"Duck" (DUKW) owners are going to hurt us as a whole!

[David Zelinski]

Rash of DUKW deaths the last couple of years... some states are now calling for extreme scrutiny to civilian owned military vehicles. Le SIGH.....

http://www.columbian.com/news/2015/s...seattle-crash/

[kwai]

Interestingly, the DUKW in question was rebuild in 2005 with a GM chassis and engine. Does that mean it had modern transmission and axles?

[jeeper]

I was wondering the same thing?

[NOLA5Qtr]

I really don't think it's going to affect us at all. They were never really intended to be driven primarily on civilian streets where as M series trucks and jeeps were, having all the necessary safety devices such as break lights, turn signals, parking lights, seat belts, etc were intended for civil street and combat area operation.

[Don Cavey]

In keeping with the statements above, I tend to agree and feel it's apples and oranges for comparison.

[brute4c]

There are a whole bunch of Ducks in Wisconsin Dells, a big tourist area kind of near Madison, Wisconsin....they have a company that takes tourists all over with them...we took the kids...it was great.

I heard today on the radio here an interview with the guy who owns the Ducks and he was saying how the ones here are kept to strict stock specs and, of course, maintained at the highest level...then he said that a lot of other places are cutting the chassis apart and stretching them to increase the number of seats...these are the ones he said are problematic and they will never do that here.

So maybe that is the deal...

[md1970]

seeings the axles are in the water I bet they took on water and got compromised, oil floats so it would be the first thing come "out" then I bet a wheel bearing set went down and hence the wheel coming off. when a bearing fails it first locks up the comes apart and the whole hub goes right past the spindle nuts. remember these vehicles are 70 +years old. plus seeings it a front wheel when said bearing goes it locks that wheel up and turns the vehicle sharply to bad side.
M

[saxon]

I live in Seattle and passed these on that bridge almost daily. I'm pretty sure the axels have been changed out to the top loader Rockwells. They run BBC's.

[md1970]

rock axles are definatly not ment to be submerged for long periods of time.

[tnyankee82]

I work in the duck tour community, although not for this company. What I can tell you is this: their vehicles are no longer original vehicles and are heavily modified. They no longer use any original drive-train system and the hulls are stretched by 4 feet to accommodate more passengers. The dukw community is a small place whether it is the tourism realm or private hands. After an accident there is always a call the ban these vehicles. But we have to look at them in comparison to other vehicles on the road. Let's say there are about 300 dukw's (original or modified) around the US. They are a high profile vehicle because of their rarity. Compare their accidents to any big time auto maker vehicle on the roads for the same time span, say from 1945 to present. The dukw holds one of the best driving records of any vehicle out there. We simply hear more about them because of the high profile of the vehicles. If you call for removal of the dukw's, you might as well remove all vehicles from the roads.