With the 3 ton chassis having a special cropped version of the chassis, you kind of wonder if the smaller busses that bear the "blitz" name and (some) share the looks of the 3 ton brother should be in this website. The chassis of the 1 and 1.5 tonner is an all purpose truck chassis. Where does a bus end and an ambulance or a spacious car begin? With the Germans drafting anything with wheels and using them for whatever purpose, a carpenters 1.5 ton van, becomes a 4 stretcher ambulance. Let's focus on the coachbuild part of them. Let's see about these chassis first.
In 1934 Opel brings the "2.0-12" with a 2851mm wheelbase and the engine of the 2.0 liter car. It has the flat radiator and small car like wheels. It's produced in Russelsheim, but is on pictures being produced in the legendary factory in Brandenburg an der Havel, that opens in 1937. An update of the type is the "1.5-29", that gets a 2900mm wheelbase and a 1.5 liter engine . The design is matched with the 1.5 tonner that has been newly designed in the 1937 release of the legendary 3 and 1.5 tonners.
With that it becomes very difficult to tell them apart. The wheels tell the the story. The 1.5 ton has the more truck like 6 nut wheels with holes, the 1 ton has the disk car-like ones.
1937 is the introduction of the 3 ton "3,6-36", the "3,6-47 NR"(buschassis) and the 1.5 ton "2,5-32" with a 3250mm wheelbase and the engine of the 2,5 liter engine of the super 6. The standard wheels are 5.50 x 18. The chassis and the standard truck are produced as the "2.5-45" until March 1951.
These 3 chassis variants form a range from small to medium trucks, vans, busses, ambulances and whatever a coachbuilder or customer could think of.
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| 2nd generation 1 ton chassis | 2nd generation 1 ton chassis |
| last revised:
January 3 2021