M151 quarter-ton utility truck

The M151, officially the Truck, Utility, quarter ton, 4x4, was a light utility vehicle produced by multiple US manufacturers between 1959 and 1988 and operated mainly by the US military as the successor to the Korean War M38 and M38A1 Jeeps. It was a clean sheet redesign by the Ford Motor Company that kept the same vehicle concept, dimensions and weight, yet it replaced the separate frame of earlier Jeeps with a unitary body and frame and pioneered independent suspension with coil springs. Ford won the design contract in 1951 and developed and initially produced it, and later contracts for the M151A2 went to Kaiser and AM General. The early swing axle rear suspension made it prone to roll over, which the M151A2 redesign resolved. Variants ranged from ambulances to mounts for a 106 mm recoilless rifle, and the HMMWV replaced it from 1985.