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I always forget Ford had its own version of a military-grade, Jeep-like vehicle. The Multipurpose Utility Tactical Truck (or MUTT) featured here on eBay is in presentable shape complete with the deep water fording kit and roll-over protection installed. The MUTT is now located in Virginia after selling a short time ago at a military surplus auction in California in February. The seller mentions that he is regrettably selling it to free up some funds for other toys, so it will be exciting what he comes up with next! There’s currently only one bid for $200 and the reserve unmet. Do you have any experience with these early Ford 4x4s, and what should it sell for?
These were supposed to be chopped up and not released to the general public because of their allegedly quirky handling due to the swing axles but I’ve seen a lot of them in private hands over the years. They’ve never held much allure to me.
By the time they ended production, later versions than this had BMW E30 style rear suspension and somewhat tamer handling.
The prohibition against sales to the public has eased somewhat and many of the ones for sale here in the US are actually repatriated ones from foreign military sales, like all of Portugal’s are now available for shipment back to here.
I like them because they are small, easy to restore because there are abundant spares still available, and fairly good fuel economy.
I put close to 10,000 miles on one of these in Korea in 1968. I loved driving it, it handled like a sports car. Engines were indestructible, but it was easy to snap the u-joints when doing burnouts on the helipad!
How much of that 10k was stupid tire spins – and i wonder how much your tire spinning, U-joint breakage, and other ancillary abuse-damages cost us taxpayers anyway. Many thanks for your service in these United States’ military, but sheesh…
We usually replaced them out of our own pockets, buying them on the black market. Doing our part to help grow the Korean economy. Toyo mud & snows would last forever. Can’t remember ever replacing any.
Thanks, David G. I hate “stupid” tire spins. Saw Pitbull on TV do a tire spin on someone else’s car till a rear tire blew out. Don’t want HIM behind the wheel of MY car. What a waste of good and expensive rubber. Some drivers never grow up.
Jose, David,
Then I guess you don’t want to see the videos of the solders jumping the deuce and a half 6 wheelers off the sand dunes in Iraq. If that’s the case, stay off YouTube. I’d say the money lost in these kind of shenanigans pales in comparison to what the U.S. leadership has frittered away. They’re in an impossible war zone fighting an enemy they can’t see and won’t come out and fight. They can have some fun on my nickel.
To make it even worse, there are tire burn competitions all over the country where the object is to make as much burning rubber smoke as possible. WTF? I love the videos of cheering crowds breathing the highly carcinogenic smoke. Just how dumb can people get?
I have a lot of experience with these, probably have owned 100 of them. Ford was simply one of the contractors that built them, there were few differences between these and the other makes. When they first started to sell surplus, they sold as is, then the manufacturers panicked with the thought of so many cheep jeeps coming on the market, so they lobbied the DOD to label them as unsafe making it illegal for the government to sell in one piece. At first, all you had to do was a simple torch cut across the frame…….so people just welded them back together, then they had to be cut in an X completely across the corners of the body, they still got re welded. Next, you had to cut them in an X and destroy the suspension mounts. Then you could only remove the parts and they were crushed by the DRMO to be sold for weight. The last ones were cubed and sold by weight. There were a fair number of these that came in through Canada un molested. At one time a clean M151 brought over 5,000. I have a buddy in the movie vehicle busisness that had to supply several of them to Hollywood. He paid dearly for them. I think the market for them has softened. I bought them during several of the requirement periods. They tried to sell the engines to be reused but it was nearly impossible as the starter was mounted to the transmission so they would not run independley. Every now and the some enterprising entrapanure would try to make something from the components mostly with little success. The engines were short lived and had no parts interchangeable with anything else, typical of most vehicles designed by the military. Off course all parts are available surplus from many providers today, they did have rust problems and were not designed for longevity.
We lost a lot of them and their occupants in Germany in the mid-60’s. The main problem was idiot drivers not compensating for the front and rear swing arm suspension, which could result in severe occilations and rollover, especially on the sections of the autobahn that had depressions from heavy war traffic. This only happened at 60 and above, but the max speed allowed on the nameplate was 55! People forget the mindset of many draftees at the time. The other danger zones were icy coblestones both on and off the autobahn. I remember jonesing for one pretty bad at one time. If you drive them with care they’re great vehicles.
I think I paid 125.00 each for the last ones in lots of 20
Im living in Laos, recently went to Cambodia and purchased one of these in great condition with the normal (for SEA) Toyota Camry upgrade power train. These are very popular in Vietnam and Cambodia 3500-5000 USD most vehicles close to par with US market
…great stories! what is there not to like about such an iconic looking car? slow…so what? you’re not going to race it, right? tipsy…..just drive accordingly, it’s that easy! In my book, one simply owns such car, plays with it in his garage, takes it to local “show & tell” cruises……again, nothing NOT to like about having one of these….just forget about burning tires, that is indeed stupid!
DL
An Ole Buddy from my High School days Dad Bill Sr., as we all called him, was always a wheeler Dealer, he learned about a lot of 20 of these things for sale on a Government Surplus Newsletter he always got, and the 3 of us traveled to Texas, and brought them back to Missouri, and 3 utility trailers included. Some of them were still in crates and the tires where in another set of crates. This was 1982 and we worked for about 3 months and got everyone of them going again. If I remember right he only paid 250.00 a piece for them and sold them for 2000.00 a piece. The best part of it was my buddy, Bill Jr., and I got to keep one for all of our hard work, I picked out a crated one, and drove it for many years, you see where I am from we have a large off road area in a state park, and this thing would go anywhere. I sold it for 5000.00 to another buddy who was into 4 wheeling more than I was, that and I had just gotten married and the wife did not like the fact I was 4 wheeling every weekend with my buddies. The two that we kept are still running around, I see my old one ever so often, although it looks nothing like it did, it has been rolled a couple of times, and it is now on its 5 owner, but amazing it still runs.
The best part of this story was Bill Sr., bought 20 of these, but when we got them he had conned the surplus agent into giving us a few extras ones of them so we actually brought back 25 of them for the price of 20, even though a few of these were wrecked or just parts cars and parts to boot, 3 extra motors still setting in the shipping crates, they were just trying to get rid of everything that was sitting in this storage shed, so we brought back motors, body parts, extra seats, tops windshield, and 200 ammo cans of various sizes, I still have some of the ammo cans. Bill Sr. passed away about 10 years ago, and still setting in his warehouse was 3 of these things, Bill Jr got one, and Bill 3rd got one, and Bill Jrs., Brother Jeff got the other. The next time I run into one of them, I will take pictures and post them, because these 3 are in prefect condition, and still painted in Army drab, with canvas tops and Bill 3rd has the only remaining trailer with canvas top on it, plus they all had water cans and gas cans mounted on them, they were all 1967 model. Bill Sr. sold 2 of them to locale fire depts., for brush fire fighting, but they have long since gone. That is what I like about this website, it can sure bring back good memories!!!
Great Story, Mike. Where in Texas was it that these were purchased? Do they sill sell them? If so, how can I contact them? Do you have an email for them? Address? Phone number? Love the little cars trailer and all.
Jose, I think it was called Camp Bullis, near San Antonio, but that was like 33 years ago. I don’t know if there are any left, like I said Bill Sr., always got a newsletter from the Federal Government, which would list surplus equipment. There is a website now days called Govdeals.com. They list all sorts of stuff from all Federal, State, County and Cities governments that have stuff for sale. You might check there.
Hey, thanks Mike. Just logged in and registered for a nearby government auction. Received, ad on many of the things to be auctioned. Beyond that, well, we’ll see. Wish me luck.