(updated 9/23/2025) You already know why I’m drawn to this Studebaker M15 posted at the Cohort by safe as milk/wooriegi. And a full one-tonner, no less. Based on my overloading formula, I could haul three tons of gravel in this baby. Very slowly, that is. Studebaker’s quite delightful new M-Series trucks that appeared in 1941 and were built through 1948 were all powered by the little Champion six; 170 cubes (2.8 L) and 80 horsepower (except the 1½ ton M16, which rated the 226 inch six). But there were other compensations that make this a very appealing truck.
Studebaker was struggling in the latter thirties, and that included their truck line. The brilliant compact 1939 Champion was a success, and generated enough profits to tool up a new line of trucks for 1941. And Studebaker did that quite rationally, using as much of the Champion’s pieces as possible.
That included a direct transplant of the Champ’s dash, resulting in one of the finer truck dashes of the era.
The bed is steel, which surprises me somewhat. Wood was much more typical, with Chevy trucks keeping the planks all the way through 1966 (Update: wood was still available longer, optionally on the widebed, and standards on the Stepside beds)
Being a one-tonner, this M15 has serious axles and wheels, the kind that are designed to be used as duals on the back. In the stake-bed version, that’s what would have been used.
Where does its particularly well-designed cab come from? The studios of Raymond Loewy, who’s firm had the contract with Studebaker for many years. Like the Champ, these trucks are quite compact, which was a primary objective for Loewy. The little side-valve six might have been a bit undersized, but it was a sweet-running mill. And with the right gearing; well, 45 mph might have been about top speed for this one. If that.
That’s some pretty good-sized running gear under that rig. I’m reminded of the Studebaker 6×6 army truck my father had – it had a dump box on it, and was slow but dependable and a good hauler. Once I used it to pick up rocks and sticks from a field we’d just leveled…found out that if someone sat in it and steered, it would go at a walking pace at idle in first gear and I could keep up with it.
I had a real ah-ha moment with that truck. I was hauling a bulldozer blade from one job to another, and when I stopped to cross Highway 99 I hit the dump lever by mistake, and the dump box started to rise as I crossed the highway. Fortunately I caught it in time. Man, what a mess if I’d dumped that thing into the roadway!
Tough as an anvil and moves twice as fast.
Col. David Glantz, quoted a Soviet officer saying “the two most common vehicles to be seen in the Red Army were the T-34 tank and the Studebaker truck”.
The most underrated piece of war time equipment in my opinion.
Those look like Bud wheels, I have the tools for those! Was that a Continental six cylinder?
Studebaker didn’t use Continentals; built all their own engines (except for a DD diesel in the fifties, in their biggest truck).
The Studebaker US6 WWII 2.5T 6X6 used the Hercules JXD which was the only exception to Studebaker engines other than the Detroits that I know about.
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, when asked what the decisive weapon of the war had been, replied, “The Studebaker six wheel drive truck.” For good reason, too. The main reason for the almost complete destruction of German Army Group Centre in the summer of 1944 was the mobility these trucks gave the Russians meant they could no longer retreat faster than the Red Army could advance.
Agreed. The cross-country mobility afforded to our and our allies armies by the Jeep, the 3/4 & 1 1/2 ton Dodges & Internationals and the GM/Studebaker/International Deuce-and-a-halfs gave both striking and pursuit power beyond the Axis powers, whose mobility actually decreased throughout the war.
Yes, as fuel became scarce and synthetic fuel not as readily available as the war dragged on, some German units had to resort to horses.
The Americans really understood the importance of supply logistics and mobility to fight a long term war, whereas the Axis originally planned for short term blitzkrieg, not realizing how long the war would last.
Also, the U.S. manufacturing capacity far outproduced both German and Japanese. Of course it helped that U.S. manufacturing plants were far out of reach from German and Japanese bomber range.
I spotted this on the cohort page and hoped it got written up cool truck done properly with no frills an art that seems to have been lost.
No frills? It had frills aplenty. Streamlined; flowing hood and front clip. Oh yeah, it was done with a stylist.
