LSVW for sale - Crown Assets

[Scott Bentley]

Originally Posted by rob love

As a truck however, they are 23 years old, and replacement parts (and you will need replacement parts) range from hard to find to non-existant.

That's my thought as well. Iveco isn't exactly a household name in Canada.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Since we have established that there is no love for this vehicle, how about compiling a list of its obvious faults. Go ahead fellas!

- air cleaner intake on the bottom of the engine compartment, and risks ingesting water if you drove too deep through streams or flood waters.

- to remove the starter, you take the engine out.

- oil pressure sending unit that does not fail every couple of months. They rupture internally then leak out the bleed hole.

- fuel intake in fuel tank is so high the bottom 1/4 tank of fuel can't be used.

[rob love]

-Front driveshaft is prone to seizing (operators fault really for not reading the manual on how to grease the CV joints) resulting in high vibration which cracks the transfer case/transmission mounts
-Fuel filter is located after the fuel pump. Fuel pump has a coarse filter in it, but very little reservoir for sediment collection.
-Original fuel tanks had a non-SMP neck which made refuelling difficult.
-Alternator mounting was poor, resulting in alternators falling off, especially when the larger alternator is installed.
-transmission oil cooler lines very susceptible to leakage, and are a bugger to route.
-Any headwind and the underpowered trucks lose any hope of keeping up with the rest of the convoy.
-Fuel tanks were susceptible to collecting water, and the operators would not drain the bottom of the tanks regularly (read never) resulting in frozen fuel lines in cold weather.
-Did we mention the brakes squeel like a pig being slaughtered?
-Injector pumps were a bugger to do. They were a second line job, but the supply system does not let second line units hold stock. First line units can hold stock, but they are not supposed to change the pump.
-If drivers ran the hose through the cab after the ex to clean it, the electronic boxes located under the cover of the doghouse would act up until the truck dried out. This normally effected the engine and the turn signals.

I could go on and on, but I am tired now.

[Robert Bergeron]

My dear friends. For our collective knowledge, are there interesting features for this truck? How about the spare tire setup? The auxiliary engine heater? Etc...just trying to be fair to the animal. Robert

[rob love]

Are you serious Robert....the spare tire carrier?

Ah yes, the spare tire carrier. Innovative it was.......it was spring loaded to balance out the weight of the tire. Only problem was that if you changed the tire, and did not install the old one on the carrier (for instance you were going to roll it over to maintenance to get it fixed) the carrier would shoot up like a Roman Ballista. Of course, the release lever was towards the bottom of the whole contraption, so your face would be right in the trajectory path. One guy lost an eye during the flood fighting of 97 here in Manitoba...not sure if there were others.

There was of course a yellow bilingual decal warning of the danger of the device located nearby, but these would normally be subdued with camstick for field use. Besides, you just finished changin a tire.....you were just finishing a workout, not reading the sides of trucks.

Within a year or two of that event, there was a modification kit to install a damper shock which would slow the travel of the arm.

The newest version of the engine heater seems to be a lot more effective. The early heaters had a plastic pulley and small belt that were especially prone to failure.

It was nice that they went to a hot hot water type heater for the back of the boxes. They are much more reliable and simple than the fuel fired heaters located in the back of the 5/4 tons. So I'll give the truck that much.

The other positive was the diff lock. That helped the cross country performance and would compensate for the lack of power.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

My 'favorite' problems after converting from M135's were:

The spare tire assembly that, while it did allow for a small framed person to lower and raise the spare, it did so for only for about two months until the mechanisms rusted shut.

The ether cylinder for cold starting. It held enough ether for about two starts but was hard fastened and plumbed to the firewall meaning you couldn't easily replace it even if you had a spare cylinder.

[rob love]

Bruce
We are now talking about the MLVW I presume?

The only real problem we had with the spare tire holder here was that the little rivet on the end of the bar woudl shear off, and of course at the worst possible time. It never happened to me mind you. With a little bit of thought, it wasn't bad to slip the tire up onto the carrier.

I have started the MLVW with only that ether bottle right down to below -20. The problem was that while the machine would be warming up at a barely running engine speed, we humans would run back into the building. 15 minutes later, when we woudl come back out, the truck would be screaming away at max RPM.

The bottle was held in with one clamp, which required a 7/16 wrench if I recall to replace it.

Far too often the bottle was either not there or disconnected. Wel meaning mechanics would disconnect them in the belief that operators woudl hit the ether button to "boost" the trucks at high speed, like something out of mad max. Of course, what they did not know was that the power to the bottle switch came off the starter circuit. Unless the starter was engaged, the switch did nothing.

The mechanics would also disconnect the micro brake for some reason, in the belief the operators woudl use them as a park brake. While they were no good for long term parking, they were good for winching operations. But as soon as the system lost 1 to 3 drops of fluid while engaged, the brakes would start to slip.

I like the MLVW....rugged and simple. They will be 35 to 38 years old by the time they are replaced.