Final Fate of the MLVWs

[rob love]

Only 3 years ago, running Leopard hulls were being sold to the public. Now the Canadian military seems to have gone to the other extreme. We touched on this topic previously, but now it is in full swing. The CADC website recently advertised the sale in this province (and others) the sale of a large quantity of 11.00X20 radial tires and nearly a million KGs of scrap metal. The metal was to be removed from the federal penitentiary. The estimated 1,100 tires went for a whopping $2800 (about $2.30 a tire) while the metal ended up selling for about 10¢ a pound ($214567 total). They seem to be selling the tarps separately and got $757 for the first 29 tarps they have put up to auction (about $25 or so a tarp).

If you figure that every truck has 7 tires, that means there are about 157 trucks to go through the program here in Manitoba. Simple arithmetic means we are seeing a return of about $1400 a truck. Subtract from that the costs of moving them to the prisons, and the payments to the prisoners for dismantling them (corcan does not work for free). Considering that in this neck of the woods the MLVWs are still pretty sound, and many come with winches...some even with cranes, that does not seem like a very good return for the assets. The trucks cost the government $64,000 each back in 1983 when we bought them, and now they are almost paying to have them taken away.

My real concern is that this type of action is going to make it an impossible hobby for future generations. If we look back to the sales of the Iltis, there were attempts to sell them as "ranch use only". Eventually they did sell them for street use, and I have never heard anything negative about the civilians use of them. Same goes for the old duece and a half and the 5 tons. They were far less roadworthy when they were sold off, and I do not recall any negative publicity or legal liabilities resulting from their sales.

So why this fate for the MLVWs? It can't be ITAR, since the US military sells similar vehicles to it's public all the time.

Anyway, that's my rant, time to go out to the shop and do some work on the toys.