M35A2

[mjeff87]

For those of a certain age and possible prior service.  This is one of my favorite saved videos...it brings back alot of great memories for me.  I was licensed up to  a 10T HEMMT back in the day, and my assigned vehicle was a 5T ancient M543 wrecker with a boom crane on the back.

 

If I ever come up with a spare few thousand $$$$ before I die, I'd love to purchase a surplus 2.5 or 5T and cruise it around my neighborhood.

 

 

[Pete M]

bang through those gears!   

[mjeff87]

The shift pattern was different on the 2.5T.  4th was up and down from 3rd, then 5th was up.  That messed up many an operator.  And the 2 speed transfer case was manual but required a transmission downshift to go from low to high, and an upshift from hi back to low.  With as heavy, and slow (relatively speaking) as those things are, plus a non synchronized trans, one did not split shift like you do in a more modern heavy vehicle.  4/5 shift is when you split, and on pretty much level ground, lol. Even in 5/high, when you got there, 60-ish mph was about all you ever feared to do unless you had a death wish.  Plus the fact that you were pushing that multifuel engine around 3000 rpm.  It would do it all day long, but that turbo whine literally pierced your skull inside the cab.

 

That video kinda gives you a sound of the turbo but it doesn't do it the justice it deserves.  Mickey mouses, or at least insert earplugs are/were mandatory equipment, if you weren't dumb.

[Eagle]

I spotted that odd shift pattern immediately. Yeah, that would tend to mess up a lot of folks. Of course, today most "kids" under the age of thirty have never driven a standard transmission, so ...

 

[mjeff87]

My KJ is only the second vehicle I've ever owned that wasn't a stick.  I do enjoy driving it (most of the time, lol) to give my left leg a little holiday.