Are military surplus vehicles any good to buy? Vehicles such as a quarter ton duce and a half 5 speed, as well as the diesel hummer, diesel chevy blazer, and diesel dodge pick up trucks from the late 80's to early 90's any good to buy?
If they were driven mainly on base or were just used for common transportation, might not be bad. But if they were used in any kind of convoy ops or civil engineering jobs DO NOT buy. Also, stay away from Humvees. Unless you really want to put in hrs of work to keep it running they’re terrible.
A lot of times these are sold at government auctions. They usually have an inspection period when you can look them over. It's hit and miss. I have seen chevy trucks 30 years old with 1500 miles on them. Everything is dry rotted. You start them up and fluids leak from everywhere. If you can't inspect it before hand I would avoid it. On the other hand if you can get past the camouflage green with brown blotches you might get a great vehicle.
Also check your states Registration laws on previous goverment vehicles. Some only allow "Farm" registration for things like Hommers
If they’re in good shape and if you think you can fix them - they can be a good buy.
(Although nowadays due to the car shortage it might be not such a great deal)
Where I live, (outside the US) old military trucks became super popular going sometimes for 10x what a similar civilian version would cost as there were things like lifted Wranglers with beefed up frames, and a VW Diesel engine mated to 4 speed Aisin automatic (AIL Sufa) basically the perfect wrangler.
Is it true that the military rebuilt their old fleet for about 20 years before ordering a new one just like what UPS did to their fleet in the 80's and 90's?