Take heart all yea who wish for a machine of their own. The Navy has about a hundred of them (by their count) in Gulfport Miss. and yes the contractor is redoing them. Its called a Service Life Extension Program, or SLEP. They are pulling the best for rehab, and the OLD stuff is not going back into them. They have been selling off tons of scrap "Legacy" Larc-V axles engines and drives as well as the wheel hubs now there. The SLEP units have a John Deere powerplant, new controls all of it. The Navy just donated two sets of each to our "Group" for the one we have here. We train US Naval Sea Cadets with it, (though its sort of considered a "Big Boys Toy" the rest of the time) It works well with the three LCM-8's we have when we go out on the beach.
The reworked ones are sent out to Beach Master units, Seabee marine construction teams etc. They were originally built in the 60's and there are three sizes, the 5 ton, a 15 ton and the BIG 60 tonners or BARC's as the Army likes to call them. There is a picture somewhere of the whole family like, a WWII Dukw, Larc-V, 15 and 60 all in a row. Alot of them served in Viet Nam, and when we left, to keep them from the wrong hands, they sank them offshore with gunfire.
The folks at the Expeditionary command will surplus the ones they don't rebuild when they are done with them. They are sending the SLEP units out now, as they are out on Maritime Prepositioned ships as well, and we're supposed to be on the list for one of the NON-SLEP units as they do come back for our training program. But there will be a large number of them go when they decide to do it. So I'd say be ready for a "roadtrip" to Gulfport someday.
Its truely a shame though, back in the 60's we had what they called a LARC-VII, it has a hydraulic 5 ton boom on the deck, a kingpost and boom, not a Knuckle type folding rig. Those were alot of fun. We ran all over Micronesia, Truk, Palau, Ulithi, Ponape and Yap with them. (safer than a helo, but slower) Great platform. Also saw one in Miama as a fire fighting rig, given to them by NASA, it was POLISHED..... You could see yourself in the skin. Wonder what happened to that one.
If they have a problem, its MAINTENANCE.... Very complicated, all hydraulic and parts are getting scarce. Thats why they are doing the MAJOR change out of drive trains and all. I was told the controls on them now are similar to those used on larger bass boats. Gotta be something. I know they take the surf, been there and done that both in the Navy and out.