Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives M151 MUTT Anybody?

I saw one of these in what appeared to be pristine condition on the back of a trailer this last weekend..

I am not sure which version it was or whether is was in running order, but it was painted up to resemble a Vietnam era vehicle..

Out side of Military collectors/re-enactors, we don't see many in the UK and I have never seen one being driven on the public roads, never mind being used off road..

Just wondering if anybody here has any first hand experience with them perhaps while serving in the US Military?

Given that the MUTTs were of unibody construction and had independent suspension instead of the more usual rigid axles, I wondered how they stacked up against say a stock CJ5 or CJ7 off road?

I know the early MUTTS had a reputation for roll overs when driven on the highway, but more interested how they performed off road?

we had one attached to our Med Unit in the early 80s... when we use to have to go to camp, etc... we drew straws and the loser had to drive " the Jeep"....

ours was a low mileage rig, but was still a POS....used a quart of oil just parked in the parking lot for the week...

wee had a couple of 3/4 Dodges, one was a pick up version and the other had an ambulance box on the back... 78 Models... definitely a lot more reliable than "the Jeep"....

in Washington NG we had Gamma Goats...those were some pretty tough vehicles... we use to abuse the crap out of them and they never hiccupped...

My experience with the Gamma Goat is pretty limited and I've never driven one but I can say that it's a sad situation to have to wear ear muffs just to drive down the road. They HAD to have had some way to quiet those things down.

As far as the Jeep goes, with millions of civilian cars on the road with very adequate hot water heaters, why did the military have come up with that abortion of a noisy gas fired heater? I'm told that some did have water heaters but we never saw any of them.

Those Gamma Goats were so cool... especially the medical ones we had in the WA/NG....

I learned to drive a manual with one of these the first time I was in the Army. I got to 3rd ACR in late 87 and they still had them. Going off what I can remember I'd judge them about the equal of a stock CJ-5
I drove one all over NTC and it did fairly well.

When I was stationed at Fort Riley, KS, with the 1st ID (Mech) in the early 1980s, the engineer platoon assigned to our Infantry Battalion had M113s and a Gamma Goat for the Platoon Leader or Platoon Sergeant to haul logistics with. I always thought that they were a loud POS, always breaking down. Our support platoon had GOER ammo and fuel carriers, another break down prone POS. I left before they got upgraded to the Bradley IFVs and the HEMTT logistics vehicles.