PICTURE -- Big vs. small impact wrench

Jun 13, 2008 64 Replies

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Bill Smith 18 years ago

And the Heavy Recovery Vehicle (M88A2) has a 1" hydraulic impact in its arsenal. The M88A1 was considered a Medium Recovery Vehicle. The M578 is a Light recovery vehicle and it has tracks too.

The 10-Ton HEMTT (Wrecker) could be considered a Heavy "Wheeled Vehicle" Recovery Vehicle and it does have large tires. The 900Series 5-Ton Wrecker would be a Medium/Light Wheeled Recovery Vehicle..

Only the M88, M88A1 and M88A2 have the 1" hydraulic impact wrench (which runs off the Little Joe APU). There is a lot of feedback to the operator with one of those. Been there, done that.

Anything else no-one wanted to know?

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J. Clarke 18 years ago

And that is IIRC the vehicle in question. The cameraman was _not_ a happy camper after the wheel and tire landed on him.

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Steve Ackman 18 years ago

Yup, M88's were exactly what I was thinking of. A2 version was well after my time. According to wikipedia A1 was also "Heavy" with only the original M88 being "Medium." Maybe wikipedia needs a "fix" on that point?

I was on the Service side of S&R and S&E platoons, so I rarely went out on recoveries.

Yup, those too. Even had the "opportunity" to help change some of those tires. My faded memories seem to include 3 guys to get those HEMMT tires off the rims. I'd have sure liked to see that episode of Dirty Jobs.

There's a couple of wikipedia pages that refreshed some memories.

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Heh, ever seen an M88A1 try to drive on glare ice over cobblestones on a slope? Downright funny (though potentially quite dangerous).

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