M151A1E1

[Horst]

The current military vehicles magazine features an article about the M151A2. The author talks about the M151A1E1 which then for series production was renamed to M151A2.

This is the first time I heard about this. Can anyone confirm this?

[rickf]

That would be one for Ken, I have never heard of it.

[muttguru]

Hello Horst and Rick,

here's an interim answer:
1. As you may already know, the safety problem of the M151A1 was starting to become a hot topicin the mid-60s and members of Congress were being coerced into demanding action by auto-safety campaigners such as Ralph Nader. The politicians then began to put pressure on the Mil to come up with answers with the result that in late 1967, Ford Motor Company was asked to come up with ideas about how to make the M151A1 "safe".

2. Ford came up with two-part answer.
The first part of the answer was to take the standard M151A1 and modify production so that the rear suspension became a trailing arm configuration.
The second part was to retro-fit the fleet of M151A1s by issuing a Rear Suspension Retrofit kit which would form part of a Product Improvement Program.
The second part of the answer was rejected by the Mil on cost grounds but the first idea was accepted but needed to include the
"Product Improvement" part of the rejected idea. These PIPs included such things as electric wipers, mechanical fuel pump, large rear-window top etc.

3. The first batch of Ford's new and improved vehicle was designated the M151A2 and there are several photos of these vehicles, which showed a hood number ending in '68', the year of delivery but still using the M151A1 Contract Number. But these were referred to as M151A2s and the early working title of these (M151A1 w/MIRS) was quickly dropped.

4. None of the Mil reports of testing use the title M151A1E1 BUT..... I do seem to remember that particular designation being mentioned in the reports of the meetings between Ford and the Mil. Unfortunately these reports (3 of them) are not digitized and are around 100+ pages each.
I'll dig them out and re-read each one this weekend and hopefully I'll be able to confirm whether this designation appears and under what context.
Ken

[D Pizzoferrato]

Ken, from my fuzzy memory, wasn't the M151 E1 the aluminum bodied MUTT? It strikes a cord as my brother in law and I owned one a long time ago. Jim Gilmore had quite a bit of test info on the aluminum body experiment.

[muttguru]

Ken, from my fuzzy memory, wasn't the M151 E1 the aluminum bodied MUTT? It strikes a cord as my brother in law and I owned one a long time ago. Jim Gilmore had quite a bit of test info on the aluminum body experiment.

Hello David,
yes, thgere was an E-1 and an E-2 and as you rightly say, these designations were for the pre-production models of the standard basic M151. The full title of those was XM-151E1 and XM-151E2. The aluminium version was dropped and the steel version was adopted for production after some changes to the design.

However, there actually is a reference to the M151A1E1 and it was the designation given temporarily to the M151A1 w/modified independent rear suspension and with the various upgrades that were already agreed. Because I was trapped at home as the snow fell here, I decided to spend the afternoon searching through the M151 files.
Four files of 200+ pages later, there it was ! On page 196 of file-4, the Army Material Command's request to reclassify the M151A1 with modified independent rear suspension as Standard-A was there. The request was eventually agreed by the sub-committee on Ground Mobility.

I don't know who found this reference to the M151A1E1 but he must have a similar OCD as mine

Here's the extract, attached.

Ken

[Horst]

Ken,

Glad that the weather turned bad

Thank you for digging out that little detail!

[m3a1]

Ken never ceases to amaze everyone!

Well done!