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| LG 3000 cross-country military vehicle |
The first of the 1930s-40s Mercedes 3-tonne truck series came in 1935 with the LG 3000, which was designed for the German military as a cross-country off-road truck and featured three axles. The vehicle's wheelbase was 3.9 metres and as already mentioned it had a payload capacity of three tonnes, however due to legislations the vehicle was only permitted to carry two tonnes when travelling off-road. It used the 7.4 litre OM 67 six-cylinder diesel engine at 95 horsepower. Production of the LG 3000 was discontinued in 1938 after three years. The LG 3000's successor arrived the same year in the form of the off-road LGF 3000, which was manufactured until 1941. From 1937-39 a four tonne LG 4000 variant was produced using the same engine but a slightly shorter wheelbase than the 3000.
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| L 3000 S rear wheel drive variant |
Mercedes' other 3-tonne model of the era was the L 3000. This model was manufactured firstly as the all-wheel drive L 3000 A in 1940, and a year later the L 3000 S rear wheel drive variant entered production. These were powered by the 4.9 litre OM 65/4 diesel engine which produced around 70 horsepower. It appears that the civilian spec L 3000 was manufactured from 1938 to sometime in the mid 40s, although as with a lot of early Mercedes commercial vehicles little documentation is available to confirm this. In 1942 the German government ordered the production of a rebadged Opel Blitz 3.3 tonne truck, and it was in 1944 when the new model,
the L701, replaced the L 3000.
