I am looking for a photo of the top of an XM734. All my research books are mostly side shots of the M113 conversion due to the gun ports. But I have found some conflicting info about the rear hatch on the top and how it looks. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

According to this picture I've just came across, there seems to be an extra ventilator on the top hatch (probably to extract the extra fumes from the extra guns ) :

More pics here : http://www.intlrepo-depo.com/sales.htm

HTH
Frenchy

See if the pics on my site will help: XM734/M113A1

Chris "toadman" Hughes
Toadman's Tank Pictures

Toadman your site has been very helpful. I have been looking at those pics for most of my research. The same with the site you sent me Frenchy. Thanks both of you. What I am trying to get a look at is in Frenchy's photo you see how the hatch is resting on a bracket of some sort. Any more help would be great. Again thanks guys.

I think that these 2 brackets are simply inverted U-shaped metal strips welded to the hatch to prevent the extra ventilator to touch the hull top when the hatch is open. These 2 parts rest on 2 standard "stoppers" fitted with a conical piece of rubber (same as those you can find on almost all M113 variants (at least those which are fitted with a rear top hatch ...) Australian M113s which are fitted with a ventilator housing on their hatch have a similar modification, but the setup is different...

Frenchy

Thanks again Frenchy. I get the brackets on the hatch your discription sounds right. Now as for the resting bumpers I will take a look at some fitters and other conversions and see if I have a top photo. Thanks again. JDM