yep, manual, I had them on mine...but they didnt really add that much flex unless you had a long arm kit.

Ive seen a few guys do this some with much more built jeeps than that...they usually laugh it off flip it up right and keep on going...lol

If they cant catch them to give them a ticket they have no interest...its not about safety its about revenue. Slightly sarcastic but not really.

I’ve gotten as high as 43MPG out of a KIA, my truck averages about 14... the wear/tear and gas costs make it totally worth taking a rental.

Best I can do with a 6.4L 2500 Hemi 6 Speed on the highway is about 17MPG, I average about 14 in town. Towing a 30ft TT at between 9-10K I get about 8MPG give or take.

My “low mile insurance” was like 600 a year with no accidents plus my other vehicle I was paying about 1900 a year, on one new truck...its only slightly more.

I used to have a car and an HD truck, as you said it costs too much overall. Insurance for 2, tires for 2, property taxes for 2, it was nice when one was broken, but I solved that buy buying one that was new they payments are still about the same as both cars.

I drive a rental car when driving really far so I dont put the miles on my truck and so I get 3X the gas mileage...lol. I drive them pretty much like an old lady though other than crumbs and food chunks everywhere.

Ive been in almost 20 years and this is the first time I had ever heard them called phoenix ravens.... we just always called them ravens... idk just seemed like ravens was enough...lol

I also said pilots being an exception and yes there are other areas I am know people do great work, but I am sure you would agree would you rather have a bunch of war tested o-4 thru 0-6s in planes during a war or a bunch of o-2s I am sure as you know it takes years to build experience to become a good fighter pilot…

Very true.

I was thinking similar to an Infiniti M56

Soon as some genius figures out how to keep equipment from getting jammed or killed with 2 second+ latency and have the type of AI even close to human experience and training I am sure they will but for now it will be manned and I am guessing it will stay that way for at least 20 more years if not longer. No one…

Maintenance (lots of aspects to that crew chiefs, weapons, avionics, electricians, hydaulics are mostly their own fields), Supply, HR, Security, Services, Comm, Crypto, etc,etc...you know everything but fly (well except for things like load masters, flight engineers, door gunners, etc).

Sure there are dumb maintainers, remember most of them are under 25 kids really, but most are dedicated and smart at least in the late 90s when I was AD. In the guard/reserve, its even better mostly guys in their late 20-30s and if you have a good culture in your organization most will have bachelors degrees or higher…

let me tell you how it really works, whomever wins pays the other as a subcontractor to build half at their specs and due to retooling growing pain issues costs still end up higher than if they had just built them as originially ordered and planned now.

the reality is much of the military is already ran by Senior NCO’s most officers under O-3 are essentially straight out of school getting on the job training. In many ways Senior NCOs/NCOs do most of the work, most low level officers are like middle management if that in many cases. Pilots kind of being the exception.

They just required them to be rated pilots, which is probably boring as can be for a guy that used to fly a fighter, or even a heavy for that matter. I knew enlisted guys who had their private pilot license, but didn’t have a college degree they would probably be first in line if they can count some of these hours as…

My base has at least one family day a year and from C-130’s, to C-5’s and, and now C-17’s my kids have seen them all and more when we have airshows. My kids are a bit young so I am not sure how much they will remember it but they seem to love it and always ask a ton of questions... course they think I fly it instead…

If you only tow 9K a few times a year then stick with Gas, thats what I did 6.4L 2500 tows over 13K out the door around 40K. Im still with the comment that this is a very limited market