M109A3 2.5-Ton 6x6 Shop Van: Description
This is my first ex-military truck. I purchased it directly from the US Government in a sealed-bid auction through the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS). I bid on this truck (and one other similar truck, which I did not get) in an auction held on September 9, 1999, received notice that I was awarded the truck on September 27, 1999, and towed the truck home the following day. The truck was located in the Yermo Marine Corps Logistics Base (just east of Barstow, CA), and I had it towed about 120 miles to its current home in Chino, CA. The picture above was taken on inspection day in the scrap yard in Yermo. All of the windows, mirrors, lights and reflectors were covered with duct tape for shipment at the time.
If you buy a truck out of Yermo through the DRMS and need to get it towed, consider All Star Towing at 760-256-2309. They're located nearby in Barstow, and towed my 15,000-pound truck 120 miles for $320.
This truck is a member of the M44-series family of trucks. These trucks were made in many configurations, including the common M35 cargo trucks, dump trucks, water and fuel tankers, specialized versions for installing telephone poles, etc. My shop van was intended for use as a mobile repair shop. There's no telling how mine was used, but possibilities include a mobile electronics workshop, a mobile arms repair shop, etc.
These trucks have 5-speed manual transmissions with 2-range transfer cases. The earliest ones had gasoline engines, but most of them were made with multifuel diesel engines (hence one of their common nicknames, "multifuels"). The basic cargo version can carry 2.5 tons of cargo off-road (hence another common nickname, "deuce and a half"), or 5 tons on the highway, and can also tow an additional 3-5 tons (some configurations, such as my shop van, have lower cargo limits due to their additional body hardware and runing gear). They have 6-wheel drive (generally with dual wheels on the rear pair of axles). Early versions engaged or disengaged the front axle automatically, and the later "air-shift" trucks (like mine) let the driver engage or disengage the front axle with a switch on the dashboard. With dual wheels on the rear axles, there are a total of 10 wheels on the ground, all of them driven, giving this truck great traction off-road. These trucks have a top speed of 58 MPH on the highway, limited by a governor in the fuel injection pump.
At the time I bought my truck, it had only 3076.1 miles on the odometer, and 1.1 hours on the engine runtime meter. Its engine (originally built in 1980) has a 1989 rebuild tag, and probably is not original to the truck. It looks to me like the military replaced the engine with a rebuilt one for some unknown reason (maybe to add the "clean air" turbocharger?), and then drove the truck no more than 60 miles before sticking it in the scrap yard!
Here are the markings I found on my truck. I haven't researched what they mean yet...