JLTV News

[raymond]

Once saw a Challenger rubber track field tractor with a pull behind scraper sunk up to the bottom of the tractor in clay at a construction sight where they were removing overburden to expand a quarry.

And black gumbo mud down in river bottoms isn't something to test as I once saw an articulated tractor with 8 large flotation tires sunk up to the axles in a soft spot down in the Mississippi River bottoms. The only thing that could be done was abandon the tractor until dry and then dig out and pull out with equally large tractor.

[rickf]

We took a M38 across a muddy picked corn field and had mud packed into the skid plates. Been doing the mud thing for 46 years and I can get one across a muddy field. Now you guys who run the asphalt and go to Walmart all the time and have rubber floor mats in your Jeep may want to stay on the asphalt because your not following me.

A muddy picked corn field has a solid base no more than 8" down. I grew up on farms so I am quite familiar with farm fields. Now a grass field in a lowland clearing in a wetland area is another matter altogether. I have had four wheel drive vehicles set up for mud my entire life. I owned a 4x4 shop where I built and repaired mud trucks. If you had mud packed into the skid plates then the differentials were 8-10 inches below the mud so you were not going through that mud. Not in the form of a muddy field anyway. A rutted muddy road, yea, that can be done but so would those vehicles.
And as far as tracks go, not too familiar with tracks are you? Once you high center the tracks are useless.
My CJ-7 has lockers front and back and substantial horsepower and I can assure you that in the field described above I will get further than most but I doubt I will get all the way across. If there is nothing for the tires to grip than nothing, and I mean nothing and no amount of experience or BS will get you through it.

There IS one vehicle though, it has little to no military value, but it will go anywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTJUMOzx_zE

[kmam]

Need one of them - we have had over four inches of rain a day for the last three days and it is expected to continue for a few more days! I am living in a bog!!

[m3a1]

Ya'll keep talking finless brown trout like that and the rest of us are going to need wings to stay above it.

[Surveyor]

Agreed. Arguing over 8" to 10" in my experience never ends well. I'm not even sure what ya'll are disagreeing on.

And black gumbo mud down in river bottoms isn't something to test

Lots of that down here and stuck sugar cane tractors are a common occurrence. Grinding season is only so long come - rain or shine.

Pics from 12B (He sends me pics in streams, mud and snow all the time. I think he just likes to rub it in how much fun he is having. )

[rickf]

Yup, and ALL of those pictures show muddy roads with a hard base, exactly what I was talking about. Now, instead of just pulling up to the puddle and backing away drive through it!

[Surveyor]

He did! I have a pic of that too somewhere but I think it's on the office computer.... Braver man than I!