Also, what should I look for? How hard is it to find one with some of the work already done? Large 4x4 tires? Suspension? Fording equipment?
Buying a Vehicle for Overlanding
- Thread starter Sailmike
- Start date
I would say run what you got try it out figure out what needs to change to make it better for you and if that means a different vehicle down the road you'll know what equipment and features you'll need.
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The Lmtv I posted is $31,000. Likely 32ish with civvy paint.
That leaves plenty of room to furnish the box interior himself. No idea if the box AC is practical, or should be ripped out and replaced with an Rv rooftop Ac?
1994 Stewart & Stevenson M1079 2 1/2 Ton LMTV 4x4 Camper Truck
Shop the 1994 Stewart & Stevenson M1079 2 1/2 Ton LMTV 4x4 Camper Truck at Midwest Military Equipment. Low mileage, excellent condition, and ready for work or play. Call now!
midwestmilitaryequipment.com
That truck is killing me, because the slide in camper that I want hovers around $35,000.
There are 3 LMTV's at a used car lot near me he wants $14,000 each. Call Grigsby Brothers.The Lmtv I posted is $31,000. Likely 32ish with civvy paint.
That leaves plenty of room to furnish the box interior himself. No idea if the box AC is practical, or should be ripped out and replaced with an Rv rooftop Ac?
1994 Stewart & Stevenson M1079 2 1/2 Ton LMTV 4x4 Camper Truck
Shop the 1994 Stewart & Stevenson M1079 2 1/2 Ton LMTV 4x4 Camper Truck at Midwest Military Equipment. Low mileage, excellent condition, and ready for work or play. Call now!
That truck is killing me, because the slide in camper that I want hovers around $35,000.
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I like that LMTV, so I’m going to contact the company about the mpg and overall size. I’m guessing the mpg will make it impractical for me. Plus, I would need someone to teach me how to maintain it. Didn’t one of you suggest I stay away from military surplus vehicles due to how hard they are run? Oh, my budget turned out to be higher than I thought, $50k.
Traveler I
Yes most people as in anyone who mods there car. Ultimately calling modern Diesel engines unreliable is just absolutely not true. People seam to think this and say this and yet you don’t see gas engines making even 250k miles let alone people going on 500k. I’ve used diesels my whole adult life for work and they have been less maintenance than any gas vehicle I’ve ever owned or worked around. It’s baffling people think this but ultimately I believe it’s because people want to feel good about a weaker engine choice.
Got to love International Forums. Many thanks for that perspective from South America. We tend to SuperSize everything up here. I remember when the Tacoma was a compact truck.
Master tech here. A good diesel is everything you claim, but the diesels in 2017+ trucks are absolute garbage. Avoid them unless you have no other choice. IE: Loads too big for a gas engine.
High pressure common rail will never be as reliable as Tier IV was. Especially with defective cp4 pumps.
My Ford 6.2 had 250,000 when I got rid of it. With a fresh set of plugs and a fresh timing chain, it most likely would have gone another 150,000 easy. Modern gas engines are more reliable than the new diesels. And with lighter loads, pretty darn powerful as well. My Cummins is quite slow. A whole lot of hype.
The Lmtv's biggest drawbacks
-slow. 60mph. But my Suzuki Drz400s has never seen the highway either. And it's one of the finest overlanding options out there.
-heavy
-you'll need to read up on them to learn how to take care of it.
-huge tires are expensive as heck. About $1000 a piece.
Mpg isn't bad. About 8-10. Keep in mind that my Ram Cummins gets only 11mpg. 13 on a very good day. So mileage really isn't bad.
They're tall, but no bigger than a CC truck with a camper.
The non electric CAT's are very reliable. The Lmtv has been awarded as the most reliable Army vehicle of any type ever made. That's why there's surplus units for sale with only 4000 miles on them.
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Traveler I
Literally all you’ve said bad is basically restrictions that were put on by the government. That being said I own a 20 cummins and other than the sucky fuel pump it shares the same motors that people have hundreads of thousands of miles on. Greater most of my diesel experience is with older engines pre DEF systems but I know people who pull with these engines for a living and they love them. Ultimately don’t really know why people have such issues with them other than the emission systems and even those don’t cause the issues they did when they were new.
