The M561 1.25-ton 6x6 Gama Goat that I won on Ebay recently arrived
today. It needs an alternator, and a few fairly minor (?) body
repairs, but otherwise it seems to be in good condition, and it seems
to run well. As I mentioned earlier, I was planning to unload it from
the flatbed with my M543A2 5-ton 6x6 wrecker, lifting one end at a
time and pulling the trailer out from underneath it. That's a lot more
work than hiring a tilt-bed wrecker, and hiring a tilt-bed would even
have been cheaper than the chain sling that I built... but it was a
lot more fun this way! :-)
The unloading worked out just fine, and the truck driver even helped
out. Unfortunately, I didn't find out the delivery day until the last
minute, and I was not able to draft somebody to take pictures of the
fun. The fact that it's Father's Day didn't help! :-)
Anyway, the truck is parked, safe and sound, and I put a few pictures
on my web page. I plan to take better pictures later, after I've
worked on it a bit and I can move it to a better location. For now,
those of you who have never been near a Gama Goat can finally see what
the driver's compartment looks like! Hidden behind the steering wheel
is a panel with the battery switch, the starter button, three toggle
switches for the bilge pump and windshield wipers (there are separate
switches for the left and right wipers), an engine stop cable, the
hand throttle cable, and a "stop" light that I think can be turned on
by a button in the trailer (I haven't tried it yet).
The main URL for my web page is below in my .signature, and here's a
short-cut to the Gama Goat page:
http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/greentruck/truck5/truck5.html
I love the sound of that 2-stroke diesel! At idle, it sounds like a
fire truck, and it sounds like a race car when it's wound up. Even
though the truck lacks an alternator, it started very easily and runs
just fine. I didn't run it for very long, because the water pump
doesn't turn without the alternator applying tension to the belt. I'll
replace the alternator before I start it again. I need to do some work
on other trucks first, so it might be a few weeks to a couple months
before the Goat comes home to my driveway.
-- Mark J. Blair, KE6MYK <mblair1@home.net> PGP 2.6.2 public key available from http://www.keyserver.net/ Web page: http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/ DO NOT SEND ANY UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL EMAIL TO THIS SITE PLEASE SEND PLAIN ASCII TEXT ONLY -- NO HTML OR QUOTED-PRINTABLE
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