The Humvee: America’s Workhorse, Forty Years and Counting
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- Опубликовано: 24 авг 2024
- Join us on a journey through the Humvee's history - from its inception to its potential future as a drone. Explore its success, challenges, and iconic status, and see what's in store for this versatile vehicle.
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The humvee gets a lot of flak for being a 'gas guzzler," but compared to everything else in our arsenal, they're basically compact cars.
The military puts a premium on field maintenance and performance. A more fuel efficient design to meet the power requirements would probably require more complicated engine components that are more prone to fail. I think one of the big benefits of the Abrams turbine engine was to accept literally any kind of fuel, which makes keeping it moving more flexible. Helicopters can deliver jet fuel, trucks can deliver diesel.
@@granatmof and the HMMWV can run on both. Source, Me, using the JP-8 fuel point when all the diesel fuel points at McCoy were occupied.
Look up the range/mpg on the original jeep (GPW or MB). They were great especially for their time
Is a gas guzzling hummer worse for the environment than a prius? I don't think many people commute to work in an h1. I don't think vehicles that only are used for recreational purposes are any worse than hybrids sitting in traffic everyday. 😅
@@montevallomustang Except in the military's case, they are an every-day vehicle. Then as they are retired, people do buy them, and have them registered as what we call in the US on-highway vehicles. There are a few where I live, and in fact i even saw one of the truck-bed variants headed for a local grocery store just a couple days ago. I will admit I really want one because I'm a sucker for vehicles that look like they're staring someone down but I would probably look into changing the engine if possible as there are better modern diesel engines out there. That and I would also want to modify it for bio-fuels as an advantage to diesels is that they run off of almost anything that burns. I believe when Rudolf Diesel unveiled his engine to the world he had it running off of peanut oil.
Every time I got into a Humvee, I always thought for such a large vehicle it has so little interior space.
It's all a steel chassis and no room for its human occupants then! 😅
I hear it also only has 4 seats, is that true?
@@EAcapuccino yes it’s true. The civilian Hummer H1 (basically a Humvee that’s road legal) also only has 4 seats. You feel invincible though, for better or for worse last I drove one.
The anti tardis
Just pretend you're an Apollo astronaut but with MRE hot sauce farts in the capsule.
@@Windows98R Ironically they're also poorly armoured lol.
love Hate relationship here. I was in Iraq for the first rotation in. My unit was one of the first to experience the IEDs effectiveness. The result was 1114's shredded like someone shot paper targets with bird shot. And we lost some of our guys and their commander was relieved of duty. We lost 2 Bradley's and 1 Abrams in that deployment. But it was the 1114's that were the biggest help and failure for us. My 2nd tour I had to go to the boneyard in Kuwait to scrap for parts for 1114's so my unit could convoy up into Iraq from Kuwait. There are 2 times I ever cried openly over there. Once in that boneyard and the other when a friend of mine was suddenly killed by a rocket. I still to this day vividly remember how massive that boneyards collection of destroyed Hummv's was. And most were testaments to fellow soldiers deaths and mutilations from IEDs and RPGs. Before Iraq I had great faith in the Hummv's and happily drove them around performing my duty's. But after Iraq they simply became coffins on wheels. I will never see Hummv's as anything but. I did 3 tours over there and the last was when the Army was just getting the Maxxpro MRAPs. They are incredible vehicles and for once I started to see patrols come back regularly unharmed even after taking the latest and greatest IED's. Something the Hummv's simply could not do anymore.
That's because you Seppostanis were using a utility vehicle in front line roles.
A flat bottomed vehicle flips like a pancake when a mine goes off......
Honestly was amazing to see that as a Aussie, we had our Bushmaster the whole time and none of us died because Vee Hull designs is the way forward.....hell the South Africans and Brits in Northern Ireland realised that back in the 60's
jsut remember the HumVees were never meant to be an armored vehicle. They were a direct replacement for the Jeep.
Yeah, well , that' s what happen when you invade a country
@@richardcostello360 It wasn't so much the flipping over as the turning inside out. An unarmored flat bottom might as well be made out of canvas to an IED.
@@markogaudiosi5243 Good thing we're not invading Ukraine, huh?
Loved the Hummer. It changed so much from 1990-2010. Forced into roles M113s, Bradley's & Strykers were meant for.
I think it was a bit unfair to call the underbelly a flaw in this video when IEDs weren't an idea in the original design specs.
Similar to the m113. Did things it wasn't designed for initially
@@airplanenut89 mines. They've existed for as long as modern warfare has.
@@therogueadmiral I've seen test videos of the humvee working against anti-personnel mines. The vehicle was immobilized but the cabin was ok. Not being able to withstand firepower that can literally lift an Abrams isn't a flaw. It's a light infantry transport/scout, not an APC.
And THAT is the crime of it all.
As an Australian, the thought of the Humvee, has brought me to think about the Bushmaster military truck that is produced here in Australia, and wouldn't mind if you may do a video about that in future
The Humvee is more like our old Land Rover 110's that got replaced about 10 years ago with a modular MB G Wagon
Our Bushmaster vehicle was designed by Timothy in the UK to deal with the Northern Ireland Problem.
Thales bought a modified version of it to produce in Bendigo VIC......we sell ours around the world except to the UK (which they manufacture locally)
Fellow veterans, what's your memorable modification?
Mine is having a second pintle welded on the turret so the Mk-19 gunners also had a 240B
The ac unit option on the M1152
@@TBrady Cruising in luxury!
@Dominic Kolb best thing about being satcom, we had AC units.
@@TBrady Scout myself. More guns for us since we're out alone. Our only cooling was soak a sock, put the wet sock around a water bottle, pass it to the gunner. As you drive, the water in the sock evaporates, making the water in the bottle slightly cooler. Every little bit helps.
