The best Jeep

[uk 75]

The Jeep must be the best known military vehicle to serve since its invention in WW2.

Replacing the Jeep.with improved versions ought to have been an easy job.

The Brits developed the Land Rover and the less well known Austin Champ. The US the M151. France, Germany and Italy all built their own versions. They even tried to develop one for all.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/europa-jeep.7124/#post-61489

The US replaced the M151 with the much bigger and more complicated Hummer.

Which vehicle do you think ought to have replaced the Jeep?

 

[Arjen]

 

[TinWing]

View attachment 710423

Agreed. Toyota Hilux and Land Cruiser 70 diesels seem to be most durable vehicles in adverse conditions, with the least maintenance. Their proprietary Toyota axles survive being severely overloaded. I’ve never figured out why Japanese built Nissan Patrol and Toyota axles and so much more reliable than comparable American products? Perhaps they use a better grade of steel?

 

[Scott Kenny]

Agreed. Toyota Hilux and Land Cruiser 70 diesels seem to be most durable vehicles in adverse conditions, with the least maintenance. Their proprietary Toyota axles survive being severely overloaded. I’ve never figured out why Japanese built Nissan Patrol and Toyota axles and so much more reliable than comparable American products? Perhaps they use a better grade of steel?

Some of it is simply better tolerances, some of it is not designing the life out of it.

 

[BlackBat242]

Putting half-ton axles in a "quarter-ton" truck?

 

[Scott Kenny]

The US replaced the M151 with the much bigger and more complicated Hummer.

Which vehicle do you think ought to have replaced the Jeep?

Well, weirdly enough, the Jeeps were 1/4 ton trucks. The Hummers are 2.5ton trucks!

 

[riggerrob]

West Germany and Canada replaced their Kubelwagens and M38 Jeeps (respectively) with Iltis. Iltis was lighter and faster than Jeeps, but not as durable.

 

[Apophenia]

West Germany and Canada replaced their Kubelwagens and M38 Jeeps (respectively) with Iltis...

In Bundewehr service, the Type 183 Iltis replaced the Type 181 ‎Kurierwagen - those WW2 Kübelwagens were long gone.

The ‎Kurierwagen had, in turn, replaced the BW's DKW Mungas. The latter had been replaced in Dutch service by M38A1 Jeeps ... just to bring that full circle.

 

[GregoryUSSR]

Maybe the Hummer replaced the Dodge 3/4? And the M151 was simply abandoned. Because the Hummer turned out to be a universal machine.

 

[riggerrob]

Maybe the Hummer replaced the Dodge 3/4? And the M151 was simply abandoned. Because the Hummer turned out to be a universal machine.

Hum we is a much larger and heavier. Shocked than Jeeps, so really belongs on a separate thread.
Bungees are so wide that they struggle to follow goats up mountain trails.

M151 had problems with rolling over when turned to aggressively by eager young soldiers. Part of the problem was stiff suspension that rolled less than civilian cars turned as hard … ergo less feed-back to enthusiastic young drivers. One solution was a suspension re-design. The Canadian Army added roll-bars to their M151s.