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Posted by D. Sherman on Thursday, December 27, 2007 at 21:49:23 :
In Reply to: The price on these things... posted by Hank on Thursday, December 27, 2007 at 19:05:13 :
That's an amazingly cheap price for such a good truck. There are a lot of military brush truck conversions out there, and a lot of them seem to be coming on the market now. I think part of the reason is that it's getting harder to get them approved by the Forest Service as contract water tenders. They want newer rigs that can go faster, have all the DOT safety stuff, and don't drip any oil.
Another interesting thing is that the M35s are selling at retail for just about the same as Government Liquidation is getting for them in their highly-publicized auctions. It used to be that an average driveable M35 could be had at the DRMO for around $2000 and a dealer would retail it for around $4000, after going through it, putting in good batteries, filters, a decent top, etc. Now, GL is getting $4000 for them as-is, often without a title, and yet we're seeing good ones retailed for not much more.
I have two that I use quite a bit, but I'm in a non-typical situation, with heavy stuff to haul, a steep, narrow, crooked road, a substantial creek to cross, and plenty of snow in the winter. For the average guy that just wants to drive around town and haul some plywood back from Home Depot once in a while, they're just too big and expensive to operate. All in all, I think they're a real bargain and 50 years from now people will talk about them like we talk about the $50 jeeps at the end of WWII. The way things are going with the DRMS, they may well be the last pure military vehicles that are sold to civilians.
Being as how it's back east, I suspect that fire truck will find a home with some collector who just thinks it's cool. Out here it would be well worth the money as a ranch truck to water down roads and haul water for cattle, as well as fire protection, or as stand-by fire protection for loggers under hoot-owl rules. Those rigs seem to be getting outdated, however, as working brush trucks even in rural fire departments. Those I've seen that are still running military 6x6 conversions usually start with a 5 ton (M54) rather than the 2.5 ton.
You mentioned cargo capacity, so I should point out that the "2.5 ton" capacity is grossly under-rated. That's the off-road capacity based on 35 lbs of air in the tires, and is a matter of flotation on soft ground rather than breakage of mechanical parts. Even the 5 ton highway rating is highly conservative. 5 tons is enough to smooth out the ride and make it sit nice on its springs, but it still never bottoms out at that load. One guy I know put 10 tons of dirt in his M35, took it across a scale to verify the weight, and drove it some distance. He said it carried the load with no problem.