M715 series of 1 1/2 ton trucks from the 'Gladiator' by the Kaiser Jeep Corporation

With the initiation of a US Army study called Special Analysis of Wheeled vehicles aka WHEELS large numbers of commerercial designs began to enter the inventory in place of specially-built vehicles. The Kaiser Jeep 'Gladiator' and the later AM General 'Cherokee' were amongst these. Versions based on the 'Cherokee' were mainly used by the USAF. Development of the M715 series of 1 1/2ton trucks from the 'Gladiator' by the Kaiser Jeep Corporation started in 1965. They were designed to replace the Dodge M37 Dodge M37 series trucks which had been in military service since 1951. The M715 was the first 'M' series tactical vehicle to use primarily civilian commercial components. The first contract was awarded to Kaiser Jeep on March 21, 1966 for 20,680 examples of M715 cargo and M725 ambulance versions at approximately $4,400 per truck. They were delivered between January, 1967 and May, 1969. By the end of production over 30,500 examples had been produced for the US military. In December, 1969, 43 prototypes of an improved M715 were ordered by the Army, these being in competion with the Chevrolet XM705 truck design. In the end neither model was selected by the Army and the M715 trucks were phased out of military service in the mid 1970's and replaced by the CUCV series. In 1978 AM General offered the AM-715, which was similar to the M-715. The primary differences were a 131" wheelbase, civilian front fenders, drop center wheels, modified brush guard, smaller fuel filler neck and lift shackles placed on the outside of the front bumper. This truck was never used by the US military but was purchased by some foreign governments.
The Gladiator, later renamed to J-series, was Jeep’s base pickup truck for many years; starting with the 1963 model year, replaced the practically un-named “Jeep Pickup Truck” (model FA-134). Kaiser Jeep created the Gladiator alongside the new Wagoneer luxury off-road wagon starting in 1959, sharing some common engineering; former Jeep engineer Bob Sheaves wrote that the first Gladiator mule came alive around May 1960, three months after the first Wagoneer, and used a live axle/Hotchkiss suspension. Some early Gladiators appear to have had an independent front suspension with the 4x4 setup, similar to Wagoneer, but Mr. Sheaves believes that few, if any, were made this way.
Transmission T-98a 6.32:1 "granny" low gear, Transfer case NP200, 1.91:1 ratio low range,, Front axle Dana 60, Rear axle Dana 70, full floating.
AM General was founded in 1967 by Kaiser-Jeep corporation, as the Defense and Government Products Division. When AMC purchased Kaiser-Jeep, they realized how important that Kaiser's former Defense and Government Products Division could be. So, in March of 1971, it was renamed AM General. This offshoot of AMC had its headquarters in Wayne, Michigan, and its production facilities located in the old Studebaker plant in South Bend, Indiana. Over the years, AM General/Kaiser Defense and Government Products Division has produced many vehicles including buses, postal jeeps, and the more famous military vehicles such as the M151 MUTT, the M715/AM715/AM720, deuce and a half trucks, 5 ton trucks, and many others. But perhaps their most famous vehicle is the Humvee, which has been produced for the armed forces as well as the civilian market, Among other things, this page will cover the history of the Humvee, it's competitors in the 1981 US Army search for a HMMWV or High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, the M715/AM715/AM720, and other vehicles produced by this company. Delmar G. Roos called Brooks Stevens to Toledo to discuss some exploration of his idea of "The Postwar Car." The first two-loor, first all metaf rugged station wagon was designed and a family of civilian Jeep vehicles evolved.

Dodge M37 The Dodge M37 (G-741) was a three-quarter ton four-wheel drive truck. It superseded the Dodge WC-51, WC-52 and WC-54 trucks in US service and was used extensively by the United States armed forces during the Korean war. A number of variants were produced with slightly different configurations: the M42 command truck, V41 telephone maintenance vehicle, M43 ambulance, M152 enclosed utility truck, and R2 air field fire engine. The 3/4 ton rated M-37 family of trucks were built by Dodge as the first M-series 3/4 ton truck, the successor to the G-502 WC 3/4 ton family of trucks used in WW II and Korea.	JEEP M715 , AM General XM715 prototype XM715 ~ Series prototype.	Jeep Wagoneer . Brooks Stevens designed the Jeep Wagoneer, which was introduced for 1963 by Willys-Jeep. This model was so popular that it was offered in basically the same form by Jeep's subsequent owners, including Kaiser Jeep, AMC, and finally Chrysler, until 1991. "Delmar G. Roos called Brooks Stevens to Toledo to discuss some exploration of his idea of "The Postwar Car." The first two-loor, first all metaf rugged station wagon was designed and a family of civilian Jeep vehicles evolved."

Внедорожные траспортные средства (Land Locomotion – Mechanical Vehicle Mobility LL-MVM) Home