Hummer a symbol of military might and commercial excess

Jun 02, 2009

Special to the Star

You can credit, or blame, Kindergarten Cop for helping to put econobox-crushing Hummers on the streets of North America and beyond.

Actor-turned-California-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had been filming the Ivan Reitman comedy in Oregon when he spotted a convoy of military-spec Humvees and became infatuated with the all-terrain vehicle. Legend has it that he convinced manufacturer AM General to produce a civilian version (to be fair, the firm had been thinking about it).

While the iconic Jeep enjoyed a long and celebrated history as America's trusty military workhorse during World War II and the Korean War, it had become obsolete by the 1970s. The army was looking for a new four-wheel-drive vehicle that could move soldiers and light equipment in and out of battlefields.

Three contractors – Chrysler Defence, Teledyne Continental and AM General (AMG) – were invited to submit proposals for a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV). It was underdog AMG – a subsidiary of American Motors and the army's Jeep supplier – that eventually earned the prototype contract in 1981.

AMG won the initial $1.2 billion (U.S.) contract to produce 55,000 Humvees, as they were nicknamed by soldiers, to be delivered in five basic models and 15 different configurations, accommodating everything from gun turrets to rocket launchers. The first Humvee rumbled off AMG's South Bend, Ind., assembly line in January 1985.

Despite the lucrative contract, parent company American Motors wasn't thriving in the 1980s. Recognizing an opportunity, it sold off its AMG division to the LTV Aerospace and Defence Company in an effort to stave off bankruptcy.

When Operation Desert Storm blew into Kuwait in 1991, the U.S. Army's Humvee was featured on television news reports, showing the fast-moving military vehicle criss-crossing the harsh desert. It had galvanized its battle-ready reputation almost overnight thanks to the successful operation.

The first civilian models, dubbed Hummers, were delivered in 1992 to deep-pocketed consumers in the U.S. Unlike their military counterparts, the civilian Hummer featured sound-deadening insulation and a semi-comfortable interior with cloth seats, heating and air conditioning.

Although individuals mostly bought Hummers as status symbols for urban or off-road use, some were sold as ambulances, industrial vehicles or fire trucks that could traverse rough wilderness areas. Some firms used the wide-shouldered Hummer as a vinyl-wrapped billboard, advertising everything from casinos to vodka coolers.

By the late 1990s U.S. government cutbacks had reduced military Humvee orders, while civilian sales remained a tiny niche market. AMG was hemorrhaging money. In 1999, General Motors purchased the worldwide rights to sell the civilian Hummer (renamed the H1) and to use the Hummer brand on future vehicles.

AMG continued to assemble the H1 and added the luxurious Hummer H2 introduced by GM in 2002, which made use of the Chevrolet Tahoe chassis and running gear. The $100,000 H1 migrated further upmarket with a leather interior and a 205-hp diesel powerplant.

With the war on terror in full swing after 9/11, the Hummer enjoyed newfound popularity, emboldening GM to introduce a third model, the H3, based on the smaller GMT355 chassis that underpinned the Chevrolet Colorado compact pickup truck.

The 2006 H3 made use of the same 220-hp, in-line five cylinder engine used in the pickup, though GM took pains to ensure the littlest Hummer could do everything its bigger brothers could do, including ford 61-cm-deep water.

Then the world started turning green.

The H1 ended production after the 2006 model year. Even Schwarzenegger eventually agreed to convert one of his Hummers to run on hydrogen fuel before abandoning his entire fleet to help secure his tenure as California governor.

The original Humvee

The first Humvee was 2.2-metres wide and weighed more than two-and-a-half tons. Based on a steel frame with an aluminum and fibreglass body, it featured a long-travel suspension and a Detroit Diesel 6.2 L V8 engine producing 150 horsepower and enough torque to uproot an oak tree.

A three-speed automatic transmission (soon replaced by a four-speed unit; all Humvees had a slushbox of some kind) turned the all-wheel-drive system with geared hubs. The brakes were mounted inboard. The tires stood 1-metre tall and air pressure could be adjusted from the cockpit. Top speed was 100 km/h regardless of the terrain.

Controversy dogged the Humvee more recently when it was discovered troops in Iraq added makeshift armour to their "soft" aluminum-bodied Humvees, forcing the Pentagon to rush kits to retrofit the vehicles with better protection. Even so, Humvees remained vulnerable to improvised roadside bombs because of the vehicle's flat bottom and relatively low ground clearance.

The H2

The H2 is built for General Motors under contract by AM General. Although it shares the Chevrolet Tahoe/Yukon/Escalade chassis, the H2's frame is modified to include a fully boxed mid-section and other reinforced components. While narrower than the famed H1, the H2 is longer and heavier than the H1 base model.

The H2 took the shape of either a four-door wagon or four-door pickup with a very small box behind the cabin. Power was provided by GM's 6.0 L gasoline V8, good for 325 hp, driving a four-speed automatic. It was boosted to 6.2 L and 393 hp for the 2008 model year, driving a six-speed autobox.

H2 sales were initially strong in 2003, but deteriorated in subsequent years. Sales tanked in 2008 with the spike in fuel prices, prompting GM to consider selling its Hummer brand — which had become synonymous with environmental irresponsibility. H2 sales had benefited from the U.S. income tax code that allowed the cost of vehicles weighing more than 2,722 kg to be deducted from specific types of income.

Toronto Star