Originally Posted by
NutLoose
Part of the reason the Humvee was a monster was its wide wheel base that was designed I believe to run in the tracks of tracked vehicles..
No, but to be fair that's a common claim whenever the width of a HMMWV comes up. It doesn't stand scrutiny. Usually the more common claim is that it was designed to follow in the tracks of the M1 Abrams but that's patent crap even if you just see both vehicles visually... no tape measure needed. The HMMWV is 7 feet wide, and the M1 is 12 feet wide so the track of the Hummer sits very, very comfortably inside the track of the M1. Even the much, much smaller M113 APC is still 9 feet wide, and again the track of the Hummer fits comfortably inside the inner tracks of the APC.
The hummer is that wide simply because it's really big and heavy (having a much bigger brief than the light trucks before it), and it needed to be stable on uneven ground.
Oh and that new thing is stupendously ugly!