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I've been watching stuck videos. The majority of which are a lmtv in not even hub deep mud. Not dragging the axles, not buried up to the frame, not digging the bumper in. It just got squishy and the lmtv's massive weight cannot climb out of the rut due to the open diffs.I'm just saying "go try it". Wheeling small trucks on trails and obstacles "made for" small trucks is very different than driving the LMTV on those same things. Similarly, experience wheeling Jeeps/etc. doesn't really transfer, nor do opinions about how to set up the trucks based on that experience. Some of it will, of course, because it's just physics and mechanics in the end, but it's different.
And honestly, that's the best part. I spent 20 years wheeling K5's, Jeeps, HMMWVs, etc., and it was getting to be a bit of "been there, done that". The LMTV is a totally different beast, with totally different challenges, and it's made it all refreshingly new again. I've now taken my LMTV on everything from mountains, to sand dunes, to mud pits, to blizzards, to water crossings, and it's so much fun. This thing is seemingly unstoppable.
All that weight without traction to match is a liability. One that could be mitigated with lockers. I'll be switching to 3.07 gears, so it's a no-brainer to drop one of the Detroit units in while I'm doing the rear, which gets me to 75% traction utilization, but I'd sure like to have that remaining 25% as an option.
I equate the lmtv to more like a farm tractor than a Jeep. big, heavy, slow, not nimble or flexy, which is why you can hardly find a farm tractor these days without locking axles, even my baby Kubota 2601 has one.
I'm not saying you're not right, "go try it" is valid advice. I'm just the kind of guy that if. I can get to 100%, I don't like settling for 75. And being down some logging road in Montana somewhere 50 miles back to the pavement, I'd surely rather have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.