The up-armored doors that were rigged shut with bungee cord. Better keep your everything inside the frame....
There’s one inaccuracy in this video I wanted to point out. In Vietnam, the NVA attacked supply convoys. This led to soldiers armoring their M35s and making the first modern gun truck. The designers of the HMMWV knew of this but still built an unarmored supply truck. They knew what they were doing.
The HMMWV's reputation for "bad mileage" was because of the earlier iterations of the 6.5L Detroit engine block which didn't come with a turbocharger. These are the surplus models which usually find their way onto the civilian market. WITH the turbocharger, as in the later versions, the 6.5 is actually a fairly fuel efficient engine. I know this because I have two Chevy pickups with that same block that I daily use for towing. It may not be the most powerful V8 diesel for it's generation, but it was economical, and was marketed as such.
the older, non turbo engines were detuned detroit 6.2l diesels, coupled to a modified turbo hydramatic model 400 3 speed transmission. the turbo charged engines are detroit 6.5l diesels, and even later models received a much needed bonus for efficiency with the introduction of the turbo hydromatic 4l80e electronic overdrive automatic. the gear ratios in the hubs and differentials were designed to climb and pull through anything the incredibly wide tires were put to.
however, even with all of the modernization of the platform, the engine remains a detuned dog, working too hard to move a vehicle almost twice as heavy as the one it was designed to power. the detuning was for a purpose however, at least in theory... by limiting the maximum output of the motor they thought that the longevity of the engine and transmission would be extended significantly and as a byproduct of development in the early 70's only allowing the engine a significantly reduced amount of fuel would save in overall fuel costs. this had the unfortunate side affect of an engine that wanted to run hot, and had to work twice as hard as it was designed to.
It was a huge improvement over M151 jeeps. More stable/less top-heavy, damn near impossible to get stuck. The big downside was how wide it was relative to jeeps. However, you didn't want to get shot at in anything other than the armored MP version until everyone got up-armored. I concur with the person commented on how hard riding long distance was in one, since there were no springs or sufficient cushioning under the seats, you were pretty much sitting on a hard box going over mixed terrain.
Damn near impossible to get stuck my ass!
I've been ETSd for 5 years now. I can still feel and smell a ripe hmmwv
Really a better comparison would be to the M-37 than the jeep. The M-37 was a better vehicle than the Jeep or the Hummer. The new JLTV more closely replicates what the M-37 was. Sadly rather than invest to modernize the M-37 they replaced it with civilian pickups.
I loved my M151 jeep. It was narrow enough to let you cut through the woods between the trees and if you came up on a log, you and your driver could push it over the top of it. If the battery crapped out, you could push start the jeep. The down side was you needed to have that crappy little 1/4T trailer around to haul your gear with you. When we traded them in for the Humvees, it was like trading up for a Cadillac. 3X the pay load without needing a trailer. Ran smoother. But I hated the fiberglass hood and that cheap pop riveted sheet metal body.
You obviously never rode or drove long distance in an old Deuce & a half…talk about brutal to drive and ride in!
I remember sitting at my desk at Fort Dix in early 1986, and reading the Army Times article about the troops' reactions to the HMMWVs that they were putting through initial field tests. The article said that the troops immediately loved the HMMWV... and that they were calling them "Hum-Vees".
Hey, we love giving gear names. Need to fill up your Humvee on the fly? Gonna need a donkey dick for your Jerry can.
Since you did do it on the Humvee, the next natural step would be covering the Jeep(both the Willys Jeep and the Ford GPW) and the Soviet equivalent to the Jeep- the UAZ 469, which to this day continues to be the workhorse 4x4 for the Russian and many post Soviet militaries.
ADD the G wagon and unimog to that
How is going TWO STEPS BACKWARD "the next natural step"?
You forget the M151s (design principles of which dramatically influenced the HMMWV), and the M38/M38A1…
You forgot the Bantam Jeep which made the first Jeep
@@Darth-Claw-Killflex Because it's history? We're not talking about building a fleet of Willys Jeeps. Just telling their story.
Fallijah Iraq 2006, the armor was new and every truck had a different kit and door, I had to learn to open the door on every truck bc they were so mixed, sandbags supplemented the gaps in armor. I took 5 IEDs during my tour, I was lucky. We stopped using them and went back on foot bc it was safer. IEDs stood no match to the osh kosh 7 ton, I felt warm and cozy in the 7ton humvees not so much. Cool video.
I drowned one in Egypt, a MRC-145. Chief told me to go, and I went into the water. 90° nose plant to the sea floor. We had the new MAK kits (1st gen armor kits 2005, don't remember what it stands for) and the water filled to the roof. I was able to swim out of the tiny window. Man I miss that 30" waist of mine.
Hehehe. I miss my waist too. I just did spribg cleaning and retired a bunch of jeans to the basement with no hope in sight that I'll ever fit back in.
@@user-lv7ph7hs7l I never get rid of my jeans , then again I am a thrift store kind of guy. I don't know how much danger I was in, I couldn't get my door open because of the surf. My a driver was smart and jammed his boot to crack his door open, the surf actually pushed the armor door open. That would have been the easier way to go, but I knew I needed air quick.
@@klonkimo Yeah and I imagine they sink like a stone...
Me neither, I even have a whole bag of busted jeans but I will eventually get around to fixing them. Socks too, I keep them as paint rags to wipe brushed from my model boats. No sense in buying fresh rags just to ruin them in a day.
@@user-lv7ph7hs7l it sank like a Wiley coyote cartoon. Almost faster than gravity.
The engine was produced by General Motors until the end of 2000. In 2001, the production was sold to General Engine Products which was a subsidiary of AM General set up specifically for this purpose.
