M35 series 2½-ton 6×6 cargo truck
military cargo truck

The M35 2½-ton cargo truck is a long-lived 2½-ton 6×6 cargo truck initially used by the United States Army and subsequently utilized by many nations around the world. Over time it evolved into a family of specialized vehicles. It inherited the nickname "Deuce and a Half" from an older 2½-ton truck, the World War II GMC CCKW.
The M35 started as a 1949 M34 REO Motor Car Company design for a 2½-ton 6×6 off-road truck. This original 6-wheel M34 version with a single wheel tandem was quickly superseded by the 10-wheel M35 design with a dual tandem. The basic M35 cargo truck is rated to carry 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) off-road or 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) on roads. Trucks in this weight class are considered medium duty by the military and the Department of Transportation.
Specifications
Dimensions
An M35A2 cargo truck with a 10,000 pounds-force (44 kN) PTO-driven Garwood front winch is 112 inches (2.8 m) tall, 96 inches (2.4 m) wide and 277 inches (7.0 m) long, and 13,030 pounds (5,910 kg) empty (13,530 pounds (6,140 kg) empty when equipped with the front mount winch, according to dashboard dataplates). The standard wheelbase cargo bed is 8 feet wide by 12 feet long (2.4 × 3.6 m), with only 7.25 feet of this width being flat floorspace between the stake-pockets, the tailgate rising 16 inches above the floor and the side-walls/stake-pockets rising 12 inches above the floor. The M35A2 was available with a canvas soft top or a metal hard top. Metal hard-top configurations are most often found on vehicles that have been equipped with cold-weather gear, including additional insulation in the cab, as well as engine coolant or multifuel-fired cab personnel heaters.
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This entry incorporates text from “M35 series 2½-ton 6×6 cargo truck” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.