Now for a NO-FRILLS Stude, you need to jump forward a couple of years:
Saw this last summer @ the Studebaker National Museum. fun little truck.
you just made my day! it’s an honor, really. i shot this at fishkill farm last year in upstate new york. it’s an organic apple picking orchard favored by city people to get their kids a little fresh air. the farm is owned by the morgenthau family who have quite a history themselves. henry morgenthau, jr. was fdr’s secretary of the treasury and one of the architects of the new deal. his son, robert morgenthau, was the district attorney of new york city for thirty four years from 1975-2009.
the pickup was most likely a family vehicle as it was parked in front a small house that i believe is used as the farm’s management office. there was a decent buick roadmaster bubble wagon with jersey tags parked behind it and some other interesting vehicles that i now forget…
At least it’s not from Buffalo or Rochester where everything rusts in a week or two.
One thing I’d question.
GMC kept the wood in the loadbed floor; but I do believe Chevrolet went to steel sometime in the 1960s. My first job, with a small-town DPW, had me on a crew that was assigned a 1963 Chevrolet pickup (and a 1966 as a backup; this in 1976!) and it, both of them, had steel floors. One was a Stepside; and one was a full-width countoured bed.
It’s possible steel was an option in those years; but I think that was one of the idiosyncratic differences GM kept between the two truck lines.
My 1967 Chevy K-20 had a wood floor (stepside body). I think they kept that for a few years after ’67. I remember it advertised as ” won’t rust, like the competition” – Truth in advertising! Sure did rot, though! It was oak, as I recall; a good wood floor, but a wood floor nonetheless.
A sheet of 1/2″ plywood helped after only 3 – 4 years, then a sheet of 1/4″ steel welded in at 5 – 6 years propelled it further.
With a 250 c.i. six, it was hardly a racer. Maybe I would rather have had that Studebaker.
On second thought, skip the “maybe”.
Sure it wasn’t a GMC bed? GMC used the “wood won’t rust” line in selling the 1960-66 series truck. Now, I wasn’t old enough to be buying a truck in those years, but I did later work – intimately – with the 1963 and 1966 Chevys; and since part of our job involved loading those with topsoil in summer and road sand/calcium carbonate in winter.
(We’d treat the side roads by driving along slow, with some poor sap, usually me, standing in the back, and swinging a coal scoop with sand, across the road. It left a bar pattern; the theory being when someone started sliding, he’d only slide as far as the next sand-strip.)
Anyway, I saw a lot of the bottom of those pickup beds. Steel, no lie.
Iirc GMC and Chevrolet used wood in the narrow boxes after they’d gone to steel in the wide boxes. I don’t remember the changeover year though.
Chevy and GM’s new ’67s went to steel beds for the wide beds, but kept wood for the stepside for some years yet. That’s because all they had to change on the stepside was the fenders, but the wide beds were all new to match the new ’67s.
My ’68 C-10’s Fleetside’s bed is wood.
Even though the steel bed floor debuted with the new Fleetsides in ’67, wood remained an option. (Probably at extra cost!) I don’t know if they offered it thru ’72 or on into the next body style in ’73.
I remember my uncle had an old ute in one of his sheds that used to have a timber floor, however his dogs had eaten it!
Well, I can’t edit the post anymore, but according to Wikipedia, confirmed by eHow. the Chevy truck bed could be ordered with wood or metal floors as desired:
There were two types of pickup boxes to choose from. The first type, called “Fleetside” by Chevrolet and “Wideside” by GMC, was a “double-wall” constructed full width pickup box and featured a flared secondary beltline to complement the cab in addition to new wraparound tail lamps. Both steel and wood floors were available. The second type, called “Stepside” by Chevrolet and “Fenderside” by GMC, was a narrow width pickup box featuring steps and exposed fenders with standalone tail lamps. Initially, only wood floors were available.[9]
Sorry to get off-topic, but that just bugged me. I remember the GMC ads making a big deal of the wood floor; and I knew those Chevys had steel. I assumed it was one more difference between the brands.
Agreed. There’s always something new to learn.
I’ll add another vote to the wood floor option in the GMC Wideside bed.
My father’s 1968 CS1500 with 8′ Wideside bed had the optional wood floor.
