Camp Cachalot Alumni Association Forums

Dave G · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 3:06 pm Post subject: been doing some research..

I have been doing some research on the ammo/weapons carrier. The m715 is the same truck as the kaiser gladiator of the same year. 1965-1970. Some of the body parts are not the same but just looking at the hood it is a dead ringer for the civilian version. AMC bought the rights to the JEEP name sometime around then. Which is why the old tailgate had the JEEP logo on it. Also some of the JEEP pickup trucks like the j10 have parts that are the same as the military ver. (if you watch the movie TWISTER the j10 in the movie shares alot of parts with the ammo carrier) Anyway there were 33,000 of the army ver. made. I have found several websites that have parts for sale as well whole trucks. Also several with nice pictures of fully restored ones as well. I'm thinking of buying one for myself. For $1500 bucks you can get one in fairly good cond. I would love to give an m715 a good home. Some of the sites have info on getting them inspected(sp) for road use. Since the truck came from the factory is as it can be inspected as is for street use. Also since the truck is an antique other rules apply for road use. Not too sure what the laws in RI are and would have to look into them if the truck is to be driven in camp. I don't know how you could get it to RI since if the orig gears are still in there the top speed is 55. With the orginal motor you would get 10mi a gal... not very good these days. and had only 154hp. Anyway just wanted to share this everybody who wants to hear about our beloved ammo beastie and it's origin

Please excuse grammar and speeling Very Happy

i mean spelling
_________________
Do or do not there is no try.... Yoda

jwoolley · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 8:54 am Post subject:

Ammo beasties for all! Imagine a fleet of them driving down the highway Shocked

Tom Bednarz · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 12:45 pm Post subject:

Damn.....Dave must have been looking at a lot of the same sites I was (was feeling inspired after the Labor Day camping trip). According to one site I read, the actual soldiers who were tasked with driving the m715 actually considered it to be weak and relatively fragile. I guess battle conditions are different than camp Surprised

Wasn't the Cherokee of the 70's based on the J-10 (and therefore related to the AmmoCarrier) as well?

Dave G · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 3:06 pm Post subject:

Dennis Wilkinson · Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 11:32 am Post subject:

I remember a very similar vehicle being used in the movie "Flatliners", although it's been long enough since I've seen it that I'm not sure it was exactly the same. Ours has had a lot of work done to it over the years (from what little I remember, we no longer have the original engine nor the original 24V electrical system.)

Dave, have you stumbled across any owners of these beasties who've tracked down their own vehicle's history (i.e. any actual military use, title history, whatever)? I'd love to know what use, if any, ours was put to before we got it. For that matter, I'd love to know when we got it and from who -- I haven't found anything in the records I've seen to say when it was donated, but my earliest memory of it was at my OA Ordeal back in '83 (and I'm sure it was in camp before that, I just can't pin a specific event on it).
_________________
Dennis
Minister of Propaganda, Webmaestro, and Chief Bottle Washer

"Everything that passes unattempted is impossible." - Stephen R. Donaldson

Dave G · Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 3:29 pm Post subject:

I got off the phone with my dad. I cleared up some mis-info I had. The ammo-beastie was not there the first time he was on staff iat the start of 70's. I was born in 73 and he was on staff untill 75' or so (memory starting to go Very Happy

). So if you remember it in 83......sometime between those two dates.

I'll do some more research on finding out with use of numbers on the truck to find out what is was used for... I found some good websites for the truck. I am so thinking of buying one. I have found some nearby that I might go look at. I also remember the city on NB having one in the yard near the high school. I try and look everytime I go by but now there are trees growing in the way. Maybe if somebody here has a connection we could find out if it was still there and if the powers that be want to get rid of it.....

I also found a PDF manual or presentation to the war dept on the m715. I down loaded and have it if anybody wants to give it a look....
_________________
Do or do not there is no try.... Yoda

Dennis Wilkinson · Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 5:06 pm Post subject:

Tom Bednarz · Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 7:05 pm Post subject:

My memory goes back to October '82; i very distinctly recall that Jon Briggs was driving the AmmoCarrier around at the fall Camp O' Ree.

