Amphibious HEMTT

[Dethmachinefab]

Doesn't look too bad. I've killed a set of cheap mud tires on a trip like that before.
In my case they were under inflated which amplified it.

 

[WaterH]

I'd cross-rotate or at least front-to-back swap the tires now and every time you reach that amount of tread wear. Running on the rear will help level out the tread blocks, and you'll have more uniform tires on the steering axle. I've seen BFG ATs wear funky beyond desirable on road when not rotated, and I'm guessing it would suck to have to replace 2 or 4 of those balloons before getting your $ worth out of them.

EDIT: can you take a shot of the entire tread width on a front tire? We might be able to hip-shot your alignment ails, or at least have a good argument about it. My wild-ass guess is those jumbo meats are forcing it to be toed out somewhat and that's scrubbing the tires. I've set my front toe out a tad in the past to prevent death wobble (it worked in that case) until I could fix a loose suspension joint.

I definitely will be rotating the tires. I’m worried about the rears on the front because they were the worst for out of round. I have a good setup for checking toe. The problem is I don’t know what the toe should be. I think it is set to about a 1/4” over three feet. I’m sure I could find the toe setting for a Superduty, but does it not change for bigger tires? How about shorter wheel base? There doesn’t seem to be a rule of thumb for that. I will get a pic. Not sure if you can see it good though.

Get it in for an alignment asap.

Not sure about paying for something when it’s not for my truck. They will probably just do it to Superduty specs. As mentioned, I can do the toe very accurate. I can also do caster. I have a lot of caster in it now. It really doesn’t help in driving chariteristics because of the full hydro. I wonder if I should remove some. I believe I have checked camber before, but can’t remember.

Doesn't look too bad. I've killed a set of cheap mud tires on a trip like that before.
In my case they were under inflated which amplified it.

I was wondering about that. I’m running pretty low psi for the best ride. Maybe on long trips I need to up the pressure.

 

[Dethmachinefab]

I was wondering about that. I’m running pretty low psi for the best ride. Maybe on long trips I need to up the pressure.

Could be it. They don't look feathered like it's been scrubbing away because of toe.

In my case I had some Taiwan load Range e tires on a tacoma, and if filled to 30psi it scalloped bad. 80psi on the a new set of the same tire, same truck was good.

 

[subybaja]

M26 Dragon Wagon WW2 tank hauler:

Familiar lines...

 

[WaterH]

I'd cross-rotate or at least front-to-back swap the tires now and every time you reach that amount of tread wear. Running on the rear will help level out the tread blocks, and you'll have more uniform tires on the steering axle. I've seen BFG ATs wear funky beyond desirable on road when not rotated, and I'm guessing it would suck to have to replace 2 or 4 of those balloons before getting your $ worth out of them.

EDIT: can you take a shot of the entire tread width on a front tire? We might be able to hip-shot your alignment ails, or at least have a good argument about it. My wild-ass guess is those jumbo meats are forcing it to be toed out somewhat and that's scrubbing the tires. I've set my front toe out a tad in the past to prevent death wobble (it worked in that case) until I could fix a loose suspension joint.

Here’s the best I could take. Still don’t know if you can see.

Another

If you look at the lugs that stick out to the left and right the most are not worn as much. The short ones are. It’s even inside and out side.

Anyways, I rotated them front to back. (Not cross cross) Haven’t tried them out on the road yet.

 

[ExWrench]

Here’s the best I could take. Still don’t know if you can see.

Another

If you look at the lugs that stick out to the left and right the most are not worn as much. The short ones are. It’s even inside and out side.

Anyways, I rotated them front to back. (Not cross cross) Haven’t tried them out on the road yet.

Good pics, thank you. My amateur analysis says your alignment isn't grossly out of whack, could even be spot-on.

What type of rig are those tires designed for? If it's an agricultural application / primarily off-road, they may just soften up from heat at freeway speeds & wear quicker. Safe up to rated speed, but rubber compound optimized for low-speed work?

