Bobbed Deuce as a Possible Expedition Platform? $7500
- Thread starter mrwizard
- Start date
West Coast Mags
Adventurer
Just FYI the best mpg one could hope for out of one of these is 8mpg. You can find anything you ever want to know about dueces at www.steelsoldiers.com Some of the concerns voiced about these are the Noise, The ancientness in technology (can be good or bad), and if you are planning to travel internationally the military looks make border crossings extremely difficult. If you browse www.govliquidation.com you can find surplus ones direct from the govt (still dual axle) but they already have box shelters on the back the size of a small house. They generally contained field machine shop set ups but are aluminum construted, some have heating units and windows already installed. About $3500 would fetch one from the govt site.
1937Scott
New member
You might use a little caution when shopping for a Bobbed Deuce, specifically to legality of registration and street driving. Many are 'off road use only,' and have no way to register them.
Those that have gone to the trouble to get title and registration usually mention it in the advertisement.
Have fun, they look very cool, but are really SLOW, especially in the mountains.
Those that have gone to the trouble to get title and registration usually mention it in the advertisement.
Have fun, they look very cool, but are really SLOW, especially in the mountains.
tamangel
Adventurer
DWH..its not that there is a problem taking them out of the country, its that you may not be able to bring them back in..
here's a thread from steel soldiers..
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/euc-he...ravel-restrictions-north-central-america.html
Mike
toylandcruiser
Expedition Leader
WOW, nice! There isa guy at Ft. Rucker, a instructor pilot who took a duce and a half, shortened the bed, but tood another cab and added to the existing cab, making it a four door, it looked very cool and he did very good work. His is a multi fuel and runs cooking oil with diesel and doing so gives him the cost effectivness of 22/24 mpg.
I use to drive these on the autobahn and got just over 60 mph and they were governed by the ignation, you could tell you still had more power to get down the road but they just hit a point and would flutuate like towing an anchor.
I drove them through some pretty narrow roads in Germany and the Black Forest.
Another guy on YouTube has one with a snorkel and exhaust higher and drove across a river, fully submerged the truck and drove under water for a short time and back out.....seeing is believing! Check Youtube with duce and a half maybe river crossing...whatever, don't remember how I got there.
If I were going for a large expedition vehicle, I'd probably go that route. There are several in my area used by construction companies so they can be tagged.
I use to drive these on the autobahn and got just over 60 mph and they were governed by the ignation, you could tell you still had more power to get down the road but they just hit a point and would flutuate like towing an anchor.
I drove them through some pretty narrow roads in Germany and the Black Forest.
Another guy on YouTube has one with a snorkel and exhaust higher and drove across a river, fully submerged the truck and drove under water for a short time and back out.....seeing is believing! Check Youtube with duce and a half maybe river crossing...whatever, don't remember how I got there.
If I were going for a large expedition vehicle, I'd probably go that route. There are several in my area used by construction companies so they can be tagged.
goldenbeagle
Adventurer
I was in the military and had the pleasure of riding shotgun/and in the back of one of those numerous times (not bobbed of course). I actually road in one of those at Ft. Erwin on an 8 hour trip to a rail head to load it up. I can tell you that they beat your kidneys to death on uneven roads and they will give you a headache within an hour.
With that said…I have looked into buying one as a toy numerous times. And still think I will own one in the next few years.
Who cares about a headache or a body-ache when you a bobbing down the road in one of those. Just plain silly cool in my book!
With that said…I have looked into buying one as a toy numerous times. And still think I will own one in the next few years.
Who cares about a headache or a body-ache when you a bobbing down the road in one of those. Just plain silly cool in my book!
yep
Once you have to drive these every day, it takes all of the fun out of them, same as the mogs. If you are going to puts around or use it a trail rig...G2G!. Long roads are not were you want to be, your body and ears will be taxed to say the least. They are bare bones purpose built rigs.
Once you have to drive these every day, it takes all of the fun out of them, same as the mogs. If you are going to puts around or use it a trail rig...G2G!. Long roads are not were you want to be, your body and ears will be taxed to say the least. They are bare bones purpose built rigs.
jesusgatos
Explorer
I'm turning a deuce into a motorhome right now. Lots of info here. Let me know if you have any more specific questions.
Really not all that much bigger than a fullsize pickup truck.
Yes, they're noisy. Deuces were not originally equipped with any sort of mufflers. Adding a muffler is pretty easy though, and that alone makes a pretty big difference. Lots of other things you can do to decrease the noise in the cab even more.
That's not exactly right. What they have done on a lot of vehicles is to bypass the fuel density compensator, which injects more/less fuel depending on how combustible it is. The fuel-density compensator has been bypassed on mah deuce, and I can tell you from first-hand experience that it still runs just fine on everything from diesel to gasoline to used motor oil. Click here if you want to read more about how the multifuel engines actually work.
A standard-length deuce (without a winch) is about 26ft long. Most of the bobbed deuces are custom-built, so I'm sure you can have one made to whatever length you want. There's even a LWB version of the deuce called the M36 that had something like a 16ft bed on it. You could also bob a deuce and leave it full-length, but it's going to have a ****ty breakover angle unless you get some 46"+ tires and/or move/get rid of all the under-cab storage, spare tire, fuel tanks, etc.
Probably not ever going to get much better than 12mpg in a multifuel deuce.
Not really, top-speed is limited by RPM's more than anything else.
The M35A3 trucks all have cat engines, allison transmissions, and CTIS. You can pick one of those up for $8000-15,000. Got mixed feelings about those though. No multifuel, lower top-speed than the M35A2's, the CTIS is notoriously unreliable, and well, they're ***-ugly.
I was routinely getting close to 10mpg in my (empty) M109. Expect to get somewhere around 6mpg when it's finished, and that will be with a 5-ton LDS multifuel engine, pulling about 22,000-24,000lbs. That's on par with motorhomes of similar size/weight and remember, with these vehicles it's more about the miles-per-dollar than the miles-per-gallon.
That's just to limit the builder's liability. Has nothing to do with being able to register them.