May 30, 2003
"HUMMER CAMP". YEAH. SURE.
I’d like to believe this story ...
For the truly smitten, there is Hummer camp, a sort of 21st-century dude ranch of mud-besotted excess more formally known as the Hummer Driving Academy. For three nights and two days last week, half a dozen students convened for a camp session, rambling over obstacle courses and roaring through 300 acres of muddy terrain thickly wooded with beech, white oak, cherry and shag-bark hickory trees in South Bend.
... but it’s from the New York Times.
Posted by Tim Blair at May 30, 2003 01:34 PMI would love to have the tow-truck concession for "Hummer Camp". These behemoths are the most utterly useless 4wd ever let loose on the planet- a goddamn Suzuki Mighty-Boy has more off-road ability.
Posted by: paul bickford at May 30, 2003 at 01:56 PMI love how they have to list all the species of trees in the camp, just as filler. It's like reading the private diary entries of a Victorian fop.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 30, 2003 at 01:56 PMWell, they've got Range Rover Camp, why not?
Though "hummer camp" makes me think of something COMPLETELY different...
Posted by: Eric at May 30, 2003 at 02:41 PMI hate to pick nits and get all off-topic, but slamming the Hummer's off-road capability jsut gets my dander up. I've beaten the hell outta those trucks, and they get through anything (except really deep snow. A big flat belly pan gets you high-centered fast).
I've got literally hundreds of hours behind the wheel in them, and I've never driven its equal (discounting heavily modified rock crawlers). The Hummer can go anywhere your vaunted Mighty-Boy can. And it can do it carrying the Mighty-Boy as cargo.
And to get back on topic, I agree with Eric. My first thought on reading the post was "Hummer Camp? Sounds like Band Camp to me."
Posted by: TomK at May 30, 2003 at 03:17 PMI would never take a Hummer on the old logging roads I have to work on - too damn wide, they would end up in the canyon bottom before lunch. Give me a little Toyota pickup with a good set of tires and some weight in the bed over a Hummer anyday.
Posted by: Nordic at May 30, 2003 at 03:51 PMThe Humvee had multiple transmission failures during Gulf War Episode 1, which the Land Rovers operated by the British were immune. Corrective Services here in Queensland operate them for perimeter patrol (on paved road) and they have been u/s more often than in use- they have now totally removed them from service (and for what they paid for one, they could have bought 20 ex British Army armoured Land Rover "Pigs" surplus from Northern Ireland. The Hummer is a perfect example of something built to Government specifications- enormous, unweildly, expensive, impractical, thirsty, slow, ponderous and subject to regular failure. (Kind of sounds LIKE government itself).
Posted by: paul bickford at May 30, 2003 at 05:06 PMI won't bag Hummers, I am sure they are great at doing what theyre supposed to do. I'm sure too whatever faults they had in GW1 they sure as hell fixed before the sequel. I mean thery had 12 years of the UN pffaffing around to fettle the buggers.
I just want to take the opportunity to salute the "Wagons o' justice" (Tim's term and very apropos), the 6 wheeled Land Rover Defender derived vehicles made in South Australia that the Australian SAS teams used in the Great Iraqi War Of Liberation. The Holy Chariots brought the Australians home safe.
Posted by: James Hamilton at May 30, 2003 at 08:29 PMHuh. Must be Republicans. Only they would go to a "Hummer" camp and spend the time driving bloody trucks. Practising for all those off-road soccer matches, no doubt?
Would not have happened in Clinton's day!
Posted by: Hoodie Craw at May 31, 2003 at 03:09 AMYou must have been driving them before they made the heavies. Much more power out of the diesel and mileage is not bad either, having drven it on fumes for about 80 kilometers. Gets nearly 110 kph and still eats batteries for lunch. Each one has its own personality and comes with that special carc paint. Military version costs around a hundred thousand USD on delivery. Then you get to remove the plywood over the windows and put on the 'Pioneer kit'. Love the flat blade screwdriver in the tool case, too. I place it on the better than a kubbelwagon scale.
Nothing like what these idiots are driving as a cell phone platform.
Posted by: devils chewtoy at May 31, 2003 at 08:44 PMHummer camp ... he he. I thought that was where NYTimes staff learned how to form a deep and meaningful professional relationship with Howell Raines. (Remove teeth, lie back and think of a double wide cubicle next to MoDo.)
Posted by: Craig Ranapia at June 1, 2003 at 04:23 AM