Military vehicle rally at Ft Hood.

[svt40]

About a dozen or so vehicles ranging from early WWII to the modern era gathered for the 2nd Mounted Warfare Historic Vehicle Rally. We had several GPW/MBs, a WC52, M3A1 halftrack, MkI Ferret, M38, M151 and a couple M1009s. There was a display set up on friday at the 1st cavalry Museum on Ft Hood and the soldiers and civvies really enjoyed seeing these old warhorses.

 

 

 

[svt40]

However Saturday was when the real fun happened. The vehicles began a trip that covered over 150 miles over every imaginable terrain type you could think of.

 

This was the saturday morning lineup prior to "saddling up"

 

The morning brief and map orientation as given by LtCol Dan Martin of III Corps who also set up this whole event.

[svt40]

Here is the Col coming back to inform us of the condition of one of the fords.

 

Here is the M151 crossing one of the low water fords.

 

Nice view of the convoy from somewhere near the back.

[svt40]

Here is another one of the more muddy and slightly deeper fords.

 

Heading back out after crossing yet another ford... or getting lost I am not sure which.

 

Yet another ford that we crossed. This was one of the deeper ones.

[svt40]

Nice little sidetrip to an Iraqi MOUT training city complete with a few mosques and a gas station.

 

One of the M1009s trying to get some free gas from the Iraqi gas station.

 

The Ferret sitting in the Iraqi village.

[svt40]

A little added bonus was the M3 Stuart that was recently found in a creekbed deep in a wooded area.

 

Really wonder how this little gem ended up here and stripped down like it was. It did show some explosion damage on the left sponson.

 

[PvtTamura]

Some nice water crossings! Makes me wanna take my Jeep out!

[svt40]

Our first MV casualty of the day was the M3 halftrack who threw a track and had to call it a day. He put it into front wheel drive and limped to the highway to make recovery much easier.

[svt40]

After gathering the stragglers from the now abandoned halftrack (not really as the owner was getting his truck for recovery) we grouped back up and made our way back down the trails.

 

To yet another...Yup you guessed it. A water crossing! This one was quite a bit larger and deeper though.

 

Where our second MV casualty of the day happened. The M38 got a little bit flooded and stalled out in the deeper part of the ford (twice!)

[svt40]

That road to yet another ford where the LtCol decided to go rock hunting.

 

Here is my '42 GPW making the crossing.

 

Just as you leave the water and make your way up a small rise on the other bank you hit this mud hole where one of the M1009s promptly got stuck. You can see Shelby (the dog) seems a bit disgusted with the situation. Fortunately the M151 was able to pull the M1009 out with ease.

[svt40]

This was a very beautiful suprise we came across as well. A 180º switchback with a cliff on one side, woods on the other with a creek crossing the bedrock roadway in the middle.

 

We then stopped for lunch.

 

Soon as lunch was over we proceeded to get the M38 to stall out in a deep water ford for the second time.

[svt40]

I think they just wanted to save gas by having everyone push their jeep.

 

The convoy back to home base.

 

As we gassed up at the post gas station the Ferret decided it had had enough and would not start. So we ended up pushing it up onto the trailer. Not an easy task mind you.

[svt40]

On sunday it was intended to do a little 2 hour drive. That 2 hour drive ended up going all day! Not a single complaint was heard, well not yet...

 

We did run into some 2-8 cav guys doing some training on sunday and they were quite excited to see the old jeeps.

 

They even received some OJT on how to manually start a WWII jeep.

 

[svt40]

We then continued along this road to an old OP from the 70-80's that overlooked the live fire ranges. With some binoculars you could see tens of dozens of vehicles on the range as targets.

 

This is my 42 GPW again prior to the 5 mile torture ride we embarked upon after leaving the forward OP.

 

Remember I said no complaints were heard... yet. This is where that yet came into play. This road was fun and a bit challenging for the first mile. But the next 4 miles were just pure torture. The road was a fire lane in the woods and the road was a mix of deep ruts, mudholes and bedrock that has had years of tracked vehicle abuse. It was NOT a wheel friendly road.

[svt40]

That firebreak road came out upon a C130 short landing strip and this Iraqi compound that was not there 2 weeks before during the LtCols recon run. Hmm makes you wonder....

 

 

[svt40]

This was a very fun event and how often do you get to drive your vehicle in an evironment like this? There will be another one in October and is open to any military vehicle as long as it is in it's military configuration.

 

Mounted Warfare Historic Vehicle Rally

[PvtTamura]

Now that fire lane looks like some fun Jeepin'! :packin heat:

I'd love to drive that road, looks like a good day. (Of course, I drive some stuff that really makes people sweat.)

Great vehicles! My only question is how did the M38 stall so much? Not enough RPMs and water in the tailpipe? Intake too low and water inside?

[svt40]

We think the M38 was hitting the ford too fast and splashing water up onto the distributor and causing it to stall out. I almost had the same thing happen to me the second time we crossed that large ford. My jeep began to sputter towards the end but i was able to power through it to dry land. By the time I was to the top of the hill my jeep was running just fine again.

