Deuces are for Wooses! M561 & XR311?

I'll admit, I want a Deuce but before that I'd rather have a Gama Goat, so I was just looking at this guys website about his M561 and found out about a XR311. Anyone heard of it?

It's an oversize dunebuggy basically. Rear engine Chrysler 318, 727 trans, FMC built T-case, independent D44 front and rear, Toronado half shafts, Eldorado brakes. Detroit lockers front, center and rear, no low range, 5.38 gears. Never made it past the experimental stage unfortunately. As the testing progressed it got 3.73's and a selectable center locker.

I want one. Looks like the guy is nearby, maybe I should track him down for a test drive! Oh yea, he seems to be German so his writing isn't all that great.

http://www.meisterburg.com/

Chris

I do believe that this was an early entrant into the competition to what has become the HMMWV. I may be wrong, but I DO remember seing pictures of it, and I seem to tie it with the early HMMWV design submissions.

It lost.

Yea, I'm pretty sure it was. They began screwing with these in '69 according to that website. Were they looking to build the high mobility thing that early?

Chris

Maybe the FAV by Chenoweth? Note the balloon tires and lack of appreciable payload capability. Maybe it wasn't the HMMVW but the FAV instead.

Naah, in 69 they were still happy with the M38A1, and had not even begun thinking about replacing the MUTT, I'd think. I'm prolly 2~3 generations ahead of myself.

The 311 was pretty radical for '69, eh?

The XR311 was in the very early design stages for the HMMWV. It was about the late 60s that the army started looking at cost and such. Remember the M715 was a stop gab and no new military vehicle was made for its replacement, but then they went with commircal equipment starting with the dodge M880s. So the xr was the first look at multi roll vehicle...you know it's a jeep, no its a cargo troop truck, no its super truck!
Just my $.02 on the thing.

I recall the Gamagoats were not very much liked in my unit. Nobody wanted to drive the thing. Hot and noisy or cold, wet and noisy. That's when it wasn't broke down. Deuces were much more reliable. The 'goats have appeal and possibly could be made to be better than what they were, anything is possible. I know nothing of the other, so can't comment.

Woose or not, I still want one. Soon I will be the coolest woose in Scappoose... Hey it rhymes!! There you go Doug. :mrgreen:

If you get your hands on a G Goat keep. Restore it to factory condition and don't sell it! They are more rare that M151s. Gov. scrapped them and the dimil on them was to cut them up for parts. So it is an investment if you want to go that road...They are only going to go up in price.

Gamma Goats were too old for my time, but my old mortar section leader talked about them sometimes. He said that nobody liked them because they had a tendancy to roll and also broke down a lot. That is probably why they were demilled instead of sold to the public.
The Govt. also decided not to sell very many M151's/ M151A1's for the same reason. They started out cutting them in half before selling them for scrap. When people started welding them back together. DOD had them cut in four pieces.
It still pains me to be on a range and see all the old trucks, jeeps, etc. being used as targets. I've seen a lot of good vehicles destroyed like that.

I was at a car show and had just parked my truck and some guy walks up and says, "MAN, that brings back memories...(as I'm expecting some story about how his kidneys still hurt or something of that sort)...we had half a dozen of them in the motor pool that we were told to put out on the range for target practice!" Then this dickwad goes on to tell me the fun he had watching them get shredded. I gave him a blank look and replied with, "you're part of the problem pal," and then went into the fairgrounds to the show. I love seeing them push stuff off the decks of ships too. That blows.

The Military and the Govt. do some crazy things that I still don't understand. Just think of all the M-trucks, etc. that were left in Vietnam, Korea and places like that. It is somehow easier to destroy it than to take care it with you.

If you are interested in buying a Gama Goat (runs and drives, has new brakes with new master cyl and $47 worth of DOT 5, almost new NDT tires, etc.) email my roommate: azsharkbait@mac.com It needs a paint job but otherwise is a solid truck. Great fun to drive, less fun to maintain (more zerks than you can count).

Drew,

There's no way I could get one now but for the sake of research, what is he looking to get? The website I posted above ranged from 1500 for a project to near 10G for an almost road worthy driver.

It never occured to me that the drivetrain was so complicated, plus I bet a bunch of the big parts are hard to come by. Oh well, only makes me want one even more.

Chris