For some reason I love hypergeneric company names. General Engine Products is a good one, reminds me of the fictional 'General Products' company that produces starship hulls in Larry Niven's sci fi novels.
And do yourself a favor - if you can get a Hummer/HMMWV with the GEP engines - get it - because ALL GM 6.5/6.2 engines have a metallurgical defect which causes the #8 cylinder to overheat and explode.
@@nothingtoseaheardammit you really should only speak so authoritatively if you really know what you are talking about. It is true that the GEP engines have revised chemistry with nickel added for improved strength and ductility, but that has nothing to do with "number eight cylinder exploding".
ALL turbo 6.5 Diesels have problems with burned pistons and galled cylinder walls on #6 and #8 if using the factory turbochargers. This is because the turbine side of the turbo is too small to pass the mass flow at high engine speed. The turbine nozzle chokes and EGT sky rockets.
I build custom modified versions of these engines with a custom turbocharger that I developed. I use splayed main caps, custom rod bolts (manufacturerd by ARP), custom pistons, etc. all designed by me. The engines make serious power and have significantly improved durability.
I was an HMMWV mechanic in the early 90s in the Army. I loved my trucks they were great.
How were they to maintain?
How many intake tubes needed fixing before being labelled with the warning "no step" 🤔
Got our first M998's in germany in the late 80's, the damn things were almost too wide for the border road! Then got to take M998's to war, in 90-91, we had soft tops, no ballistic glass (we took that out before we crossed the berm) and yes, we were jealous of the armored marine hummers (one hit a mine and was left behind, one of the backseaters in my scout platoon stole the armored doors off it!) ahhh, yes, those were the days! Kind of miss the things!
Hell, we had soft tops and turtle shells going in, in 2003. We didn't even SEE an armored one during our 15 months. No turret shields, no nothing.
40 years... time flies when you get older.
Almost like it’s relative…
still remember when my unit in germany got them for the first time in Oct 86.
Yup.
Humvee is a shifty bigger version of the jeep. They took a utility vehicle meant to transport troops and equipment behind the lines, into a fighting platform.
The humvee is an example of shifty design and improper use doctrin
A very fair assessment. In my 20 years in the Army, I adored it. With my H1 that I have owned 10 years, I adore it. It's a great truck... unless you're running over IEDs. I was always thankful to ride in a JLTV in Afghanistan.
Hard day at work.. come home to a megaproject video.. YES!! Kick back and relax now
I remember back in the day a buddy buying a retired army humvee and ask if i would go with him and help him drive it 250 miles back home, i think it gave permanent back damage.
The seats are definitely uncomfortable. Only about an inch and a half of cushion placed directly on top of flat metal. A lot of us used to sit on our flack vests (more for comfort than to protect our butts from some in-coming blast from the road).
Top speed of 70 mph? Down hill with a tail wind maybe! And it felt like a space shuttle reentry. Loved those things.
55mph if your lucky. And praying it doesn't shake itself apart
All the ones I operated between 90-93 had governors set at 45 mph.
Just an FYI; camels can run at least 45 mph. And they're more maneuverable than a Hummer in the open desert.
@@ChristopherKnN If I recall correctly, the speedometer went to 60 mph. I've gotten the needle pegged a few times, but I would estimate an actual speed no more than about 65 or 70 mph, although the engine sounded like it was about to blow. I drove them mostly in the mid-to-late 90s while in the USAF and they were typically 1986-1987 model years. I don't remember governors being installed on them. You could normally get them up to freeway speeds, but it never felt safe! The only vehicles I remember driving in the USAF with governors were the 28 and 44 passenger busses which annoyingly had a max governor-imposed speed of 55 mph. It was excruciatingly slow when having to drive them on two lane Nevada highways with a 70 mph speed limit. Even the M35 (deuce and a half) with a published max speed of 56 mph could actually reach about 65 on the open highway - it just wasn't advisable since they were a deathtrap at that speed if you had to swerve or brake hard.
We had a fireteam in Kuwait who crashed a HMMWV while trying to negotiate a 90-degree curve in a road along the base perimeter. They were all USAF Security Forces guys who had less than a week in Kuwait and the driver and occupants were all unfamiliar with the road. Sadly, the turret gunner was killed when the vehicle rolled onto its roof. One of the surviving passengers was my old roommate from ABGD training at Fort Dix. Thankfully, he only suffered minor injuries. The other two had moderate to major injuries, but survived. AFOSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigations) investigated the crash and estimated the HMMWV was travelling at least 70 mph when the driver lost control and went off the roadway. He rightfully court-martialed for manslaughter and other charges. The passenger who was my former roommate told me he and at least one other in the vehicle told the driver he needed to slow down prior to the crash. I was familiar with the road where it happened and it was completely idiotic for him to be at that speed. But, yes, they can get to 70 mph if the road is straight and smooth. Having said that, I've never felt safe taking one over about 55 mph.
Only one I could think of actually going that fast on flat ground, is a stripped high back.
I worked at AM General for 39 years, and the Humvee is considered on of the military's most successful vehicles and actually too successful and the military put them in situations they were not meant to be. They were utility vehicles, not front line offensive weapon. The Army did not declare the unfit for use, in fact they are still being made today for the US and friendly Countries. They are actually used for their original purpose - as utility vehicles. Recently AM General actually won the extension contract for the JLTV. By the way - the M-WRAP's were not a good solution and in fact they were heavy, cumbersome and broke down quite often and many were simply left when the US pulled out of theater. I worked as repair and as a test driver for years ,Humvees(they had to be driven for ten miles on a hard surface before they could be released to the Government.
The M-151 jeep was never sold to the public because they were too dangerous with their independent suspension and they rolled too easily. they were all crushed and scrapped.
