View Full Version : Drivers of the M151- DId you love it or hate it?
I'm looking for people who drove any variant of the M151. Did you love it or hate it? Did it get you out of a scrape, or into one? Do you think back on it now with longing or hatred?
My 22 yr old son owns 12 of these vehicles, all uncut but needing a lot of tlc - which is the British way of saying that they are total wrecks... But having said that one has been restored (the A2 pictured in the top corner of our unfinished website at http://m151.btck.co.uk/ and another is almost there. He also has two A1C's, an M825 and A2 TOW missile carrier.
We enjoy discovering the history of our vehicles (these have all seen service with Portuguese army) and would love to hear the personal views of the folk who knew any variant of the M151. Would like to publish some your comments on the website, but will not do so without your express permission.
micarr57
05-06-12, 09:02 PM
my experience with it was good they were a good 4wheel drive light enough to float over soft spots go up and down severe slopes 2 people can push start em i'd like to have one now
JEEPS ?????
aka/ m151s'
Figure what they were designed for, and how long they remained in the system.
They worked great for what they were supposed to be used for,,,,,,,,,,
Many times , worked great for things they WEREN'T.
Much of the time we ever got to need a set of "Wheels" ,,
in Vietnam,,,,,We were gratefull for what ever we got to use
that used less energy than the old ankle express.....
connection dropped,,,Sorry .....
the Corps still had M38 jeeps in when most of us landed
in RVN ,
i think your m151's first came to country with the
us army and us air force
they probibly replaced what we landed with in the early days.
we also had "mules, and mitymites" and the grunts had another "CoolTool"
called an "ONTOS" ..........
Dont forget ,, the 3/4 ton M 37 , powerwagon
and the
Duce and a Half
Zulu 36
05-07-12, 06:02 AM
Overall, I liked the M151. I used the A1, A2, and ambulance versions. They were reasonably easy to maintain, and as micarr57 said, they often worked well in situations they really weren't designed for. They did have their limits (deep, soft mud).
I buried an A2 in mud while driving the 1st Marine Division G-2 (a full colonel), a Lt Col from Division G-3, and a captain from G-3. We took the route at the colonel's insistence and against my advice (a mere sergeant). I will have to say the colonel was a good sport and did his share trying to dig us out. Eventually we flagged down an amphibious tractor to pull us out and then used the route I wanted to take. We were all mud pies head to toe.
I also found they were also terribly uncomfortable for long distance driving (50 miles plus).
Their biggest drawback was a tendency to roll over while taking a turn at too high a speed, and it really didn't take much speed to do it. A lot of people got hurt in M151 rollovers.
thewookie
05-07-12, 08:29 AM
Back on my first contract in my Motor T days we used to beat the crap out of those old 151's. In Oki, we had a few M825's with super sized tires and beefed up suspension and we used to take them out behind the motor pool on Hansen and make our own paths. We spent MANY late nights in the motor pool afterwards trying to fix the damage we did making those paths. We only got caught once when we rolled one and bent the frame -- tough to fix that overnight! We did a lot of incentive PT for that one!
Thanks very much for your feedback... its really interesting to see what the folk who actually used these jeeps thought about them... anyone else, please feel free to tell us your stories or thoughts... :-)
Back in 63, I was thirteen and a neighbor of ours had 156 acres and he would let me take his WW11 jeep all day Sat.Sun. and ride his acreage, I thought it was as good as a Cadillac back then :D