M-916 Light Equipment Transporter
The Truck, Tractor: 20-Ton, Light Equipment, 6x6, 56,000 GVW M916, M916A1, M916A2, and M916A3 are used primarily with to tow compatible semitrailers -- low bed type M172A1, 25-ton payload and M870, 40-ton payload -- to transport engineer construction equipment in the local, line haul and maintenance evacuation missions on primary, secondary and off-road conditions. They have an on-board winch capable of pulling engineer construction equipment onto the M870 semitrailer. The maximum GCVW, when towing the M870 40-ton semitrailer, is 130,000 pounds. Freightliner delivered more than 1,070 of these vehicles to the Army from 1990 to the 2000s.
The M916 Tractors are employed at the platoon level in essentially all engineer TOEs except ABN/AMBL. The NSNs are:
- M916 LET (NSN 2320-01-028-4396)
- M916A1 LET (NSN 2320-01-272-5028)
- M916A2 LET (NSN 2320-01-431-1163)
- M916A3 LET (NSN 2320-01-488-6962)
Some documents refer to another variant, the M916A3E1 Boat Hauler, but none appear to have been manufactured.
The engine, transmission and other components are shared with the other M915 series trucks.
M916A2 Light Equipment Transporter. Photo courtesy Freightliner LLC.
M916A3 Light Equipment Transporter. Photo courtesy Freightliner LLC.
24th Battalion M916A1 Light Equipment Transporter on railroad flat car, Fort Eustis, VA, 24 February 2002.
After 160 inches of snow, an M916 20-ton tractor of the 827th Engineer Company (NY Army National Guard) joins a convoy to Mexico, NY during Operation Empire Response, 14 February 2007.
Seabees and Army engineers work on an Iraqi airfield with equipment that includes an M-916 tractor with a tanker trailer, 1 May 1991.
