M715 (not telephone truck) Maintenance Truck

How rare are these trucks?

I found one with basically surface rust, missing 2 tool box doors but still has the generator system in it and it works---so does the engine and transmission. It also has a winch on the front but I think this might be a bubbafication but not sure.

Updating and here are photos. If anyone is interested, pm me and I will provide the owners contact info.

More pictures down below.

Cool looking SeaBees truck.

I haven't seen many of the maintenance trucks running around. Mainly the pickups and ambulances. Maybe Jon over on the Zone can give you a number.

It is correctly referred to as a 6217. Few exist anymore. Great truck for the collection but not a great daily driver. Seeing one of these Al molded up would likely make me ill.

From what I remember in my foggy past was with the tools in them they were way way way underpowered and some were replaced with the box being fitted to a W300 dodge a year after the 6217 was fielded. They were built on the 724 chassis with front and rear pto's, so as the above there are not many of these still around.

CARNAC just found a old auction link with some great pictures of a restored one. http://www.auctionflex.com/showlot.ap?co=11217&weiid=3393176&lang=En

I remember we had some of those when I was in back in the early 70s, but I never drove one and never looked inside the box. I loved the M715s i drove, but I remember they had some issues with camshaft lubrication and the transfer cases overheated. They were a very good off-road vehicle. Neat looking truck though.

Fairly rare. I think the Heartland Musuem of Military Vehicles has one or one very similar. I will look in the photo archive in a little bit.

Recovry4x4 said:

It is correctly referred to as a 6217. Few exist anymore. Great truck for the collection but not a great daily driver. Seeing one of these Al molded up would likely make me ill.

Click to expand...

Where does the nomenclature 6217 come from?

NDT said:

Where does the nomenclature 6217 come from?

Click to expand...

From the data tag they were built with.

Also called Shop set No. 3 for the Army Corps of Engineers.

The standard M715 is underpowered, imagine a large box. generator, and cylinders, tools, etc.

Like it was stated, good for the collection if you need one (like me)

They are fairly rare, but not very useful as a daily driver or off-roader.

Scott

I will work on posting the cell pics I took. To be honest when I first passed it at a high rate of speed a year ago I thought it was a m37 maint truck. I'm not into the 715 thing. I have the sellers contact info. He is wanting to trade for a old model decent shape powerwagon or 5k. It is several hundred miles from me so not sure how much help I could be to physically recover it.

They were still in use as late as 1981 with the Seabees. While I was a grunt, I remember two of them being on the LST I was on going to Korea. I looked them over while on the ship thinking they were very cool looking. I do remember both trucks had the Seabee emblem on the doors.
One of the few, Frank USMC RET.

Here are the photos and there are 3 more that I added on post #1 of this thread.


Again, I have no vested interest in this truck and I just want to hope that someone saves this truck.

Someone may want to fire this over to the M715 zone. I'm not a member over there.

Confirmed today he has a title for it. Price is $5K negotiable.

CARNAC said:

Someone may want to fire this over to the M715 zone. I'm not a member over there.

Click to expand...

I'll link it to M715 Zone. I don't believe non SS members can see pics on this forum, but it's quick and free to join!

Scott

Sounds good. Thanks. I updated some other info.

i believe its a welder not a generator

OK, sounds good, I'm not familiar with this type of truck and only had a short period to stop and snap.

It's a fairly rare bird now, after 45 years of age. The missing parts are out there - if the engine no longer is there I'd recommend an upgrade to a Cummins 4BT or 6BT, either will fit up front, that will solve the underpowered problem with this rig. Make sure it finds a home, the -715 series are sought after and I'm sure someone at the Zone will want it, though I think $5K is a bit high for a junkyard pickup.

Some pics of at maintenance -715 truck restored....

Nice.


The engine is there, it runs and the transmission works. No idea if the brakes work.

This keeps popping up every now and then. I received a call from the owner out of the blue about a month or so ago. I didn't even know I'd given him my number. Here is where he is located. His shop is on left side of 1085 and the truck is in field on right where it says Adobe Storage.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/S...2!3m1!1s0x86560fd8aabf370f:0xd9e18e9d92f7b75b

Tell him CARNAC sent you.

Here is the number purposely misspelled:

thre-to-five

for-tree-niner

oh-nine-sev and another sev


His name is Brian.

Other than this, I have no regular contact with him, I don't know him other than just stopping there out of the blue. It is very rare that I ever pass by this location on I-20. So asking me if I know if he still has it.....I give you the POTUSalute.

March 24th, 2016.


Gents:

The M715 gets a very bad rap, unjustly, for lack of power, but you have to remember most real pick up trucks were not built for power or speed back then, but for really hauling stuff. Most civilian trucks today (pickups) do very little real hauling in their lives, just look at the bed bottom and rear fenders and you will find almost no dents or tears from loads......

Maybe with the maintenance truck unit, but underpowered compared to what, an M37? I drove a stock M715 with 4-5 pallets of face brick when it was a Civil Defense truck back in W.Va., and we had no problem keeping up to 50 MPH. 55 no way, the CD director was too cheap to have the wheels balanced and the front end aligned.


I say, get a KIA M425 if you want a real Jeep truck.......