Life with an LVT(4)

Tom bought the vehicle in 1991, and he told me that he really wasn’t looking for an LVT. The opportunity just presented itself and the timing was right. A friend of a friend saw it on the lot of an excavation company. The guy had used it in constructing an island in a pond at Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village, but it had sat ever since with trees growing up all around.  It wasn’t running and had rusted badly. “We went and checked it out and I had it trucked back home,” he said.

The engine was seized, and most of the sheet metal had rusted through, especially the floor. Many people thought it would never run again, and for a while, he almost agreed. “I was lucky to find a guy in Texas,” he said, “who had a new, never-used engine for sale”. It came mounted on a stand, which was also very handy.  

It took six weeks of intense work to make the LVT operational, and the better part of the year to finish. And it was beautiful. But once finished, how could you move a vehicle like that, and where would you store it?  Weighing 29,000 lbs., and measuring 28 feet in length, it won’t fit in an ordinary garage.  Well, it helped to have friends with an excavation business, and Tom himself used to own a small excavation company, and had heavy equipment experience, so that did make things easier. His friend with the excavating company moved it for him over long distances using a semi with a goose-neck trailer, and Tom also had a military 5-ton with trailer that he used for shorter distances. Tom had a collection of close to 20 running military vehicles, and built a 30 x 60-foot building to house them. He actually would leave the LVT on the trailer, and pull the whole rig inside for storage. Convenient!  With an air-cooled radial engine vehicle, winterization wasn’t required. However, he told me that he did make sure to hose it down very well, and pull the drain plugs to release any water that may have accumulated over the summer.

How about maintenance? The vehicle uses a Continental W-670A9 7-cylinder radial engine. It has duel ignition with two magnetos, and although the engine was used in Stearman and Waco biplanes, the LVT engines were produced on different assembly lines from aircraft engines, and were literally not certified for aircraft use. The entire engine can be removed in about 2 1/2 hours, and the manual calls for the engine to be removed to change the spark plugs. However, Tom said it was actually easier to change the 14 plugs with the engine in place, but that generally took about eight hours. 

Originally, the LVT had three rubber bladder gas tanks that held 161 gallons total. Of course, they were shot when he got the vehicle, so he ended up replacing them with one 60-gallon stainless steel tank that he had custom made. The LVT got 1.6 miles per gallon on land and a whopping six-tenths of a mile per gallon in the water, and he estimated he went through a couple of gallons of oil in a busy weekend of use.

Spare parts are always a concern for the military vehicle owner. Tom noted that the LVT had an engine common to Sterman and Waco aircraft, so engine parts were readily available. Again, these engines aren’t certified for aircraft use, and the only parts from them that can be used in an aircraft are the actual cylinders, so while the cylinders are expensive, all of the other parts have little other use, and are therefore fairly cheap and easy to get. Running gear parts, especially the bottom rollers, are extremely hard to find, however.

Besides the engine, there are lots of other things that can break, and usually the timing is poor. At an MVPA national convention, the LVT experienced some transmission problems. The screen became clogged and needed cleaning, which requires detaching the drive sprockets and removing the transmission and differential. The top of the cab actually unbolts, and the trans would typically be lifted out through there. The manual says to remove the sprockets, but as Tom said, “there was no way they were coming off... It ended up that we didn’t have to, and we learned several other things that would make the job easier if it ever had to be done again.”

At another show, the ramp cable broke. At first Tom thought it had snapped, but it was discovered that the cable just slipped out of the retaining clamp. Luckily, a front loader tractor was handy, and was used to lift the ramp while the cable was re-attached. The entire repair only took about 40 minutes to complete.

The tracks on the LVT are a special design. They are made of an alloy weighing only a couple pounds a link, and each one has a cup or flap that acts as a paddle in the water. When it comes to fixing or working on a broken track, “I thought it would be real tough, but it is actually easier to fix the track on the LVT than it is on a bulldozer,” Tom said.  The vehicle is maneuvered to a position where the bad track is accessible, and the two pins are knocked out.  The link is then replaced and the track put back together. “My biggest fear is breaking and loosing a track in the water. I actually use a GPS unit while in the water, so if a track breaks, I can mark the spot and know exactly where to retrieve it,” he said. It never happened, but if it did, getting back to shore would have been a real challenge.

Looking at those tracks I wondered how the LVT could be driven on anything besides dirt or sand. Tom informed me that it really wasn’t as bad as you might think. It would mark up asphalt, but wouldn’t tear it up unless it was very soft. Obviously, turning was the roughest on the ground. He said that he typically carried 25-foot sections of conveyer belt to drive on if he was concerned. “That works pretty well,” he said with a smile.

