Oh! that darn Dave Dunn

[Jim LaGuardia]

Went with Dave to the Mechanized Museum at the Marine base today. Lots of cool tracked and wheeled vehicles. Seems he had a plan, and after checking it out and hearing it run, he bought a Mighty Mite
He had his eye on a very sweet SEE (Unimog) backhoe, tractor and vyed a Russian tank. Luckilly for me(I was driving), his new trailer could only hold the "Mite", as the tank would have smushed the trailer, and there may have been some uneasy questions to answer at the guard shack on the way out

[Profpinz]

Ohh, I love Mighty Mite's and that air-cooled V4 is sweet ..... (however it almost seems to be too small and cute to be an American made vehicle )

[Jim LaGuardia]

Here's a picture

[JaffaPinz]

Jim,

When you camouflage something (like the AFV) it gets LIGHTER also didn't you know that <GRIN>. I mean I KNOW the two of you could make an AFV LOOK like a small 4X4!!

And come on they are Marines!! (Coming from a former squid!) You guys could of sneaked it out!!

I mean when I was on Adak we (The USN) gave the Marines a gate to guard for their birthday!! Complete with little shack, a section of fence on either side, and a raisable gate for them to operate! Boy were they happy!! Well the Gunny said they were anyway!!

Mike "JaffaPinz" Spivey
USN 1974-1982
Desert Shield/Storm 1990-1991

[HafWit]

What Mog was he looking at? Is the SEE an SBU?

Cheers,
Greg

[David Dunn]

Peter
It is hard to beieve the US had a 'Jeep' as different as the Mighty Mite ( I'll reframe from calling it "cute" )

Jim,Im sure I would have been able to drive one of those tanks crosscountry off the base...remember every road had "TANK CROSSING" warning signs. And once across the San Diego freeway, it was only a couple hundred yards to the beach, and they were amphibious! At 8 knots, I could have made Newport Beach in 3 or 4 hours.

Greg
This SEE was 406 with a bucket and a back hoe . I had seen a few pics of similar units, but this was unique in how the back hoe folded and stowed.

Dave Dunn

[mjnims]

The mighty mites are kind of "cute" There was one that just sold on Ebay near me for 5K. Did not look as nice as the one above. The next "cute" looking one is for sale on Ebay right now. It is a British Austin Champ. My wife would not understand another truck so close to the purchase of my Daf ya 126. I tried the Christmas thing but it did not work.

Good luck with the Mite Dave, I am sure it will bring you lots of smiles.

[Mike Pop]

I love my Mighty Mite!!! I just got it about a month and a half ago. I sold my Unimog U1300L and grabbed this from Jim Molloy who runs Northwest Mogfest. I've been bugging him about it for years. The biggest comment I get is, "It's cute." But, I get noticed twice as much as I did in my Unimog and if girls think it's cute, then I think it is cute!

I happened to go out in the hills today and snapped a couple photos.

[lindenengineering]

Gents
SEE-- Small Emplacement Excavator.

Truck with a back hoe to you "darlings".
Cheers
Dennis

[krick3tt]

Looking good, Mike.

Cheers,
Morris

[Bruce Berger]

Dave,

Maybe you can answer a question for me. I've heard that the manufacturer plate on the Mighty Mite lists the manufacturer as "Hudson Special Products Division of American Motors" making it the last product the bare the Hudson name. Is this true?

Bruce Berger
'72 Pinzgauer 710M
'46 Hudson Super Six Club Coupe
'51 Hudson Super Six Hollywood Hardtop

[lindenengineering]

Bruce

Hudson now you are speaking my language!
I would be interested to see if their plate exists on that Mite.

In any case Hudson was the only US company to set up shop in the UK post WW2. The big three sneaked in by buying into existing companies like Vauxhall, Rootes etc etc.

When the Min Def was looking at engine rationalization the idea was touted around of using the Rolls Royce B series engine range to power its vehicles using the "6" for Saracen , Saladin, & Ferret and the "4" banger for Landrover etc. The contract was given to Hudson to shoehorn the "4" into a series LR for evaluation. Suffice to say it didn't work out but from that experiment the Austin Champ was borne, it was powered by the "Roller" B series as we know.

Sad the Hudson story, they made very innovative motor vehicles until AMC got hold of 'em, then after that a Roman Emporer's thumbs down!

[David Dunn]

Sorry Bruce
The VIN/dataplate has " American Motors Corporation" on it.
And all plates represented in the TM refer to American Motors.

Dave Dunn

[lindenengineering]

This is for Bruce.
Hey Bruce do you have any photies to post on this forum showing those Hudsons you have listed.
Dennis

[Bruce Berger]

I can't remember where I read that about the Mighty Mite. It could be that that the prototypes listed "Hudson Special Products Division". I had been wanting to check it out but I haven't seen a Mighty Mite in person for quite awhile. There used to be a couple I saw around town when I was in High School but I don't recall seeing one since then.

I posted a couple of pictures of my Hudsons on the Yahoo Pinzgauer gallery under the album "My Herd". My Father spent much of his free time in retirement restoring old Hudsons. At one point he had 5 of them including a '52 Hornet and a '46 Pickup. He eventually sold them off except for the '46 Club Coupe and the '51 Hollywood. He doesn't drive any longer but I take him out for a ride in them once in awhile.