Mercedes L6500
Germany (1935-40) - Heavy Truck - Perhaps 1,000 built
The Mercedes-Benz Lastwagen 6500 is a heavy-duty truck from Mercedes-Benz that was built at the Gaggenau plant from 1935 to 1940. It underwent a facelift in 1938, during which the driver's cab was replaced by one made of sheet steel for simplifications. Those in 1939 built specifically for the Wehrmacht had the standard Wehrmacht driver's cab, with a tarpaulin for the roof. Production was stopped in 1940 since the vehicle was considered too unwieldy and costly to make for army service. The Luftwaffe was the second largest user, of the shortened tanker version.
Design development 1933-35
Commercial booklet 1935
In 1934, the fleet of commercial vehicles in Germany, poor in the twenties (with much less cars by inhabitants than France), grew by about 150%. Daimler-Benz developed several standard trucks series based on their payload, the L3000, L4500 and L6500, participating in this growth. The L6500 as the tipping point in its truck family, the heaviest, and largest, on a 4x2 heavy-duty chassis. Like the L4500, it was characterized by its long hood housing a six-cylinder in-line diesel rated for 12,528cc in displacement, for an impressive 150 HP, under low running but with prodigious amounts of torque. Never designed for the army, these were road-bound model, with very poor performance off-road. The production started in 1935 (date unknown).
Despite this, the Wehrmacht soon grew interested its bolster its growing park, lacking heavy trucks apart those of Magirus and Faun. The L6500 thus started to be integrated in small quantities for specific roles and modified (simplified) from 1938, with additional tooling, but not particular reinforcementts of the chassis or suspensions. Those sold to the Army, added to those requisitioned in 1939, were attached to the Grosstransportarium GTR (Comprehensive Transport Service) and soldiered one mostly from Germany until the end of the war, still used for the Reconstruction of Germany after 1945.
Under the GTR they were spread thin among existing Kraftwagen Transport Regiments - KwTrRgt (Motor Transport Regiments), appreciated for their immense torque and capacity for towing an additional trailer as large as their own flatbed, with the same capacity, making for an interesting, very high capacity "train truck", former Reichsautobahn. However on the Eastern front's poor roads and tracks they suffered heavy losses and attrition, never intended to be off-road vehicles. For the sake of simplification, after a canvas version in 1939, production stopped for good in 1940. There was already a tank-transport truck, the gargantuan
FAUN L900. So unlike the
L4500 and
L3000 which were standardized, production was ordered to stop for the L6500. So less "soft cab" models were seen compared to the peacetime rounded metal cab in the field.
Design
The L 6500 is a two-axle truck featuring a U-profile ladder frame with rigid front and rear axles. The axles are suspended on semi-elliptical leaf springs; the front axle uses single tires, while the rear axle uses dual tires. The tires are size 12-22. Steering is provided by a ZF Ross steering system. All wheels were fitted with Trilex rims, equipped with internally expanding drum brakes, hydraulically operated with pneumatic assistance (servo-braking). The handbrake acts on the transmission. Power is transmitted from the engine to a four-speed gearbox included an additional gear via the multi-plate dry clutch.
The engine used is the Mercedes-Benz OM 57. It is a water-cooled, inline-six-cylinder, overhead-valve (OHV) diesel engine with a prechamber combustion system, featuring a displacement of 12,517 cc. The camshaft is driven by a seven-bearing crankshaft via spur gears. Fuel is injected into the prechamber by a Bosch injection pump. In Wehrmacht service they were derated (restricted in output). Bore × stroke were 125 × 170 mm for a compression ratio of 17:1. The rated power at 1700 rpm was 99 kW (110 kW), and torque at rated speed of 1700 rpm was 558 Nm (618 Nm). Top speed was limited to 60 km/h for a fuel tank capacity of 155 l and fuel consumption of 36 liters for 100 km.
It used a power transmission with a multi-plate dry clutch, and four-speed gearbox with auxiliary gear. The Drive was on the Rear-wheel and the tires were of the 12-22 size, double tires at the rear, simple for the directional axle forward. The truck was very large at 9,45 meters
for a width of 2,5 meter, height of 2,42 meter without tarpaulin. The wheelbase was equally impressive of a 4x2 at 5,1 meter. It had a front track of 2,066 meters and rear track of 1,824 meter, and a limited ground clearance of 250 mm. The turning radius was colossal at 20 meters.
Its curb weight was 6,65 tons (6640 kg) for a payload of 7 tonnes (6,500 kg) hence the name. However this was the recommended one. Its maximum permissible gross vehicle weight was 13,650 kg and in wartime, many far exceeded this figure.
Outside their tarpaulin roof and simple sheet metal for the doors, the military version otherwise received a fully covered tarpaulin in the rear flatbed, with five arches usually stored forward when not in use. There was enough space for three rows of bunks and up to 30 fully equipped soldiers, more with the trailer. The chassis was outfitted with toolboxes at the front and rear, in addition to the spare tire stored below the chassis, and racks for fuel jerrycans just on front of the rear wheel axle. There were also military short wheelbase variants, but the Luftwaffe tanker was not one of these.
Variants
Standard flatbed truck (Pritschenwagen):
- Basic hard metal roof: Civilan version, later requisitioned.
- Simplified sheet metal roof: Simplified Wehrmacht model 1938.
- Canvas roof model: Wehrmacht model 1940
- Fuel Tanker version: Shortened 6x4 chassis with fuel tank: Luftwaffe.
- Civilian trailer tanker
- Articulated bus
- LD 6500 fire service turntable ladder chassis
- LK 6500 Tipper
- Short wheelbase models (civilian and military).
The Mercedes L6500 in combat
The need for a continuous supply chain over long distances led to the creation of three separate supply units (Kw.Tr.Regiment 602, 605, and 616), equipped with, among other things, Mercedes-Benz L 6500 vehicles. These units comprised 3,000 men and 2,200 vehicles, but the latter were not all of the L6500 type. So we are left without exact production figures for the L6500. Since production stopped in 1940, those deployed on the front had to be content with a dwindling reserve of spares.
The army vehicle lacked the Mercedes star on the radiator grille and the requsitioned vehicles were marked with a white WH on the mudguard as vehicle of the Wehrmacht. The payload of around 7 tons originated from the Reichsbahn was mostl used for supply, in road-bound motor vehicle columns from germany to rear line depots over long distances. Some were pressed on the eastern front on mud roads with the consequences we imagine. They very rarely were used to transport troops despite their large capacity, as L4500 and L3000 lorries with better off-road performances already performed the job well, troops instead went by train. Outside the Luftwaffe which mostly used the tanker version, the Wehrmacht also used some rare short wheelbase versions like the L 6500 K dumper. Off-road performances were a little better then as the power to weight ratio and huge torque compensated for their road tires.
L6500 specifications |
| Dimensions | 9450 x 2500 x 2420 mm |
| Weight | 6.65t |
| Crew | 1 driver, 2 passenger, +c30 soldiers |
| Propulsion | OM 57 6-cyl. inline pre-chamber diesel, OVH water-cooled 150 HP |
| Top speed | 60 kph, 75 kph unladen max |
| Payload | 7t (6.5t standard), max 13.65t |
| Transmission | 4 speed hearbox, see notes |
| Suspension | Leaf springs, 4x2 |
| Maximum range | 155 liters, 430 km. |
| Production | Unknown, c1,000 |