[Milsurplus] 12v -- 24v Vehicle Power

[Ray Fantini]

There are almost a endless supply of Chevy M-1009 CUCV and M-1008 Pickups on Government Liquidators web site, and always several on EBay. I have seen them for sale at Gilbert and Aberdeen for as low as $2,000.00 and good condition drivable and titled for $4,500.00 and up and would have to say that if you want a truck for you radios that would be a good choice instead of trying to retrofit a civilian vehicle. They already have 24 volt systems, many have the radio mounts and holes for external antenna mounts. Interesting note about the M-1009 is that they have two alternators in series along with the two batteries in series but the engine control system is 12 volts so there is a big resistor on the fire wall that provides 12 volts from the 24 volt bus so they did not use the output of one battery. On the subject of parallel batteries I had a 1985 Chevy Box van that I bought from DRMO that used the same 6.2L diesel in a 12 volt system and it used two batteries in parallel with two cables between them, no diodes or nothing. Other Chevy diesels I have seen are the same way.
Ray Fantini