Having heavy equipment experience really helped in learning how to operate the vehicle, but how hard is it to drive? Tom insisted that it was actually pretty easy.  The transmission is a manual 5-speed, so you have the clutch, the gear shift, and the two break levers — one for each track side. “On land” he said, “you are pretty much only using first and second gear. Once you are floating, I shift it into fourth gear.”  He found that fifth gear is basically useless in the water, as is reverse, because the gearing just doesn’t work well. 

The hardest part was starting the engine. Like a radial engine-powered airplane, the engine needs to be pulled through before starting to get the oil out of the bottom cylinders. A hand crank is used for this, which needs to be turned 50 revolutions before starting. If the 50 turns can’t be finished, then you need to remove the spark plugs from the bottom cylinder to drain the oil, and then resume the process after reinstalling the plugs.  

Unlike your typical military vehicle, this beast is designed to do it in the water, but I wondered if he was a bit apprehensive the first time he took the plunge. Tom kind of laughed and told me that he was a little nervous. He said that he was planning on testing it in a pond someone had dug, but got to thinking that the pond dropped off fast and was over 20 feet deep. If there was a problem, it could be real bad, so he ended up testing it on the beach at Galveston, Texas. He figured the gentle slope of the beach would be a lot safer. “I backed it in and I soon realized that I was floating!” Of course, with salt water, it’s important to thoroughly wash the vehicle down with fresh water after use.  

The most difficult or labor-intensive part of operating the LVT was cranking up the ramp. “I don’t even know how many cranks are required, but I know it’s too many”, he laughed. “I got tired of doing it so I eventually rigged up an electric motor to make it easier.” The trick was getting the gearing right. He also told me that when he was talking with a veteran one time, he told him that they had found an easier way to lift the ramp.  They simply backed up into the surf, and the ramp would float up, making it much easier to crank up. Any water that got in was easily handled by the bilge pump, which is driven by a shaft off of the engine, and can pump 450 gallons per minute. The LVT was also equipped with a manual pump, which was rated at 35 gallons per minute; however, Tom removed his because it leaked, and since he never really goes far from shore, he figured that he could always make it back in if he had a problem. 

In one of the best twists of fate imaginable, Tom and his LVT were involved in the making of the Clint Eastwood movie, “Flags of Our Fathers”.  “I have to say that being involved with the Clint Eastwood movie project was the most incredible experience that I have ever had,” he recalled. “The producers contacted the D-Day Museum to find vehicles, and since I had done events for them, they passed on my information. I actually got the call while at a show at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. I was just getting out of the shower, and my buddy yells, ‘Hey some guy from Hollywood wants to talk to you about your LVT!’  I said, ‘Yeah right’! I thought he was kidding!” Well, he wasn’t.  

When they got down to discussing terms, Tom’s major concern was that he would operate his own vehicle, and everyone agreed. They sent a truck to pick up the LVT, and after he loaded it up, the whole thing was driven onto a ship and delivered to Iceland. The scenes were shot in Iceland because of the black sand, and in total Tom was there for seven weeks, from July to September. Filming ran for four weeks, with the other three used for prep. There were five other LVTs, and most of those required work to get in shape to use, some more than others. One even needed its engine replaced. There was a master mechanic on staff, but he was occupied with preparing the six Higgins boats, so it fell to Tom to get the LVTs ready. Tom said the mechanic was fantastic, and if Tom ran into trouble, he was available to help out. They guaranteed pay for a 60-hour work week, but 80 hours a week was more typical. “I ended up working myself to exhaustion, but I loved ever minute of it!” Tom exclaimed. “Working with Clint Eastwood was fabulous. He was very quiet, but grinned with appreciation when riding in the LVT. He told me that he had never done that before and that it was really cool!  Everyone was so professional and it was obvious how important it was to stay on schedule, but what was also obvious was the respect and admiration the crew had for Clint. They would, and often did, move mountains for him.  

“I have to say that the most rewarding experience of owning the LVT is the doors that it has opened, and the people and veterans that I have met through owning the vehicle. The stories from veterans, and the emotional reactions that I have experienced have been incredible. I remember one gentleman telling me that the last time he rode on one of these was when he landed on Iwo Jima. The look on his face was very telling.  Of course, the looks I have received from boaters while cruising down stream have been pretty interesting also!”  

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