Man Kat

Blair G

Adventurer
So....
I receive an email from a friend of mine who just got his truck painted. Kurt bought the chassis and built the camper. I have yet to see it in person but will probably go down and see it pretty soon. Unicat who?

Blair

73878364.GYFjYeIc.jpg
 
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articulate

Expedition Leader
:rockon:
Sheeeeeezuz! Looks like it takes a crew to handle that sucker. My masculinity remains intact even though I say, "That Man is beautiful."
 

Robthebrit

Explorer
Its huge, but its really spacious on the inside. I saw it at mogfest last October. Kurt was right next to me in the Man. His camper mog was there too, which looked like a little baby (mog is for sale). The spare tire is on a hudraulic arm, likewise for the cab tip. I'll dig out the pictures, I think I have some video of it on the trails too.

It had a mechanical problem on the 2nd steering axle, one of the drag link pins broke and as the bar swung away it ripped all the air lines off. But nobody is left behind at mogfest and it was fixed on the trail and driven out. Its a good job too because a mog wasn't going to move it.

Rob
 

2004ej

New member
Many years ago, back when I was a Pvt in the army. We were one of the only units in the US Army to have MAN trucks. The ones we had were similar to the one on this thread, ours were a bit different. We pulled Pershing II missiles with ours; they had a 5 th wheel for the semi-trailer. But mounted on the Truck were a 30KW generator and an 8 ton crane for moving different sections of the missile and for up-loading of the warhead. The cool thing about the MAN's we had was that they had semi-auto transmissions. You could put the clutch in and put the truck in any of the 8 forward gears, then put your other foot on the brake and release the clutch and just sit with the truck in gear while stopped. Then when you wanted you could move your foot to the gas pedal and away you would go. The higher the gear the slower you took off but it had some type of torque converter so you didn't need the clutch to take off from a stop. However you did need the clutch to change gears, oh I also forgot that the transmission was air assist. The US Army decided to go with the MAN because the American made HEMITT couldn't do the job we needed to do with them. Also the large part of our missiles were in Germany and MAN had a deal to get the trucks back to us with a very short turn around time, IF they broke. Pretty much the only time we would send them back to the dealer was if we cracked a windshield or broke something like GI's excel at doing. I don't remember how much the missile and trailer weighed in at but I do know that the truck and trailer w/missile was over 80,000lbs and we took them off-road quite a few times and never had to many problems with them unless it was driver error. The Pershing missile went away after the INF treaty back in the late 80's so the those MAN"S must have gotten sold in Germany but there was a large number of them in Oklahoma. I wonder where they are now, I 'd love to have one...Those are some TOUGH trucks... Your friend must have some deep pockets, his MAN looks sweet....
 

DaktariEd

2005, 2006 Tech Course Champion: Expedition Trophy
I honestly woke up last night around midnight...a touch of insomnia...and one of the things that popped into my head was, "How in the world would you ever change a tire on that thing out solo on a trail?"

I just can't imagine owning something that big! But as a world traveler, it would be awesome!

:sombrero:
 

Robthebrit

Explorer
It is street legal, Kurt drove it to mogfest last October, it is huge, it makes a mog look like tonka toy.

As for changing the tire, I have no idea how you do it. A mog tire/wheel is going on 250 pounds, this is the limit of manageable by yourself, the MAN tires must be 350-400 pounds each, ir does has a hydraulic arm that lowers the spare tire so no crane required.

The trick to mounting a 46 inch, 250 pound tire by yourself: Get the wheel in position, rotate the hub by hand so the studs align with the holes. Adjust the jack so the studs are half and inch higher than the holes in the wheel. Put your feet either side the wheel like chocks and roll it back onto your boots. The other way is you use the wrench as a lever, the handle of my 24inch wrench fits nicely between the treads of the tires so it can't slip.
 

Metcalf

Expedition Leader
Yeah, best way to change a large tire is to keep the jack as close to the correct height as you can, block both sides with something, then use a bar ( a truck size tire iron works best ) with one end shoved under the tire as a lever, your other hand on the tire. Lift up on the bar, and push the top of the tire a bit. If the vehicle has any kind of bearing hub sticking out its way easier. I've changed everything from truck to skidder tires this way.

The real fun is when you have to learn to take the tire on and off the rim yourself. I would highly suggest that anyone planning on using a larger truck learn this skill....

Thats a killer camper too! I wouldn't have painted it a military color however, that is a pain during international travel.
 

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