Right now I’m wondering if the positives outweigh the negatives for the LMTV’s. At $1500 each tire, how long do they last. You guys have been talking a lot about the quality of diesel fuel around the world. Won’t there be a problem with low quality diesel? I’ve heard that mechanics for that engine are hard to come by. What about repair costs? The top speed of 58 is pretty low, but I’m already driving fairly low speeds, though, not 58 mph low.
Well the emissions controls are there. And they suck. My 2019 Cummins guzzles DEF. About 1g every 55gallons of diesel (one tank). Double that in the winter.
Too loud to sleep in with the engine running. And smells like piss when it bumps the idle up to 1000.
Most of the engine is under the dashboard. You have to pull the cab just like the others for engine work.
Cp4 is rubbish. But at least on the Cummins you can reach it with an engine bay creeper.
Wiring harness is coated in delicious cheese flavored Rubber.
Aisen Trans is clunky at best. Very rough. But hopefully it works well.
Slower than my Ford 6.2 was when towing 10,000#. The Ram throttles back to make harsh rough upshifts, so it doesn't crush the transmission with that Cummins torque. It seriously slows on ramp acceleration. The gas Ford could bang full throttle upshifts perfectly smooth.
Too loud to sleep in with the engine running. And smells like piss when it bumps the idle up to 1000.
Most of the engine is under the dashboard. You have to pull the cab just like the others for engine work.
Cp4 is rubbish. But at least on the Cummins you can reach it with an engine bay creeper.
Wiring harness is coated in delicious cheese flavored Rubber.
Aisen Trans is clunky at best. Very rough. But hopefully it works well.
Slower than my Ford 6.2 was when towing 10,000#. The Ram throttles back to make harsh rough upshifts, so it doesn't crush the transmission with that Cummins torque. It seriously slows on ramp acceleration. The gas Ford could bang full throttle upshifts perfectly smooth.
They last OK. But it's a pita.
You'll need to find a private diesel truck tech for repairs and tires. No car shops. Cheap engine for minor repairs. Especially since the cab lifts right out of the way. Any kind of major repairs to the engine..........whole truck is scrap. Since that's a real deal industrial engine. No idea on pricing, but guessing $30,000.
Any CAT shop can service it. But you might want to check farm tractor shops instead.
They should have quality filters and water separators on them. Just keep extras.
Traveler I
I’m not going to disagree but when pekoe call them garbage but people get 500k without any issues if they are using the trucks I have to disagree with them. Granted you do hear of a lot of people who just put around town in them have issues and maybe that’s why people end up disliking them. If I was able to have seat time while towing a new gas truck maybe I would have been went that route but from past experience I’ve never seen a gas truck keep up when towing and definitely not in engine life but I have heard good things about the new Ford. Ultimately though the upfront price of the truck almost always pays off on the back end as well and that with the longer engine life unless gasers can really start keeping up im not sold on them for me and my uses for a truck.
Only if you win at Russian Roulette (cp4). You can rack up a $12,000 bill very quickly in repairs. A crank, no-start condition, due to one measly bad injector, is often diagnosed as a whole complete fuel system replacement. Gas long block is $8000 installed. Lot's of people have been burnt by the big 3's warranties, that only cover what never fails.
Mine will likely be fine since I drive it 50,000 HARD miles per year. It's the poor guys that only get to drive them on weekends that are really hurting right now. Or the unloaded single rear wheel guys.
Mine will likely be fine since I drive it 50,000 HARD miles per year. It's the poor guys that only get to drive them on weekends that are really hurting right now. Or the unloaded single rear wheel guys.
Don’t companies like Grigsby go over the whole truck and engine making them more reliable?
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Traveler I
Agreed there. I don’t do the miles you do but hit 30k typically on any given year. To me it comes back to the same thing with even old diesels if you barely drive them and domt work them regularly they will never be worth it:
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