Having been a small part of of the Humvee's development in the early 1980's from the engine development of engines, to the chassis', I can say that it is one of the best vehicles developed for the U.S. Armed Forces.
Good piece.....
The Hummer was and is perfect...as long as you don't want to be comfortable or go fast. Its problems were in trying to use a utility vehicle as a combat vehicle
False, going 55 in a up-armored humvee, blackedout at night in Ramadi or Fallujah, was like reentering the earth's atmosphere
Or want protection without having to add another several tonnes worth of armour to it that destroy the handing characteristics and slow it down even more. They used them in combat because they had loads of them hanging around. Just shove a gun on top and call it a combat vehicle. Technically it's a technical lol.
@@FortunaFavetFortibus38K that's literally what he just said. Lol
@@InterstellarTaco perception is everything 😄. That big bitch would get up and move for 14,000lbs of steel, guns and ammo.
@WhiskeyCharlie38 Kilo lol yep. I have a love hate for the thing. Combat or sleeping? Hell no but as a pick up truck and using it for OC shit I love the thing.
Surplus Humvees would be marvelous for wilderness search & rescue teams and for ambulances in disaster situations. That'd take full advantage of its go-anywhere abilities.
I read about a pizza restaurant in Connecticut (I think) that bought a Humvee, then painted their pizza company logos and phone numbers all over it, for publicity purposes. During their harsh winter months the only thing that could get through the blizzards was the police, emergency crews, and this pizza delivery Humvee.
The M1141. That girlfriend you hate but know you can’t live without her.
In my experience,the girlfriend you hate but is better than your left hand
@@oldworldpatriot8920 well said.
As a tall soldier I detested the humvee. It was very cramped in the back and ours were so beat up we often had to hold the heavy, armored doors shut while patrolling and I considered any opportunity to get out of it to be a highlight of my day. We later upgraded to a couple of the first MRAPs in Afghanistan and then JLTVs. The JLTV is hands down the best vehicle but lacks the ability to store enough ammunition internally in my opinion. Of course, nothing was better than the Blackhawks, they got us to places the humvees couldn't and we never got attacked while onboard. We tried to go to a certain valley in humvees and spent 11 hours in firefights without even getting half way. The next year we went in Blackhawks and got there in 17 minutes.
I bet it is still a lot safer than the jeep it replaced. I'm sure the Humvee will still be I'm service for many years alongside alongside fleet of new vehicles.
I was always impressed by how much punishment they could take...and keep going. Yes, they would break, but they were simple vehicles to maintain. It never took the mechanics long to get them back into action, as long as they had the spare parts on-hand.
The Hummers won't be replaced any time soon. The new JLTV's are, primarily, only for front-line units.
absolutely not my experience. The air suspension in particular was the usual GM junk. Most of our Hummers were out of service for years.
@@NemoOhd20 I can’t comment on that. I’ve NEVER seen an HMMWV with air suspension.
@@skookapalooza2016 wut?
Agreed.
I saw somebody driving one of these (a proper one, not an H2 or H3) around downtown Toronto. A braver soul I never did see.
The weight specs he uses for the original Humvee are for the latter variant of up-armored Humvee, as the OG was less than 6000 lb with a 2500 lb load capability.
It was a fantastic platform until it was "upgraded" past its capability.
1:00 - Chapter 1 - Design & development
4:45 - Chapter 2 - Deployed
7:50 - Chapter 3 - Challenge & evolution
12:50 - Chapter 4 - Retirement & future
15:40 - Chapter 5 - Conclusion
I was on an FTX when a National Guard unit destroyed three of these by rigging them wrong before dropping them out a helicopter.
Simon! As a former US Marine, in his late 40's. I went looking for a pick up. What I found was ridiculously over priced trucks! like 20 grand for a worn out used 1/2 ton, ( like a Ford f150). I then purchased a surplus humvee. (M-1025a2). Spent about 6 months de-surplusing it. All said I have 23,000 invested! A bargain for true beast! and it is a beast!! It will go anywhere i ask it to, pull more than I'll ever need! The best part is the looks it gets, and the wide berth pick up truck owners give it. Only one fender bender in a parking lot, a lady in a bronco backed into me as I was backing.....She got a new back bumper and rear hatch...I touched up my airlift bumper with a can of desert tan spray paint. Good as new! This truck will most likely out live me!
Not mentioned is the torque. We got 3 of our 4 M1114 stuck in a muddy field, with none if them being able to move. We daisy chained them together, manuevered the only unstuck truck to more stable ground, and that single truck got the rest out in one go.
As a us army veteran of 9 years i will expose to all: ally and enemy, the greatest weakness of the humvee, and, other US vehicle platforms.
It is simply this:
The majority of US servicemen have back problems and exactly 0 US vehicle systems try to accommodate this.
By refusing to address soldier comfort, particularly among those in the more senior echelon, all aspects of vehicle-borne combat are degraded. If your platoon leader is in irreconcilable pain after stumbling around in a humvee for even 4 hours they'll order the whole convoy back to base for the least reason because every additional minute in that clunker is torture.
You can take that pain once in awhile, but not every day.
The us army needs to address systemic health problems in training and deployment that degrade soldier effectiveness at a quick and rapidly diminishing rate as a result of abusive and unnecessary training regimes.
It's like over-cleaning your weapon and ruining the components of the gun due to unnecessary wear generated by cleaning too much and shooting it in actual training too little.
We need to reduce combat loads, reduce ground patrol lengths, respect the bodies of faithful US Army grunts, managers and senior leadership by putting super comfy army vehicle lazy boy-tier comfortable, cooling, vented seats in all the vehicles.
Honestly, if the humvees were comfortable enough for the troops to sleep in you wouldn't need tents at all. Tents are a waste of time, anyway.
