After a long time without updates, I am now getting to the point where I am comfortable with the idea of posting detailed(ish) updates again. I’ve been working with my friends for the past year on the 6800 project and because of this have not had much time to work on my truck. I thought I would post this quick update to show that, yes, things are still moving forward. The truck now has a space between my shed and the house, as well as having its own 20 amp electrical circuit.

This is my broken speaker from my car. It never worked for me and it turns out that it was actually made with paper. I’m replacing my entire stereo system in my car and will post pictures once I have the new gear and installed.

We brought Setesh with us this year to the Jimmy Buffett concert in Bristow VA. We gave countless tours of the truck and had a blast! Everyone walking by stopped to take a look. We’ll be back again next year with even more things for the truck.

Bringing the deuce and a half to Jimmy Buffet this year was a huge success. It went better than we could of hoped for. Thank you to all the people who helped make this possible and to everyone who stopped by for a tour. It was a blast. I’ll post more pictures when I get around to it…

Talking after a game

Today we celebrated my brother’s birthday and the new tires for the truck by gaming in the Kingstowne parking lot. After some struggling with the inverter everything worked out perfectly.

The new tires look great

I’ll post more pictures in a day or two…

This is a video from a few weeks ago. We had been working on the engine of the truck off and on for some time before this. We changed the fluids, filters, and belts. It took us a long time to change the air compressor belt because the pulley was stuck tight in place. Eventually I had to use a propane torch to heat the metal until it glowed. After that I was able to break it free.

The engine started beautify after sitting for over a month. I really love how dependable these trucks can be.

Disclaimer: Normally I take very good care of my truck, running it at least once a week.

We all began to investigate the truck, except for my younger brother, Daniel, who had to stay behind in the office because he was under 18. Go figure. After checking the fluids and getting familiar with the truck we made our first attempt to start it. I flipped on the main power switch and pressed the starter lever. All I received in response was a loud “THUNK” from the engine. The batteries were dead. After further inspection we found that someone had left the low powered set of lights on, draining the batteries. One of the contractors from Government Liquidation reminded us that we had less than two hours to get the truck out of there at that point. We got out the jumper cables and tried charging each battery individually for about 15 minutes each. I tried to start the truck again and this time got a slightly more encouraging “THUNK thunk thunk.” John and I determined that the batteries were too far gone to save and we needed to get some new ones.

We made a quick run to an auto parts store just a mile out from the base to get some new batteries. When we got to the counter we asked the attendant for the strongest battery they carried. We briefly explained that we were getting the batteries for a large truck. The man took us to the back shelves where he showed us their selection. After he told us about their 1000CCA battery John said “Great. We’ll take two.” The man looked at us with an astonished look on his face. We responded with “It’s a big truck.”

Once we got back we signed back in and installed the batteries. The management was hesitant to let us preform “work” on the truck in their lot, but eventually let us go about our business. I tried starting the truck once the new batteries were in place. “Third time’s the charm.” And with that the truck roared to life. It was a understandably running a little rough at first; it hadn’t been started for many months at this point. We checked over everything one last time before we began our journey home. I gave John the honor of the first drive because of the help he was giving me with the project. We crossed the scale at the exit yard and weighed in at 17,800 Lbs.

After a slow drive through town we arrived at our first check point (Christina’s friend Katie’s house). We had a quick diner from burger king and began on our journey home at around 5pm. We forgot to turn the drive lights on so our break and turn signal lights weren’t working at first. Luckily we had radios linking us to our tail car so we were warned about that. I turned the knob for John and we were good to go. We got a little turned around on the freeway ramps during rush hour, but we figured things out eventually. When we left the area we had a brief scare as we were approaching the bridge and tunnel leading out of town. “How tall are we?” John asked. I quickly did the math and figured that we had around a foot of clearance for the tunnel. Phew.

