As a chronic Craigslister, I often come across the huge, six ton military truck in the picture above called the M35A2—aka the “Deuce and a half.” The crazy thing is, the huge behemoth routinely sells for under $2,000, which makes it a total bargain in terms of weight-to-dollar ratio. What other ridiculously huge cars can you get for dirt cheap?
The M35 was actually based on a design by Lansing, Michigan-based REO Motor Car Company, whose name comes from the initials of its founder, Ransom E. Olds. But the truck was actually manufactured by multiple companies including REO, Kaiser and AM General.
The M35 debuted in the early 1950s, and remained in military service for over half a century as primarily a cargo hauler for various branches of the U.S. military.
Most of the trucks came with 7.8-liter “multifuel” engines that made about 130 horsepower and 330 lb-ft of torque, and ran on everything from used motor oil to diesel to gas to hydraulic fluid to veggie oil to automatic transmission fluid. Heck, you could probably urinate in the fuel tank, and the thing would run.
But it wouldn’t go fast, because 130 ponies isn’t a lot of grunt to spin those 37-inch tires and get that 13,000 pound (empty) curb weight down the trail.
Nowadays you can find M35s for dirt cheap on Craigslist. Here’s one for $3,500 in Detroit, but even that’s not really a smokin’ deal for this truck. And that’s incredible, because that’s a lot of metal for not a lot of money.
What other huge machines can you buy on Craigslist for a song these days?