I’ve got a thing for gnarly old military trucks, and the Kaiser Jeep M175 is definitely one of my favorites. I love how there’s just a remnant of the Gladiator body left, crowned with that upright boxy cab and folding top. And this one is sporting all sorts of post-military accoutrements; not surprising given that Mike Hayes found it in Seattle.
Here’s the business end of it, including one that gave this post its secondary title.
These were built between 1967 and 1976, and were heavily used in Vietnam. They all used the Tornado 230 CID OHC six that was used only in the first few years of the Gladiator and Wagoneer. They had oil burning issues, but presumably they got sorted out eventually.
The M715 was resurrected in 1998 by KIA in South Korea as the KM450, with an updated drive train and other changes to make it a bit more comfortable and suitable for 21st century military use.
I did a somewhat more comprehensive post on them here
Interesting array of stickers in the back.I would have expected to see those on a more eco- friendly vehicle.
Quite true, though with the exception of being “politically incorrect” they are consistent with each other.
The logical counterpart to the several Teslas I’ve seen with Trump stickers (yes they very much exist).
I have seen that on at least one occasion.
Didn’t look out of place to me.
Not sure why.
I stopped paying much attention to politics this year, and do not discuss it anymore.
Didn’t realize the poison it had become (for me) until I quit.
I feel much better now. For real.
“I stopped paying much attention to politics this year, and do not discuss it anymore.
Didn’t realize the poison it had become (for me) until I quit.
I feel much better now. For real.”
I’m right there with you. I have enough going on in my own little world to stress out about!
Keeping old vehicles running is itself eco-friendly since building a car consumes more resources and generates more emissions than driving it. That’s why I liked parking our beater Escort in the “green car” parking spaces since it was not only Calypso Green but ecologically sound.
That’s an idea popular among old-car enthusiasts, but you might want to do some more and wider reading on the subject. There are a lot of variables, so there’s no pat yes/no answer, but a lot of the thoughtful, rigourous study of the matter I’ve seen concludes a new car’s greater efficiency and/or lesser pollution pretty quickly pays back the ecological debts incurred in its manufacture—not in absolute terms, of course, but relative to the older car it replaces.
Walk right on by…don’t engage…you have been warned…
I think I’d either really want to have a coffee with the owner, or I’d really not want to have a coffee with the owner. Either way probably an interesting individual.
I like the lifting lugs on the 4 corners of the bed, just in case you need to remove the bed + whatever is in it.
it would be not so much what he might have to say, as the likelihood of him saying a lot and listening not at all. A monologue, rather than a dialogue. But I could be wrong…
The four large clevis type shackles found in the front bumper and in the rear bumperettes can be relocated to brackets found on each wheel hub to facilitate lifting the entire truck with a crane and sling (for loading on a ship like you see in old movies, for instance.) These were well-designed trucks and probably would have remained on the roster longer if they had used a Ford 300 6, or a Chevy 292, and even a Slant 6 probably would have been (barely) adequate. All else about the truck was good, although the clumsy hard cab option was mediocre. I had one of these and wanted to transplant a civilian cab with a heater onto it, while retaining the military dashboard. I didn’t have the circumstances to do the swap, and so I couldn’t use it as my daily driver in our brutal winters, especially since I couldn’t find a hard cab to replace my canvas top. If I had been able to make those changes back then, I’d probably be using that truck today despite its inherent limitations!
Thanks for the info, I did not know those brackets on the axles for lifting the vehicle. Kind of surprising they are still there since I doubt the more recent owners have a need to lift it onto a ship and they look like good shin knockers.
I spy a Bio Diesel sticker on the left-hand side of the bed. Any chance it was originally equipped with a diesel instead of the Tornado 6?
No. He collects bumper stickers, obviously. The other ones aren’t necessary true either.
I love these M715s…always wanted one but considering how many other vehicles I have both as daily drivers and projects it’s doubtful I’ll ever get one….used to see a fair number of them in rural west Texas where they were owned by rural fire departments….
Very cool old truck.
So many stickers on a car reminds me of a stranger coming up to you on the street telling you all sorts of his/her opinions on things.
Things that are very interesting to the teller.
“Have you met ME? What a pleasure it must be for you to meet ME! Let me tell you all about ME!”
Yes, you are so deep and so wise and hip and cool and stuff like that and we are all blessed to have you among us.
