Setesh: The Backstory Part I
In high school I gained an interest in alternative building materials and designs. I began investigating what people could (and are) building with whatever they had on hand. I was looking into everything from re-purposed shipping containers to dirt with concrete reinforcement. After some time I stumbled across people living full time out of their RVs. This further led me to people who would convert old Greyhound buses into RVs and travel the country. After some more time I found people who were “preparing for the zombie apocalypse” and had “bug out vehicles.” Some were just econo vans loaded with food, tools, and some tents, but others were more elaborate. I found a posting of someone who was using a “Deuce and a Half” for his bug out truck. The offroading ability of 6×6 drive intrigued me, as did the multifuel engine. “A diesel engine that can run off of gasoline? Wow.”
After some searching for more info on what I learned was the M35a2 I came across an ad for Government Liquidation .com. It then dawned on me that civilians could actually buy old military equipment. Not just backpacks and tents, but full on trucks. I then noticed the prices for the trucks: cheap. This set me off on a binge of www.SteelSoldiers.com. I tried to learn as much as possible about the strange hobby of collecting military vehicles.
Tragically not soon after first noticing these vehicles my father passed away, so I really didn’t pay much attention to them. Almost a full year passed before I really thought much more about it. In the late spring of 2009 I stumbled across the “Military” section on eBay Motors while I was looking for a car for college. My father had always enjoyed working on cars (even if he never finished any of his projects) and I thought that, in addition to being completely bad-ass, fixing up my own project vehicle could be a good way to honor him. I used a good chunk of the token money he left behind towards getting the truck.
Most of the people who get deuces either keep them in stock condition or convert the box trucks into RVs. I decided to shake things up a bit. Instead of going for a camping vehicle I wanted to make an all-terrain networking machine. I frequently hosted LAN (video game) parties at my house and thought it would be really cool to be able to drive into the middle of the woods, set up some tables, and be able to game for hours. It would also be great for natural disasters. I can take any available internet connection (including satellite), run it through a Linux box, cache everything with some Linux voodoo, and rebroadcast it via high-powered WiFi.
I told my friend John Hanks about my idea and he jumped on board. He lent me some money while things were sorted out on my end and I bought the truck in June of 2009. After a month of paperwork and background checks I was finally cleared to pick up the truck. Part of the reason I jumped on the truck I purchased so quickly was because of the condition it was in. It was manufactured in 1985, one of the last years of production. Because it is so “new” it had very little rust.
Stay tuned for part two…