- Here is the pic of the 2 and 1/2 ton truck I recently purchased.
The truck was found in downtown Phoenix, (gotta keep your eyes open all the time). The
truck is an American General, 1972 M35A2C, with drop sides. It has no troop seats but that
might be an option in the future. The truck is rated for a load of 5 tons on the road and
2 and 1/2 tons off road with 10 wheel drive. The truck has an empty weight of 12700 lbs.
The front axle is the air shift design, which allows switching in that axle when you are
in need of "All Wheel Drive". I have been out in the boonies in another deuce
and they are really awesome as you have really good traction with so many tires on the
ground.....(key word is: Keeping it on the ground).
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- The truck had been based in Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona so
there was very little rust. It does have a heater, but I have not tried it as yet....The
truck had been transferred to the State of AZ out of the Army in Dec. 1998 and had been
painted Desert Storm colors (Desert Tan CARC). Our good member Guy Swigart re-painted the
truck and stenciled it with very few changes from the original markings. It found duty
with the Phoenix Railroad museum hauling railroad ties, and then was retired awaiting to
be discovered. It would not start when we tried to use the original batteries, but after 2
new batteries, it came to life with the old fuel in it. We did some local driving and
added some fuel and additives to assist cleaning the injectors, and it seems to be running
just fine at this time.
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- The history of the truck is vague as I can only tell where the
truck came from, and it's color might indicate it might have been used in Kuwait in 1991.
The unit it came from has a rich history of service at Normandy, WWII, Battle of the
Bulge, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm. The unit was the 40th Signal Battalion, Company
A, of the US Army based at Ft. Huachuca. The unit has earned three Unit Citations for
their brave service during the many wars that they were involved in. I am doing research
on that unit to gain more information and will pass that on as I receive it.
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