If you made humvees comfortable your guys could patrol for forever and they wouldn't complain. Add some f*cking cup holders while you're at it. Enable servicemen to abuse energy drinks so they stay alert enough to save the convoy.
I hear you BUT combat loads HAVE dropped a lot over the years. Look at what was carried (and how) in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. You have it a lot better now. And road marches aren't as long as they were back then
-It's worth mentioning that its width also allowed it to follow directly in the tracked trails of the tanks in front of the convoy.-
I stand corrected.
My favorite story about them was that to deal with overheating, troops would order electric automotive radiator fans to slap onto the big radiator that sits under the hood's square intake, forcing more air into it and helping to reduce the engine overheating. If that wasn't enough, a few slapped on a secondary radiator on the rear of the vehicle to help with additional cooling of either the engine oil or the internal AC systems.
HMMWVs are about the same width as a commercial semi-truck, but are a lot narrower than a typical battle tank.
Arnold Schwarzennegor personally asked GM and Hummer themselves to make a civilian version of it
(His accent)
UNT - JA, ZEY DID! 😂
I'm back, DIS time in Ze Mighty Humvee! 🚙💪
GM had absolutely NOTHING to do with the original H1. The only involvement they had was with the Duramax implementation of the Alpha. Thats it.
RACIST.
@@nothingtoseaheardammit GM owns Hummer, then and now
So perhaps not, but they knew of it
Once again, thank u for making great videos I can watch during my medical issues. Tomorrow is the last surgery, I hope!!! I will be watching ur videos during my recovery time rest if this week.
13:25 "the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or J-T-L-V" is the best part of this video lol and he never gets it right either.
We use this questionable environmentally responsible vehicle here in northern Canada at our air stations...it works...it almost always works. Cheers!
Canada isn't a real place.
@Mister Smiley 😆 🤣 not the first time I've been told that!
Private company or Government department?
@@NovaScotiaNewfie government contractor for ground security.
I'll never forget the first time I saw Humvees! I was at Irwin and we were putting away our M113s. It was in a big place to wash and clean out vehicles before turning them in to the motorpool.
I asked, "WTF are those?!?"
A buddy says, "Those are Reagan's new Jeeps!"
I was stunned at the size of them and thought, "What a waste!!"
I'd only driven Jeeps and they always did everything we needed with ease! They could go fast and were easy as hell to fix in the field!
Their only drawback was that they could roll if you weren't careful, and if you did, odds are you were dead!
I still think we should be using those babies!!!
No, they are much better than jeeps
@@mrdato116 They better be!
Costing 40 times more!
Jeeps are cool, but they afford zero protection for the occupants and have very little room for gear. You cannot effectively put a fire team and all their gear into a Jeep. The HMMWV was the perfect platform for a mobile fire team, as long as IEDs and heavy weapons were not threatening you.
@@skyhawk_4526 Everyone in the day knew Jeeps weren't troop transports!!! Good lord that's what Deuce -and-a-halfs were for!
That or M113s!
The whole notion seemed and still does seem retarded and more reason to overvote the Army!
Which I loved!!! (I Have no idea what I'm thinking here!)
Further, as a scout vehicle, they were/are unsurpassed!
When four men can pick one up out of the mud and make it go...
No Hummvee doing that shit.
I served in an Airborne heavy weapons company, we drove humvees exclusively, armed with TOW/ITAS missile systems, Mk-19's, M2's, and M240's. During our big training events down at JRTC, we dropped them from C17's, jumped in after them, unpacked all our guns and ammo, then lived out of them for nearly a month while "playing war." We never used them on deployment, we already had MRAP's in country and this was waaay after IED's got bigger and more complex. I ended up driving my brigade commander around for awhile and he had a humvee with a sweet satellite communication kit installed on it; it was a pain to maintain, but it would go everywhere, and I lived behind its steering wheel for a month and a half during another training event.
I got really good at taking advantage of all the space it had, including fabricating a ruck-sack rack for my gun trucks and my commanders truck.
We used to call the rear, passenger side seat the "hot seat" because it's situated over the fuel tank...
I was the first driver assigned a two litter NBC resistant ambulance version in 87 on the S. Korean DMZ. I operated most versions at one time or another. Hands down the best off road wheeled vehicle in our inventory.
Also, keep in mind that the HMMWV replaced the CUCV, which was straight-up a civilian-model Chevy pickup or Blazer with camo paint, which they never put a heavy machine gn in the back of, oddly.
Hush, Karen.
Well, one of the things it replaced. It replaced an entire slew of vehicles. The Dod thought we didn't need half a dozen vehicles doing a job one vehicle could do. The more famous thing it replaced was the Jeep.
So it didn't ever actually replace the CUCV what replaced the CUCV was the LSSV in 2000 and it wasn't even meant to replace the Jeep but the thing it was suppose to replace was the Dodge WC series of trucks which where primary command, weapons, medical and Cargo vehicles and the civilian versions where Power Wagons. It was never really meant to replace Jeeps.
And a military electrical wiring system. At least ours in Canada were.
I have seen some M1008s with machineguns mounted behind the cab. Not on US military models, but plenty that were used in Latin America. The CUCV was a stop-gap measure between retirement of the jeeps and full introduction of the HMMWV. Even when CUCVs were heavily in use, there were also HMMWVs being introduced, so the M1008s (pickups) and M1009s (Blazers) were generally just used for utility and transportation. The M1009 was essentially just a four-wheel-drive staff car. Off-roading in one was horrible due to the lousy suspension. You'd bounce all over the place. Seatbelts were a must. Lol. I still kind of miss them though.
Something you missed, and it's easy to miss, is the Humvee batteries sit UNDER the seat of the front passenger, which is where the highest ranking soldier sits. IEDs destroy those batteries and send acid into the vehicle commander, complicating injuries.
