Add some tank armor and a few rocket launchers and you have the best all-around assault/defense vehicle. Other than this you will need a few gas trucks following behind.

Maybe John Rambo should return with one of these in "Rambo IV".

Looks like a nice way to piss off the rest of the world. The Canadian left in particular reacts with a satisfying lack of humor to these things.

Of course, the people at Gibbs could have done something intelligent like putting the power plant and batteries from a Toyota Highlander Hybrid into the thing, or basing their SUV/boat on the Highlander Hybrid in the first place. It would have been intelligent, but maybe not as profitable.

However, someone will see the light bulb come on over his head and build a gas/electric hybrid amphibious vehicle, or even a totally electric (photovoltaic, maybe) one.

Submarines have only been running hybrid power plants for, what, eighty years or so?

Before all you "Chicken Little's" start foaming at the mouth, wanting to string up the Hummer owners, you should know that environmentally speaking, those hybrids you are all so proud of typically use a Nickel Cad type batteries. The plant in Canada that smelts and refines the nickel used to make those batteries produces so much toxic waste, that several square miles of once lush forest, down wind of the smelting plant, is completely void of plant life now. It is so barren, and so void of life, that it has been used to simulate the surface of Mars! Now say what you will about the Hummer and other gasoline powered SUV's, but when it is added up over the life of the vehicles, it cost about $1.89 per mile to operate the Hummer, where as the hybrids like the Toyota Prius cost $3.99 per mile to operate over its service life. Remember all those polymers and composites as well as the batteries usually come at a high cost environmentally due to the massive about of toxic waste the manufacturing process for those materials produces! Remember that the next time you feel the urge to tar and feather those Hummer and other BIG BAD SUV owners.

Nice one, aorian! You make it sound, with your deft skill in statistical manipulation, as if you can show up to the gas pump with your Hummer/SUV and fill up the entire tank with $10. On the other hand, I just spent $20 this last weekend to fill half the tank of a mid-sized sedan. Yeah, Hummers don't pollute very much. Right! The $1.89 you come up with, I can only guess, is in reference to the amount of time that the Hummer lasts (the craftsmanship of the vehicle). Good deal too, we need gigantic tank-like vehicles taking up twice as much space on a city highways during rush hour (and twice as much parking space in an already parking space deprived city) for twice as long. Not to mention that you've left out the statistic on fuel efficiency which we all know is extra super high on a vehicle the size of a tank. It's pleasure to know that as greenhouse gases start to surround and choke the planet that the quality of the make of such a vehicle pumping out so much co2 will be around twice as long as any smaller mid-sized vehicle. Glad that it serves it's true purpose of making it's owner feel less deficient under the hood, because how many citizens outside of the Armed Services actually NEED a tank sized vehicle (and how many city dwellers actually need a pig-sized SUV - I'll tell you how many city dwellers it irritates). Oh, and by the way, if you are going to get on the hybrid makers' ass about pollution from batteries, keep in mind that ALL cars, including Hummers and SUV, have batteries unless us Chicken Littles are misinformed about car electrical systems and the Hummer and SUVs run on dreams and unicorn songs.

aorian:

Every single aspect of car production produces pollution, not just the batteries, regardless of the vehicle or manufacturer. All battery production creates toxic waste, including lead-acid batteries like those used in the Hummer. Having said that, Ni-Cad batteries like those used in the Prius last anywhere from 8 years and up, while your typical lead-acid battery lasts only two or three years.

As for your idea of operating costs, I'd just love to see your sources for those numbers. The Hummer consumes 5x the fuel of a Hybrid to go the same distance, costs more to produce, uses more resources to produce, requires more frequent and more costly maintenance using more costly parts, and has a initial purchase price and higher insurance bill. At what point and for what reason does the per-mile operating cost reverse in favor of the Hummer?

Hey Fellas and Gals,
This is JUST a 'Curiosity'. These things won't be mass produced! The cost will be TOO HIGH and the demand TOO LOW!
This 'Hybred' - Car/SUV/Boat - has been tried several times,as early as the 50's I believe. And I know for sure in the late 60's early 70's by Alpine. Itwas a little 2 seater sports car. My uncle used to sell those.
They also tried a hybred car/plane several times. Again not very practicle.
Cut your consumption of beef,pork and chicken by 50% and you will do more for the green house gases than replacing all the vehicles in the world with hybreds.
Until we develope a 100% clean,economical, totally renuable source of energy, we are going to be fighting green house gasses!

Aorian has a point. Too much of the environmentalist approach to conservation is more about feeling good than actually accomplishing much of anything. The great vegetarian conservation approach says we stop eating meat, we'll somehow improve the planet. Okay, get rid of all those cows and chickens and stuff and will the planet be balanced. Think about it. Before we humans hit the scene with our herds of cattle, what were the great plains like? Covered with massive herds of buffalo, that's what. Herds the size of whole states used to criss cross the prairie leaving a swath of devestation behind them. Like cows, they gave off methane. If you argue for the elimination of cows now for that reason, then you, in effect, must condone the wholesale slaughter of the buffalo. Methane is methane whether it comes from the back end of a cow or a buffalo (or for that matter from an SUV or from the factory that makes the batteries for hybrids).

Sadly, all this is more about "I'm right and you're a jerk." than it is about solving the planet's problems. The best way I can think of to take care of all this is to clean up after ourselves when we make a mess and treat other people the way we want to be treated and don't mess up your home if you can help it.

All the anti-SUV rhetoric in the world isn't going to help solve global warming anyway, unless you can figure out how to turn down that pesky old sun. We have such delusions of grandeur we humans, when really, we haven't much impact at all in the cosmic scheme of things. Like Gandalf told Bilbo once, "...you're only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all."

Aorian has a point. Too much of the environmentalist approach to conservation is more about feeling good than actually accomplishing much of anything. The great vegetarian conservation approach says we stop eating meat, we'll somehow improve the planet. Okay, get rid of all those cows and chickens and stuff and will the planet be balanced. Think about it. Before we humans hit the scene with our herds of cattle, what were the great plains like? Covered with massive herds of buffalo, that's what. Herds the size of whole states used to criss cross the prairie leaving a swath of devestation behind them. Like cows, they gave off methane. If you argue for the elimination of cows now for that reason, then you, in effect, must condone the wholesale slaughter of the buffalo. Methane is methane whether it comes from the back end of a cow or a buffalo (or for that matter from an SUV or from the factory that makes the batteries for hybrids).

Sadly, all this is more about "I'm right and you're a jerk." than it is about solving the planet's problems. The best way I can think of to take care of all this is to clean up after ourselves when we make a mess and treat other people the way we want to be treated and don't mess up your home if you can help it.

All the anti-SUV rhetoric in the world isn't going to help solve global warming anyway, unless you can figure out how to turn down that pesky old sun. We have such delusions of grandeur we humans, when really, we haven't much impact at all in the cosmic scheme of things. Like Gandalf told Bilbo once, "...you're only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all."