Approximately 70 miles down the road we John and I, riding in the Deuce followed by our tail vehicle, decided to take a break at a rest stop. At this point the fuel gauge was still reading ¾ of a tank. We had added 5 gallons of fresh diesel before we started and just assumed that there was around 25 gallons of fuel in the 50 gallon tank (slightly under what the gauge indicated). The engine sputtered and died as we literally pulled into our parking space. I thought he cut it off on purpose while John simply thought that he had stalled it while he was parking.

After resting for a little less than half an hour we headed back to the truck, got in, and tried to start it. I let the engine spin for about twenty seconds before we determined that we were out of fuel. We looked in the tank and sure enough, it was dry. We had planned ahead for technical problems which is why we had a tail vehicle behind us. We sent Kathi, Christina, and Daniel out to bring back 5 gallons of diesel. Once they returned we transferred the fuel to the tank and started off again. I stalled the deuce for the first time as I was maneuvering into the civilian fuel pumps at a gas station a little ways down the road. The deuce doesn’t have power steering so it is difficult to do a hard turn and shift gears at the same time. I let the truck in gear to long while slowing to a crawl and the engine stalled before I shifted out of 2nd. The rest of the drive went smoothly. There was a little rain and some traffic, but no other problems. By the time we got back it was 10PM. It was a tiring but very fun adventure.

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…

After removing all of the desks and rotten wood (as seen in the previous update) we began installing the new wood. We painted all of the boards before we laid them in place so that they would last longer and receive less wear and tear. In the high traffic areas (the middle and forward “L” shape) we also put down 5/8th” composite board so as to add even more protection and strength to the floor. After measuring, cutting, painting and bolting the boards down we screwed a carpet into place.

One of the few pictures I have with the new floor boards exposed. After this we repainted all of the original floorboards as well.

This is the fridge that I bought for the truck. It has a volume of 4.5 Cubic feet and can hold a lot of soda! My measurements that is uses an average of only 24 Watts per hour. Below it you can see the freshly painted 5/8″ board.

John is cutting the carpet to fit after installing the fridge in a carefully measured recessed section of floor.

The new additions worked out nicely.

As you can see the box is finally starting to take form and be recognizable for what it will become. The next LAN party is about a month of way, by which point I hope to have the rest of the workbenches reinstalled along with a functional battery/inverter system. John has been buying a bunch of heavy duty cable connectors so that we will (in theory) be able to quick disconnect and even hot swap the batteries. We are planing on replacing the current 900W inverter with a much more powerful 3,500 Watt pure sine-wave inverter and built in charger. We’ve come a long way, and we still have much more to do.

Desks removed / Timmy getting tools

We found more mold and rust than we originally expected behind the desks, but it was easy enough to remove. This whole process was slow going, but we had enough people to work on multiple things at once.

Rust before cleaning

Mold before cleaning

Outside Rust on the Seem

The truck had some major leaking problems on the box, so whenever it rained you would get a pool of water in the front right corner. John ground down the seem on the outside (that you could actually see sunlight through) and I cleaned and caulked it. The caulk dries clear and it looks fairly clean. After this and taring the roof we don’t seem to have any more water problems.

Trey working on the bolts that hold the desks in place

Timmy and Christina working on the other side

Removing the last desk

The disconnected floor bolts on the driver

John sizing the replacement floor boards

The old, rotten, boards that will be replaced

(Seth) grinding down the rust in the box

John and Timmy removing the old floorboards

The air compressor

The belt for the air compressor was giving us a lot of resistance. The pulley does not move like the alternator does. Instead, you have to hold one half of the wheel in place and rotate the other one so that it unscrews. We figure that the belts haven’t been changed in a long time and so the pulley rusted into the current position. We’ve been spraying it with WD-40 in hopes that it will loosen up.

Josh and (Seth) cleaning the walls

Roof after cleaning and sealing in tar

Driver

Part way through painting

First coat of paint on the driver

Rust on the outside seem caulked and sealed