First off, there are still lots of High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles in Service. In fact, OshKosh Defense was just awarded a contract for repair parts.
The US Army’s PS magazine wants you to know you can “Pimp your ride” by changing your HMMWV driver’s and commander’s seats to comfy high backs. Order the green seat kit with NSN 2540-01-393-3796 or the tan seat kit with NSN 2540-01-408-7049.
The kits are limited, however, because the contract wasn’t renewed due to testing requirements. When they’re gone, you’ll have to order the individual parts in TACOM drawings 57K0290 (green) and 57K0291 (tan).
Email them for a copy:
usarmy.redstone.logsa.mbx.psmag@mail.mil (this is for Army units)
INGENIOUS!
I have always complained about the awful HMMWV seats. God forbid you get into a wreck or get hit by an IED. The force hitting the front of your vehicle would snap your head back violently since the seat only goes to your upper back. That’s a good way to get decapitated or your neck broke.
Also. Bonus points for those goobers having 3 locks on the wheel lock. Seen so many HMMWVs with keys lost. Why find the key when you can just add a new lock!
Why do we not see seats with removable cutouts for someone wearing armor? I remember having horrible hip flexor pain after sitting in a HMMWV on and off for 12 hours at a time on patrols while wearing armor. Wouldn’t a high backed seat with a removable cutout help alleviate this issue?
That’s too bad. The original flat panels were super modular for sleeping inside the HMMWV, and not horrible for driving with armor on. The buckets are literally good for nothing.
The HMMWV is horribly designed for ingress/egress, particularly the armor variants. There, I said it.
Unless you’re an itty-bitty, fitting into any HMMWV with gear on is a nightmare. Getting out in a hurry? LOL…
I kinda wonder if the people designing these vehicles have ever, y’know, taken them into the field as soldiers, and then tried to operate and live off of one day in, day out. I rather doubt it–What seems generously sized, even over-sized, when you’re sitting there in street clothes is nightmarishly cramped and impossible to get in and out of in full field gear, with a weapon. And, what’s really nice is that the designers seem to be blind to this issue, or we wouldn’t keep seeing it.
I’d love to see the contracts include a requirement that the designers actually, y’know, have to do the missions the vehicles are specced out for, not just “talk to the troops”. You talk to a guy who’s already 30th percentile in terms of body size, odds are that designing around his issues aren’t going to work for the guys who are 80th percentile. Dear God, I can remember watching a fully-kitted 110-lb female not be able to get in and out of her vehicle station with all her gear on. And, it wasn’t the size so much as it was the configuration of it all, and the weight of her gear being in the wrong place for her. Poor kid was like a turtle on it’s back…
I remember “back in the day” (late 1980’s, pre-Desert Storm) in Germany, there was briefly a fad of replacing HMMWV seats with brand-new front seats for the CUCV (“Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicle”, aka Chevy Blazer). A directive was issued, putting a stop to the practice, citing a “Safety Issue”, but an exemption was made for Brigade and higher Commander / CSM vehicles…implying that “safety” was less important for the higher-ups, I guess…