New GXV Expedition Vehicle.

[silvrzuki77]

Awesome rig! Did you source the vehicle yourselves?


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[srqsup]

Awesome rig! Did you source the vehicle yourselves?


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GXV will build on any LMTV variant that the customer brings in. They are super easy to buy at the auction on GovPlanet.com. In fact the auction is today.

 

[silvrzuki77]

Very nice, yeah been watching the prices of the auction recently.


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[srqsup]

Garage getting loaded up

The garage is almost full. Room for two more bikes and a lot more gear.

 

[Bob599]

I have been looking at these for quite a while! Way to make your ideas a reality.

Really impressive looking, did you upgrade the gearing to achieve a higher cruising speed? If you did can it keep up with 70 mph speed limit without redlining the engine?

what kind of MPG do you expect with freeway travel?

thanks!

 

[charlieaarons]

The tires on these type of vehicles are usually rated at 55 miles an hour not 70 miles an hour. Feel economy drops drastically about 55 miles an hour my Unimog has portal gears in the hubs and the FMTV has similar planetary gears in the hubs. My 4x4 U500 gets about 9mpg at 55 to 60 miles an hour. A 6x6 MTV could expected to get 6-7 mpg on the highway.
I drive 55 to 62 miles an hour (when conditions allow) in north America and Australia, never over 55 in Europe and of course slower when conditions demand.
Outside these parts of the world live are very few highways that would allow driving at high speeds.
Charlie

 

[srqsup]

I have been looking at these for quite a while! Way to make your ideas a reality.

Really impressive looking, did you upgrade the gearing to achieve a higher cruising speed? If you did can it keep up with 70 mph speed limit without redlining the engine?

what kind of MPG do you expect with freeway travel?

thanks!

Thank you. The stock military axels allow for a 53mph top end. We changed our the gear carriers to allow a 73mph top end. The truck is very comfortable at 65mph and can run at 70mph without issues.

 

[Bob599]

Thanks for the reply!

I was hoping to hear that. Did you source the gears yourself or did GXV get them for you? Did you do any dressing up of the cab? Dynamat the floor, add air conditioning or cruise?

Sorry for all the questions! I saw you are in Wisconsin. I live in Hartland, any chance you will have the truck on display anywhere?

Thanks again.

 

[charlieaarons]

Thank you. The stock military axels allow for a 53mph top end. We changed our the gear carriers to allow a 73mph top end. The truck is very comfortable at 65mph and can run at 70mph without issues.

Please be cognizant that there have been 3 serious accidents involving U500s all caused by rear tire blowouts (involving 3 deaths!!) out of less than 300 sold in North America. I suspect all have been related to high loads and high speeds possibly over the rated speeds. I don't know what the rated speed is for the Goodyears but be careful regarding inflation pressures, loads and speeds. Especially in warm/hot weather.
Charlie

 

[762X39]

The tires on these type of vehicles are usually rated at 55 miles an hour not 70 miles an hour.

It is funny (no it isn't really) that this fact is overlooked so often.Just because you changed the gearing doesn't mean you should run at higher speeds.

 

[Bob599]

I have done a lot of research on Steel Soldiers and it may surprise you that there are quite a few tires for these vehicles that are rated past 70 MPH including the Michelin XZL's.

 

[charlieaarons]

I have done a lot of research on Steel Soldiers and it may surprise you that there are quite a few tires for these vehicles that are rated past 70 MPH including the Michelin XZL's.

Yes I know there are racing 14.00R20 XZLs rated at 140kph. Can you buy them? Name another 14.00R20 or 395/85R20 that is "rated past 70 mph".
Charlie

 

[Bob599]

Sadly no, I do remember I was very surprised when one of the other steel soldiers forum members posted the information direct from Michelin. Of course it was load dependent, and they were talking about the XZL 53" tire. I am aware of your experience regarding this but the posted charts showed the tires were rated much higher than all of us thought.

Dont want to start a fight or hi jack the thread. I will continue to look for the information we all know Extraordinary claims require Extraordinary evidence.

 

[Keyne]

Wow! Congrats! Awesome to see someone get what they wanted (e.g. all the toy storage). Great next step from your OSV Sprinter. Hope you love it.

Loved your Sprinter Blog so excited to follow your future journey. Whats the shakedown trip?

 

[HowardH]

something else to consider. everything about the truck; size, weight, engine power and power band, transmission gearing, tire size, everything is designed around a design parameter of a 58 MPH top speed. My truck LMTV I've put about 5000 miles on works wonderfully at speeds of 55 and less. I've seriously considered higher gearing but the more I use my truck the more I question the wisdom of it.

As some point, when considering significant design changes, you must consider a design change involving a totally different platform.