In a way, the batteries provide a dampening effect from the force of the blast. Acid is obviously not an ideal liquid to be placed between a human and an explosive device, but it's better than nothing being between them. If I recall correctly, the space below the driver seat was just a generic empty storage area. I can't remember if the space below the rear passenger seats was even accessible or not.
@@skyhawk_4526 all have space under them. We put sandbags under all the seats except the battery filled one.
You should do a video on the battle of Mogadishu. Also known as Black Hawk Down . Maybe even a breakdown of what went wrong.
No offense but what didn't go wrong... It was such a clusterfuck of embracing the suck... And we prevailed... With min casualties
Dear Simon! Let's learn about the Landrover Defender!!
You can't exclude the Toyota Hilux pickup trucks. These things are the AK of combat vehicles with the modularity of AR platforms.
He should cover the Toyota War.
Virtually indestructable, Top Gear proved it.
I remember being in cold weather and having to block up the exhaust on the humvee in order to get the engine going. I also remember taking it on the highway traveling to another site and having the heat sensor being maxed out and having the entire vech shaking as we went along.
USAF Security Forces veteran here. After serving time up north at Malmstrom AFB guarding ICBMs, I can tell you that they're definitely NOT impossible to flip. I know of several incidents were fellow troops managed to somehow roll one of these things. I drove them for 4 years and I still can't figure out how they did it....🤣 Incredible vehicle!
The Humvee that was issued to my squad in the National Guard had a placard on it that said this unit was resertified in 1988.
0:54 design and development
4:41 deployed
7:46 challenge and evolution
12:44 retirement and future
15:34 conclusion
IIRC General Eisenhower (later president Eisenhower) was asked what was the most important vehicle in WWII and he answered it was the Jeep. Tanks are sexy but it is these sorts of vehicles that matter more.
The MRAP looks like the battle-ready version of the Mutts Cuts van
I can’t unsee that now! Thank you.
Voyager 1 is a marvelous expression of engineering at the limit coupled with extreme survivability and maximum exceeding of design limits. At almost 24 billion km from Earth it is the farthest any human object can possibly get from Earth until we find other means of propulsion; and still from that distance, it managed to witness the amount of restraint that Simon held at 9:15 to say "posterior" instead of "getting shrapnel up their asses"
Those up armored prototypes used in Bosnia were extremely heavy, under powered, and rattled like a spray paint can.
We used sandbags, steel plates, Armox, and whatever we could find to up armor our M1097s on our own but without the supercharger in the M1114, they were lugs.
The actual M1114s that came out were awesome. By the time air conditioning started being installed in HMMWVs, I stopped deploying.
Great vehicle, as a replacement for old Jeeps. Highly versatile and very capable off road. And fairly easy to work on. As stated, it just got thrown into role it wasn't intended for. I worked on and drove them throughout USA and Iraq, and I'd still would but a surplus one if I could afford it.
I liked the old M152 myself. MUCH easier to work on and could get threw the woods a lot better. Now the M998 was better at not getting stuck but when it did it was a PITA to get out compared to the jeep
I think the price has come down on surplus ones. I don't know if they are still auctioning them at DRMO. I've flirted with the idea of buying one. I just don't have the room to park one anywhere. Lol.
The Humvee isn't being retired, the "Up Armor" version being removed from combat duty more superior armor. They'll still be around as a support and training vehicle for years to come.
The JLTV is the militaries batmobile. It had AC and a cup holder!
Great video Simon and co., as someone who rode in these I can say there's a sense of pride in these that can't quite be described, like a battered old Chevy pickup, might not be pretty but she'll always do the job.
The f u money thing could not be more accurate. Top notch you guys
I love my humvee, I’ve owned 3 so far. Never have I owned a vehicle I love and hate so much at the same time.
Every person I've ever talked to said it's like being into bdsm or something, owning one. Or maybe just a masochist would be fitting as well. Lol
I can't find any good content on fixing and upkeep and doing fun things with a humv. This is your chance, my bro
@@davidanalyst671 There’s multiple channels of content. Just search hmmwv or humvee. Unfortunately I won’t ever be RUclips famous so I don’t have the time to do it for free. 😅
@@davidanalyst671 look up Dakotas channel, he does a good job. His name is Dakota wood.
Hahaha, try owning a Landover
During the 1st Gulf War the Reserve PSYOP Loudspeaker Teams had the only unique two modifications that I am aware of during that war. We had special Madde as we prepared loudspeaker lintel mounting plates. The larger better one was racks on the rear tha held 8 jeri cans of fuel and/our water. With our own fuel we supposedly had a 500+ mile range.
Awesome video. I actually work in a foundry in Indiana that makes castings for the Humvee. It’s a bad ass piece of kit.
Now I understand why the 'transmission tunnel' area is so huge in these things, and why there's relatively little space inside. Having everything tucked up there makes sense for the application I guess.
This is an absolutely iconic vehicle. It always looked like a Jeep's big brother, and I love Jeeps, so this thing, love even more.
The Humvee alongside the Jeep are two of the most recognizable vehicles of the US military.
Back in 2005 my buddy and his squad hit an AT mine in an unarmored truck. It was near the Pakistan border, in eastern Afghanistan. They were incredibly lucky though that day, and it detonated directly under the transmission, the only piece of chunky metal under that truck. They were extremely fortunate, and everybody walked away from that one. Could have been way worse. There were 6 or 7 guys in the back of that cargo humvee.
They can take mine hits pretty well. It's when there's 2 or 3 artillery shells wired to the mine. That's when you in trouble!
Creaky, old, not made to support the weight of the armor we put on it.
And my first pick if I had to go back to war.
It's a mode of transport, a mobile fortification, a decent place to sleep, and a real pack mule.
