MossRoad
Super Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2001
- Messages
- 58,222
- Location
- South Bend, Indiana (near)
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT425 2001 Model Year
I used to drive those brand new out of the AM General plant in Mishawaka, IN where they were built, and from the South Bend, IN plant where they were retrofitted. This was back in the mid 80's. We'd drive them from the factory to rail sidings all over northern Indiana for transport to places far away. While they were not speedy, they'd go just about anywhere. AM General had an off-road torture track next to the South Bend plant. Here's a google satellite link to the old South Bend plant and test areas.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6389538,-86.2599368,2514m/data=!3m1!1e3
The off-set oval at the bottom has an obstacle course inside it. And the woods and swamp to the west of that oval and to the north of that long straight away are full of trails, holes, fallen trees, swamps, deep water, mud, etc...
The HMMWV offers 40% of slide slope, 60% of slope-climbing and 60in of water fording capacities, making it an outstanding off-road vehicle. - Image - Army Technology
Well, maybe on a couple of occasions when we'd pick up our lot of Hummers for transport we might have gotten lost leaving the plant grounds and maybe we accidentally ended up in those woods and swamps.... several times.... :confused3:
Many times we'd hook up a tow bar and take two at a time to other cities for rail loading. They'd have no problems rolling along at highway speeds towing another one behind them. Several times people would forget to set the brakes on the rail cars and as you drove between cars, they'd shift and the steel plates between the cars would fall out and you'd drop the front tires down between the cars and the Hummer would be bottomed out behind the front tires. We'd just engage the front wheels, put it in reverse and climb back out. You could stop on a severe slope, then continue up it. And you could do that going down a hill, stop half way down, then back up the hill. They were good 4 wheel drive units.
Back when the Terminator convinced AM General to sell them to the public, they opened up the track to Hummer owners and conducted driving clinics for them.
My mother-in-law worked at the Mishawaka plant on the assembly line for about 20 years and is retired from AM General. When she retired, they gave her one of the commercial units (H1's, the original) to drive around for a weekend. She had a blast.
Anyhow, they served their purpose. The only thing I didn't like about them is they only seat 4 people. But that's what they were designed to do. They had many different configurations. The factory had several pickup truck type hummers that they used for running around the plant. Those were pretty cool. They had an ambulance model. A troop transport model. But the coolest ones had missile launchers... :thumbsup:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6389538,-86.2599368,2514m/data=!3m1!1e3
The off-set oval at the bottom has an obstacle course inside it. And the woods and swamp to the west of that oval and to the north of that long straight away are full of trails, holes, fallen trees, swamps, deep water, mud, etc...
The HMMWV offers 40% of slide slope, 60% of slope-climbing and 60in of water fording capacities, making it an outstanding off-road vehicle. - Image - Army Technology
Well, maybe on a couple of occasions when we'd pick up our lot of Hummers for transport we might have gotten lost leaving the plant grounds and maybe we accidentally ended up in those woods and swamps.... several times.... :confused3:
Many times we'd hook up a tow bar and take two at a time to other cities for rail loading. They'd have no problems rolling along at highway speeds towing another one behind them. Several times people would forget to set the brakes on the rail cars and as you drove between cars, they'd shift and the steel plates between the cars would fall out and you'd drop the front tires down between the cars and the Hummer would be bottomed out behind the front tires. We'd just engage the front wheels, put it in reverse and climb back out. You could stop on a severe slope, then continue up it. And you could do that going down a hill, stop half way down, then back up the hill. They were good 4 wheel drive units.
Back when the Terminator convinced AM General to sell them to the public, they opened up the track to Hummer owners and conducted driving clinics for them.
My mother-in-law worked at the Mishawaka plant on the assembly line for about 20 years and is retired from AM General. When she retired, they gave her one of the commercial units (H1's, the original) to drive around for a weekend. She had a blast.
Anyhow, they served their purpose. The only thing I didn't like about them is they only seat 4 people. But that's what they were designed to do. They had many different configurations. The factory had several pickup truck type hummers that they used for running around the plant. Those were pretty cool. They had an ambulance model. A troop transport model. But the coolest ones had missile launchers... :thumbsup:
