11servhopeful said:
Land rovers are really unreliable. They don't have good powerplants, crappy lucas electrical systems and they are subject to build quality problems. The MB is a great Vehicle, and the correct option for our requirments. I wish we were buying enough to equip the whole military. Toyota Landcruiser 70 series would be really sweet too.
Toyota 70 series military
The Hum-vee cannot replace the MLVW, whoever said that doesn't know anything about the specs of either Vehicle. the Civy Hummers have proven to be extremely unreliable (hummer had to buy back a bunch of the early ones). I would assume that the service versions suffer from the same issues.
The modern Defender TDI landrover is as reliable as it's contenders. The only major issue is the timing belt in the engine and there is a gear set to replace it. The Dutch marines had problems with theirs because the Dutch government modified the axles with a lighter unit to save costs and ended up spending twice as much fixing them.
Most of the electrical are now Bosch. The body lasts a long time and vehicle comes in many different combinations.
The G-wagon is good, but it has flaws also, I understand the first batch we got had floor cracks that required modifications. Also Mercedes has been rumoured to be dropping the line. I suspect that the armoured version as used by France and Germany suffering from overweight problems and limited mobility.
Toyotas landcruisers trucks are also good, drove some in Venezuela. Drive train is very tough and the N/A diesel is reliable. However rust and body failures under fully loaded conditions are still problems.
The Humvee certainly makes a good weapons platform, but is very wide, will not fit into a Chinook (not that is a problem for us anymore) The engine which I believe is now the 6.5 diesel is marginal and would need replacing. Many of the Humvees in Iraq have shown that the up armouring of standard vehicles is overstressing the frames and drive train.
There is nothing wrong with our choice of the G-wagon, except that we did not buy enough. My heart is for the Landrover however. If were to buy the Humvee I would like to see us go for an upgraded version with a better engine and beefier suspension. Any of the vehicles mentioned above would be good for us. Funny how Hezbollah and Iraqis can find ways to mount a 14.5mm HMG or RR on anything (including a motorcycle) yet our government can't figure out how to mount a LMG on a Milspec truck, sigh...
I haven't heard any complaints from the Italians about their Ivecos, which we knocked off. I have