But still a cool truck.
Reminds me of a craigslist purchase/trade I made for an assortment of various Ford and mustang parts, we both had our hobby cars and talked shop for a bit but then he out of the blue started going on and on about his politics and eventually race, yeesh. “riiiiight, so how about those brake pads, you like them?”
And the surprise addition of the ass-end of a Cadillac Allante to round out the CC find!
I had occasion to drive these once or twice in the Army. Extremely low geared, they were tough to shift and hard to steer. The battery box between the seats was rough on elbows.
Actually, these drove very much like comparable civilian trucks of equivalent capacity of the 1940’s and early 1950’s. Ford F4 or Chevy 3800 type trucks come to mind: partially or fully unsynchronized transmissions, manual steering and unboosted brakes, uncomfortable cabs, hard tires that accentuated the stiff springs, etc. No one gave any thought about these trucks being primitive in their day, but comparing an M715 to a late 60’s civilian truck of the same category was a different story, and by the time civilians could buy one as military surplus when I got mine in the early 80’s, the gap between M715’s and a K3500 or a Ford F350 was vast. I know, because I have driven some trucks from each of these categories.
We had these in our various motor pools back in the 1970s. By the middle of 1975 I was acting motor Sargent for a large US Army motor pool in Germany, and I had to keep track of various maintenance operations. The early versions of the Tornado engine were notorious for having valve cover oil leaks. The cast aluminum valve covers had a black rubber seal around the outer edges, and the covers were held in place by only a couple of nuts in the middle of the cover’s top. [See photo,] As you can see from the photo, the distance from the 2 studs to the front and rear of the valve cover was simply too far, and with age, the rubber seal hardened, and they leaked.
In attempts to stop the leaking, mechanics would torque the hell out of the valve covers, warping them. This made the problem worse, and some of the covers even developed cracks. Because each time one was cracked, it leaked a lot of oil, resulting in the truck being “Redlined” until a new cover came in. If a motor pool got too many Redlined vehicles, it reflected badly on the Motor Sargent [me].
So I got creative and once one started leaking, I ordered another cover, claiming it was starting to crack, but not yet leaking. I built up a decent supply of these covers, so each time one cracked from over torque, we could replace it same day. Hence, no Redline.
Yoik! That truck is loaded to capacity before the driver puts a single thing in the bed.
I’ve never been one to leave my political views unattended and flapping in the breeze. I actually have a couple of very good friends I probably never would have met if the first thing we knew about each other was who we voted for. ‘Nuff said about that!
My only known encounter with a Tornado OHC was at a car show, where one was in place in an impeccably restored early Gladiator. The engine started up, running smoothly and silently, and quickly propelled the truck off into the night. Not that that carries much weight as an idea of the goodness of a particular engine, but the aural sensation was more pleasant than the 350 Buick in my Mom’s 1969 Wagoneer. Would like to experience one on these in more depth at some point.
The likely cause of many a bald spot from all the onlookers head scratching. These Kaiser jeeps have a tugboat look I prefer over all other truck designs. Nothing soft about it and down to brass tacks look. Something tells me the owner was likely a Vietnam vet who saw first hand how broken the military had become at that time. The “Turd Helmet” sticker made me chuckle and is a new one for me. Google has provided quite a wide range of results for that.
Nice to see one still left in good shape .
I run into these every few years in Southern California, they’re always rusted out, a shame .
-Nate
Funny to see this here, I ran across one for the first time this past summer in West Yellowstone. The owners wife saw me looking at it and said her husband would be out in a few if I felt like talking to him, which he did and I did. He had the whole history, as one might expect, it had been military of course, then in the parks service in Yellowstone, then he bought it. He spoke well of the “Tornado” 6 cylinder, also kind of bragging about how it couldn’t do over 45-50 MPH. Sounded both rev and power limited. He spoke of it being a 5/4ths ton truck. I’d never heard that designation before, but it seems it was used for it.
But it was the remnants of the civilian “Gladiator” body that drew me to it as I’d had one of those back in the 70s. While the truck was a heap, I did kind of like the styling of the Gladiator body for a pickup of that era. Less so pretty much everything about it from the underpowered Rambler 327 V8 to the close ratio 3 on the tree to pretty much everything else. But that military version was interesting. I’m doubtful that it was good, but it was interesting to see.