Military TUG

Does anyone know the military number designation for these trucks? My brother was stationed at Sheppard A.F.B. and during a visit, I saw these and thought they were very unique. Always love overkill on drivetrain! See pics here.http://community.webshots.com/album/569321025QNzGdf

I don't think they have an "M" series number since they aren't considered a tactical vehicle.

My buddy just bought a few of them. I'm going over to look at one tonight, all of his were just "flight line tow tractors." 12v Cummins and 7.xx gears with a locker is pretty cool. Apparently they don't even have locks on the doors.

Many of them were JG or TA series. some of the tugs we used were TA-75's and JG-40's

Lonesome715 has one of them, apparently very closely related to the CUCV running gear (minus axles).

See: http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?t=25049&highlight=tug

Interesting that those are Chevy, the ones that have been up for auction around here are all Dodge.

seen pics of those somewhere before, and i swear someone said it wouldnt make a good wheeling vehicle because of the rear suspension being well, not suspension, heard its just solid..

Any fullsize vehicle isn't very good for wheeling, especially 1-tons. They're too physically large, and the springs are too stiff and don't allow for enough articulation. And they're HEAVY. Yeah, they can go real far off-road, but they won't rock crawl like a truggy, or anything close. Then again, I guess a lot of it depends on how one defines "wheeling."

Anyhoo, about the tugs, the Dodges that my buddy got are 2WD, don't know about the Chevies, but 4WD seems pretty pointless for something that's going to be on tarmac its entire life. If it's snowing, they have other equipment to clear the snow.

The 7.xx gears are pretty sweet, though.

We've discussed these several times on here, a couple months ago even. Do a search for "tug" and I bet it shows up.

These were meant to shove HEAVY loads. Not B-52's mind you but even a F/A-18 is around 35k lightly loaded. 4x4 when moving aircraft is great.

No M number, these were just conversions of civilian C30 and K30 dually trucks for the government. 6.2L diesel, TH400, some have NP208's and others have some heavy equipment t-case, practically no suspension, and ZF portal axles. Great bases for a wheeler but not right out of the box. Add a suspension, loose the bumpers, add big tires, etc.

Interesting, thanks for the info. We took one of the Dodge flightline tow tractors out today, it's a squirrelly little bugger! With the low gearing, it drops second before the turbo can even spool.

Yeah, I had one of the Chevies at a job I had at an airport several years ago. Max speed was like 15mph...pathetically slow but it'd push a Gulfstream V across a tarmac covered in 2' of snow like it was shoving a red rider wagon.