CCKW History: M211?

[jhscpa]

According to Krause Publications, Military Vehicles, The M211 was GMC's post-war 6x6. the M211 was introduced prior to the M35's etc. Does any body have pictures and/or history about the M211?

[armydriver]

There are generally at least a couple of M211's for sale on Ebay under the military vehicle section. Most of the time they are not too costly , even though they are part of our military history. It appears that major problem stemmed from the Allison automatic transmission that was in the truck. Joel probably can shed more light on these than anyone else on the site.

[joel gopan]

Actually the M-211 was part of the design competition with Studebaker to create a new Military Standard 6X6, the M-34/M-35 (Called the Eager Beaver, it starred in the Movietone Newsreels at the theaters around 1952 featuring its ability to run under 7' of water) and M-135/M211 were a result of that competition. M-211 did not show up until a year after the single tired M-135. Latest M-211 is 1956, M-135 is 51-53. They replaced the CCKW, M-211 types served mostly stateside, except for Korea. They were sent to Europe, ans recalled, as the truck did not hold up well in high speed use. The M-Series GNC was more common in Guard units, but were used by active Army in many units. By 68, the M-Series GMC was pretty well out of active Army units, but lasted into early 20s in Guard and reserves. They are a maintenance nightmare with 12 Wheel cylinders and transmissions that are troublesome. In its prime, a well tuned M-135 could out run a 6 Cylinder Chevrolet car from a standing start to nearly 60MPH. Some Army Driving schools required the driver to sound off the application clutches and bands as the Hydromatic Transmission shifted. They are famous for a rapid 1-2 shift followed by a slam as it skips 3rd speed and goes right to 4th speed. The sequence coes something like this;
1. Front Band, Rear Band
2. Front Band, Rear Clutch
3. Front Clutch, Rear Band
4. Front Clutch, Rear Clutch

The Torque converter as we know it today was called the Torus Assembly. and the transmission had weak points, as Reverse in High Range was geared too high, and would over load the rear cone clutch, causing most untrained drivers to just keep stepping on the gas when they should use Low range to back up. A real dog of a truck to maintain and get parts for.
Joel

[joel gopan]

A little tidbit, Charles Wilson was secretary of Defense under President Eisenhower, he was formerly President of General Motors. I was during Wilson's term as SECDEF that these "almost" OK trucks were procured.
Joel

[dr deuce]

The tranny oil cooler is in the transmission and supplied with coolant from the engine. If you did not drain the tranny cooler when winterizing the engine, you would probably freeze the cooler and then have water/anti in the tranny.

If you compare the M211 tranny to a 1940 Cady transmission, they are almost identical except for the rear high-low range assy.

There are also two different rebuilding kits for them: Original so that the tranny uses 10W motor oil like the original or the newer kits that have seals for ATF.

The Canadians standarized on them rather than the M35s