RAF AFGHAN DIARIES: SPECIAL FEATURE: Land Rovers v Humvees

SPECIAL FEATURE: Humvees may be bigger and brasher than the good old Land Rover, but they're also heavier and less durable. Today two Land Rovers are called in to drag a Humvee out of the mud where it's become stuck. Land Rover, 1 Humvee, nil.


Goody is away on a well-deserved R&R break this week, but don't worry! He filmed some extra footage before he left. Keep watching the site for more news from Khandahar when he returns.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Royal
• Air
• Force
• RAF
• regiment
• soldier
• Afghanistan
• Kandahar
• Paul
• Goodfellow
• military
• gunner
• land
• rover
• humvees

[THErunn1ngMAN]

The land rover? no. Although that was the vehicle of choice for the outstanding LRDG. Instead we invented the worlds first computer (still to be found in Bletchley Park) which decoded German transmissions (not known or acknowledged by nearly all Americans) and helped incredibly with winning the war. Radar and the Spitfire were invented and combined to win the BOB, The SAS were created to carry out guerilla warfare. Most of these things go unnoticed by 99% of Americans and that's the problem.

[MudBarf]

@danframe Also, the british navy WAS winning the war on the seas before you lot jumped in. The RAF was holding off the Luftwaffe too. We'd never have won without you, but until Hitler finished a nuclear weapon, we'd probably have held him off without you. But then we'd all have been nuked - Englishman and American alike.

My point is that this "we saved you" garbage that many Americans spout is just that - garbage. You lot knew you were in danger and you saved yourselves.

[MadMuddyZuk]

@TheRANGEROVER1989 Everyone has an opinion, but the fact that hummers are reknowned for having unreliable axles makes me wonder why you're raving about them so much.

Yes, they're not perfect, but it's defender axles under the Paris-Dakar challenge trucks, and they do just fine at 100mph+ over insane terrain.

The "hummers" in the paris-dakar are pretend H3's and don't use any H1 parts. At all. Why would that be if H1's are so great and landy's so bad?

[MadMuddyZuk]

@TheRANGEROVER1989 And just to point out a little thing - if the defender can't keep under extreme offroad use (I'll leave the combat use to people who actually go into combat) then why do defenders win offroading comps all over the world? Hummers are winning what?

The pro offroading teams rate defenders, but not hummers. Why is that?

[MadMuddyZuk]

@ryantika And for similar money to a Humvee, you can get a Pinzgauer or a Unimog, both of which *DESTROY* hummers. Better articulation, better payload, better ground clearance (PROPER portal axles that don't break when you look at them) better... Everything!

[MadMuddyZuk]

@REAL4wd No, defender is NOT 98% like a classic. Different suspension, different wheelbase, different body weight, different overhangs, different height, weight, centre of gravity.

They share a few mechanicals. They certainly are NOT 98% alike.

[MadMuddyZuk]

@TheRANGEROVER1989 It's not just an opinion. There are quite a few vids on youtube showing hummers failing miserably on an RTI ramp.

As a rover owner, you should know why articulation is important. None of the things you've said make up for lack of articulation, especially not when the vehicle weighs so much.

And the engine is irrelevant. The weight might not be a problem on tarmac, but it's a problem offroad. You *should* know why.

[TheRANGEROVER1989]

i have been in a hummer during heavy off road use and guys i guarantee u land rover will fall apart if u do the same . the places you pass 5 mph with your rover, hummer can pass 30 mph, that's how strong suspension it has

most of you will disagree i know. its because u never been in one during heavy off road

its ok to love the rover, i do it also, but dont post dumb comments about the hummer, thats a military grade heavy duty 4x4.ground up, not a farm truck converted to military truck.

[TheRANGEROVER1989]

@MudBarf . WELL everybody has an opinion

, when your truck has 16" ground clearance and its 7ft wide WITH diff locks you don't need articulation.

when your truck has 6.5 turbo diesel and 430 lb tq at 1500 rpm you don't have to worry that 5000 lb pay load.

