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Deorse — AM General M35A2 Deuce and a Half
Published: 2012-06-11 21:08:27 +0000 UTC; Views: 2558; Favourites: 30; Downloads: 114
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Lucky find, I literally found this thing like almost an hour ago sitting in the parking lot of a local Dairy Queen while I was on my way up to the college campus. This military truck is known as the M-35A Deuce and a Half, it is a 2 and 1/2 ton truck that was developed as a new troop transport truck to replace the old M34 GMC's back in the early 50's, many of which were used in both the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War fir many tasks. A vast majority of these trucks have been recently retired by the U.S. forces and usually sit around as surplus fir many years before they finally get scrapped. Anymore its getting tougher each day to run across these beasts, unless you happen to be in the national guard and use a lot of antiquated military equipment or you're just private collector of these behemoths. This is the first one I've got to see up close and personal in over 7 years.You almost forget the size of these trucks until 1 day you finally happen run across one. This truck is in pretty decent shape, though I am not sure if this one is a retired military vehicle in private hands or if some of the Army National Guard members decided to go out fir some ice cream.
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Comments: 40
cool! i had a Humvee tailgate me on my way to Chipotle over a week ago, with the drivers in full military garb. they were coming form the military base for lunch and i really hoped that they had kept the brakes in check XP
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If this was official Army it would be in a line with several other trucks. The army never travels alone so it is a collector.
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I already found out later on that it was retired and it was owned by that specific Dairy Queen.
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OK, here we go with the Deuce-and-a-hallf family tree.
Much info on the M35A2 can be found on Wikipedia here: [link]
The M52 you mentioned is a 5-ton truck, not a 12 ton. The M52 is a member of the M39 series and is very closely related to the M35 series due to sharing many body parts as well as the basic engine architecture. Yes, the M39 series uses a multi-fuel engine. Both of these trucks will burn just about anything sufficiently flammable. But some lube oil must be added to the tank for proper injector pump lubrication.
The M39 series wrecker was the M543, and tended to be somewhat underpowered.
The M816 you mentioned is a member of the M809 family. It uses a monstrous 855 cubic inch Cummins NHC250 engine that produces...
wait for it...
240HP.
Wait...
Yes. That's correct. 240HP out of en engine designated a 250. Don't ask. It wasn't my idea. I'm just reporting what I saw. Their torque numbers are nothing to sneeze at, though.
The M809 series is also related to the M35 series, but even more distantly than the M39 series since they have even fewer parts in common. Mostly just the cab.
As for the M109 vans as RVs... I once saw one while on active duty with the Army. Apparently it was used as a self-propelled field command post by a colonel or a general. I'm sure the inside was fairly nice.
I have seen these beasts up for sale on the open market. Just follow this link to E-Bay Motors: [link]
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I read that the earliest of the M35s were manufactured by the DiamondT Reo motor company, they then switched over to the AMX Kaiser Jeep Co, and then later were manufactured by the AM General Co, is any of that true or misconception?
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Truth, all of it. Early M35s were also built by Studebaker.
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Mechanically and aesthetically speaking, were there any differences between all of them?
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Aside from the gas engines in the early units, they're pretty much interchangeable.
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Really? That's very interesting to know.
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The extra lights on this one speak to me of private ownership. The lack of any markings of any kind anywhere at all on this also say the same thing. The lack of any plates just points at someone who doesn't like to put state-issued ID tags on his truck.
I drove these things in the Army and the National Guard from 1990 until our brigade finally traded them all in in 2003. They are a handful to drive, but they can be fun at the same time. I'll take one of these over a Hummer any day.
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What about a retired Humvee?
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I've seen HMMWVs equipped with fire fighting gear and apparatus. Mostly Bravo Battery 2/146th FA due in part to them having started a dangerous minor range fire while using one of their howitzers. I'm sure plenty of retired/surplus military Hummers as well as OEM civilian H1 Hummers have been set up as fire fighting trucks, but I haven't seen one in person.
As for the truck itself, Hummer drivers only sit a little higher than the average sedan. My 2-wheel drive pickup sits higher than a Hummer. The M35 however sits much higher and gives the driver an excellent view of his surroundings.
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Although a retired Humvee or an old military Jeep would be badass for running around the trail in, in addition, you could handle the Jeep in the Mojave better than you could the Humvee 'cause the Jeep has a size and weight advantage over the Humvee, so it's more nimble and agile, and can go more places than the Humvee can.
