:3
As you know, I like jeeps, and I also like trucks, and unfortunately or rather fortunately that lead me down the rabbit hole of jeep trucks
But I'm not here to talk about the Comanche (MJs), the old SJ (or J series) gladiators, or my beloved CJ-8 scrambler.
I'm here to talk about the 10 ton trucks :]
These guys:
Now I'm still not entirely sure how it's name was coined as I'm like 90% it's a classification instead of being the name of a singular truck, with these trucks being more like tractors than modern day trucks (besides big rigs) and the trucks also weighed a lot more than 10 tons
(It's name is even weirder when you consider that it's cousin the five quarter ton was named that due to it's payload rating)
The trucks I know the most about are the M123A1C Truck Tractor and the M125 which had a massive V8 (785 cu in or 12.9L) with about 300hp and a torque of around around 6300 pound per inch if my math is right.
These guys were known for hauling tank and artillery parts :]
This one is hauling some construction equipment!
Now more is known about the M123 but from my understanding they were essentially the same truck but with slightly different purposes and slight improvements
All in all a very impressive truck, but it gets better! Now this beauty is a little more than 9ft wide, about 23ft long, and a whopping 9ft with a few inches height wise with some 14x24 tires (about 53 inches or just below 4 and a half feet).
Now earlier I mentioned that the ten ton truck classification was a little misleading, this beauty was actually about 32.5k lbs or roughly 16 tons on its own without any cargo, but with cargo (depending on if you were on or off road) it was 60,000 lbs off road and 65,000 lbs on road at a speed of just over 40mph.
:]
Now the really interesting part was how it's engine worked, I already talked a little bit about it's specs but not the really fun stuff.
It had steering brakes! That meant you could choose what side of the rig you wanted to apply the breaks to! Very useful for turning in bad conditions and surviving spin outs.
It also had Williams Air Brakes! Which blocked a part of the exhaust pipe, which is normally a bad thing but since it was an insanely heavy truck and a stick shift, you needed the engine to slow down so that you could easily shift into a different gear.
The transmission itself weighed about 1,500 lbs and was a stick shift 5 speed and what made it extra interesting was that it has 2 lube systems instead of the typical one you see in any other rig, unfortunately it's transmission system despite being really interesting kinda sucked and had a major leaking issue and it's weird plumbing/wiring didn't really help it at all.
Sadly due to these things being fuckin huge and also made in the 50s and only sold to the US military, there's barely any of em around anymore and you're not going to see any on the roads
Id probably rank this as my favorite big rig but my favorite truck still has to be my beloved CJ-8<3
Thank you for letting me ramble<3
this is exciting what I asked for, thank you very much!