Wanted: "Unstucker" Flanges

[rob love]

I thought I would reply to Stuart's last post just to set the record straight for those who may not know any better about the difference in capabilities of the different vehicles. While the friendly hype and camaraderie is always a hoot, I would hate for any potential owner to have any misconceptions as to which vehicles were best or worst for true off road driving.

The Willys family of Jeeps, with it's 5:38 to one gearing, and despite it's antiquated smaller engine, is hands down the greatest of the military Jeeps when it comes to hill climbing. While the M38A1 does have an extra 12 horse power, the M38, with it's lower hood profile, cannot be beat for visibility of what is coming, especially when traversing those 60% slopes.

The M151A2 boasted a much better engine, the smoothest ride possible on a cross country military jeep (until the humvee came along) but did not have the hill climbing capabilities of the Willys. What it did have was very good highway speed.

The Iltis, despite it's gazillion built in glitches, did have the ability to lock the rear differential, which did help it overcome some of the loss of traction and lack of power of having too heavy a body, and gearing that was meant for the highway. Perfect if you had an autobahn to get you to the battle, but hill climbing.....not really. Operators used to complain to the mechanics that when the Iltis got airborne (extra speed to overcome the under-powering) the engine would cut out. This was true.....there is a governor built in to the rotor which would ground out when you overspeed the motor.

We were climbing some reasonably serious hills this weekend here in Shilo. In a Wilys, you pointed the truck up the hill, and in low range could just touch the fuel pedal and at slightly above idle the truck would walk up the hill. I can guarantee you could not do that in a MUTT, and no way it could be done in an Iltis. You would need a serious run with either to make it up.

In summation, if you want a vehicle with good highway speed, then either the M151A2, or the problem plagued Iltis will do it for you. But for serious sand or rough going, it is hands down, without debate, the Willys.

The military attached those unstucker plates to the M151A2, the 5/4 ton, and the Iltis. In all three cases, it allowed the army to pretend it had supplied winches on vehicles not designed to support them. The 5/4 ton project had originally intended to purchase winches, but the smallish front ends on them would not support the extra weight.