The last time I flashed back to what was in my head while roaming around the motorpool, we had a HMMWV absolutely killing the tires like I could only hope for. Every time I would hop into a HMMWV, I dreamed of a Duramax/Allison swap while I made do with 1984 diesel tech straight from the bowels of General Motors. Have to be honest, that’s a pretty broad spread between adequate and awesome.
But vehicle choices got better for me as time went along. There was F-440, a Stewart-and-Stevenson built M1078 LMTV that I rode with on my first deployment; F9, an M923A2 five-ton that I cared for, and there was a whole list of vehicles that I operated outside of my normal duties, like an M1084 MTV, a cargo HEMTT, an M113 APC, a Stryker, and others. About the only things I didn’t get to run at some point or another in my time were an old-school Deuce with the funky five-speed manual trans and the gigantic container handler.
With any of the big trucks, power was not an issue. Gearing certainly wasn’t an issue…locked down into the low ranges, the LMTV was only limited by the driver’s nerves and it’s top-heaviness. But if I wanted to tow and haul something, I could damn well do that. I’ll personally witness that with a HEMTT trailer hooked to the back hauling a ton of crap and an ISU-90 shipping box filled with more crap chained down onto the flatbed, that I saw the speedometer tickle 90 miles per hour on a banzai run out of some of the hotter parts of Bagdad. Realistically, it was probably in the low 80-mph range but still…hauling that kind of weight and making those kinds of speeds is still substantial.
Which always made me wonder how one of my trucks would do hooked to the sled…
The HEMTTs with the newer CATs pull like nothing else, especially the 10 wheeled PLS version. If I every hit it big one day I’m gonna buy the contact shop truck variant. It has a complete shop/tool room mounted on the remove-able flat rack, a built in crane, 10 wheel drive, and front and rear steer. They are sick! I always wanted to see how much the AVLB bridge carrier would pull. They fly without the bridge on top.