EDIT: I looked it up - Goodyear MV/Ts are a military tire (I should have known )
So . . . maybe they last ~3x as long at 50-55 convoy speeds vs. civvy highway speeds?

 

[WaterH]

It did seem like the tires only get melti when I’m going 60 and it’s over 90 outside. So 55 may be fine. (Or cooler weather.)

Ok, so I took a trip to town. About 7 miles one way. I was dreading it because it seems like every time I rotate the tires on my Bronco, it rides terrible. In this case, I won’t say it was better, but it definitely was not worse. In fact, I’m somewhat optimistic.

 

[subybaja]

 

[MattS]

That tire wear is called cupping. I have only ever had it once. It was on my Ram that a cheap set of 35's that refused to balance. Centramatics were the only thing that fixed it. I changed the shocks had it aligned and basically put a whole new front end on it and it still was doing it.

 

[WaterH]

That tire wear is called cupping. I have only ever had it once. It was on my Ram that a cheap set of 35's that refused to balance. Centramatics were the only thing that fixed it. I changed the shocks had it aligned and basically put a whole new front end on it and it still was doing it.

I have the tire beads (the expensive ones) and Centramtics on the truck. Although I believe the Centramtics may not work because of the large diameter tire. (Turning too slow)

 

[WaterH]

So I attacked the AC relay problem again. When they failed on my trip, I first direct wired one fan. (No relay) It would just come on the minute I turned the battery on whether the AC was on or not. It worked, but I didn’t like it, so I wired one100 amp relay I was carrying. It never gave me a problem and the AC seemed to work great with just one fan.

When I was coming back through Georgia, I had to have the AC on full blast. It was cool enough and that was as hot a day I ever have here. But I have two condenser fans and I might need them if I go out west. (Like AZ or NM) So I want the ability to make them work.

I ordered some more wire. The wire on the left is 10 Ga for scale. The wire in the middle is 8 Ga and is what was on the fans. (I lied Bebop) and the wire on the right is what I’m using now. (2 Ga) Its practically battery cable. I hope this ends all theory’s that I’m using too small of wire. (The 8 Ga should have been enough)

Im running that to within 3” of the two 100 amp relays. There it splits into two 8 ga wires to supply power to the relays. The relays are the same as the one I used for the remainder of the trip. I think they are made in China and I didnt like them, but I can’t argue with results. I will wire up both relays and unplug one spade connector to shut one fan down. I’m not installing the time delay because I measured some power bleed over on some of the spades.

My plan is to run one fan now and keep the other ready to go by just plugging in the spade connector.

 

[WaterH]

So I toed my heaviest load yesterday. Drove it for a one hour trip and then back home.

Should be less than 8000#. It has no “tail Wags the dog“ feel at all. The short axle to hitch is probably the reason. I didn’t have trailer brakes hooked up and it was pretty good with just the truck brakes. Power was lacking. It had power, but I just was afraid to use it due to high EGTs. Most of the time I was at 1200 degrees to cruise at 55 mph.

Was really nice loading and unloading. Normally, it’s tough to get the tractor on and off with the belly mower in place. My ramps are a pain to use/bring. I usually have to find a place where the ground slopes up to the deck. With this truck, I could just jack up the rear air bags and the trailer would go down in the back.

 

[Dwayno07]

Seen in the wild today! My son grabbed a pic of you right as you were turning on to Star Road…dope ass truck man…I really want to own something like this one day!

 

[Bebop]

So I attacked the AC relay problem again. When they failed on my trip, I first direct wired one fan. (No relay) It would just come on the minute I turned the battery on whether the AC was on or not. It worked, but I didn’t like it, so I wired one100 amp relay I was carrying. It never gave me a problem and the AC seemed to work great with just one fan.