Having been my first overnight there, the sight of this wacky guy driving around a huge army truck well into the night stuck pretty firmly Smile

jwoolley · Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 11:37 am Post subject:

I'm pretty sure that Squanto had one to. I thought there's had a water tank attachment on it so it made it a mini fire truck. I wonder if they got them around the same time (maybe someone donated a couple of them to the local scout camps)?

Squanto also has an alumni association.. maybe they have some info they could share?

http://www.angelfire.com/ma2/csaa/

John

Dennis Wilkinson · Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 3:43 pm Post subject:

Dave G · Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 8:26 am Post subject:

Russell was the first person I remember driving it...

Dennis did you get those emails???
_________________
Do or do not there is no try.... Yoda

Dennis Wilkinson · Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 11:29 am Post subject:

BrianB · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 7:51 am Post subject: One of Our Favorite Things

I don't remember who was driving it. I just remember being a cub scout, most likely at Cub Day Camp, and seeing that monster roam around the bend by the shower house. I was awe struck. At that moment I pledged myself to one day drive it. More than twenty years later I've driven it many times and each time I do I get so excited. I am again a cub scout at day camp.

The Ammo Carrier is so much a part of Cachalot and therefore so much a part of us. I am extremely excited about the wonderful things that the Alumni Association is doing for camp. This is another. Dave has gotten us off on a great foot...he has collected information....and gotten us talking about it. What's the next step? I still think a claender would be great! (Maybe that's just me though?) I'll grab Johnny Flash as soon as he gets back from his honey moon.

Brian

Dennis Wilkinson

...and all I needed to do was buy a car. Wink

Unfortunately, the "real" VIN for the ammo carrier appears to be the manufacturer serial number, at least based on what I've been able to find online. FYI, from the dash, our vehicle's information is:

Truck, Cargo
1 1/4 Ton, 4X4, M-715, W/O WN
Mfd. By Kaiser Jeep Corporation Toledo, Ohio
Mfr. Model 3521 Mfr. Ser. No. 20426
Mfr. Part No. 1000545 Date Del. 2-68
CONT. No. DA-20-113-AMC-10235 (T)(MYP)
U.S. Property Inspected

That '20426' is apparently as close as these things get to a VIN.

Now, we do have a "real" (17-digit) VIN number (Jeff Dumais tracked it down for me) that we believe to be from the replacement engine (I've been told, but can't confirm, that the vehicle was donated with a blown engine -- in any case, Jeff found a service log showing the engine being blown and replaced by Boot's Garage in July of 1979, which is the earliest mention yet.) Since the engine has been unchanged as long as I can remember, they're running that VIN for us so we can at least tell where the engine came from.

One avenue we haven't considered, but which might get us some information, would be to request documents relating to the vehicle using the Freedom of Information Act, which covers the military as part of the executive branch. I'll admit that I don't know the first thing about doing that, though (although I'm sure some quality time with Google would help there.) Anyone think that's a worthwhile thing to try?
_________________
Dennis
Minister of Propaganda, Webmaestro, and Chief Bottle Washer

"Everything that passes unattempted is impossible." - Stephen R. Donaldson

jwoolley · Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 11:30 am Post subject:

Just doing some google'ing on various parts of Dennis's message and found:

http://home.comcast.net/~sday77/m715/index2.htm
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_mvg_www_kaiser.php3

and the best one so far: http://www.m715zone.com/

This site has a registry list of VIN numbers, if I'm reading the chart correctly our beast was made in Feb of 1968. They have manuals, forums, engine/wiring diagrams etc. The guy seems enough into the truck that I bet he'd help us track down any history possible. Hopefully the site is news for everyone Smile

Also a classifieds section with parts and trucks for sale Shocked