G-wagon

[Michael Dorosh]

A friend of mine here in Calgary has a US Army Humvee....it‘s fun to drive around town in, but as a military vehicle, it‘s really a piece of crap. Four seats only, wide as an M35 truck, twice as loud. I‘ve driven it offroad at McLean Creek- it‘s no great shakes. It will go through some rough terrain, but so will an Iltis, really, for a fraction of the price. I don‘t see that the Humvee has any advantages over any of the vehicles being discussed. Oh, sure, you can mount a grenade launcher on top of it. Might mean something if Canada had any of those!

Humvee ain‘t the right vehicle for us.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Please, God, tell me the G-wagen has actual metal doors and a defroster unit that works!

 

[sgt.shmedly102]

Are you sure it‘s a GI Humvee, because Humvees are not authorized for sale and must be scraped. Most of the ones you see on the road (not too mention in rap videos) are civilian made ones. Not many differences, but there are a few.

it‘s fun to drive around town in, but as a military vehicle, it‘s really a piece of crap.

See, now I always thought the oppisite was true, I hated driving it in town (except for the reactions. imagine how much fun it was driving through Yale!) but thought it did pretty good in the field. And I do agree the seating sucks. Only the US Army counld design a vehicle so big with so little passanger room.

I just figuered it would be easier for Canada to buy from her neighbor (whom she will be most likly to deploy with. simplified logistics) than from Germany. What the h*ll do you want with a little kublewagen anyway.

BTW, two Humvee team, one mounting a MK 19 and the other an M2 is pretty good for recon (sorry: recce). Now mount a TOW...

 

[Jarnhamar]

"I just figuered it would be easier for Canada to buy from her neighbor (whom she will be most likly to deploy with. simplified logistics) than from Germany"

whoa, gear down big trucker. When entering canada please leave all weapons and common sense at home.

While your waiting at the border you can read the story of our LSVW (Light Support Vehicle Wheeled or something) and how it failed the trial tests 3 times. (Twice of which being after the test itself was re-writen to try and help the LSVW pass).
I‘m told the only other country who uses the thing is Italy and they use it for runway security and maintenence.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

This is my friend‘s Humvee - I don‘t think the weapons mount is standard on the civvie version....

The US Army ones are officially restricted, but this one slipped through - some dealers take parts from scrapped Humvees and put them together - and the USMC has fewer restrictions on resale. There aren‘t many Army Humvees in private hands, but this is one of them.

 

[IceHawk]

I think the G-wagon is a more practical vehicle anyway. There are a lot of places, especially in Europe (where we do a lot of peacekeeping) and Asia, where Humvee‘s can‘t go because they are simply too big. Even the USMC is buying G-wagons for their fast attack vehicles.

 

[SNoseworthy]

LSVW? That‘s the piece of crap made in British Columbia that keeps catching fire isn‘t it?

See what happens when the government at the time forces DND to buy everything from within the Country? A piece of crap can win solely because it‘s Canadian-made.

 

[SpinDoc]

There was this site I went to sometime ago (I can‘t remember where I saw it) that said that Western Star actually made a bid initially with a very modified version of the Iveco vehicle... which according to some accounts actually made the vehicle half decent. Alas, (according to the article) Iveco said "No, you will not modify our design in such ways, that‘s against the licensing agreement" Hence the LSVW we have today

 

[sgt.shmedly102]

Ok, you‘re right, it‘s not a civ Humvee. But I can see why he took it to Canada, you sure he didn‘t just drive it out of the motor pool?

I have heard of people buying the scraped pieces and rebuilding Humvees; that must be rediculously expensive. Even the frame has to be rebuilt as they must be cut into pieces before being sold for scrap.

BTW, procedures for selling surplus government property are laid out by DoD, as far as I know there is no difference between the services and what they can and can not sell.

Oh, and yes, the Humvee is very big. (it was really fun to drive one down the streets of Bosnia at night.) But you have to remember it was designed primarily for off-road use, and for that will beat just about anything out there. (although I would still prefer an old Jeep CJ myself.)

 

[Gunner109]

the replacement for the Iltis I think is a good Idea. The Iltis was always under powered and had VERY little room in it. I remember when we had the willys jeep and when we got the iltis we all thought it ws cool because it was new. We soon found out that it couldnt do the things the old jeeps did. The great thing about the GMC is that you can LPO parts and it is easy to fix. Much like the 5/4 was. The new Mercedies looks like a tough truck also but I have only seen it trialed in Meaford, I myself have not driven it. With a name like Mercedies it should be good I hope.

 

[Argyll_2347]

G-wagen:
http://www.sfu.ca/casr/101-vehgwag.htm

LUVW Competition:
http://www.sfu.ca/casr/101-vehluvw.htm

LUVW Candidates:
http://www.sfu.ca/casr/101-vehluv2.htm