Hummers, are they really that good?

Judge for yourself...

Mm, but you can roll any vehicle if you try hard enough...

Alex

The roof stayed where it was supposed to be. That's something you should expect from a vehicle designed for the military, though.

So did the roof on my Series IIa when i rolled it. and no, it didnt have a roll cage fitted.

Alex

I'm pretty confident Land/Range Rovers will do very well in case of a rollover, even whithout rollcages fitted.

There's Hummers and there's hummers - isn't that the civilian 'copy'?

No, the civvy has beam axles. The real humvee is an oversized whale with some nice features, the civvy copy is just an oversized whale!

Looking at the wheels thrust skywards? I didn't notice that. The wheels have remained remarkably parallel, too, as you would expect with a beam axle - perhaps I'm not yet convinced!

OK, then just go and look at some pictures of the H1 and the H2, they are very different, it's easy to see that the one on its roof is the H1, the front, the ramp-over angles, the single cab and pickup body etc. Look at the styling on the two types of truck and see for yourself.

The H2 is simply a hummer look-alike body on one a standard american truck/pickup chassis. The H1 is a glossy version of the HMMVW, which is rather more robust than the H2.

Alex

People Hi,

HAving had the chance to drive a Hummer H1 back in 1996 for a short time in Beirut I can only say that Landies are far better as everyday life and use vehicles.

The only true advantage of the H1 (and the H2) is the looks. It is extremely impressive and has a phenomenal ability to open the road in front of it and the military checkpoints.

Two offroading related advantages are that due to its humongous width it is also very stable and it was excellent approach and retreat angles

It is not fast (travels at around 110 Km/h and if you go faster than that it starts to rattle and shake due to the portal axles design) It is VERY thirsty even on its diesel versions It is extremely cramped inside (four adults have minimal space with each passenger seating in his seat with a HUGE flat space (the arms platform) between them. Loading space is minimal also, it is flat and wide but not so deep and very short (on station wagon bodied vehicles, unlike the tipped one in the photo) It is VERY heavy and this has resulted into having three flat tyres on the same time on the same spot where even ordinary Toyota Corollas could pass through with their ordinary tyres (namely a field with just a few thorny bushes)

The on board inflation system is TOTALLY useless and the ran flat tyres simply got torn apart in less than 15 kms (they are supposed to be able to hold on for 50 km at a 50 Km/h speed.

Would I buy one? NO !!!! Would I use one? YES if they were paying for the gas and the car itself (as they did when I was in Beirut)

Take care Pantelis

Don't know if its true, but the 101FC met the Hummer in Gulf war I, and hammered the Hummer in terms of reliability and off-road manoeuvrability. I'd love to know if that is in fact true !

Steve

The local prisons had some Hummers for a while as perimeter security vehicles - they were scrapped (literally) a year later, totally unreliable & uneconomic. I think the gearboxes were the biggest failure, from what I recall. They were way too heavy ...

Well, would anyone really be surprised?

There are features of the HMMWV Hummer which make a lot of sense when on the front line with the US Army in a NATO vs. Warpac war.

It's quite arguable that the result is less useful in the sorts of war the US army fights today, and of little or no use in a civilian environment.

It might be considered as the equivalent of an Austin Champ, competing with a Land Rover, in the 1950s.

Such as?

(Not disagreeing - just curious. I've never really paid much attention to the Hummer.)

Being too wide to fit down many rural roads ;-)

Richard

The width matches an M1 tank, so you can follow the tank through a minefield without detonating any more mines. This isn't quite silly, the idea was to fit the leading tank with a mine-clearing attachment, a sort of plough.

There's a slight problem. If the 3rd Shock Army came through the Fulda Gap, all the minefields would be American, and the Americans wouldn't be making gaps.

Very difficult with a 2CV.

Fred