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I'm almost certain that this truck could be privately owned too, the thing that gets me is that there are no markings painted on the truck to suggest otherwise, however there isn't any licensing tag on it either, and this truck hasn't been restored either. Most private owners like to restore these trucks back to their original condition.
I've got a picture of a custom restoration on a 1983-1986 Chevy M1008 right here in my gallery: [link] it belongs to our local volunteer fire department. They use it on the brush fires and such.
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Yeah, I know that it was real recent that all of our US military had started replacing all of Deuces with those Oshkosh trucks, our local Nebraska National guard actually has a whole yard designated fir all of their retired and extra surplus vehicles, and believe it or not, over 90% of that yard is taken over with those old M35 Deuces, Deuce tractors, and Wreckers. Now I'm not sure, but I think Offut Air Force Base might also still have a few of them around in like a storage lot some place on the base. I remember when I was over at Whiteman Air Force Base down in Missouri fir a BSA scouting event, I know they actually shared the base with the Missouri Air National Guard, and I noticed that they had a line of 5 empty M35's just sitting there in the back of the base next to some old Jersey Barriers. I actually got to climb around on them (without getting in trouble) and go inside the cabs of a few of them. I'm not even sure if the belonged to guard or if they were just extra trucks fir the air force.
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Thats odd, i dont see an plates on it...maybe still in military use..yet theres no serial numbers painted on it. Not sure if you've noticed this but they also use these in construction sometimes, just the tanker versions tho. Ive seen some around here being used as water trucks for construction painted a bright white.
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That's what I was looking at too.
I know that I've seen a few of these just become fun recreational vehicles fir a lot of private owners, but I also see a lot of these get painted red and turned into brush fire trucks as well.
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Yeh they look perfect for camping, i mean you have your own tent right in the back with room to spare! lol
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I know what you mean. I think that they be a really good truck fir the survivalist as well. What would be really awesome, is if someone converted the back end of 1 into an RV, then you'd have the ultimate camping/utility/recreation vehicle.
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You can prolly make a good RV/camper out of a radio/radar version of one of these with the big boxy room on the back. Not sure exactly how much room they have inside, but atleast youre safe inside a big metal box lol
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You're talking about those M109 Deuce Vans, they have an 8x12ft box, that can be converted into a small RV.
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That would be cool to have 
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I'm not really all that big them, they look kind of alien to me, personally, If I were to go stupid over something really big and newer model, I'd go with a Freightliner P4XL Sport Chassis.
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They have a version already in that configuration. It's called the M109 Van.
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Yeah I've seen those, never knew that they were called M109's just like I never knew that the tanker truck versions of the Deuce were called M49A3's. I knew that the Deuce 12 ton truck tractors were called M52's and just leaned that the wrecker versions of the M52's were called M816's.
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Oh boy, did you ever stumble into a can of worms. Since I worked on most of the museum pieces you've just mentioned early in my military career, I feel compelled to point out a few errors.
Shall I continue? (Y/N)
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Eh, why not? Go right on ahead, lean a lot of stuff from reading articles on the net, I might as well here it form someone who actually worked on these things that might have better knowledge than what misinterpreted information people post onto these said articles on the internet.
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These beasts of burden are some of the most dependable vehicles and these things will get you home no matter what. Saving up to buy my own and I love these old trucks.
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I know what you mean, their great trucks, you make the most crappy of fuel mixtures inside their tanks such as gasoline, water, diesel, and a little bit of sand and these trucks would still run. Now grant it, after doing a really crummy fuel mixture after long periods of time, you will start do some significant damage to the engine, it run half as well or half as long as it would if you were to put straight diesel into the tanks. I know that these trucks can travel long distances on say like a bad bearing, unlike a conventional car or truck, you'd have to get that replaced almost immediately.
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I still remember the one we rode in when the fuel tanks nearly ran dry and we stole gear lube from the diffs and then used transmission fluid from a gas can we had in the truck and it still got us home. One i will never forget is the one that was busted nearly in half and finally broke after two more days of driving it.
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Hey, its military grade stuff, its meant to be able take some abuse.
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I've seen an AM General in Trinidad in recent times.
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I'm sure you have, a lot of these trucks will get picked up by private militias and armies of their nations to be reconditioned and reused fir their military use. To me this is a very well designed truck, and its as tough as nails, very roughed truck.
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saw one on craigslist here in colorado and a friend has one. to bad neither of them have the cargo area attached.
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I know a lot of forestry services like to pick these trucks up and use them to knock down brush when there's a fire.
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