"The Beast"

[Barron]

SS doesn't have A CASSPIR page, so I thought I'd post up to the 5 ton guys. This is a 2004 MkII, Made in South Africa. It has a Mercedes OM352A 5.7L Turbo Diesel, and a 5-speed manual. It's the grand-dad of Mine-proof vehicles, and has pretty heavy armor. It will withstand a triple mine explosion under a wheel (14kgs TNT) and survive.
It has air shift transfer case, and an air rear-locker. It's quite a climber, but awfully top-heavy. A local agency picked this up for their SWAT team, and I went thru the systems, drained everything, changed the filters, touched up the paint, and re-painted all the drivelines and suspension. It's not very fast, but it's a real head turner. The doors and hood are air operated, and it's right-hand steering. It's a blast to drive, can't see anything, but pretty much able to run over whatever it was you didn't see. I want one!! I drove it out in the desert today for about an hour, it's a blast!

I installed the hood ornament, it needed some bling up front..

 

[ratat98]

I'll take two!!

 

[73m819]

Can anyone tell what the point of all this UPARMOR that the swats are getting.

 

[maccus]

Cool Factor Ron.

 

[crasheej]

73m819 thats what I want to know to. Must be all of those military vehicles that are runing around being wild.

 

[wsucougarx]

Wow!opcorn:

 

[fuzzytoaster]

That was on topgear's pilot episode of last season (17?). Totally bad-A! opcorn:

 

[wreckerman893]

Can anyone tell what the point of all this UPARMOR that the swats are getting.

It is a testimony to the failure of the United States criminal justice system.

As long as they go after crackheads, tweakers and the occasional "barricaded suspect" they'll be fine.

Anybody with a basic knowledge of IED's can turn one into a smoking pile of junk in a few seconds.

Or they might run into one of these:

 

[vinny-socom1]

that looks awesome!!! can you tell me what size tires are on it? look 14.00's

Vinny

 

[dburt]

Alot of LEOs are x-military and like the heavy weapons and vehicles they had while in active duty. So when they get a chance to get something HD with a strong intimidation factor for a really reasonable price, why not go for it?? To upfit a civilian based truck to withstand the work it might get put through would be cost prohibitive. Lets face it, if you are a normal guy in LE and you can get your hands on such a truck, wouldn't you do it too? Especially if the price is really really really excellant! Hey, isn't that what alot of us do with our MVs anyway??

I would hate to be the guy tasked with changing a flat tire out in the field- those spares look heavy and in an awkward place to wrestle around. And I'm not sure I'd really like driving from the right side- you know how hard it is to teach an old dog any new tricks. All things being equal however, I'd take one if the price was right and I had a taxpayer funded budget to work with instead of my own!

 

[powersmoke18]

reasons they have them........ cause they can!! just like the reasons i want an M2 machine gun, and an M88

 

[dburt]

An older retired Federal LEO friend of mine tells the story of when he was a kid in SoCal and he and another high school buddy went into the military surplus store to poke around and look for cool stuff to buy. Don't know how they ended up with an anti-tank rifle and about 20 rounds of ammo bundled up with it in a wooden case, but they did. He said they loved to go to the desert and shoot up old abandoned cars until one day the local sheriff came up on them and confiscated thier ammo. He never would say where the gun ended up. Imagine something like that getting loose and into some of the young folk's hands in SoCal today.

 

[Barron]

14.00X20 XZL Michelins. The spares are on a hand winch on each side. Getting one down is a lot easier than putting one back up there.

 

[wjruth]

Off the top of my head I can think of a few reasons why - Bank of America in North Hollywood, Edgewater Colorado this past year, Midlothian TX 2006. These are just several examples of officers being pinned down and not having a vehicle ready that could come to the aid. I see these type of vehicles used for breaching and show of force but it really does play with the mind when you see one of these.

 

[Barron]

Poeple think of SWAT as being urban, out here that's only part of it. There's lots of Desert op's due to the drug and human smuggling traffic. The Sinaloa's "own" part of the desert here, and the Zeta's part too. There's heavily armed "Rip Crews" that go out and intercept and jack each other's drug loads.

I'm not into politics or who or why someone picked up something to use, I posted this because it's an interesting Military Vehicle not seen much in the U.S. and I thought you folks might like to see it.

 

[73m819]

these are three, maybe a few more over the years, but really not enough to require the current armoring that seems to be on the FAST TRACK, you have the TSA MARPs, upamored humvees with gun rings, and a few other examples. these vehicles are for urban warfare, not for speeding tickets, so what is the REAL reason for this FAST TRACK uparmoring, just something to think about, history follows history.

As far as playing with the mind, once one knows of there existence, then steps are taken

 

[scoutmanadam]

i like the protection for the side view mirrors

 

[Barron]

I wanted to Put big UN letters on it as a joke and drive around but figured I'd get shot at..

 

[hilber]

Nice ride. MAybe they can put it to use in the desert.

 

[Barron]

The fwd escape hatch is over the driver, the turret position is bolted down over the observer seat in the front, I think I'll cut the hatch lid and put a hinge on it with a latch, seems more practical. The side mirror guards are WAY sturdy.