2½-ton 6×6 truck
Class of military medium duty trucks / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 2+1⁄2-ton, 6×6 truck was a standard class of medium duty trucks, designed at the beginning of World War II for the US Armed Forces, in service for over half a century, from 1940 into the 1990s.[nb 1] Also frequently known as the deuce and a half, or just deuce, this nickname was popularized post WWII, most likely in the Vietnam war era.[2] The basic cargo versions were designed to transport a cargo load of nominally 2+1⁄2 short tons (5,000 lb; 2,300 kg) over all terrain, in all weather. The 2+1⁄2-ton trucks were used ubiquitously in World War II, and continued to be the U.S. standard medium duty truck class after the war, including wide usage in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, as well as the first Gulf War.
Originally, five different designs were standardized by the U.S.; two were also standardized by Canada. During World War II the most important model for the U.S. Army was the GMC CCKW or "Jimmy", with over 560,000 units built. Another 200,000+ deuces were Studebaker and REO US6, built primarily for Lend-Lease export, mostly to the Soviet Union, and many others have been exported to smaller militaries. In addition to the 6x6 trucks, a significant minority of these trucks were also built minus the front-wheel drive, as 6x4 trucks.[nb 2] The nickname "Jimmy", a phonetical diminutive of GMC, could be applied to both their 6x6 and 6x4 units.
After World War II, the M35 series truck, originally developed by REO, became the standard 2+1⁄2-ton truck. First fielded in the 1950s, the M35 family became one of the most successful and long-lived series of trucks ever deployed by the U.S. military. They were used in Vietnam and continued to be used with various modifications into the late 1990s.[3]
In 1991, the U.S. military began replacing the 2+1⁄2-ton, ten-wheeled (6x6 and 6x4) trucks, that were originally classified as "light-heavy" in WW II, and "medium duty" later in their service life, with a significantly different design: the four-wheeled (4x4), cab over engine "light medium", but equally 2+1⁄2-ton rated, LMTV variants of the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) .
Of the almost 2.4 million trucks that the U.S. Army bought between 1939 and December 1945 (across all payload weight classes), just over one third (~812,000) were 2+1⁄2-ton trucks, the vast majority of which (over 675,000 units) were six by six variants—outnumbering the almost 650,000 World War II jeeps.[1] A further ~118,000 2+1⁄2-ton trucks were built as 6x4 driven units.
The 2+1⁄2-ton cargo truck was considered such a valuable piece of equipment that General Eisenhower wrote that most senior officers regarded it as "one of the six most vital" U.S. vehicles to win the war.[nb 3] It has been called the most important truck of World War II, and the 6×6 became known as the "workhorse of the army".[1] According to Hyde (2013): "Each of the three axles had its own differential, so power could be applied to all six wheels on rough terrain and steep hills. The front axle was typically disengaged on smooth highways, where these 'workhorses' often carried loads much above their rated capacity."[1]
Half a century after World War II, the remanufactured 2+1⁄2-ton M35 trucks still met 95 percent of the performance requirements at 60 percent of the cost of a new FMTV vehicle.[3]