November 13th, 2011.
Gunfreak25 does make a point germaine to the discussion on the Unimog forum as to the utility of a deuce versus a Unimog, both vehicles were designed with gears and small engines. Horsepower is really only needed for speed, but if an engine has enough torque and enough gears, you could move the world with it, albeit at an undiscernable rate of speed. I have pulled out plenty of overpowered and under geared stuck trucks, and mostly their failures were due to insufficient weight and insufficient gearing to absorb the excess of power.
One of the unfortunate points in these designs is the fact that the axle final gears set the top end for any vehicle, thus a truck like the CCKW, or its more modern descendent, the M35A2 will never be known as a dragracer's truck, but for off road they do well. If the Army had seen fit to equip either truck with lockers like the Unimog, they would have been most formidable off road trucks, but even as they are, they are serviceable if driven with common sense. Today, common sense does seem to be missing at most truck builders, marketing and purchasers, as light weight and power do not make a working truck, and ease of maintenance is completely forgotten. As long as there are surplus parts available, it is likely that most of the older military trucks around the world will keep going and being rebuilt for continued use, if only in civillian hands.
It seems the faucet of instant gratification is running full blast 24/7 anymore.
