XM282 picture from REO Archives at Michigan State University

The online diary of the efforts to document and restore the REO XM282

XM282 as it looked when I first looked at it, left front view

In September 1997 I was informed of a prototype vehicle that was for sale in Mid-Michigan. It was supposed to have been manufactured by the REO Corporation of Lansing, MI but no one knew much more than that.
The history of this truck, according to the farmer who owned it, is that it had been sold as a cab/chassis by a REO engineer in the late 1950's or early 1960's to a small, private airport north of Lansing in DeWitt, MI. The airport had used the vehicle to push a snowplow on its runways until the facility was closed in the late 1960's. The next stop, was to a farm near St. Louis, MI. The farmers rigged the cab/chassis with a grain box and utilized the vehicle at harvest time for nearly thirty years until they retired and sold their equipment at public auction in the summer of 1997. The auctioneer purchased the truck for himself, with intentions of using it as a parade vehicle, but later decided it would be too much work. This is where I enter the picture and after going to look at it and striking an agreement with the auctioneer, he delivered it to my home a week later.

XM282 as found, head-on view According to Fred Crismon in his book "U.S. Military Wheeled Vehicles" on page 392, the truck is designated as a five ton 8x8 and the first one was assembled in 1953 with two more assembled following that with different specifications for body and frame materials as well as transmission type. Following this the first two were modified to create the final two variations for a total of five variations created.
XM282 in auctioneers field, right front view This variation has a gasoline six-cylinder engine, five-speed manual transmission, steel cab, and sits on 11:00x20 tires. It appears to have been insulated for extreme cold weather testing and is only slightly modified for farm use with most of the original instruments and equipment in place. It has had its original power steering replaced with an International Harvester system from the late 1960's or early 1970's.
In January of 1998 I made a trip to Michigan State University and spent some time in their archives going through the records of the REO Corporation. It will probably take several more trips to thoroughly go through them, but some interesting information was located. It was found out that this truck was part of a proposed family of vehicles based on a common chassis. These included 8x8 cargo trucks (armored & soft cabs), armored personnel carriers, and armored scout vehicles; along with 8x4 cargo, and tractor versions. This was taken from a chart of the proposed vehicle family and a drawing of the proposed armored personnel vehicle. These may be viewed by following the links to either the chart, or the drawing. It appears, at this time, that only the 8x8 soft cab cargo trucks were assembled for testing.

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