When I was coming back through Georgia, I had to have the AC on full blast. It was cool enough and that was as hot a day I ever have here. But I have two condenser fans and I might need them if I go out west. (Like AZ or NM) So I want the ability to make them work.

I ordered some more wire. The wire on the left is 10 Ga for scale. The wire in the middle is 8 Ga and is what was on the fans. (I lied Bebop) and the wire on the right is what I’m using now. (2 Ga) Its practically battery cable. I hope this ends all theory’s that I’m using too small of wire. (The 8 Ga should have been enough)

Im running that to within 3” of the two 100 amp relays. There it splits into two 8 ga wires to supply power to the relays. The relays are the same as the one I used for the remainder of the trip. I think they are made in China and I didnt like them, but I can’t argue with results. I will wire up both relays and unplug one spade connector to shut one fan down. I’m not installing the time delay because I measured some power bleed over on some of the spades.

My plan is to run one fan now and keep the other ready to go by just plugging in the spade connector.

If you ever take a road trip to pigeon forge / TN area, drop by my place and I'll take care of these for you.
2ga will be mega-fine, but those little terminals are not even rated for the amperage

 

[WaterH]

If you ever take a road trip to pigeon forge / TN area, drop by my place and I'll take care of these for you.
2ga will be mega-fine, but those little terminals are not even rated for the amperage

Damb, I was thinking of going through TN on the way home. I have friends there. Can’t remember their town. It’s like an hour north east of Nashville. For some reason, I was thinking you were from North Dakota. Lol

Hope fully it’s fixed now. I ended up having a spare time delay, so I hooked it up and both fans are working. I also replaced the short wires with 6 ga wire. So it’s 2 ga for the long run and 6 ga for about 6” to each 100 amp relay. I still have the Tyco relays on the radiator fans, but I’m carrying spare 100 amp relays. All the terminals are bolt on, so I think they should be good. And remember the whole works goes through a maga fuse. I can’t remember the size, but I think it’s 50 amps.

I bought one of those clamp amp meters for something else. I need to clamp it on that main wire Just for fun.

 

[Bebop]

I bought one of those clamp amp meters for something else. I need to clamp it on that main wire Just for fun.

My meter has an inrush measurement function. I've seen as high as 145amp on a single HP fan
Another reason why I use tefzel wire as much as possible

 

[WaterH]

Seen in the wild today! My son grabbed a pic of you right as you were turning on to Star Road…dope ass truck man…I really want to own something like this one day!

So this is interesting. You saw me, took a pic and found me on here how? I say this because you joined to make this your first post. (Unless you have been lurking on here for awhile.) I know you can google a picture, but I didn’t think you can google a picture that has never been on the net. Can google AI recognize a one of a kind truck and tell you the site it’s on?

Anyone can chime in on this.

 

[AgitatedPancake]

So this is interesting. You saw me, took a pic and found me on here how? I say this because you joined to make this your first post. (Unless you have been lurking on here for awhile.) I know you can google a picture, but I didn’t think you can google a picture that has never been on the net. Can google AI recognize a one of a kind truck and tell you the site it’s on?

Anyone can chime in on this.

Not to speak for him, but there are tons of people that lurk on this site without ever creating an account. For example at the bottom of the home page, there are 3x as many guests online right now as there are people with accounts. There's a chance he's been watching build threads and never felt the need to make an account until he saw ya.

While I haven't had much to say besides following along, I can't help but admire how much use you've been getting out of this thing. Such a cool project, and follow up

 

[WaterH]

Not to speak for him, but there are tons of people that lurk on this site without ever creating an account. For example at the bottom of the home page, there are 3x as many guests online right now as there are people with accounts. There's a chance he's been watching build threads and never felt the need to make an account until he saw ya.

While I haven't had much to say besides following along, I can't help but admire how much use you've been getting out of this thing. Such a cool project, and follow up

So google can’t do what I suggested? What I mean is there’s tons of pictures of this truck on the net. A human can recognize that this is a picture from a slightly different angle and in a different location. Can AI do this?

