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Maybe that just sounded bad...lol

Those things will go most anywhere and they will take a lot of abuse and keep chugging but you have to stay up on the maintenance or you will be spending a lot of money on them.

The Annoyed Man wrote:

RogueUSMC wrote:

SRO1911 wrote:not exactly the topic, but I spent most of this evening working on the hmmv our fire department just bought (hmmv's stink btw).
it will effectively fill a very specific need for us, and do it far cheaper than the next best commercial alternative.

if there is a clear need for the equipment, and it is used appropriately - I see no problem.

We spent more time fixing them than we did driving them in the Corps...keep a good stock of CV boots on-hand...

I had no idea. Civilians are led to believe that the HMMV is a nearly indestructible beast. So much for propaganda.

I love my Devil Dogs. My brother retired from the Corps. RogueUSMC, y'all's PMCS was obviously inadequate. The M998s for which I was responsible served my FDC section without issue. I have not operated a M998 other than in CONUS, but I've driven on Ft Hood, Ft Bliss, and the highways in between in mud, rain, heat, dust, high-lock, and at highway speeds. I'm sure it is possible to get an M998 stuck, but I have not been able to do so. I was a driver of M151A2 and Assistant Battalion Motor Officer for an artillery battalion equipped with M151A2. We had the same issue with CV boots on the M151A2. That is always going to be a vulnerable part, especially on an off-road vehicle.

The M998 is not perfect. However, in my 20+ years of using the M998 in support of self-propelled artillery units, I have found it to be as reliable as the M151A2, with adequate PMCS. While the M998 is more complex than the M151A2 and more costly to maintain, it is more capable.

The M151 was a death trap...lol. I have an ex-brother-in-law who's hobby was restoring them.

As for the PMCS on the vehicles, that's about all we did in garrison. It is very labor intensive. We were always fixing something on them...it was never anything that would make them not run though. I hit a wadi so hard at Khafji that the fiberglass hood just came apart...lol. The hood never was replaced before we turned them back in after the war...

With the exception of the glorious little C-tractor we had in the gulf...



...our old M923s have got to be my favorite offroad vehicles of all time.

nightmare69 wrote:

bblhd672 wrote:

nightmare69 wrote:The equipment that was obtained here was given to them through a grant program. It didn't cost the tax payers a dime. I've only seen it actually used once, rest of the time it's used in parades and local events for show.

Didn't cost the taxpayers a dime? So this equipment magically appeared without the American citizen being forced to pay for it through taxation?

I'm not going to dig that far into it. It didn't come out the the dept, city, or county's budget.

Well you need to dig a little more. As stated above our taxes paid for the equipment at the federal level to start with. Although the Vehicles may have been obtained from the Government at no charge, once the SO or PD has them, the County or City are now responsible for maintaining them and insuring them, and given the nature of the vehicles and the intended use, the insurance is NOT cheap-- and neither is the maintenance. Ask any military tech that has to work on them. You can't go to the local parts store and pick up replacements for many of the components. I've served on the City Council for many years, and aside from employee salaries, by far the biggest budget items we have are vehicles, maintenance, and insurance. You are 100% correct that although the departments look for some reason to use them, since they have them, they still spend 95% of the time sitting in the parking lots deteriorating from non-use and age.