Caiman MTV

Aluminum prices going through the roof!

this is an incredible vehicle and our local community has been awesome about helping us get it outfitted. Sure, we would love a Bearcat, we're not concerned with IEDs, just the occasional guy who wants to poke holes in us or the public. This was available. We are a rural sheriffs office, not in the oppression market.

running gear is brand new. CAT C-9 instead of C-7 and independent suspension. Interior is a little ruff, looking to replace the suspension seats with fold up benches or something along those lines. HID / IR kit to be installed. Huge list of little things to get it ready and I'm sure we'll need some advice on those areas.

boswalt said:

We are a rural sheriffs office, not in the oppression market.

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You may not be but who's to say the next elected sheriff won't be (especially in parts of WA)? Your dept do "no knock" warrants? What's the SOP for calling out armor? It's a cool machine but I feel safer when it stays with the military and not local police forces.

Boswalt. There is another thread in here from a different agency that acquired a surplus MRAP. I would recommend reading through it, even though certain individuals decided to take discussion paths that were advised against, multiple times, by moderators, and resulted in it being locked.

I will echo what I said though, and that is: training, Training, TRAINING. work with your local NG/USAR units for access to roll over simulators. your crews need to practice any and all contingencies in the "crawl, walk, run" training format. your driver needs to be your driver. not just any deputy jumping up and going "I drove something like this 10 years ago". Certifications, licensing, insurance, training.

Welcome to Steel Soldiers, I hope that we can provide you useful, intelligent information for success in your department.

Very nice machine, I hope it serves your department well! Thanks for sharing!

We have many rules and all for good reasons.

Attach photos(no links)

Capitalize

And yes, this type of vehicle surplussed to law enforcement does seem to keep coming up and cause members to discuss "correctness" or whatever debate you want to call it.

Welcome to SS.

From looking at the picture a question comes to mind, Is the fuel tank armored ???, because it looks like a standard tank, if it is in fact a standard tank, take out the tank = take out the truck and over time the personal in it.

73m819 said:

From looking at the picture a question comes to mind, Is the fuel tank armored ???, because it looks like a standard tank, if it is in fact a standard tank, take out the tank = take out the truck and over time the personal in it.

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I can't imagine the deputies in the Caiman are the only deputies responding to the incident if said incident required an armored vehicle. I don't know the intricacies of all the MRAP variants, but it could also be a self-sealing tank. The fuel tank is probably a relatively insignificant vulnerability for their application.

73m819 said:

From looking at the picture a question comes to mind, Is the fuel tank armored ???, because it looks like a standard tank, if it is in fact a standard tank, take out the tank = take out the truck and over time the personal in it.

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Not anymore,starts 30sec in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6qHY1H6piE

73m819 said:

From looking at the picture a question comes to mind, Is the fuel tank armored ???, because it looks like a standard tank, if it is in fact a standard tank, take out the tank = take out the truck and over time the personal in it.

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I crawled all over one of these the local NG had. The crew compartment is very protected. The drivetrain, not so much.

To me it looks like these things were made to run over a IED and the crew walk away, not drive away. It wouldn't take much of a explosion or strategically placed bullets to render it inoperable.

m16ty said:

To me it looks like these things were made to run over a IED and the crew walk away, not drive away. It wouldn't take much of a explosion or strategically placed bullets to render it inoperable.

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That's exactly the idea. However, it does take a large blast to relieve an MRAP of it's running gear. Getting out of the kill zone was a design consideration, but they will deflect a blast at the expense of all the external components.

Welcome to the site. Here's the thread about ours before it closed due to its controversial nature.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?114333-Our-New-Departmental-MRAP&highlight=

Hope your thread last longer than mine but I doubt it will.

Our local county (Portage County, Wis.) just got one of those as well. Had to pay the shipping to get it here, otherwise it was no cost to acquire.

Scott

Welcome to the site!

Please post plenty of pics as we love pics of cool vehicles we don't get to play with

Thanks for what you do in service!

MWMULES said:

Not anymore,starts 30sec in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6qHY1H6piE

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That's pretty slick right there. I'm actually surprised that process isn't classified.

The concept is actually pretty simple.

Thanks everyone for the luke warm welcome! Glad to be here. I'd be glad to discuss why we have a truck like this and how it would be used. There is a lot of misinformation out there spread by those with an agenda. We don't use these trucks the same way the military does, nor do we have the training they do.

boswalt said:

Thanks everyone for the luke warm welcome! Glad to be here. I'd be glad to discuss why we have a truck like this and how it would be used. There is a lot of misinformation out there spread by those with an agenda. We don't use these trucks the same way the military does, nor do we have the training they do.

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Good luck with it & be safe!

Whew! Nice ride ya'll have!
Nice protection for those who protect and defend.
We have one that hit an IED or I should say and IED hit it. You lose the running gear but the passengers were as snug as a bug in a rug.
A little more forgiving than a 113 APC which another local Police Dept has. Doesn't rattle your teeth out going down the road!
Oh, Welcome to the site also!

My agency has a Caiman. I will send you some pics. Monday of our seating arrangement we came up with through private message. I do not want your thread locked up like mine did.

Swat435, can you send those pictures to me also? My agency just acquired one as well. I was going to post some pictures until I saw your thread.....ours is replacing an armored truck that we received from Brinks and that we up armored on our own....also has almost 400,000 miles.

I will send you the link to the camera system we installed. One back camera, and one for each side to aid in driving. The system has one screen that you can split for all three cameras.

We have a USMC MRAP instructor coming in to give us some training. We also have several officers that are MRAP certified from NG duty or prior service.

MWMULES said:

Not anymore,starts 30sec in

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Now I have to go label all my weapons of choice since the video has said mine are different than what I thought. Great idea for a material though.