 

[AgitatedPancake]

So google can’t do what I suggested? What I mean is there’s tons of pictures of this truck on the net. A human can recognize that this is a picture from a slightly different angle and in a different location. Can AI do this?

That I honestly have no clue about, but I'd be curious to see as well

 

[Treefrog]

So google can’t do what I suggested? What I mean is there’s tons of pictures of this truck on the net. A human can recognize that this is a picture from a slightly different angle and in a different location. Can AI do this?

Probably get close enough to point towards iterate. I'm pretty sure Google will let you upload an image and use it to search.

 

[bdkw1]

Googled homemade HEMTT, scrolled down a bit and got this.

Clicked on that pic, scrolled down and started getting warmer.

Click on that one, scroll down and pay dirt.

Granted, I knew what I was looking for. Might take someone a few more steps, but it's pretty easy to find.

 

[Treefrog]

Googled homemade HEMTT, scrolled down a bit and got this.



Clicked on that pic, scrolled down and started getting warmer.


Click on that one, scroll down and pay dirt.


Granted, I knew what I was looking for. Might take someone a few more steps, but it's pretty easy to find.

This thread is also the first result in images when you Google "4x4 hemtt"

 

[WaterH]

Googled homemade HEMTT, scrolled down a bit and got this.



Clicked on that pic, scrolled down and started getting warmer.


Click on that one, scroll down and pay dirt.


Granted, I knew what I was looking for. Might take someone a few more steps, but it's pretty easy to find.

I see. I will say that 90 percent of the people don’t know what a HEMTT is. So with out that knowledge, it would be hard To know where to start. I get tons of people ask me if it’s a Mog or some kind of Russian truck.

 

[AK_F250]

So this is interesting. You saw me, took a pic and found me on here how? I say this because you joined to make this your first post. (Unless you have been lurking on here for awhile.) I know you can google a picture, but I didn’t think you can google a picture that has never been on the net. Can google AI recognize a one of a kind truck and tell you the site it’s on?

Anyone can chime in on this.

🎵Somebody's got a stalkeeeer🎵

 

[MattS]

I see. I will say that 90 percent of the people don’t know what a HEMTT is. So with out that knowledge, it would be hard To know where to start. I get tons of people ask me if it’s a Mog or some kind of Russian truck.

If you take a pic of something you can do a google image search and google with find other similar pics and then tell you where they are hosted. So yes 100% since what you have is rare.

 

[ExWrench]

If you take a pic of something you can do a google image search and google with find other similar pics and then tell you where they are hosted. So yes 100% since what you have is rare.

Yep, that^.

Example from right-clicking the stalker's photo above & selecting "Search image with Google":

 

[WaterH]

Yep, that^.

Example from right-clicking the stalker's photo above & selecting "Search image with Google":

Wow, I don’t understand how that works. I can see how a human can see the similarity, but I don’t understand how a computer can. A computer wouldn’t even know if the grass was part of the truck. Is there some kind of “facial recognition” for vehicles?

 

[Steve300xcw]

Wow, I don’t understand how that works. I can see how a human can see the similarity, but I don’t understand how a computer can. A computer wouldn’t even know if the grass was part of the truck. Is there some kind of “facial recognition” for vehicles?

Its everything. take a pic, post it up somewhere. an then a quick google image search.

 

[ExWrench]

Wow, I don’t understand how that works. I can see how a human can see the similarity, but I don’t understand how a computer can. A computer wouldn’t even know if the grass was part of the truck. Is there some kind of “facial recognition” for vehicles?

It's similar to facial recognition, maybe the same back-end coding. Same way cameras can catch manufacturing defects while parts go whizzing down a conveyor belt by comparing the data in a snapshot to a catalog of known "good" and "bad" parts. Skynet knows all


EDIT: paint your rig hot pink & I bet we'll get a different set of results