-the-road tractor and chopped them up to splice them together.

I helped him with the fab work on these to double the cab

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And soon we'll remove the cab from his current configuration (below) and replace it with the quad cab an nose from the m916a1

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But first...he made several purchase this past week that got delivered thur/fri and I snapped a few pics

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Last week he got a Hemit, and 2 M1088a1 Sewert and stevenson tractors (I may get one of these) and 5 hummers

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and while it LOOKS huge, next to my exploder it doesn't REALLY seem that large.

Once it's running and he lets me take it for a spin I'll probably change my mind.

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And that's another great thing about having a FRIEND that deals these things....I never have to really OWN one to get the benefit :D...Occasionally I get to bring them home and piss off my neighbors and the HOA

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It's really interesting though...you never know WHAT he'll bring home next!

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Wow, very cool! He needs a Stryker! I was in a Stryker brigade and spent most of my 4 heads in the Army driving one.
 
He has a couple of M548's but they need work

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Here's what a GOOD one looks like

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But you cant' buy ANY armored vehicles legally.

He got this for his wife a few months ago from a collector

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Yeah he DID actually own a bradley, but sold it before he ever had to move it off the guys property

Awesome! I wonder what someone even does with a vehicle like that? I guess these guys must just restore them and park em'.
 
Several are collectors, and just want what they drove in the military as momento's

Others....like the 5 ton buyers, just want a BDT (big damn truck)

I'd love to have one of the M1088a1 tractors, put a deuce bed and box like he has on his M920 and use it for a tow-pig and camping rig/BOV
 
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I'd love an Abrams tank just for fun. Of course it wouldn't be much fun if it wasn't operational and didn't have a functioning cannon on it!
 
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