Kansas lawmaker restarts effort to free military-surplus Humvees for civilian use
A Kansas legislator is pushing to allow ex-military vehicles to be licensed for use on the state’s roads, which could give a boost to a company in Butler County that buys surplus Humvees and upgrades them for civilian use.
This year’s bill is a re-introduction of a measure that died last year when the Legislature shut down early because of the pandemic, said its author, Rep. Kristey Williams, R-Augusta.
Williams said she introduced it last year at the request of Troy Palmer, an Augusta businessman and owner of Global Parts Auto Group, which makes replacement parts for Humvees and converts them into more civilian-friendly vehicles like the Humvee’s high-priced but nearly identical cousin, the General Motors Hummer H1.
“I did not realize when he asked that Kansas does not have a method, or a process, or a statute in place to allow these (ex-military vehicles) to be on the roadways,” Williams said.
She said it doesn’t make sense because Humvees “are identical in body to Hummers, the commercial version, for which you can get a license plate.”
Zach Fletcher, a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Motor Vehicles, said it’s not clear why most surplus Humvees can’t be licensed for road use. It may have something to do with the military designating them as off-road vehicles when it transfers title to the buyers, he said.
Humvees vs. Hummers
Introduced in the late 1980s to replace Vietnam War-era military jeeps, the Humvee has been and continues to be a workhorse in military service.
“It’s been able to do everything the military’s asked of it in spades and it’s expected to be in the military inventory until 2050, no matter how many other vehicles they buy,” said David DeMorrow, director of the Museum of Modern Warfare in Temple, Texas, and one of the nation’s leading experts on Humvees.
“They’re trying to phase out the Humvee, but every time they try to phase it out with something, the fact is the Humvee can do it better, safer and cheaper and can actually be fixed in the field,” De Morrow said.
Its wide wheel base, high ground clearance and all-around toughness makes it an ideal vehicle for farmers, ranchers, hunters, off-roaders and anyone else who need a go-anywhere do-anything truck, he said.
After the Humvee played a starring role in the 1991 Gulf War, its iconic slab-sided no-nonsense styling caught the attention of domestic consumers and a civilian version, the Hummer H1, was introduced in 1991 and produced through 2006.
“By design, (military Humvees) are the same vehicle as a Hummer H1, same chassis, same body,” Palmer said.
The problem is, Hummers cost an arm and a leg, with used ones ranging in price from $120,000 to $220,000, Palmer said.
A decent Humvee in running condition from a government auction generally costs about $14,000, and about an extra 25% of the sale price for shipping, auction and title fees, he said.
Straight from auction they’re pretty Spartan, often lacking such niceties as doors, hard tops, dash boards and air conditioning — “things that would make them appreciable for a daily driver, or even a hobby driver,” he said.
“A lot of them have been through battle,” he added. “It’s not uncommon to see bullet holes in some of them as well.”
Another factor that complicates civilian use is that the original engines, an off-the-shelf Chevrolet diesel, were designed for reliability and performance in rough terrain rather than freeway speeds. DeMorrow and Palmer said a stock military Humvee tops out about 65 mph.
How much it costs to convert one for civilian use depends a lot on how plush the customer wants the end result to be.
“Some people like to drive them around town as they are, some people like to put a little money into them, some like to put a lot of bit of money into them,” Palmer said. “I would say most customers spend about $70,000 to $90,000 with us.”
The biggest-ticket item is replacement of the stock engine with a Duramax, the engine GM put in its top-of-the-line 2006 Hummer. That costs about $26,000 for a do-it-yourself kit, another $10,000 installed, Palmer said.
If a customer’s OK with lower speed and want to keep it more military-authentic, “we’ve got different interior kits just for that, maybe $3,000 to $5,000. We can do it that simple as well,” Palmer said.
Already on the roads
One of the more puzzling aspects of the state’s reluctance to license Humvees for road use is that the military’s already driving them all over the state with no apparent problems, DeMorrow said.
“Think about it this way, Kansas has two divisions . . . at Fort Riley they’ve got a division and you’ve got a National Guard division,” he said. Between them, McConnell Air Force Base and smaller posts around the state, “You’ve already got approximately 4,000 Humvees on your roads anyway.”
DeMorrow is a former Army master driver whose job in the service was to train soldiers to operate military vehicles, including Humvees.
Although it doesn’t come equipped with air bags, the Humvee had to meet a military safety standard that was as strict as the standards for contemporary civilian vehicles, DeMorrow said. He’s also studied the safety statistics and found Humvee accidents to be a rarity, because of their wide wheelbase and inherent stability.
“Generally if there’s a Humvee accident, it’s usually on a post and they were doing something stupid . . . trying to drive over a hill sideways or something like that,” he said. “Normally, it’s in the dark with night-vision goggles, stuff that civilians won’t do.”
Palmer said it’s in the state’s interest to pass Williams’ bill because Kansas is losing money from registration and property taxes on military-to-civilian conversions like the ones he makes.
“If you see any driving around, it’s people going to other states and getting them tagged,” he said.
The legislation
The first bill to try to free the Humvees passed the House unanimously with only minor technical amendments.
It was happily motoring through the Senate and had received committee approval when the COVID pandemic slammed the brakes on the Legislative session in March, halfway through a scheduled 90-day session.
This year’s bill is identical to the version as it was passed by the House and Senate transportation committees last year, Williams said.
Because it’s already been through the committee process and there’s no known opposition, Williams is hoping it will get through this year.
Still, the COVID cloud continues to hover over the Capitol, so nothing’s guaranteed, she said.
“I do know that at least from the House perspective, we need to be very particular in the bills we spend time on, because of all the different safeguards we’ll need to be doing,” she said.