HUMMER is a military grade 4x4 my land rover is a recrational 4x4 yes may be there are things defender can do better but over all no way it can keep up with hummer under heavy combat use or even extreme offroad use,

[MudBarf]

@REAL4wd I'm a Suzuki driver, and I would say it too. Hummers are a joke. Zero articulation, waaaaaay too much weight, massively unreliable (even by defender standards, they're unreliable).  The only thing they do well is being a bus.

[jonnyb1900]

@REAL4wd All 4x4's have their good points and bad points, but as we both know, the car can only do so much, most of it is down to the driver, And yes i'd agree with you, the defender is "just a farm truck" but at a selling price of £25k (for the mid range ones) its a darn lot cheaper than the $150k Hummer, but i stick with my main point, the driver is too blame for many of either 4x4s reputation, but i think we can safely say that when the production stops for both, its a sad day for us

[REAL4wd]

@jonnyb1900 i am not trying to advertise a hummer, but its just the way it is, regardless land rover fans like it or not,, HUMMER H1 is made to be used offroad every day under very hard conditions. DEFENDER is just a farm truck being used by the army.

dont get me wrong i love the defender and i will get one for me this year, but don't challenge with the hummer h1 offroad,

[REAL4wd]

@jonnyb1900 here is the thing, i own 2 classic range rovers , and one of them is with diesel motor , and i own few hummers, i know what defender can and cant do, defender is 98% like classic , i use the hummer and the land rover offroad,, let me give u somthing to think about it, my hummer is 2 inch lower and 2 ft wider than my rover, with 18" ground clearance,65% less chance to roll over . that's just one example, 50 more to go, :) :)

[jonnyb1900]

@REAL4wd i drive a Land Cruiser actually, and if i were given a choice between the said Land Rover Defender and the Hummer H1 Alpha i would go for the defender, why you ask ? because its 4x4 ability is superior as standard to the H1a, its more cost effective, its more practical, and lastly, because its not (insert bad word here) ugly, but i will concede the H1a does look like a beast .

[REAL4wd]

@jonnyb1900 hummers are the joke of the 4x4 world? loll only land rover owner will be so low class to say that..:) may be that's why u drive defender and i drive H1 alpha :)

[HaloCOD816]

@jonnyb1900 What the heck are you talking about?

[jonnyb1900]

@HaloCOD816 No, that would be religion.

[HaloCOD816]

@jonnyb1900 And your the joke of the world

[harryfaber]

@danframe I wonder if the Poles who delivered the first Enigma machines to Britain ever feel forgotten. Or the Native Americans that made the radio calls that baffled the Germans, or the Kerens, who assisted with fighting the Japanese.

Maybe if America had not been quite so laissez faire in 1919/20 WW2 would not have happened.

I thought that Zhukov won the biggest battles, but then it was the Soviets that made the whole thing possible.

[DefenderRocks]

Land Rover FTW, need I say more?

[jonnyb1900]

Hummers are the joke of the 4x4 world.

[ryantika]

I think every one forgets the UK also has Panther's which are stronger than Humvees.

[v6cabby]

lads you doing a great job out there yous dont need extra protection remember the yanks are thick as pig shit there bullet bags just let them soak up the bullets for you

[MudBarf]

@danframe I'm not claiming that the US didn't play a vital role in the war, I'm claiming that you lot often pretend that you only got involved for altruistic reasons - and that is WRONG. Yes, american mass production played a massive part in the war - but selling the arms you made to the allies also made you rich whilst bankrupting Europe.

If you hadn't got involved when you did, NY and washington would be smouldering holes in the ground right now and everyone left would speak german.

[danframe]

You can point out little facts that turned the tide of the war but it doesn't mean shit. Every country played a vital roll in the war. The United States didn't jump in only after England had turned the war around, American mass production and resources is what saved England from obliteration from the Germans.

People can whine all they want about who did this and who did that but in the end it was the United States involvement that had the biggest impact on the turning of WW2

[RunWildWind]

Hummer are cool but rubbish at off roading. Land Rovers, on the other hand, kick ass.