I loved every model I served on.
That description sounds personal.
Not as lean, but twice as mean.
Interesting learning the history of this one, it would be great to see a megaprojects on the Australian Thales Bushmaster. Or the Land 400 project.
The HUMVEE served it's purpose. The US was offered the Australian Bushmaster in the first decade of this Century - but, they know boats.
I own two HMMWVs. A M-1123 and a M-1151a1. Love them both. Not as expensive at auction you might think. Way cheaper than a used Jeep.
The 6.2 L engine was a pig. Woefully underpowered for the task. On a dyno it only generated 160hp and 240 lbs-ft of torque. The naturally aspirated 6.5 L only generated 180 hp. The 6.5 L turbo wasn't impressive neither considering all the weight of the M1114. The turbo 400 transmission was good and they should have stuck with it but instead they went with the 4L80E and in the M1114's and contact truck versions it was just too much weight. I don't know how many of those we replaced due to troops running them in overdrive. (No fault of the troops. They were not instructed to run them in 3rd to avoid burning up the transmission.) With the M1114's we replaced the front springs with rear springs from the ambulance version. Those held the additional weight of the armor and gear of the crews better than stock springs.
As stated in this video, it really is a good rig when used for what it was designed for but as usual it was pressed into roles it never should have been. (There will never be a all singing, all dancing, do every job vehicle for any military. It just isn't feasible.) As with many other units we bolted on whatever extra plating we could find and the 6.2 L struggled. We ended up using uparmored M923A2's as our primary guntrucks with a couple M1114's as backup's. While the M923A2 is less than ideal for the role we used them in they afforded significantly more protection than even the M1114's. (At the cost of beating the daylights out of the crews and lack of maneuverability but we knew we were more protected than the HMMWV's so we preferred the M923A2.)
I saw the first Humvee in the motor pool in 1986. We relied more on Dodge pickup trucks and Blazers at the time. The Humvee is sturdy and versatile but I found it underpowered and uncomfortable in long-distance convoys .
The most true statements I've heard about the humvee are:
"the gas pedal isnt an accelerator, it just makes the engine louder."
And
"I thought Bravo 6 was down? Yeah it was but an LMTV backed into it and now she runs"
~ Actually the military's request for a replacement for the Jeep goes back to around 1972. Back then my Dad was working in the Metallurgical Research department for Chrysler - one of the potential vehicle suppliers. He told me about the U.S. military's competition for a Jeep replacement that could be better utilized for the war in the jungles of Viet Nam. So GM, Ford, Chrysler, and other truck and military equipment manufacturers submitted their proposals for such a vehicle. The photograph my Dad showed me of the first round of submissions had about seven versions that were 'all over the map' in regards to their design. Mostly these were vehicles already in production but were adapted to fit the military's interest.
~ This 'mish-mash' of entries caused the U.S. military to decide on a set of standards that would best fit a jungle and swamp handling vehicle. It had to be light enough not to sink in a swamp as well as to be lifted by a helicopter. It should seat for and survive side impacts. This is one reason that the main structure that holds the drive shaft, fuel tank and fuel lines, as well as other vital accessories, is mounted in a central 'back bone' with the passengers seated on either side. To keep it light, aluminum was used for the body. Unfortunately, aluminum makes for lousy armor plating, since it melts at a low temperature, causing bullets to splatter aluminum droplets in a hot spray when they hit. The hooks that protrude up out of the front hood are secured to the truck frame, which are used to lift the vehicle by helicopter.
~ When AM General released commercial versions they only came as a pickup or a wagon. The 'fastback' versions you saw being used by the military have that rear angled cover, which allows it to be driven directly into a Chinook helicopter. The wagon versions can carry more enclosed cargo but the rear edge would slam into the top of the Chinook's cargo opening when loading. (In the early 1990’s I worked for a company that developed interior pieces for AM General’s HUMVEE.)
~ So when the HUMVEE was sent to the Iraq War people complained about it not having sufficient armor plating. This was because it was originally specified for a jungle or swamp environment, but luckily it did well enough in a desert climate. When a Jeep replacement was originally requested the U.S. military was still in Viet Nam as well as occasionally entering Cambodia and Laos. Our military leaders thought that our next conflict would be in another swamp or jungle setting. Considering how the world keeps changing; we could completely stock up on very heavy MRAP vehicles, thereby totally phasing out the lighter HUMVEE, just in time to get involved in another jungle based conflict.
Excellent analysis and presentation!
I'd never actually heard the "soldiers win battles, logistics win wars" truism attributed to any specific general, before. I'm sure the sentiment has been expressed before - after all, this was after WWI, so it's after the utterly insane effort of logistics needed to support the trench warfare system day in and day out (The Great War channel did a special on the numbers of various supplies involved, and it's staggering what it takes to maintain a front line force of that scale). But that specific phrasing is such a great expression of the concept.
That’s because it’s been said in some form by multiple generals. I mean Sun Tzu talks about a wide general never loads his wagons twice.
@@ace448 Yes, but as I said, the specific phrasing is notable.
For another example: "All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are." - Carl von Clausewitz.
That is definitely not the most quotable version of the analogy to the confusion produced by lack of intel in war to a sort of fog. Conversely, whoever coined the term "Fog of War" will be quoted until either English or war don't exist...assuming the quote is originally English and not Latin or something even more archaic (in which case it has already outlived its original language), or a direct translation from Sun Tzu (which is similarly archaic but also not an extinct language because Chinese text has interesting properties that most languages don't really have.)
My unit in Germany traded our Chevy Blazer CUCVs for Humvees. Before we did, we traded the CUCVs comfortable front bucket seats, from the Humvees horrible ones. So our Hummers were comfortable enough to sleep in, which I did on many exercises.
