M1010 military ambulance

stevo-mt

Member
I don't know if a dually rear end is too necessary, plus you will lose your limited slip unless you change that over too. I've never had any issues with the load range E Toyo's that I have, the rear is rock solid. When I put the 12 bolt H1 wheels and tires on I put dually hubs on the front dana 60 and 3" steel spacers onto the rear corporate 14 bolt. That was golden as far as the H1 wheels were concerned. I drove it like that for 1500 miles and on a road trip I started getting the death wobble. Swapped tires around and rebalanced, then it came back worse. So stuck on the road 800 miles from home I was left with no choice but to get new tires and wheels. When I got back to MT I put back the original front axle hubs and removed the rear spacers. I have just a set of generic 17" x 10" wide steel wheels and 37x13.5x17 Toyo MTs. The thing drives like a dream now. With the 37's the truck will go about 65 (hit 75 mph one time!) and sticks to the road amazing. I put some blistien shocks and that makes a world of difference. I still drive it 55 mph to try and get a little better MPG. I've got a banks turbo kit to put on it this fall as well. Really the only time the truck has not had enough power was when it was at 10,000 ft, so there is about a 30% loss of effiency there and the truck couldn't cut it. A turbo should cure that though.

Another possibility that you could do would be to scope craigslist and find junky old set of 37's already mounted on some nice wheels that fit. Use those to mock up all of your truck's suspension work you want to do then when your happy go buy new rubber for it and go 37s or 35s depending. If you go the 37's route I would be prepared to cut fenders though for sure, but 35's should clear on a 4" lift. One other word of caution. When you lift that truck 4" you WILL need to spend the money on a crossover steering kit and a replacement powersteering box from a 2WD. The truck will not turn 37s with stock components lifted. This is due to the messed up angles from the powersteering box has when it's lifted. This caught me offguard because it was another 1200 dollars. Truth be told it ended up costing me 3 or 4 grand by the time the truck was lifted and steering properly. Plus a bit of custom work, the kits weren't always exact with things. Oh and your front swaybar will have to go if you do crossover steering. I can go back through my cost spreadsheet and give you a better idea, that part was kind of painful.

Looking back, cutting the fenders and putting bushwacker fender flares, running 35's and not lifting the truck would have been a very viable cost effective option. I don't know what kind of budget your planning for your truck, but the day I started lifting it up the money just emptied from my wallet. Granted it does look super aggressive and pretty awesome. After all the headaches, extra time, re-engineering the front shock mounting, and tons of cash it is pretty awesome what the truck will do with 37's. I was driving it back and forth to my little shop in Montana with record snowfall this winter. They don't plow the roads, but that thing does not care! It pushes through snow with the just the limited slip up to axle's height. Then you have to put in 4wd and it will push through the snow to the top of the axles around the bottom of the frame. Then after engaging the front locker it will go through until the drift is at the height of the fenders. Any deeper than that the truck is stuck and you have to back up. :) When I first got the truck it performed great with just 4wd and the rear limited slip. The box was heavy enough it would drive rock solid on ice. I got caught up in making a super off road capable truck and after a year of reflection I could go probably 90% of the miles that I've taken the truck without much more than some better tires. 5% of that could be reached with 35's and a front diff locker. The best 5% would be where I had to have 37's, but I could have also just parked and walked a mile or two here and there... It seems like where I ended up setting up camp, even in the forests during winter, I could have probably made it there with a less expensive setup. I remember looking at a M1010 that the 100dollarman had built with 37's and I don't think he had lifted it. Just cut the fenders. Turned out pretty awesome, but I wasn't sure on tire rubbing and all that.

Not to rant but I'm just kind of excited to see other people taking on these projects. There are few guys on here with CUCV trucks and the good old 6.2l diesels. Some have had good luck with the 37's H1 wheels and tires. My gut tells me if the GSA is getting rid of them there is most likely a reason, but there are some good ones out there.
 

chrisquested

Observer
Right now I am fine with the way the truck runs/drives I just drie it around when I am on my days off I like it a lot I am still trying to figure out a lay out of what I want to do. Might just do 35s and a small lift.

It's not going to be built like my jeep Cherokee is just able to get me places a regular rv won't.

I want to figure some way to have a fold down tent style bed like a pop up camper.
 

chrisquested

Observer
So I am trying to think on how I can make the doors open up in the back then have a fold down bed/ canvas tent.

Thinking of making it on a winch type system and put 2 pieces of plywood one on top of the other cables on one side to lower it and a hinge system or it to lower down.
 

stevo-mt

Member
I've been thinking of something similar but since I'm keeping the rear doors original. My initial thoughts are to make a canvas tent that rolls down like a sunshade on an rv. Make it so the doors can either be integrated into thut or just make them so it is it's own stand alone. There are a couple roof top tents that might give a guy a starting point or some ideas. I've seen one m1010 with a cool canvas roll out sunshade deal. http://www.v-8.fr/chevrolet_----/04764.html

I was thinking of doing something like the roll out on this truck and have it tie into doors to keep the bugs out.

For your truck you could use some marine plywood, reinforce it with some aluminum angle and seal it up with 3m 5200 urethane. Then coat if with some epoxy paint. It works on fishing boats for deck covers, might work for a rear door. 3m has some good gasket material to seal it and some aluminum could be made for a drip edge to keep the water from running down it. A rear fold out is pretty neat idea with a side door. The place that the stairs were stored could have some rectangular aluminum tubing to slide out for support if needed. I forgot the size, but there is a common one that's close.
 

chrisquested

Observer
I am still trying to figure the lay out of the box just sit here thinking about it all the time.

I do know I am putting in a regular air conditioner and I will make something that put air into the cab.

And I am putting in an arb style fridge and queen size bed also probably doing a wet bath for the bathroom.
 
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chrisquested

Observer
Well I am still trying to figure out what I would have to do so I can run 65-75 mph down the high way with out running so high in rpm???

I know I am going to do a small lift and 35" tires and get a 700r4 built.


Any ideas??
 

stevo-mt

Member
I've been tossing the idea of a 4L80e transmission with a stand alone computer. It is the 4 speed version of the th400. It has a pretty good gear setup. I imagine your transmission cost would be close to the same but the Stand alone computer is about $600. But the 4L80e was installed behind 6.5td. You would need to find a throttle position sensor from a 6.5 and graft it in. And just connect it to the computer. Pretty straight forward, just a plug to the transmission and your off to the races. There should be a speed calculator somewhere around the internet. I calculated the speed increase for 37s and the calculator was dead on @ 65 mph vs the 55 mph stock. A four speed over drive transmission should put you in the right ball park.
 

chrisquested

Observer
Been thinking about that also but my mom has an uncle and also a cousin who own transmission shops and said a 700r4 can be built to handle the motor and towing and easier to install.


I am trying to fit a wet bath, stove top, sink, and bed into a 9x6 box...

I am also thinking of building this to travel 3,000+ miles around the us. So I need to have a shower and toilet I figure I can do a 30x48 wet bath, queen size bed that double as table, 2 burner table top, single sink, fresh water will be stored under one bench and battery bank will be under the other bench.
 

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