My last tour of duty in Iraq...

[CumminsPower59]

I spent another year in the big sand box in 08-09. I worked as a heavy wheeled mechanic/wrecker operator and provided maintenance support on convoys that my unit conducted. We ran all over the theater of Iraq and Kuwait, most missions were around the 1000 mile mark, taking a week or more as we could only operate at night and with the convoy speed of only 45, there were some long nights. My wrecker was a 91 Oskosh M948A1 HEMTT, mechanical 8V92 rated at 445hp, and a four speed Allison trans. Truck grossed in at about 60k lbs. The truck drivers in my unit ran M1070 HET's, also built by Oshkosh. Combined empty weight of a M1070 and M1000 tailer was right at about 95,000lbs, so towing one wasn't an easy task. Many of us wrecker operators make governor and rack adustments on out mechanical 8V's and put the larger DDEC equipped 8V92s' turbo and intake horn onto our engines to help with the added fuel, all in order to make more hp for pulling HET's. Of course the Army doesn't like anything modified for performance, but hey, mission first, and if we could complete the mission better, then what the heck

Here's some pics...









I am on the left...


M1070 HET


Hauling Caterpillar D9's for the Marine Corps...




Tire swaps were a daily thing, each trailer has 40 tires on the ground and we usually carried at least eight spares per trailer.


Dust storms were a constant thing too, this is in Kuwait, where we could drive during the day...


All and all, the deployment was pretty easy, beats the first time I was there in 03-04. All of the trucks have armor and a/c now, before we had nothing and it was no biggie, we just lived with it. Alot had changed in the four years that I wasn't there, Iraq has come a loooon way from what it was, now kids and women can go to schools, there is health care, and somewhat of a infrastructure in that country. It's still a third-world country, but better than what it was before.

[Tacoclaw]

First thing's first, I really appreciate what you guys go out and do every day.

I can see why you guys go through tires on that D9 trailer, considering not a single one is a steerable axle. Imagine dragging those poor low-pros on each end around a corner with an armored D9 on them.

Does it not burn up the transmissions/transfers in those trucks to be flat towed around like that? Do you guys pull every axle on any drive that touches the ground, or do they have some built in method to allow towing?

[CumminsPower59]

Thank you Tacoclaw. Tires were a constant, even when empty, as most of the axles on the trailer actually steer. So sometimes, it would "steer istelf" right into barriers When towing, we dropped the driveshaft between the transfer case and the first drive axle. Some of us even went so far as to chain up that same first drive axle as to not have too much droop on it when doing a lift tow, it put alot of stress on the air bags if we didn't...

[ellis93]

First thing's first, I really appreciate what you guys go out and do every day.

I'll 2nd that lots of sacrifice on ya'lls part. It is appreciated.

[firstgenjunkie]

Where were you hauling the D9 Cats? That looks suspiciously like Ubaydi's truck lot. I was out in Al Asad and other parts in 08-09, 2d Radio Bn, OCE-2.

[oldestof11]

Thanks for your service and pics!

[CumminsPower59]

Thank you ellis93 and oldestof11

firstgenjunkie, We picked up the D9's in TQ, apparently there weren't any low bed trailers availible in theater that could carry the weight, I believe that they were 110,000lbs each, so we got tasked with hauling them, talk about a pain in the arse! The first night it took us 16 hours to go from TQ to Scania. Between being over height, tire failures, mechanical issues and waiting on route clearance and EOD to take care of an IED, it was a night for the books! We made it to Al Asad a few times, that's where we ended our push north back in 03, and it was nice to see the place again after the years had passed...

[PToombs]

Ike, why is your truck 2 toned? Custom paint? I thought it had to be all tan.

[Tacoclaw]

It looks like just the cab and fuel tank wraps are tan, I'd guess add-on armor plates.

I bet it was a fun ride riding that high-track '9 onto that trailer, we've got an old-school D-9 where I work and it doesn't take much of an angle to start feeling really nervous in it.

And I'd have never guessed those duals were steerable. I bet they did take off in any random direction.

[CumminsPower59]

Pete, the wecker was originally not armored, the add on armor kit comes painted tan already. We had several wreckers that had the woodland camo pattern, and tan cabs. Two wreckers had gone through rebuild and got a fresh coat of tan paint. Mine, originally was painted tan, it was built in 1991, alot of new trucks that year came out tan since we were in that part of the world then too, but had been painted all green at one point or another. Most of our wreckers were a hodge-podge of different years and what not.

Tacoclaw, the wrap in the fuel tank is a fire suppression kit, it has dry chemical fire suppression powder in it...it's supposed to work, but it always ended up being a pain in the arse to work around. One of our truck drivers operates caterpillars on the civilian side, it was fun watching him run those machines. We got a little bit of time to run them, funny thing is that when you are in the operators seat, you can't see a thing except the bottom corners of the blade. The M1000 trailer is quite the piece, as it self steers when hooked to the HET. It has a wedge that is behind the kingpin that fits between the ramps on the fifth wheel. The wedge is mounted on a plate and that plate is attached to two hydraulic cylinders. When the cylinders get pressure on one side or the other from the wedge being moved, it sends that pressure to two more cylinders at the rear of the trailer. From there, it is transfered by linkages that progressivley pivot four out of five of the axles on each side. Each axle, or bogie, is progressively controled so the trailer smoothy turns, so the rear bogies, #5, will be at full turn, while #4 will be a bit less and so on and so forth. #1 is barred in place and doesn't turn. The whole truck and trailer can turn so sharp it's crazy. Unlike conventional tractor trailer setups, when turning a corner, you don't have to swing wide. You just cut the corner as if you were driving a bobtail. The trailer does the rest and swings out, instead of cutting in...

[PToombs]

Gotcha. Gotta have armor in that huh?, the hell with a complete one color vehicle!
Pretty cool info on the trailer too. Any idiot from the city can drive one, just like taking mom's Lexus down town!

[Tacoclaw]

You'd think that would make it harder. You'd have to watch your outside rear corner instead of the inside rear.

Very cool info regardless on how they work though. Off to Youtube for more research!

EDIT: for anyone interested in seeing these things work, at about the 1:40 mark it has it turning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaVoOsPv ... re=related

Does the last axle on the tractor turn as well?

[PToombs]

Sure does! At 2:20 it does a u-turn and you can see the tires almost touching.

[autocar56]

Those are awesome pic's, thank you guys for what you do and for sharing those pics, the one with the D9 is my favorite.

Steven M

[CumminsPower59]

Thank you autocar56.

Tacoclaw, The trucks rear axle does steer also, I was up at Oshkosh for a training course, there was a engineer that brought down a HET A1, new and improved version. 700hp Caterpillar C18 and a seven speed Allison. Pretty cool machine. The older HET has a 500hp 8V92, but when pulling a loaded trailer, it's not enough...