He preferred the wood floor as the steel floor would rust and not easily replaced whereas wood can. Of course years later sections of the wood floor rotted and I tried to replace the rotted planks, but couldn’t get to some bolts that held the wood planks between the steel strips due to frame crossmember blocking access. At the time I couldn’t unbolt the whole bed from the frame, jack the bed up for access, so my temporary fix was a lay a 4×8 plywood over it.
The other reason my father favored GMC over Chevrolet was it had standard rear leaf springs, quad headlights and better looking (in his opinion) grille. He also liked the big 292 inline 6 and 4-speed manual.
My 76 GMC long bed stepside still had the wood floor if I remember right. Most of the time I think I preferred the stepside as you never had to fool around getting your material swept out from the fender wells.
I remember letting one of these get away from me during the period that my ex was expressing her profound influence over my economic wellbeing. I have revisiited that decision ever since. It is probably running somehwere.
Ain’t exwives great! 😛
The WWII Studebaker trucks used a Hercules engine-
http://studetrucks.tripod.com/military.htm
The story goes that the Soviet WWII generation was so impressed by the lend-lease Studebaker trucks that in the 50’s and 60’s “Studebaker” became a slang synonym for quality in the USSR (not surprising when you consider their domestically available iron). It’s also said that the few emigrants who departed the USSR for the US in the 60’s and 70’s arrived and asked “Where are the Studebakers?” and couldn’t believe that a company that made such good vehicles had gone under.
That is a beautiful instrument panel.
Though this is a good-looking Stude truck, the 1949-56 R truck was even better. Hidden running boards, as well as a sleeker body, made this a worthy companion to the ’47-52 cars which made styling history. And, they sold pretty well too. By the time they added the fiberglass grill on the ’57s, it was all over, even though the Champ trucks of the ’60s did reasonably well at first. Thanks for the memories.
Fantastic find. One of the best looking trucks IMO. Nice to see a heavier duty one surviving too.
HELLO TO ALL FIREMAN AM HERE IN PORTUGAL AND NEED OF YOUR HELP, LOOKING FOR WHEELS OF ORIGIN FOR OUR FIRE TRUCK STUDEBAKER OF 1952, NOT KNOW IF THIS MODEL IS PRIOR TO THAT DATE, MOSTRO PHOTOS OF HIM, WHO CAN HELP U.S. WITH INFORMATION THANK , THANK YOU !!!!
carlos sotero
FIREMAN
LOOKING FOR WHEELS OF ORIGIN FOR OUR FIRE TRUCK STUDEBAKER OF 1952, NOT KNOW IF THIS MODEL IS PRIOR TO THAT DATE, MOSTRO PHOTOS OF HIM, WHO CAN HELP U.S. WITH INFORMATION THANK , THANK YOU !!!!
carlos sotero
FIREMAN
HELLO TO ALL FIREMAN AM HERE IN PORTUGAL AND NEED OF YOUR HELP, LOOKING FOR WHEELS OF ORIGIN FOR OUR FIRE TRUCK STUDEBAKER OF 1952, NOT KNOW IF THIS MODEL IS PRIOR TO THAT DATE, PHOTOS OF HIM, WHO CAN HELP U.S. WITH INFORMATION , THANK YOU !!!!
carlos sotero
FIREMAN
HELLO TO ALL FIREMAN AM HERE IN PORTUGAL AND NEED OF YOUR HELP, LOOKING FOR WHEELS OF ORIGIN FOR OUR FIRE TRUCK STUDEBAKER OF 1952, NOT KNOW IF THIS MODEL IS PRIOR TO THAT DATE, PHOTOS OF HIM, WHO CAN HELP U.S. WITH INFORMATION , THANK YOU !!!!
carlos sotero
FIREMAN
c.sotero@hotmail.com
Those M series trucks must have been plenty durable because these still turn up in my area in barn/field-find condition on a fairly regular basis. There are often more trucks than cars for sale on an Indianapolis CL search for Studebakers.
I agree with StudeDude that if I were in the market for a vintage truck, I would move up to the newer R series that started in 1949. Still, this is a really sweet old truck.
I drove a 47 M5 half tonner to high school in 1985. Dad and I loaded it with 2,000 pounds of sack concrete mix and it was just starting to engage the second set of leaf springs. No question that Paul could put 3 tons in the M15 and not have the rear bumper on the ground. Studebaker knew how to make a solid truck.