WaterH
Well-known member
So I’m putting this here in the hope that it might become a build thread. Any up dates will go here. So far, this has just been a lawn ornament. I actually love it as a lawn ornament, my wife, not so much. To be honest, I really would like to drive it some day.
Back story,
A good friend of mine was driving some back roads about 50 miles from me several years ago. This was when I was busy building my HEMTT. He said that there was a truck something like what I was building sitting along the side of the road. He had a shitty picture of it that got my interest up. I took a drive out there and found it.
It was basically sitting on the side of the road in front of a fence around a big field. There was no building in site and no clue who owned it. There was nothing on this road but fields for over a mile each way. There was a side road a few hundred yards from it and I drove down it hoping to get to a house on the back of that field it was in front of. No houses back that road, but there was a volunteer fire department about 1/4 mile back there. No body was there and everything locked up. It obviously was in use though. I called the phone number on the door. The guy who answered the phone didn’t know very much, but he said he knew someone else that does and he would get back to me.
I heard nothing for two weeks and thought I never would. Out of the blue, some guy calls and said that his aunt owns it and all the property there. I asked if it was for sale and he said “probably”. I come to find out that she is a widow and the truck was her husbands. Turns out that she was a bank teller at my bank. My wife and I have known her for years. She wanted rid of it and I bought it for a song. A couple hundred to a tow truck company and I have a lawn ornament.
It was called a Vulcan after the anti aircraft gun it carried. I did some research on it and apparently it was a prototype that the army was interested in. It was built in the seventies and I believe they only built 20 of them. There were a couple different configurations, but the most popular had the Vulcan.
It has a Detroit diesel driving two hydro pumps that I turn drive two hydro motors. (One for each set of 4 wheels)
Each wheel has its own swing arm and spring. In addition, there’s a hydraulic cylinder that can raise and lower that wheel like a Mexican low rider.
Anyways I got some time and decided to take a look at this thing. First, I got all the flat tires re seated and pumped up. The tires are really in bad shape, but i not willing to spring for new tires at this point. So far, all eight wheels are locked up. The tow truck guy had a hell of a time dragging it up on a flat deck. We had a worse time getting it off. It’s been sitting here ever since. The wheels are linked together by a big ass chain that runs through the main frame rails. The frame is half full of gear oil, so half the chain is great and half is pretty rusty. Not sure if it’s shot, but I would really like to turn it over and get the oil all through it. I’ve been dumping scrap oil in the frame for years, so it’s more than half now.
So the question is how to get it rolling? I’ve heard that all hydro driven equipment locks up when you shut it down. So what do I look for to unlock it? ive located the big hoses that run from the pumps to the motors. Can I just unhook them at the motor? Would there be some kind of pins that need hydro pressure to pull out? Any help would be appreciated.
Back story,
A good friend of mine was driving some back roads about 50 miles from me several years ago. This was when I was busy building my HEMTT. He said that there was a truck something like what I was building sitting along the side of the road. He had a shitty picture of it that got my interest up. I took a drive out there and found it.
It was basically sitting on the side of the road in front of a fence around a big field. There was no building in site and no clue who owned it. There was nothing on this road but fields for over a mile each way. There was a side road a few hundred yards from it and I drove down it hoping to get to a house on the back of that field it was in front of. No houses back that road, but there was a volunteer fire department about 1/4 mile back there. No body was there and everything locked up. It obviously was in use though. I called the phone number on the door. The guy who answered the phone didn’t know very much, but he said he knew someone else that does and he would get back to me.
I heard nothing for two weeks and thought I never would. Out of the blue, some guy calls and said that his aunt owns it and all the property there. I asked if it was for sale and he said “probably”. I come to find out that she is a widow and the truck was her husbands. Turns out that she was a bank teller at my bank. My wife and I have known her for years. She wanted rid of it and I bought it for a song. A couple hundred to a tow truck company and I have a lawn ornament.
It was called a Vulcan after the anti aircraft gun it carried. I did some research on it and apparently it was a prototype that the army was interested in. It was built in the seventies and I believe they only built 20 of them. There were a couple different configurations, but the most popular had the Vulcan.
It has a Detroit diesel driving two hydro pumps that I turn drive two hydro motors. (One for each set of 4 wheels)
Each wheel has its own swing arm and spring. In addition, there’s a hydraulic cylinder that can raise and lower that wheel like a Mexican low rider.
Anyways I got some time and decided to take a look at this thing. First, I got all the flat tires re seated and pumped up. The tires are really in bad shape, but i not willing to spring for new tires at this point. So far, all eight wheels are locked up. The tow truck guy had a hell of a time dragging it up on a flat deck. We had a worse time getting it off. It’s been sitting here ever since. The wheels are linked together by a big ass chain that runs through the main frame rails. The frame is half full of gear oil, so half the chain is great and half is pretty rusty. Not sure if it’s shot, but I would really like to turn it over and get the oil all through it. I’ve been dumping scrap oil in the frame for years, so it’s more than half now.
So the question is how to get it rolling? I’ve heard that all hydro driven equipment locks up when you shut it down. So what do I look for to unlock it? ive located the big hoses that run from the pumps to the motors. Can I just unhook them at the motor? Would there be some kind of pins that need hydro pressure to pull out? Any help would be appreciated.
