So I noticed a HumVee in Birmingham the other day, still in full camo. It occurred to me that you rarely see Hummers these days and I’m seeing fewer and fewer HumVee’s on the freeway in Military use. When I got home I googled ‘HumVee for sale’ and it takes you to Ironplant.com. There are loads of HumVee’s for sale on there for around $5K. I know the ‘real’ HumVee’s had smaller non turbo engines and are slower than cold molasses in a Michigan winter. But what’s the overall deal with these things?
Before America discovered the Environment I remember a time in the late 90’s when every $100K body trophy wife (as in $100K on surgery, personal trainer and tennis coach)
I have zero interest, but for people on here $5K seems like a screaming deal.
yeah, it does seem like a screaming deal.
Looks like they are not legal to drive on the roads, which probably kills the deal for most people. Also, looks like you need to fill out some sort of end use certificate and get approved before you can buy. Dunno what that means.
Basically the EUC is a background check and you saying this is for off road use and won't be exported:
From the Gov Planet Site:
If an item requires an EUC, the buyer will be required to receive Trade Security Clearance approval before the item is released for pickup. In order to receive approval, the buyer must complete all required information in the EUC form. If the buyer is located outside of the United States, they must provide the name and email address of an individual or a company based in the United States who will complete the EUC form on the buyer's behalf.
Seems like a great thing as a cheap ranch vehicle but much other than that, I wouldn't be all that interested.
Yeah, I think the $5000 ones are all non-street-legal, meaning they're pretty much only useful if you own a lot of land. There appear to be a few more expensive ones ($15K and up) that have regular street titles.
I've seen many for sale in the past that were well above $5,000, so I guess they were street legal. There was a business at Donaldson Center (former Air Force Base near Greenville, SC) that used to rebuild and sell them. I haven't been by there in a while now, so don't know if they are still in business.
I'd buy a 5k one for street use in a heartbeat. Then I would curse it often I'm sure.
So your saying i can get a $5,000 humvee or a $13,000 polaris rancher for my imaginary farm? Give me two of the bullet proof diesel ones please
Depending on State laws, I'm sure with a little creative paperwork a $5k version could be made street legal.
Brian
MegaDork
4/20/16 4:18 p.m.
I may be pulling the number out my a$$, but I recall the cost of getting one road legal is in the $10k range, on top of the $5k purchase price.
chiodos wrote:
So your saying i can get a $5,000 humvee or a $13,000 polaris rancher for my imaginary farm? Give me two of the bullet proof diesel ones please
These aren't the armored ones, so they're not bullet proof. :)
The polaris is narrower and will fit places the humvee won't. It also comes with a warranty.
In reply to codrus:
Okay scratch the bulletproof part then, but who needs narrow side by side to run through trees when you can run over them and ford through lakes while dragging the trees you mowed over?
And warrantys are for whimps who cant hold a wrench
hhaase
New Reader
4/20/16 4:30 p.m.
If it's something like a stock military M998, not so great for daily use. We had a few in my Guard unit. Nearly everybody preferred to drive the older Chevy's whenever possible. Particularly in bad weather.
Huge and frustrating to park/maneuver. Strangely enough very little room for the driver or passengers, as you sit in sunken little tubs that squash you against the doors. Visibility sucks in all directions. Slower than the scooters at Walmart, with an auto transmission that makes the 3-speed in your Grandmother's Chevy Caprice seem like a crisp shifter. Not fitted with A/C, and the equipped heat is worse .... except a 3" x 3" spot right around your thigh that will get roasted like a blowtorch (But only if you're the front passenger). Note that this spot of effective heat is NOT the windshield, if you ever have to deal with snow, or ice, or rain, or fog, or anything that can fog up windows. God help you if it's fitted with the soft doors and the zip-open windows.
For a tactical vehicle or hard core off-roader, there's a lot of up sides in the abilities an HMMWV has for rough terrain. But in the real world they're just plain torture to drive.
In reply to hhaase: all of those things.
And add in horrible mileage and a high consumables cost. And they are heavy, scampering over some muddy ground in the Polaris isn't a big deal. Sinking a foot deep into the goo and creating a huge bog when it rains isn't too appealing to most property owners.
And do I mention they are loud? Like really loud, shout to make yourself heard at 35 mph loud.
I hate that the more I read, the more I want one 
I think I have a problem.
I just keep thinking "led foglights all over it would fix all the problems".
In reply to sesto elemento:
Nah your okay, i still want one, throw in a 454 or hell even a 4bt would great.
I have problems.
Brian wrote:
I may be pulling the number out my a$$, but I recall the cost of getting one road legal is in the $10k range, on top of the $5k purchase price.
Given that a decent H1 seems to be going for $50k-ish, that is still a screaming deal.
An H1 feels like an RV inside. Very cheap and crappy and thrown together feeling. You could probably get a road legal HMMWV and a Winnebago and combine the two for under $50k.
In reply to Knurled:
Scary or just right?
What do those things weigh? 6k?
In reply to chiodos:
Closer to 8k, I think. The body is riveted aluminum, which makes some things weird, but the frames and suspension are way overbuilt beefy.
Scary means you can accelerate a lot harder than you can slow down. People put lip service to having to upgrade their brakes because they installed a new airfilter or some other bogus reason like that, but this was the first/only time I thought a vehicle's brakes were dangerously underperforming.
Breaks are for quitter, er stoppers
Really though. Valid reason. But I sure theres something that something more can be done about breaks outside of military's forms and papers
Could be. Never looked into it, wasn't my piece of the puzzle. The brakes are inboard brakes, though, and they go through a (IIRC) 1.8:1 portal axle at the hubs, so the rotors are spinning at 180% wheel speed. This also means the effective load on the axleshafts is reduced by a similar factor, which is good because they looked like the same size as a 3/4-ton Chevy IFS at all four corners. Not particularly large rotors, maybe 12", but also not really any room for larger.
I still think it would make a badass tow rig. Downside is the interior is severely, seriously cramped because you're sitting next to the drivetrain (your feet are lower than the oil pan, the valve covers are higher than your legs - that LS6 intake manifold is a fist's width from the windshield...) and they are very loud and the right side of the vehicle is a long-distance call, but it's also about as wide as a trailer is so you never have to ask yourself if the trailer is going to smack a guardrail or something 
And let's be honest. That is how to make an entrance. Any tow vehicle is not going to be very fuel-sippy. Let the plebes show up with their new F350 Super Big Horn Lariat XXXLT MegaCabs towing their race trailers, then YOU show up in a neon green HMMWV with bright orange screaming skulls painted on the side, like some fever dream anti-hippie version of a 70s van. That would be so rad.
In reply to Knurled:
Sooo, what happens when your tow rig is a faster than your rallyx car?
Which also begs the question, what class do these things run in rallyx?
also, this thread is useless without pictures.
We had a customer buy an H1. He never used it. I drove it a few times and couldn't believe that something so wide had so little space.
