Unimog Axled M715 Build

[HUMMER103]

Unimog Axled M715 Build

Figured I’d start up a build up thread to hopefully get me motivated to be back to working on this. Sorry this is kinda lengthy but I can ensure you I’ve typed a lot of this up at work and now I’m stuck at an airport because of weather.

I bought my first M715 back in the summer of 2002 when I was 19 and have been working on it and wheeling it since. For some reason I decided that one M715 wasn’t enough and in Nov. 2007 I decided to buy someone’s project off this site’s classifieds section. The guy hadn’t touched the project in three years so he wanted it gone and I seemed to be the only one showing interest. I refer to this jeep as the blue jeep because I can’t come up with any better names other than big blue.

Here’s some basic spec’s on the truck:

1967 M715, very straight body without much of the body hacked up or drilled through (unlike my green truck) yes there are doors, bed, etc. just not in the pictures.

SBC 350 mild build (no carb) has headers and built dual exhaust.

Rebuilt SM420 iron 4 speed with 0 miles on it

Offroad Design Doubler with Rebuilt 203/205 T-cases with 0 miles after rebuild. Triple stick kit uninstalled.

404 Unimog axles (still with drum brakes) and a pair of uninstalled Exxact Pinion Conversions
(These axles have a total 7.56:1 reduction and already include selectable lockers from the factory)

20 inch double beadlocks (look kinda like Stazworks wheels)

14.00R20 Michelin XL’s (Apx 49” tall)

Lots of extra uninstalled new or junkyard parts as well as a bunch of stock M715 parts of which many found their way onto my green truck over the years. Below are a few pictures the owner sent me before I decided by buy it:

[HUMMER103]

Picking it Up:

Truck was located an hour outside of Denver and I live near Phoenix (so 14 plus hours away).
After seeing the pictures I’m sure you’re curious how it was loaded/unloaded and fit it in the garage.
I had a friend drive up/back from AZ with me and I had two friends in CO help including the guy selling me the truck. It took the 5 of us apx 2 hours to load the thing. My trailer fit between the posts of the guys lift by a ½ inch on each side (we measured this before I drove up) not to mention the lift was inside his shop 90 degrees from the door opening. That animal cage looking thing around the bedsides was great for transporting everything back and very well built. After it was all loaded up and we got to Denver I had to spend like $150 at a bar to satisfy my helpers. With all the spare parts I’m estimating this thing with my trailer (about 2K lbs) weighed 10K lbs (most I’ve pulled before for sure) I kept speeds to the low 60’s on the way back to AZ and my Cummins (RIP) was averaging 11.2 mpg which I thought was fantastic except it just took forever.

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More pictures of it loaded up. Dark ones were in Denver, day light ones were when we got back to Phoenix. Pictures are better than reading me type anyway.

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Unloading it into a Garage:

We got back real late Sunday night (Monday morning). Later that week we unloaded it at my parent’s place since I was just renting a place at the time. Two guys and a jeep with no rear axle attempting to unload it into a standard 2 car garage with about a 6.5 foot garage door height. I bought some 2x12’s and cut the ends of them to create ramps for the front tires to roll over them to support the weight and not crush my trailer fenders. We lifted the rear of the truck with an engine hoist. To roll the jeep up and over the fenders I used a crappy little 2K lb winch I mounted on the front of my trailer to a snatch block on the back of the trailer and back to the front axle of the jeep. Lots of safety chains were hooked up and unhooked throughout the process in case it started rolling which was a reason we kept the air pressure so low in the tires. Pulling with the engine hoist once it was on the smooth concrete got easier and we were able to roll it all the way into the garage. All of the spare parts were removed before hand to make everything as light as possible for the unloading process.

[HUMMER103]

More pictures, surprisingly it was unloaded to our the seat of the pants plan without any close calls or lost fingers. Yes, that block on the floor jack is pretty sketchy but the portal axles make it really the only way to reach it with what I had. I think we unloaded this thing in about in about 2 hours.

[DivingKaiser]

Good looking truck and paint to boot! Rigging lessons learned by everyone. Oh yeah real nice parents too. Look forward to see what you do with this girl.

[ou719]

I like it. cant wait to see it done.

[jeepcj]

Those wheels are from USA 6x6

[militarytrux]

Bad ass, just need a cummins 12 valve and a 5-speed LOL

[osok]

awesome axles and hard to find. looking forward to your build. thanks for the story so far.