As someone who has been in a HUMVEE in full battle rattle for 3.5 years in the Army, with a full length M-16, non telescoping stock, and grenade launcher attached, the HUMVEE sucks. You pretty much have to throw your weapon out of the HUMVEE, get out, then pick up your weapon and go to work. Its too cramped, getting in and out is a pain in the ass, it feels like you are on a boat rocking side to side if you hit any bumps in the road, the most uncomfortable seats in the world. If you have a boot size larger than a 10 you cant have your foot planted flat on the floor, you have to twist your feet diagonally to fit, then they get stuck, and you have to life your foot up and out. That up and out movement doesn't sound like much, but it is because you are already cramped, have a bunch of mags and armored vest on, and you now have to lift your legs in a kind of crunch exercise where you have very little room to do that. So, you have to lean inwards, pick up your feet, move them out of the humvee, work to get your weapon out, rotate in your seat, then get out in a forward motion. Not like in a car when you get out "sideways". It was just horrible. It feels like the dude who designed it was 5'5 and believed that no soldier ever would wear any kind of gear or carry any weapon larger than a pistol. Now, with that already super cramped cab, throw in BlueForce Tracker screens, radios, MRE's, and everything else that is needed and its like you're driving around in your junk drawer from your kitchen.
And you forgot to mention that Arnold Schwarzenegger was KEY in getting the civilian model released.
I learned to drive a stick shift manual transmission on a M151A2 jeep as an MP in the Army. When we were projected to get the HMMPWV in 1984 I only saw drawings, noted how incredibly large it was in comparison to the jeep, poor fuel economy, and cost of $30,000 per unit! What a poor choice! When we went to Desert Storm in 1991 we were stuck in the interim vehicle, the Commercial Utility Vehicle (CUCV). Basically the diesel version of the Chevy Blazer. In the desert it sucked! We envied the units that had Humvees. By the time I got to Iraqi Freedom in 2005 hummers were long in the tooth. We tried welding hillbilly armor to the sides of at least the troop carrier versions in order to make gun trucks. When the up-armor kits came out we enjoyed the air conditioning. Not because it cooled that well, but since the windows really didn't open, at least it wasn't hotter inside the vehicle than outside. It was already 110 -120 F with all your battle rattle. When we rotated out we left the vehicles there.
That was the first military vehicle I had to get a license for. Military is very picky about drivers license. My road test was going to a line company about 75 miles away and back. My instructor said simple test….if I can keep the convoy formation pace and no accidents on the way back to the headquarters company….I passed.. the instructor was with me and that was that! I passed
Arnold bought the military version and drove the creation of non-military version.
You need to do the deuce and half truck to
I wouldn't call it a design flaw, it's a vulnerability. A flaw is when it doesn't do what it was designed to do. It wasn't designed to handle IEDs, because that wasn't yet a requirement. It wasn't designed to deal with insurgents.
The JLTV is like the F35. Expensive, impossible to repair in the field, difficult to modify, mechanically fragile, gulps fuel, a total nightmare for a war machine. It's nice on a sunny day when you have all the logistics fully operational and only light resistance though. Generals always fight the last war. Humvee's had trouble with IEDs so they made a vehicle designed completely around this one tiny aspect of performance and they'll not be up to the task in the next war.
Outside of IED’s the uparmored version did very well in combat.
Late introductions to armor improvements included RPG cages or nets to create a standoff distance for the explosion.
MRAP rollovers in Afghanistan were just as dangerous as Humvee IED strikes.
Some years back, a study was done on the total environmental impact (from the raw materials to finished product) between a Hummer H1 and Toyota Prius and then the impact over the life of the vehicle. While the Hummer did use more fuel, the batteries in the Prius caused the results to be skewed strongly in the Hummer's favor. There's more to it than just "gas mileage".
I like the humvee, I really do, but for military use it's a very big vehicle(especially very wide) with room for just 4 soldiers, without being very well armoured or not armoured at all.
I think the Humvee has more than earned its place in the history books.
It is wrong to say the vehicle wasn't designed for combat. That's simply not true. It wasn't designed to have buried bombs go off under it, which nothing else was at the time either. In my 23 years in the Army, I deployed and lived in that vehicle multiple times. I hated and loved it at the same time. It absolutely was a workhorse that was designed for combat.
The Humvee described as a "Jeep on steroids" is correct. It wasn't supposed to be a combat vehicle. It was and still is exemplary at what it was designed for. As far as IED's are concerned, when the enemy is using artillery shells as mines, there aren't many vehicles that can withstand it, even main battle tanks. This was not a shortcoming for the Humvee. Also, for the most part, IED's were operated primarily by remote signals, usually using cellphone technology. The US Military came up with countermeasures to this. Someone may come up with a vehicle as good as a Humvee but it is nearly impossible to come up with one that is better in every respect. They were designed as transportation though an enormous range of weather conditions and terrain. They did this about as well as is possible.
You talked about the Humvee's development but no mention of Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of the first civilian/celebrity to personally own a Hummer.
40 years? Wow back in the 60's! Wait...
As an USAF JTAC, I started out with an M151 Jeep but spent most of my 20 years in and round the M998s as they carried our communications pallets. In Desert Storm we had modified our high-top with fold away bunks (just pieces of plywood on hinges) that rested on the comm pallet when down. We called it the HUMM-RV. Solid vehicles, but dammed hard to carry on a conversation while driving amidst the roar of that diesel engine.
Wow he got through that entire video without mocking, belittling or insulting Americans!
In Hohenfels, we would buy dryer hoses, wrap them in 100 mph tape, clamp them to the heater port, and stay warm.
Humvees are from the 80s? Fuck they look ageless.
I first saw one at the Farnborough air show in 1986.