From: chance wolf (chance_wolf@shaw.ca)
Date: Sun Feb 15 2004 - 00:03:28 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bobby Joe Pendleton" <bjpendleton@charter.net>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2004 6:32 AM
Subject: Re: [MV] ROLL CAGES AND RISK FACTORS
> if you ever roll over a jeep, you better hope you are thrown clear
Without ROPS, you mean?
I had two M151's. The first was an original 1962 version with the
swing-axles and only the single rubber bump-stop; the second (my current
beast), an M151A2. The military came up with a weapons mount for the M151A2
(Special Forces - experimental) which mounted in the 151 just behind the
seats like a conventional roll-bar, and had storage mounts for several M-72
LAW rockets in addition to the base for some adapter which would let you
mount an M-60, M-2 or similar weapon on the crossbar. This 'roll bar'
reached towards the sky about, oh, an inch or so from where the head of a
6ft. driver would normally be in the driving position, but it became pretty
obvious that it would still really hurt if you flipped because the
windshield would not only cave way immediately - but would fold back on you
like your own private prison regardless of that extra 1" of headspace
technically afforded you by the rollbar. Not fun. I had that thing in my
1962 and sold it off along with the Jeep.
My A2 has no ROPS. I thought about putting one in (or the Canadian version
which is straight steel and not alloy), but I questioned the wisdom of
throwing an additional 200-300-some-odd pounds of weight into a vehicle
already described as "tippy" - and carried in the main well above the
vehicle's nominal center-of-gravity. Yes, it would make rollovers more
survivable - but as a corollary - would it not also make those rollovers
somewhat more likely in the event of a "near miss"? (I'm no engineer so
this is layman's math throughout.) Didn't seem too smart to me, though I'll
freely admit that the beasts ride a lot nicer with the extra weight in them.
For years I've thought of mounting an M4 MG pedestal in it both for fun and
as a sort of 'rollover protection' in its own right. The reasoning behind
it is that the M4 represents the highest point on which the vehicle would
rest if if flipped - although there are very obviously some significant
problems with that theory if you consider the common rollover scenarios we
Jeep owners are likely to face. I kept the idea rattling around in my head
more as a "better than nothing" proposition as opposed to anything
approaching 'ideal', and will probably do exactly that when I manage to get
the critter all back together.
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