Vehicle Life Expectancies

[David Dunlop]

We have probably all heard or read comments about the fighters and bombers built during World War Two as only being expected to survive for so many hours, sorties missions etc., but that did not stop the designers from building the best possible equipment.

I was sitting here with my morning cuppa and wondered if similar expectations were ever documented about the soft skin and armour vehicles built during WW2? If you factor out war attrition and post war scrappies around the world, a surprising number of these vehicles still survive. That's probably too much thinking for one morning, but it did start me wondering.


David

[chris vickery]

I thought I read somewhere that a Jeep was supposed to live 500mi.
Of course these numbers were created to justify the production, account for real and estimated losses, maintenance and breakdown.

[cletrac (RIP)]

I read that a Chevy 216 in the desert was expected to go 5000 miles before the sand had it worn out.

[Little Jo]

Hi David

When I was restoring my 1942 MB Willys Jeep and doing research on the vehicle, I heard or read somewhere that in normal active service areas the life span of a jeep was 6 months. However the life span of a Jeep on "D-Day" it was down to 10 hours. I have heard similar stories from others but I can't confirm how accurate these figures are.

Cheers

Tony

[rob love]

I would suggest they are just stories. The vehicle's longevity (Jeeps and CMPs, along with just about every other military vehicle made) indicate that they were not made for 6 months use. Why would you waste putting grease nipples onto U joints if they were not expected to be around more than a year?

As to combat life expectancy, I would suggest that there are so many variables to combat conditions, that there would be no hard and fast numbers.

[Frank v R]

think about all the vehicles that are still on board the ships they left port on all at the bottom with almost 0 miles,

[chris vickery]

I see both sides of the discussion here. Of course vehicles were engineered to be the best they could be. It is fascinating though to look at the statistics and understand the average lifespan of vehicles due to all of the variables involved.
As Frank point out, you have Jeeps for example with "0" miles on the bottom of the Atlantic and then there are those that have survived until today with many thousands on them. I am sure planners of the day had this all figured out to include all the facets from shipping losses to maintenance to wear and tear.
If one is to study the maintenance manuals for example, these do give interesting insight as to when things like major overhauls were expected.
(when vehicles were "worn out")