The Studebaker US6 (G630) was a series of -ton 6×6 and 5-ton 6×4 trucks manufactured by the

Studebaker Corporation Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers Man ...

and

REO Motor Car Company The REO Motor Car Company (''REO'' pronounced , not letter by letter) was a company based in Lansing, Michigan, which produced automobiles and trucks from 1905 to 1975. At one point, the company also manufactured buses on its truck platforms. ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The basic cargo version was designed to transport a cargo load over any type of terrain in any weather. Most of these were exported to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

under

Lend-Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (),3,000 Hurricanes and >4,000 other aircraft) * 28 naval vessels: ** 1 Battleship. (HMS Royal Sovereign (05), HMS Royal Sovereign) * ...

by the US during World War II, since the competing GMC 6×6 CCKW design proved to be more suitable for Western Front conditions.

History

Design and development

In 1939–1940, the US Army Ordnance Corps was developing tactical

6×6 Six-wheel drive (6WD or 6×6) is an all-wheel drive drivetrain configuration of three axles with at least two wheels on each axle capable of being driven simultaneously by the vehicle's engine. Unlike four-wheel drive drivetrains, the configura ...

trucks that could operate off-road in all weather. Studebaker,

Yellow Coach The Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company (informally Yellow Coach) was an early manufacturer of passenger buses in the United States. Between 1923 and 1943, Yellow Coach built transit buses, electric-powered trolley buses, and parlor coaches. Fou ...

(a GM company) and

International Harvester The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated IH or International) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household equipment, and more. It wa ...

all submitted designs that were accepted and went into production in 1941. A total of 219,882 -ton 6×6 trucks and similar 6×4 versions in 13 variations were built. Studebaker was the primary manufacturer, which built 197,678 of them at its South Bend, Indiana plant, while Reo produced 22,204 more at its Lansing, Michigan plant from 1944 under a sub-contract. Reo trucks are identical to Studebakers, but Reo built only cargo-model trucks with the long wheelbase and without the front-mounted winch, more specifically referred to as the US6 U9. All production by both manufacturers ended in 1945.

Service

The US6 was manufactured primarily for export under

. The Soviet Union would become the largest foreign operator. The first Studebaker US6 trucks arrived in the USSR in the autumn of 1941. The

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

organized a test of eleven 6×6 US6 trucks which took place between July 1942 and May 1943. The results were used to direct the enlargement of the payload from . In 1945, it was lowered to , although on improved roads they could carry up to a maximum of . Large numbers of Studebaker US6 trucks were supplied to the Soviet Union via the

Persian Corridor The Persian Corridor ( Persian: دالان پارسی) was a supply route through Iran into Soviet Azerbaijan by which British aid and American Lend-Lease supplies were transferred to the Soviet Union during World War II. Of the 17.5 million lo ...

in Iran under the US's

program. The truck fulfilled many important roles in service with Soviet military forces during the war, such as towing artillery pieces and anti-tank guns and transporting troops over long distances. It was renowned for its overall ruggedness and reliability, including its ability to run on poor-quality fuel. The Soviet

also found them to be a suitable platform for conversion into

Katyusha rocket launcher The Katyusha ( rus, Катю́ша, p=kɐˈtʲuʂə, a=Ru-Катюша.ogg) is a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union in World War II. Multiple rocket launchers such as these deliver explosives to a target area m ...

s, although this was not their main purpose. The truck became affectionately known as the ''Studer'' by Soviet troops and was even recognized of its importance (to the Soviet war effort) by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

, who sent a personal letter of appreciation to Studebaker, in which he thanked it for the superb quality of the US6 for Soviet service. Studebaker US6 trucks were also used by the US military in the construction of the

Ledo Road The Ledo Road () was an overland connection between British India and China, built during World War II to enable the Western Allies to deliver supplies to China and aid the war effort against Japan. After the Japanese cut off the Burma Ro ...

in Burma, and the Alcan Highway in North America, during WWII.

