Haulital Colonel (Andrew's Vehicle Index)/Lore

The Haulital Colonel is a range of trucks manufactured by Hilton Motors under the Haulital brand. Introduced for the 1997 model year, the Colonel is offered as a series of full-size pickup trucks and chassis cab trucks. Competing against the Ford F-Series, Ram Pickup, and Chevrolet Silverado, the Colonel is the result of Haulital's extensive restructuring of it's former light truck division. 
== First generation (1996–2012) ==
Launched in the winter of 1996 as a 1997 model, the first-generation Colonel had increased interior space over the contemporary Hook'em. In a branding change, the Colonel nomenclature was used as an internal model code for it's rebadged Hilton Lugnutess variant.
For 2002, the First-generation Colonel underwent a mid-cycle revision, adopting parts commonality with GM and Dodge light trucks. The GM 4.3L V6 became standard equipment, replacing the Hilton G4P36DE (a licensed Mitsubishi 4G54) with the option for a 5.3L Vortec or a 6.6L Duramax. The 4.3 V6 is mated to a Chrysler 46RE automatic transmission.
=== Second-generation ===
For 2012, Haulital released the second-generation Colonel under the GMT610 architecture. Rather than being named the Haulital Lakota, the new vehicle was branded as the Colonel, with "M2x5" as a secondary part of the nomenclature. The decision to drop the Lakota nameplate was made primarily to market the existing GMT610 based Lakota pickup as a new vehicle. This was because the Lakota received improvements in handling upon it's mid-cycle overhaul and Haulital wanted to use the name for a no frills vehicle. The "M2x5" designation was similar to the "M1x5" designation used by the Lakota and utilized a similar design layout. In the vein of the 2003-2007 Haulital Hook'em, the GMT610 based Colonel uses a vertically oriented cab configuration to allow more interior space and improved ingress/egress. Loosely based on the cab from the Chevrolet Express/GMC Savana vans, this new cab was specifically designed for both the Colonel and the GMT560 Garrison although it technically could be mated to the GMT610 vans without issue. 
Category:Andrew's Vehicle Index