Memorial Day interviews

[militarypotts]

First let me say Happy Memorial Day everyone, and especially the vets out there. Sorry I'm a little late.
The M715 got some great publicity yesterday. ABC News and Fox News asked me to come out at 6am before the parade at 9:30am in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Did the interviews, while in fatigues I might add, with my truck standing tall in the background.
My daughter in law put it all on Facebook. Not sure if all of you can find it there. I don't know much about Facebook. First time in 63 years I've been on TV, and then it's twice in one day! It was all over those two news stations all day yesterday. Pretty exciting to say the least.
Parade went well until 2 blocks from the end. 5 servicemen marching behind me said "This truck is going to finish this parade today!" and they pushed me the last 2 blocks. That is true veteran commaradarie.
Parades can be hard on these trucks and I believe it may have been vapor lock. It started right up after the ending ceremony for fallen soldiers, and ran perfect the rest of the way home.
I thought maybe also the cylinders loaded up with fuel due to the slow speed of the truck while in the parade.
Anyone have any other ideas as to why it wouldn't accelerate when I stepped on the gas pedal? It was about 80/85 degrees out, so it was pretty warm.

[fishtail]

Classic case of vapor lock.

Scott

[militarypotts]

Thanks for confirming Scott. It's about all I could think of. Was the reason for this, the slow driving in hot weather, stopping and starting to move about 25 times during the parade?
Any way to control vapor lock? 4th of July will be two parades and most likely even warmer.

[kwai]

were you in low range? Could make a difference since you wouldn't be idling along. Lockout hubs would help in low range.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[militarypotts]

The thought of shifting the transfer case did cross my mind, but it seemed a little extreme. I think it was Barrman that said earlier that stock M715's are notorious for vapor lock because of lines running so close to the exhaust manifold, which seems dangerous in its own right.

[Blitz]

You are on it Militarypotts.

I tried to answer you here:

Fuel pump questions

[Barrman]

I am not the only one that has stated the vapor lock issue. Kwai is correct though that low range really helps in parades. I did my first parade in hi and had engine temp along with vapor lock issues. I ran them all in low range from then on until the swap to diesel. I even run the gasser M35 in low range in parades. Try low range next time. Then, don't turn it off until you are sure you will be leaving it off for at least 30 minutes.

[Beast]

I run all my trucks in low range first gear or second gear depending on the marching speed of the parade. For Memorial Day with all the older vets marching it makes for a slower pace so low first gear and letting the truck idle is about perfect speed. That way you are not hard on the clutch starting and stopping so much. Also leaving a little bit extra of a gap between vehicles allows for you a more consistant pace as the vehicles around you that can not run that low of a pace, start and stop. Luckily I have not had any vapor lock problems while running like this in parades. At a low idle my M715 or M725 do not seam to make a ton of heat. The only time mine has vapor locked was after driving it hard for a period of time and then trying to restart right after shutting it off. But after a few minutes of cooling off it fired right back up and drove fine.

Here are a few pics of our parade here in Hart Michigan.
My fleet ready to head out.

[jeepdan]

Very nice stable of vehicles Dave.
How do you find enough trustworthy drivers?

[militarypotts]

Dave, those are some fine photo's. Hope the parade sponsors appreciate the effort you put forth, putting all those vehicles on the road at the same time. You should be very proud.