Specifications

Engine and driveline

The US6 used a Hercules JXD engine, with a

L-head A flathead engine, also known as a sidevalve engine''American Rodder'', 6/94, pp.45 & 93. or valve-in-block engine, is an internal combustion engine with its poppet valves contained within the Cam-in-block, engine block, instead of in the cyl ...

inline 6 cylinder

gasoline engine A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American and Canadian English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as Autogas, liquefied petroleum gas and Common ...

developing at 2,800 rpm and of

torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational analogue of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). The symbol for torque is typically \boldsymbol\tau, the lowercase Greek letter ''tau''. Wh ...

at 1,150 rpm. A conservative-type and highly-reliable engine with a compression ratio of only 5.82:1, it could use 68-octane gasoline. This same engine was also used in the M3 Scout Car and, later,

M8 Greyhound The M8 light armored car is a 6×6 armored car produced by the Ford Motor Company during World War II. It was used from 1943 by United States and British forces in Europe and the Pacific until the end of the war. The vehicle was widely exported ...

and M20 armoured cars (the latter was a variant (lacking the gun turret) of the M8 Greyhound). The

Warner Warner can refer to: People * Warner (writer) * Warner (given name) * Warner (surname) Fictional characters * Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner, stars of the animated television series ''Animaniacs'' * Aaron Warner, a character in '' Shatter M ...

T 93 5-speed transmission had a very low first, a direct fourth and an overdrive fifth gear. A

power take-off A power take-off or power takeoff (PTO) is one of several methods for taking power from a power source, such as a running engine, and power transmission#Mechanical power, transmitting it to an application such as an attached implement or separate ...

could be fitted to operate a winch (mounted just below in front of the radiator) and/or the hydraulic hoist on dump trucks. The Timken T-79

transfer case A transfer case is an intermediate gearbox that transfers power from the transmission of a motor vehicle to the driven axles of four-wheel-drive, all-wheel-drive, and other multi-axled on- and off-road machines. A part of the vehicle's drivetr ...

had high and low ranges, a neutral position and could either engage or disengage the front axle. There was one output shaft mounted forward to the front axle (not used in 6×4 trucks) and two to the rear, with one for each rear axle. Both front and rear axles were of the Timken split-type with a ratio of 6.6:1. The front axle had ball-type constant-velocity joints while the two at the rear were full-floating.

Chassis

The US6 had a

ladder frame A vehicle frame, also historically known as its ''chassis'', is the main supporting structure of a motor vehicle to which all other components are attached, comparable to the skeleton of an organism. Until the 1930s, virtually every car had ...

with three

beam axle A beam axle, rigid axle, or solid axle is a suspension (vehicle), dependent suspension design in which a set of wheels is connected laterally by a single beam or shaft. Beam axles were once commonly used at the rear wheels of a vehicle, but hist ...

s, the front on semi elliptical

leaf spring A leaf spring is a simple form of spring (device), spring commonly used for suspension (vehicle), suspension in wheeled vehicles. Originally called a ''laminated'' or ''carriage spring'', and sometimes referred to as a semi-elliptical spring, e ...

s, the rear tandem on quarter elliptical leaf springs with locating arms. There were two wheelbases, the short , used in semi tractors, dump trucks, and short cargo models, and the long , used in tankers, long cargo models, and the U9 chassis cab. All models had 7.50-20" tires and dual rear tires. 6×4 models, intended for on-road use only, were rated at , twice the 6×6's off-road rating.

Cab

The US6 carried the design of Studebaker's M series civilian truck cab, although it was modified for military use. Studebaker trucks were different from other 6×6 trucks built for the war effort of the UA because vent windows were included in each door. These vent windows were separate from the main window that rolled down into the door-frame and could be swung out to help with the truck cab's ventilation. Studebaker also designed the open-type military truck cab which was featured on the GMC CCKW (later models), but their major customer, the USSR, preferred the closed cab for their generally harsh (cold-weather) climate. While Studebaker's open-type truck cab became the American standard, production of the US6 with the closed-type truck cab was restarted after only 10,000 units of the former.

