In the early 1970’s, Canada’s military fleet of 1952 M38’s and 1953 M38A1 1/4 ton 4×4 trucks were fast approaching their projected 20 year lifespan. A new vehicle was needed to both replace the oldest most worn Jeeps, and augment the remaining fleet of serviceable examples. The M38A1 Jeep, which was last purchased by Canada in 1970, was no longer being manufactured, having been replaced in the US services by the M151 series of 1/4 ton trucks. In 1972, one example of the M151, an A2 variant, was loaned by the US Army to Canada for testing. The vehicle was delivered to the Land Engineering Test Establishment (LETE) proving grounds near Ottawa, Ontario in standard US Army configuration. As the M151 family had already been in the US Military service for a decade, and had been evaluated and upgraded numerous times over the course of its production, it bypassed reliability and maintainability testing in Canada. At the end of the testing period, it was deemed to be a suitable replacement to the M38A1 models, in both operational and training environments.

In 1974, the Canadian military purchased 935 M151A2’s from the United States under contract CD 3613100. The vehicles were drawn from an existing US contract, (DAAE-07-71-C-0103), which was awarded to AM General in February of 1971. In Canadian service, these vehicles were seldom known as a M151A2, or MUTT. They were simply referred to as a “Jeep”, “74 Pattern”, or more colloquially as the “Disposable Jeep” (due to the misguided belief that the US military would simply throw them away rather than repair them in the field). When the vehicles arrived in Canada, they did not have heaters, seatbelts, side curtains or doors provided. These items were supplied at a later date and installed by the Canadian military directly. In an attempt to prevent the rust that was affecting the M38A1 fleet, the new M151A2’s were rust-proofed before delivery with a Zeibart undercoating. These rustproofed vehicles had plastic plugs in the application holes and a Ziebart data plate attached to the dash.

Breakdown of Canadian M151A2 Models

Description	ECC	Qty.
Basic	121401	917
Adapter Kit, Electrical Equipment (AKEE)	121405	5
Cable Layer	121408	1
TOW missile launcher	121412	10
TOW Missile Carrier	121411	2

One hundred and seventy M151A2’s were shipped directly to Canadian Forces Europe, then located in West Germany. One hundred and nineteen vehicles were assigned to the Militia (Reserves) in Canada and the remainder were assigned to Regular Force units throughout the country.

When delivered, the Canadian M151A2’s were identical to their US counterparts. They were finished in a single colour, semi-gloss, olive drab paint, which was later painted over to a standard Canadian three tone camouflage.  The markings were initially minimal, with those vehicles in Europe receiving white painted CFR numbers on the front bumper, and those in Canada receiving only CFR license plates. Along with the paint change, came a change to standard NATO tactical markings on most vehicles, as well as a Canadian flag. These later markings were initially high visibility white, and full colour for the flag emblem, but were changed to low visibility black and green in the 1980’s.

Over the period of use with the Canadian Forces, the M151A2 took on a unique look with the addition of a roll cage, three point seatbelts, grill guards and standard Canadian radio mounting brackets. Somewhat surprisingly, the Canadian Forces never adopted the arctic cab for the M151A2, as the US military did.

In 1984, it was decided to replace the entire fleet of Canadian Forces 1/4 ton trucks with the Volkswagen Iltis. The M151A2’s stayed on until the late 1980’s in some specialist roles, but were mainly gone from the system by 1990. At the end of their service life, it was determined that the entire fleet of Canadian vehicles would be disposed of by means of destruction. This decision primarily stemmed from the liability concern of The Crown selling unsafe vehicles to the public. The flawed rear suspension design of early M151’s had a snap oversteer tendency that led to vehicle rollovers during aggressive high speed cornering. The M151A2 models purchased by Canada had a re-designed rear suspension that effectively addressed this issue but not enough to stem the concern.

Canada’s decision to destroy the trucks was not without precedent. The United States had come to the same conclusion concerning sales of M151’s, and the standard method of disposal became chopping the trucks into pieces. Initially, two sections were suitable to deem the trucks scrap but when enterprising individuals and less then scrupulous businesses started welding them back together, it was decided that the trucks would be reduced to three and finally four major sections. Some of the last vehicles disposed of were sold under the caveat that only the mechanical components were part of the sale and the entire body tub had to be destroyed under government supervision. The Canadian government ultimately had limited success in its efforts to take the trucks off of public roads and some managed to slide into public surplus sales un-cut and many more were re-welded and licensed for private use.

Although the Canadian military never purchased the earlier M151 or M151A1 models, Canadian’s did use these versions while working as observers in Vietnam and on United Nations missions in the middle east. In both cases, the vehicles were supplied to the missions by the US government and the vehicles were never Canadian property.

Canadian Purchase M151A2 Vehicle Data

This table contains the manufacturers serial and Canadian Forces Registration numbers for all 935 vehicles purchased by Canada. The “Last Holding Unit” is the location that the vehicle was assigned to at the time of disposal and does not reflect its entire service history. Additional images and service details are welcome.

Canadian Purchase Image Gallery.

US Army Supplied Image Gallery.

While taking part in training operations in the United States and overseas ICCS and United Nations missions, Canadians were issued US supplied M151’s, M151A1’s and M151A2’s. These vehicles usually have very few Canadian identifiers on them and were only used for short periods of time before being returned. They were not accepted by the Canadian military and were not part of the 1974 purchase.

Acknowledgments

A special thanks must go to Rob Love and Eric Booth for their contributions to the narrative text, and Steve Hawken, Terry Warner, Peter Faulkner and Ed Storey for their assistance with images and specifics relating to the individual vehicles.