 

This was also the first time my jeep had been driven for more than 5-10 minutes at a time since I bought it in 2004. It's only been running since about march of this year.

 

The only problems I encountered were the carb was running a tad rich so i had to tweak the idle screw down a hair. My accelerator pump spring broke inside the carb so when you let off the throttle it would sometimes idle a touch high until you "blipped" the throttle. The last thing was my transfer case lost it's oil out the rear output shaft seal and starting screaming like a banshee. I'll need to do a full on rebuild of it once I get some cash saved up for the parts. Despite those problems my jeep ran flawlessly for the entire trip and it was a blast for someone who had never gone trail riding or drove anywhere that actually required 4WD.

[PvtTamura]

We think the M38 was hitting the ford too fast and splashing water up onto the distributor and causing it to stall out. I almost had the same thing happen to me the second time we crossed that large ford. My jeep began to sputter towards the end but i was able to power through it to dry land. By the time I was to the top of the hill my jeep was running just fine again.

 

This was also the first time my jeep had been driven for more than 5-10 minutes at a time since I bought it in 2004. It's only been running since about march of this year.

 

The only problems I encountered were the carb was running a tad rich so i had to tweak the idle screw down a hair. My accelerator pump spring broke inside the carb so when you let off the throttle it would sometimes idle a touch high until you "blipped" the throttle. The last thing was my transfer case lost it's oil out the rear output shaft seal and starting screaming like a banshee. I'll need to do a full on rebuild of it once I get some cash saved up for the parts. Despite those problems my jeep ran flawlessly for the entire trip and it was a blast for someone who had never gone trail riding or drove anywhere that actually required 4WD.

 

Sounds like a good trip!

I actually just got my '68 CJ5 Jeep out of the shop, I had the same issue with the transfer case. Leaking like a sieve.

Has the your Jeep been taken apart and had the axles, trans and transfer case looked at since you bought it? I would recommend it. I thought my Jeep was good till I took it in. The shop found a gear with a chipped tooth in my transfer case. Sorry to get a bit off topic svt40, but I love Jeeps! :packin heat:

[1944]

Looks like ye all had a great day trip out there !

with some amazing Military Vehicles and Thanks for sharing these photos with us they look great :thumbsup: .

[Chunky Monkey]

Great post svt40 ~ I enjoyed the pictures and the captions! :thumbsup:

 

I also luv Jeeps ~ unfortunately I don't have one though

[Jim Baker]

Looks like a good trip.

 

Hmmmm........ That Iraqi village that was not there before looks familiar doesn't it? Well, kinda. :think:

 

You guys need to bring those bad boys to Colorado. Then you can do some 4 wheeling!

[gpw_42]

I've always thought the NW side of Hood is pretty, from your Day 1 pics. Drove my GPW out the east side once, shortly before I moved away...that was adventurous, and ended with me calling my commander, but that's another story.

 

Thanks for sharing these pics with us! Looks like y'all had a good time, and brings back some pleasant memories for me.

 

Steve

[Bulldog]

 

Looks like a lot of fun! :w00t:

 

Thanks for sharing the photos... :thumbsup:

[svt40]

Sounds like a good trip!

I actually just got my '68 CJ5 Jeep out of the shop, I had the same issue with the transfer case. Leaking like a sieve.

Has the your Jeep been taken apart and had the axles, trans and transfer case looked at since you bought it? I would recommend it. I thought my Jeep was good till I took it in. The shop found a gear with a chipped tooth in my transfer case. Sorry to get a bit off topic svt40, but I love Jeeps! :packin heat:

 

 

I've had the axles apart years ago after hurricane Wilma flooded the garage where my jeep was stored. Ended up rebuilding the rear axle due to severe damage to the carrier bearings. The front was just fine. I also just completed a full transmission rebuild before this trip. I was in the transfer case during the tranny rebuild and could only find 3 bearings and 2 thrust washers that appeared bad. But I will probably do a full rebuild of the transfer case and replace everything inside.

 

I am going to wait a bit on this though for 2 reasons. Money is the first reason as the gears alone are about $70-$100 each. The second reason is the local museum is having their annual Audie Murphy days in June and I'd like to have the jeep avaiable for that.

 

I've always thought the NW side of Hood is pretty, from your Day 1 pics. Drove my GPW out the east side once, shortly before I moved away...that was adventurous, and ended with me calling my commander, but that's another story.

 

Thanks for sharing these pics with us! Looks like y'all had a good time, and brings back some pleasant memories for me.

 

Steve

 

Brought back a lot of memories for me as well as realizing a dream I've had since high school. I grew up on Copperas Cove 11 miles away from Ft Hood and always dreamed of getting a WWII jeep and taking it on the tank trails of Ft Hood.

 

But anyone living in the state of Texas or any neighboring state should seriously think about attending this event in October. It's not often you get the chance to drive on an active military base with your restored MV over the very roads that 60 years ago carried vehicles like yours as they trained for WWII.