[bdt13]

I'd take the machine gun off the top before driving around the neighborhood.



An old one - has "AM General" stamped in the gate.


Pittsburgh 2011.

[phantom]

Looks to be in good shape compared to when we sell ours off. How old would that be?

[bdt13]

Phantom-

No clue. Could be from the early to mid '80s. I remeber seeing them in a parade I was in about March of '85 (I was in my school's band back then). I was pretty impressed, they has TOW launchers on top! Cap a T-72 and scoot off to hide...

[toadwbg]

I've always wanted a real Humvee, I'll have to settle for the model

Do they still sell surplus Humvees?

[HeavyArty]

Quote

Do they still sell surplus Humvees?

No, and they never have. The above is probably an H1 civilian HMMWV that has been painted up and had parts added to look like a military HMMWV. The actual military HMMWV was never approved for civilian sales and use since it was deemed unsafe by the DOT. They have never been sold as surplus in whole pieces. Many have been parted out as surplus and then reassembled or pieced together on civilian H1s as the above probably is.

An excerpt from an article about it in an off-roading magazine a while ago.

Quote

HUMMER Section: Surplus Military HMMWVs
Apr. 01, 2002

Probably one of the most common questions is how one can buy a surplus military HMMWV in the US. The short answer is that you cannot. Two things can happen to surplus vehicles. They can be returned to AM General or "destroyed". The current laws require military vehicles like the HMMWV to have the frames cut, bodies crushed, etc. You can find pieces around but you should not find any whole trucks. If you do, the government can seize them.

Now the long answer is that it is possible to find some. As mentioned above, an unmolested HMMWV is illegal and can be seized so be careful. The second option is to build (or purchase a built one) from scrap pieces. The frames can be welded together and pieces gathered together. The last price I saw for a vehicle like this was within a few thousand of a used HUMMER so...

Be sure that you can get a title for the vehicle and prove the salvage. Some states may or may not allow registration of the vehicle. Check your local laws. Note that the military trucks are not DOT approved so might never be street legal.

I know it stinks. It would be great to have a surplus truck if they could be had for a reasonable price.

Quote

I was pretty impressed, they has TOW launchers on top! Cap a T-72 and scoot off to hide...

Don't be too impressed. It isn't that easy. Most HMMWV TOWs would have been easily killed against a real enemy T72 (Iraq doesn't count). You don't just "Cap a T-72 and scoot off to hide." The vehicle has to stay stationary while the gunner visually tracks and flies the missile to the T-72 for at least 13 seconds. That is a long time when you are being shot at since the missile just left a huge dust cloud and gave your position away to every enemy on the battlefield when it was fired. Not really a great weapons system after all.

This post has been edited by HeavyArty: 17 April 2012 - 03:26 PM

[FM-Whip]

HeavyArty, on 17 April 2012 - 03:20 PM, said:

No, and they never have. The above is probably an H1 civilian HMMWV that has been painted up and had parts added to look like a military HMMWV. The actual military HMMWV was never approved for civilian sales and use since it was deemed unsafe by the DOT. They have never been sold as surplus in whole pieces. Many have been parted out as surplus and then reassembled or pieced together on civilian H1s as the above probably is.
An excerpt from an article about it in an off-roading magazine a while ago.

Actually, that's incorrect. In 2000 for example the USMC sold off a bunch of HMMWVs through a contractor - that's complete, running vehicles, not parts. Those vehicles have since gone mostly into MV-collecting hobby circles, where I have seen several of them at various shows. There are also many "parts vehicles" out there, made up from parts sold off by DOD, and from the spare parts market. Another source of these vehicles are post-DOD government users such as state and local governments. There are companies out there that specialize in rehabbing/renovating old DOD frames, etc and you can buy a HMMWV that's virtually brand new and up to full DOD specs - if you have the money.

Here are some of the USMC vehicles up for sale in Atlanta, right now:

http://www.dbrvisual...sv/vehicles.htm


John Hairell (tpn18@yahoo.com)

[HeavyArty]

Quote

Actually, that's incorrect. In 2000 for example the USMC sold off a bunch of HMMWVs through a contractor - that's complete, running vehicles, not parts.

Still not selling them directly to civilians. The contractor had to make modifications to make them street legal before they could be resold on the civilian market. As you said, most are rebuilt from parts vehicles or rebuilt vehicles from other government users. These also have to have mods done before selling them on the civilian market as well.

This post has been edited by HeavyArty: 17 April 2012 - 07:56 PM

[FM-Whip]

HeavyArty, on 17 April 2012 - 07:49 PM, said:

Still not selling them directly to civilians. The contractor had to make modifications to make them street legal before they could be resold on the civilian market. As you said, most are rebuilt from parts vehicles or rebuilt vehicles from other government users. These also have to have mods done before selling them on the civilian market as well.

This is semantic quibbling. I'm going by your original quote: "They have never been sold as surplus in whole pieces. Many have been parted out as surplus and then reassembled or pieced together on civilian H1s as the above probably is".

My understanding at the time was that the USMC retained a contractor to auction some 500+ HMMWVs. Those were sold at auction in multiple states, and were released with SF-97s. The vehicles were not broken up prior to being sold, nor were they "parts vehicles". I have never heard anything about the auction contractor modifying these vehicles to meet DOT road standards.

So, the facts remain: the USMC sold HMMWVs directly to civilians, via multiple auctions that they contracted for, and they provided SF-97s for the goods. The vehicles ran and were not parted out. Whether the vehicles went directly from military ownership to the contractor or then subsequently to the end civilian recipients is immaterial - the original owner was the USMC, the end owners were civilians. That's a military to civilian transfer of ownership. The fact that the buyers received an SF-97 (certificate to obtain a title to a vehicle) tells me that in fact there was a military to civilian change of ownership.

So I maintain my original position: the military has sold HMMWVs in whole pieces, running, and directly to civilians. Actually, one of the main reasons why those sales even occurred was because they were done NOT by centralized DOD excess/surplus sales outlets, but by one of the services themselves. DOD was actually cut out of the process.


John Hairell (tpn18@yahoo.com)

[HeavyArty]

I've seen a few of the former USMC ones and they have been modified. I'll still attest that no standard US Military HMMWV has been sold to the public. There are some out there that were US military ones, but they are not as they were in service. Apparenty what we consider a public sale differs. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

This post has been edited by HeavyArty: 20 April 2012 - 12:02 AM