The mid-1980s Dodge HMMWV (“Humvee”) proposal
When the Army put out bids for a replacement for new highly mobile military wheeled vehicles (HMMWV, or “Humvees”), Chrysler was one of the bidders, along with AMC (which won) and other companies. Chrysler had, during the 1940s, been a major contributor to the war effort, and K.T. Keller devoted enormous resources to the space and defence divisions after the war. The company had a major role in the moon rockets and other postwar military projects.
Chrysler’s highly regarded defense and space divisions, however, had largely been dismantled by 1980; the Dodge Truck Division had also been disbanded, and while there was still a truck engineering group, it was not as strong as it had been. The D-100 had been launched in 1961; it was still expanding in the mid-1970s, but the last major change had been in 1981, and the Dodge Dakota was reportedly designed largely by a subcontractor. A project as ambitious as creating the next generation of Army vehicle was, unfortunately, too big for what was left of Chrysler’s in-house truck engineers. The pickups may have died out had it not been for the decision to install Cummins diesels into the 1989 D-250 and D-350. At that, Burton Bouwkamp wrote, “Some of my retired truck engineering friends were called back from retirement to engineer the installation. Dodge Truck didn't have the manpower available to do this additional job and Cummins did not have the total vehicle experience necessary to do the job.”
This set the stage for Chrysler’s mid-1980s HMMWV “Humvee” proposal. Despite the company’s experience in military work and past all-terrain work, the new prototype was not competitive; too much had been lost with the experienced engineers who had retired or been re-assigned.
Their prototype was built on the Dodge D-series pickup chassis; it had an aluminum body, and was powered by an air-cooled Duetz V-8 diesel. The Chrysler vehicle lost the contest because the transmission overheated during the Baker Grade Test, and the lighting was not packaged per government requirements.
In 1985, Pete Gruich was hired as part of a small team to re-engineer the prototype, fixing the problems that were the cause of the rejection by the government doing so in such a way that no dies would be required to form the parts for the body (so General Dynamics could sell them to the Thailand army).
Pete wrote:
I solved the overheating problem by redesigning the hood and adding side vents to it to exhaust the air from the engine cooler, instead of venting out the transmission tunnel as originally designed. I also reconfigured the front lighting to meet requirements. That was a tough job.
The picture of the drafting room is a a promotional photo taken around 1961. My father, Peter, is standing at the board with the scale in his hand. They were designing the orange 155mm Howitzer shown below, under his direction. He had started working at the arsenal in 1958.
We used to go to the MacDonald’s that is still on Van Dyke and order a bunch of burgers and watch the tanks drive around the test track. When the M1 was due to be tested, they put a wall around the track so that it couldn’t be seen.
My father used to take me over to the engineering offices on Saturday and now and then check out a M113 and take me out on the track. Too bad they converted it and stopped using it for what it was meant to be. My father passed away in 1994 so he didn’t have to watch its demise.
When they brought over the first HMMWV prototype, my father happened to stroll in to see where I was working, having just retired a few months earlier. He was dressed casually, was growing a beard, and not looking too professional. The vehicle was sitting there running with the hood up and it was surrounded by engineers obviously looking at something that was not good.
My father and I walked up to see as they turned the steering wheel to full lock either way, the frame was twisting where the steering gear box was attached. One of the engineers said “That’s no problem, we will just box the frame at the steering gear box.”
My dad looked at him and said, “Son, you can box that frame in from the front to the rear and it ain’t gonna stop the twist. You guys did not take into account how much these combat wheels and tires weigh compared to the production pickup tires and wheels. This is a show stopper.” I heard the guy start asking “who is that and what does he know”... a couple of hours later, the owner of the company came over and said that he had heard that the problem was a show stopper and what does your dad know...
The next week the program was cancelled.
Not to brag, but my father was written up in the Macomb Daily in 1967 and called "the Einstein of Warren, Michigan" after writing his book, Magnetism and the Atom. He invented the metal composition used for the armor on the M1 and developed a secret process for work hardening metals used for armor and submarine hulls. He also developed the torsion bar system used on all torsion bar suspension tracked military vehicles.
Pete Gruich had, in 1983, worked with AM General on their HMMWV proposal.
Additional Chrysler HMMWV feedback
Tom Bladow wrote, “It was my understanding that there were nine test vehicles made for this program — three from AM General, three from Teledyne, and three from Chrysler Defense. Through the years of searching for information on the Chrysler HMMWV I have never found much information on the subject — this looks like it might have been the second or third of the three test vehicles.
I belive that I own Chrysler’s test vehicle #1; the door tag on mine says EMT PRO PV1, and the best I can figure is that it reads Experimental Military Transport Prototype Prototype Vehicle # 1. Mine looks somewhat different then the one pictured in the photo, although some of the small details such as the rear swing arms and front coil springs let me know that this is the real deal.
As far as I know, mine was based on a one ton frame and has a 360 v8 under the aluminum hood. I was told it was built in 1979, by Chrysler Defense in California. I saw a photo of the other one that looks like mine and it had Washington plates on it.
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