Fatal flaw

[Mogman]

I can see one fatal flaw that is pretty obvious, when the FAV originally was built it had a rather small peanut fuel tank and no rack behind the seats.
The original design was a desert racer so it was supposed to be moving and moving pretty fast all the time, unlike most military vehicles.

So originally it would have some air flow across the external oil cooler, the original bug engine had an oil cooler in the fan shroud so it was in the air flow of the cooling fan all the time, that was eliminated when they installed the external cooler/filter.

After the large fuel tank and rack were installed there is no longer any air flow across the external oil cooler, certain death for an air cooled engine (most air cooled engines should more correctly be called air/oil cooled)

I of course am not the first to see this as the previous owner of my FAV installed a fan on the oil cooler, this is a must have item without a redesign of the oil cooler placement.

The former owner turned the cooler around and put the fan on the rear side of the cooler, I will turn it back around and install a smaller high performance fan on the front of the cooler where it will be less noticeable.

EDIT, so the stories of blowing one motor after another may not be too exaggerated, it looks like a colossal engineering failure.

 

[KS_Patriot]

Good points. I'm old enough to remember when they called the first civilian iterations "dune buggies"

 

[NEIOWA]

The biggest problems with the rigs is the grunts who don't have to carry it will load on to any vehicle they have everything/anything that will physically fit to include TWO kitchen sinks. MIGHT need it. Would work in a M113 (or even HMMWV) but on with a FAV. I wish I recalled the airload weight we used for them. You'd be shocked.

The FAVs were massively overloaded when we went to the field. Even if we had not loaded on 50cal/TOW with ammo. I was in a CAB-H Bn 9ID and our Bn Scout Plt had about 10x. The Light Attack Bns (LABs) 2/1Inf and 3/60Inf had dozens of them in their "line" Co. Each FAV went thru multiple high $ engines on every FTX. Bn Motor pool mechanics were very busy changing engines between FAV and CUCV. 9ID used Dodge CUCV ambulances for surrogate TAC/TOC/ALOC command post vehicles as Armor used M557. Also HUGELY overloaded they deployed to Yakima on a hook or flatbed. Both went thru an average of 3 engines per 20day FTX.

Edit Jan2024
For an official DA history of 9ID during the Motorized days see:

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA370233

Includes a discussion on the use/misuse of the FAV.

 

[Guyfang]

In the early 70's, almost all the Army Kaserne in Germany had a race track. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the race was on. 99.99% of the cars were bugs, and we found that making the #3 jug valves a tad looser, reduced the engine failures. The #3 jug was always the one to fail. I think if I dug around, maybe I still have all the notes we wrote up to keep us straight on engine stuff. I seem to remember, the location of the Alternator/fan, was not 100% right, and #3 always got less cooling air. An old VW Master mechanic was our pit crew chief, and knew his stuff.

 

[Mogman]

The biggest problems with the rigs is the grunts who don't have to carry it will load on to any vehicle they have everything/anything that will physically fit to include TWO kitchen sinks. MIGHT need it. Would work in a M113 (or even HMMWV) but on with a FAV. I wish I recalled the airload weight we used for them. You'd be shocked.

The FAVs were massively overloaded when we went to the field. Even if we had not loaded on 50cal/TOW with ammo. I was in a CAB-H Bn 9ID and our Bn Scout Plt had about 10x. The CAB-L Bns had dozens of them in their "line" Co. Each FAV went thru multiple high $ engines on every FTX. Bn Motor pool mechanics were very busy changing engines between FAV and CUCV. 9ID used Dodge CUCV ambulances for surrogate TAC/TOC/ALOC command post vehicles as Armor used M557. Also HUGELY overloaded they deployed to Yakima on a hook or flatbed. Both went thru an average of 3 engines per 20day FTX.

Well they would have lasted longer with an effective oil cooler especially when overloaded, oil cooling is as important as the air cooling, the oil takes away tons of heat from the heads on these engines for one thing, that is why VW had an effective oil cooler to begin with, no doubt removing the cooler that was in the air stream from the fan and installing an external cooler that ended up not having any airflow through it was a colossal engineering failure.

 

[Crapgame]

Example here, a 2 man CSC TOW Section FAV. So we have the FAV, its associated BII and spares in ammo cans in the side bins.
2 40mm Grenade 50rd Cans for stowage (and as jack stands for changing tires).
3 each BTM-71B TOW Missile in Transport/Launch Tubes.
1 ea 5 gallon Fuel Can
1ea 5 gallon Water Can
2ea LC-2 Rucksack, Large,with Frame- fully loaded IAW BN packing List and Bag, Sleeping, Fart-Sack-type.
2ea A-Bag with extra seasonal clothing, boots, sleeping bag, etc
2ea Soldier, Light Fighter-type
2ea Helmet, Ballistic Protection, Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops-type PASGT
2ea LC-2 Load Bearing Equipment Harness (1ea Belt, Equipment; 2ea Pouch, Rifle Magazine 30rd x 3; 1ea Case, Field Dressing; 1ea Case, Compass w/Lensatic Compass; 1ea Bayonet, M9; 2ea Cover, Canteen, 1 Quart, Plastic, with Cup and 1 stove stand); 1ea Carrier, Entrenching Tool with 3-Fold, Entrenching Tool; LC-2 Suspenders, Load Bearing; 1ea Field Pack, Training (aka Butt Pack) -Either worn by soldier or secured in/on FAV
2ea Mask, Field, Chemical Protective M17A2 in Carrier, Field-To be worn on Soldiers' right hip at all times in field conditions (in this case both occupants have secured the M17A2 pro masks in their carriers to the A Pillars somehow, for immediate access, in disobeyance of Bn orders. (wear of the pro mask carrier on the right hip by the Driver particularly had the effect of activating the Cutting Brake Lever, causing the vehicle to spin out or even flip then rollover multiple times)

Then I Ass-U-Me the soldiers' B-Bag Dufflebags would be kept at the Bn Trains area with the Company Supply Section, access to the soldiers as needed.

This is typical of Big Army adopting a piece of equipment then overburdening that said piece of equipment beyond the doctrinal use it was acquired for, FAV, HMMWV, USMC Growler all being examples of fine pieces of equipment that when used in actual field conditions, ended up failing because they were overloaded.