Models

File:US6 Cargo U2.jpg, Cargo U4 File:US6 Tanker U5.jpg, Tank U5 File:US6 Tractor U6.jpg, Tractor U6 File:US6 Dump U11.jpg, Dump U11 File:US6 Dump U13.jpg, Dump U13 The U1 and the U2 cargo trucks (which had a frontally-mounted winch) had a short wheelbase and the spare tire was mounted behind the cab, thus allowing a truck-bed measuring only long. These "prime mover"-style bodies were not a success as the US6 was to be mainly used for transporting cargo. The U3/U4 and the 6×4 U7/U8 cargo trucks had a longer wheelbase, which allowed the spare tire to be mounted under the truck-bed. 197,000 trucks with the truck-bed were built. The U5 tank truck had a long wheelbase and a two-compartment tank mounted on the truck-bed. Tanker trucks were not equipped with winches. The 6×4 U6 semi-tractor was the only semi-tractor version in the entire US6 truck series. Semi-tractors have limited off-road performance and, therefore, the U6 was rated for a 5-ton load on improved roads. For this same reason, they had no frontally-mounted winch. The U9 cargo truck had a long wheelbase and lacked a frontally-mounted winch. The Soviet Katyusha multiple rocket launcher could be mounted on their truck-beds The U10/U11 (end-type) and the U12/U13 (side-type) dump trucks had a short wheelbase. Both types had the dump-body mounted on a sub-frame at the rear of the truck, with the end-type dump having a hydraulic cylinder attached to the chassis with a lever arrangement while the side-type dump had the hydraulic cylinder mounted directly to the truck body.

Dimensions

File:Military Vehicles (2621947332).jpg, Cargo truck
(Privately owned and fully restored) File:Bundesarchiv Bild 204-018, Berlin, Henryk Gorovits neben russischem LKW.jpg, Cargo truck
(in Berlin, May 1945) File:Studebaker US6 in Techical museum Togliatti.JPG, Cargo truck
(Museum exhibit) File:G-630 Tractor Studebaker US6-U6 H-384605 pic1.JPG, Tractor-semitrailer
(Museum exhibit) File:Near East Iran - truck convoy of US supplies for USSR - NARA - 195340.jpg, Tractor-semitrailers
(along the Persian Corridor, some time in 1943) File:Verkhnyaya Pyshma Tank Museum 2011 029.jpg, Katyusha mobile-type multiple rocket launcher (Museum exhibit) File:RIAN archive 303890 A battery of Katyusha during the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War.jpg, A battery of Katyusha MRLS firing
(at Stalingrad, some time in 1942)

Legacy

Some Studebaker US6 trucks that were shipped to the

during WWII were used by

GAZ Gaz may refer to: Geography *Gaz, Kyrgyzstan Iran * Gaz, Darmian, village in South Khorasan province * Gaz, Golestan, a village in Bandar-e Gaz County * Gaz, Hormozgan, a village in Minab County * Gaz, Kerman, a village * Gaz, North Khorasan, a ...

to study and built their own new post-war model based on it, the

GAZ-51 The GAZ-51 (Russian: ГАЗ-51) is a light truck manufactured by the Soviet vehicle manufacturer GAZ, Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod. The vehicle was designed before the World War II, Second World War and mass-produced together with the all-wheel-driv ...

truck, which would use the cab and front end of the Studebaker model, albeit in a slightly modified form.1> This truck would eventually undergo

mass production Mass production, also known as mass production, series production, series manufacture, or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines ...

in 1946. The construction of the Studebaker US6 also strongly influenced the construction of the postwar

ZIS-151 The ZIS-151 () was a general-purpose truck produced by the Soviet Union, Soviet car manufacturer ZiL, Automotive Factory No. 2 ''Zavod imeni Stalina'' in 1948–1958. In 1956, the factory was renamed to ''Zavod imeni Likhacheva'', and new truc ...

truck, which then evolved into the

ZIL-157 The ZIL-157 is a general-purpose -ton 6×6 truck, produced at the Likhachev plant in the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1977, when production was transferred to the Amur plant, since the Likhachev plant wanted to focus more on modern trucks, such a ...

truck and remained in production up until 1994. The Studebaker US6 truck became a legendary vehicle with its Soviet operators at the time and was called the "King of Roads" by soldiers8> due to their reliability and dependability, and is still popular in Russian vehicle-collector circles and clubs. In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, these trucks are seen as the symbol for the

program to the USSR.9>

Notes

References

* * * * * *

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Studebaker US6 2½-ton 6x6 truck US6 Military trucks of the United States World War II vehicles of the United States World War II vehicles of the Soviet Union World War II vehicles Military vehicles introduced from 1940 to 1944