U.S. Army 8x8 truck program

[RipSteakface]

In scrolling through the list of U.S. military M-number vehicles, it looks like the Army trialed a large number of 8x8 cargo trucks in the 1950s until the Vietnam War or so. They vary in cargo rating, from 2 1/2 to 10 or so tons, not including oddities like heavy tractors, and some appear to have been developed for some kind of amphibious program? information is rather scarce, but it seems like the only one to enter service was Ford's M656, used by Pershing I missile units. So i'm curious if anyone has anymore information about these or knows what program they belonged to? The ones i've found are:

XM410 and XM410E1, Truck, 2.5 ton, Chrysler -Amphibious truck, View: https://youtu.be/e6B5ezE9WNs, Torqueflite automatic transmission, 361 V8

XM409 Truck, 10-ton, International Harvester

XM357/401 Truck, 4-ton, FWD -One of FWD's Terracruzers with low-pressure rolligon wheels. FWD Model 8-320B were bought by the Navy and Air Force, with the latter using the MM-1 designation for it when used as a specialist missile hauler.

XM453 Truck, 5-ton, GMC-Ford-REO -amphibious

 

[Pioneer]

Intreging RipSteakface, I was oblivious to such capable U.S. designs.
I've always found it odd that the US Army seemingly neglected true cross-country trucks, when compared to the awesome designed and capabilities of the Soviet/Russian Army.
I appreciate that roads and the environmental conditions in the Soviet Union/Russia are auster/rudimentary when compared to the U.S./Western Europe, but still......

Regards
Pioneer

 

[uk 75]

You ve forgotten these

The GOER Truck was a multipurpose vehicle ahead of its time

Today, the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck, or HEMTT, is one of the military's most important but unheralded vehicles. This eight-wheeled behemoth has been around since 1982, but its highly-capable predecessor saw action well before the HEMT…

www.wearethemighty.com

 

[sferrin]

There were other Terracruzer vehicles besides the missile launcher.

The FWD MM-1 Teracruzer

 

[sferrin]

 

[Pioneer]

Found this video on the Lockheed Model 901 Dragon Wagon 8x8 truck program:

View: https://youtu.be/Oz_faXYIItk


Regards
Pioneer

 

[RipSteakface]

Chrysler XM410E1

 

[uk 75]

I have several books which feature large numbers of US go anywhere truck designs from the 50s through to the 80s
But it is amusing to note that the old fashioned looking design won in the end.

M939 series 5-ton 6×6 truck - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Peter Ocker]

Dear friends,

I am looking for any kind of information and pictures on the testing of MAN 8x8 truck that took place from 1978 to 1979 at Aberdeen Proving Ground. There were 2 vehicles, identical to the German Army „10 t gl“ trucks, long wheelbase with rigid platform tested there.

Attention: I don’t talk about the later MAN 27.365 VFAEG vehicles that were uses for PII and GLCM, that are recognizable with a shorter MAN cab and a cooler mesh on the vehicle’s front.

After the testing of the „real German-spec“-trucks, the HEMTT was tendered separately (ending up with the Oshkosh) and the above mentioned MAN 27.365 VFAEG were ordered directly.

I was told that these two test trucks still survive today.

Unfortunately, any efforts to find any expert in the US, was not (yet) successful.

Comments, info or even private emails are much appreciated.

 

[Barbarossa]

The US post early 1950's has preferred tracked vehicles for off-road tank recovery. To recover tanks they use the M88, based on the later Patton chassis. Once a tank is recovered and brought to a road, a high speed road-worthy truck then tows it to repair or whatnot.The US hasn't had really excellent cross-country wheeled vehicles since the GOER and the Gamma-Goat, both articulated vehicles brought to service in the 70s after long gestations dating to the early 60s. There were the XM800 series articulated armored cars that were interesting and capable but too expensive and maintenance intensive to use in any quantity, so they never saw production. The GOERs are actually ill-suited for driving at speed on improved roads because their lack of suspension leads to unacceptable oscillation. The Gamma-Goats were hearing-damaging due to the engine being directly behind the driver and passenger in the lead vehicle. During the later part of WW2, the US experimented with Superheavy tanks and thus thought they'd need extremely capable vehicles to recover and transport the SH tanks, thus the T26 8x8 as a beefed up 'Dragon wagon'. When the SH tanks were canceled, so was the T26. During the late 40's and 50's the US army still felt the need for very heavy wheeled tractors and started the T57/T58 line of 8x8s, which came to nothing when the army really came to terms with the difficulty of navigating big things like 280mm Atomic Annies through German towns, and not being able to transport them on trains traveling on routes with Bern convention freight profiles. Just too much effort at the end of a long supply chain. The US also never depended on an extensive mobile missile system that required fast and rugged transport like the ZIL and Maz chassis could provide for the Soviets. HEMMTs are nice, but not meant to be driven through mud pits.

Intreging RipSteakface, I was oblivious to such capable U.S. designs.
I've always found it odd that the US Army seemingly neglected true cross-country trucks, when compared to the awesome designed and capabilities of the Soviet/Russian Army.
I appreciate that roads and the environmental conditions in the Soviet Union/Russia are auster/rudimentary when compared to the U.S./Western Europe, but still......

Regards
Pioneer

 

[flitzer flash]

Intreging RipSteakface, I was oblivious to such capable U.S. designs.
I've always found it odd that the US Army seemingly neglected true cross-country trucks, when compared to the awesome designed and capabilities of the Soviet/Russian Army.
I appreciate that roads and the environmental conditions in the Soviet Union/Russia are auster/rudimentary when compared to the U.S./Western Europe, but still......

Regards
Pioneer

well if you look into the subject of 8x8 cross country mobility trucks you will see that
the US army had various programsn in late WW@ to trial such designs mainly by pacific, and the cook brothers but they found such designs to be mostly unneccessary due to hhigh proportions of paved roadways in the US, UK , Med, and Europe. wheras the soviets had only mud and very very few roadways..that and the increased complexities and cost to manufacture them..

i own severy midern US military vehicles and i am constantly astounded by the utter lack od skill or craftsmanship that goes into these taxpayer purchased vehicles... from jaggedly cut edges, to out of round opening to completely garbage welds..

the soviet vehicles i have encountered have decent quality in them esp in the welds.

but the Germans also experimented with several 8x8 trucks in WW2 but were the very first country to utilize these platforms in any military capacity.. engineers who were involved in these designs were kidnapped to russia and worked in Gaz, ZiS/ ZiL, BaZ, MaZ, Kutasai..etc which is why those factories had lots of 6x6, 8x8, 10x10...etc platforms.

in fact the germans were heavily involved in the
Ob 19, 560/ 560U, 1200, 1010, 1015, 1020, 1025, 1030, 1035, 1040, 1045,
ZiL-133, ZiL-134, ZiL-135, ZiL-153
BAZ 5920
GAZ-49

 

[Scott Kenny]

HEMMTs are nice, but not meant to be driven through mud pits.

Funny enough, part of the driver's test for the military drivers is to drive through a mud pit and not get their HEMTT stuck.

 

[Barbarossa]

Funny enough, part of the driver's test for the military drivers is to drive through a mud pit and not get their HEMTT stuck.

Yes, but they don't do it on a regular basis in the field. Most US trucks wouldn't be driven thru a bog for instance, whereas in Russia they probably drive through more than a few bogs when actually field deployed. US doctrine is that really bad terrain is left to tracked vehicles and big expensive, maintenance intensive 8x8s aren't in the purchase plan when the manpower force is shrinking like crazy. We couldn't even do Gulf war 1 again.