Well, I think, it is about time to give you some information from the other side of the ocean.

We basically have two bodystyles:

The small ones are the 207 up to 410. The first digit stands for the weight class (like two, three or four tons) and the second numbers for the horsepower. A 207 is a two ton with a 72 hp OM 616, a 409 would have the OM 617 or, in later models, as far as I know, an OM 602.

Thats how they look like. Available as van, boxvan, as flatbed, with rear twin wheels, as campervan and a million other things. BTW: Some of the ambulances you could see in Moscow these days were of this class (they used to be popular as ambulance in Germany, but now you see mostly the new Sprinter)



The bigger cars are the 407 - 913 (I hope I'm accurate) Up to the 813 with a GWT of 7.5 tons it was legal to drive them with the drivers license for passenger cars. That even included hooking up a 10 ton trailer with twin axles in the middle.

Basically same engine nomenklatura starting with the 72 hp OM 616 (I used to drive one as a mail truck. No power steering, top speed 70 km/h, not very fast, but you could start it with a nail instead of the key)

These engines were all pretty much stock passenger car engines from W 115 and W 123.

To make things difficult, the 508 hat a 3.8 Liter truck engine with lots of torque. That was serious propulsion.

As far es I know the 130 hp was top of the line. With that engine the bigger class started with the flat nose:

They looked like this:




Or get them as an ambulance:



And here comes the answer of the question above, why a O 309 looks different than a 307:

The bus version of the 508 class got the "O" for "Omnibus" , the "3" for reasons I don't know (GWT was 4.8 tons) and, although it was the same 3.8 Liter engine with 85 hp the "9" for the engine (all models were also available with M 115 gasoline engines of around 100 hp, but only the police, some ambulances and the US Army bought them. Way to thirsty)



BTW: A good adress for army surplus vehicles in Germany is
http://www.inter-commerz.com

But don't ask my how you get them in your country and how you get them street legal.

As far as I can see the former mail Jeeps are popular in Great Britain since they are right hand drive. I can imagine that farmers love them.

But I would never thing about getting the Jeep Replacement made by Grumman. This fairground attraction tends to tip over pretty easy.

Kind regards
Eberhard[IMG]www.bmwua.net/newsimages/ small450.jpg[/IMG]