America's Most Iconic Delivery System - Grumman LLV

buh fairchild republic makes the A10 learn how to google! buh 2 second google search results: “In 1987, the A-10 OEM Team and all A-10 assets were acquired by Grumman Corporation from Fairchild Republic Company”

As a "retired" rural carrier, I can say this is one of the vehicles of all time. You could drive this thing into a crowd, and the crowd would get impatient.

I am here for unhinged Chubby Electron Man.

My Dad is a mailman (close to retirement thank god). I played this for him and he just sat here laughing and saying “yep!” 😂 And at the end when you thank mailmen, he yelled out “You’re welcome! Hooah!” and flexed his muscles and started laughing more. He’s been a carrier for about 40 years now and he’s really been through it with that job. They really don’t get paid enough.

Fun fact: the USPS still operates a route in the Grand Canyon that is delivered via donkey/mules.

If you wonder how serious the mail police could actually be back in the day, they recieved the Tommy gun before the Marines.

I'm a postal carrier, and I think you're giving the truck a little more shit then it deserves. The LLV was only designed to run for 20 or so years, and its been 40. What we drive now are 75% duct tape and wishes. So these things are 20 years past their expiration and are still running every damn day non stop. I just think it deserves some credit for that.

This dude educates more people more efficiently than the public school system.

I’m law enforcement and have worked side-by-side with the US Postal Inspectors serving warrants after people were caught on camera stealing packages and mail from a USPS semi trailer. They lived in my area and the USPI’s needed additional units. We served the warrant, knocked down the bay door and found 2,000+ pieces of mail and packages. They were some badass guys and gals! Rolled up with a Bearkat, rifles and ballistic shields. Stuff was tight and fun to do! Fun fact, Texas is deregulated and we can typically choose between 3-10 different power companies. They usually all purchase from the same provider, but you have different options. At least the illusion of choice.

My dad is a former U.S. army ranger. He is now a mailman. He put it best when he said "Son don't mess with mail men. Because it might just be a soldier who doesn't want to lose a pension."

USPS Supervisor here. The last LLV was made in 1987! Every vehicle you see is now almost 40 years old.

I feel like congress should be required to watch 100% of these videos.

I'd like to see a video taking a deeper dive into the history of the USPS Postal Inspectors. When my elderly father was defrauded years ago, the first fraud investigator to look into it was a retired Postal Inspector who still consulted on fraud cases. He took the info I provided and within a few weeks my dad was meeting with fraud investigators from the Postal Inspectors and the FBI. They recorded calls, obtained financial records, etc.. They were very serious about shutting down the operation because it involved elder fraud, mail fraud, various financial crimes, cyber crimes, and possibly racketeering. Its roots go back to 1772, making it by far our oldest branch of law enforcement.

A side note, the LLV is also the cheapest vehicle to maintain out of everything they have ever created!😊

Knowing the Postal Service has their own armed security forces, the phrase "going postal" makes a lot more sense.

The shop I used to work at had a contract with the USPS to service and tow LLVs when they broke down. I worked on a minimum of 4 a week, every week. They break down all the time, and unless it was a motor/transmission, we could usually get them back out the door in under an hour. So easy to work on.

As a current mailman this video had me cracking up at the office. I've tried to explain a lot of these issues to my coworkers and now I can just reference your video! Thank you for putting this out.

I just talked with my local mail carrier about this and it is officially now and forever called The Mailcat around here. May we all do our part to fix this heinous name crime.

All this really tells me is that all of our mail carriers deserve call signs and to have their names stenciled above the doors of the Mialcats.

Hi, I am a rural carrier. I love the LLVs they’re so iconic. They’re so roomy too. Problem is basically everything you just said haha. It’s a rolling metal box with basically zero safety. No heat, no air… it’s hot.. and bitter cold..You get dusty lukewarm air 😂 and if you get into an accident VS a bigger vehicle (semi) you’re toast. But man can it deliver some freaking mail.. and it will drive until the wheels fall off and more. They don’t let us go on the highway really. Our scanners block out the highway. Going above 55 mph causes the LLV to rattle so hard it sounds like a huge earthquake and tornado at the same time. You can’t even hear the traffic around you. That’s really bad as the blind spot is HUGE. it’s like driving a semi truck. That’s how big the blind spot is. They trained us on an obstacle course for a full day in order to drive the LLVs and do an pretty extensive driving test. You have to be able to maneuver the LLV like it’s an extension of your own body, which I can do now. They turn like a dream. You can turn so sharply it’s amazing! Man was it a long day learning to drive the LLV the safe and effective way. Bonus info: the post office does not allow you to back up unless you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO. Like I said before the blind spot is huge behind the LLV and there are multiple other blind spots all around the vehicle that you must always be aware of! Lately I’ve been driving another mail vehicle that the post office has adopted. It’s a Mercedes Metris. These are pretty fancy compared to the LLV. AC, heat, radio, backup cams.. but they suck butt in the snow. You’ll get stuck on literally nothing!!! It’s so silly. The LLV is way better in the snow (but not that good). Problem with the metris is they’re supposed to have premium fuel but USPS doesn’t wanna pay for that so that make us put regular which is slowly killing the engine 😅 they also don’t really “train” you to drive the metris. They sat me in it, said “here is the metris.. don’t open the door when moving it will throw itself into park and destroy the transmission.. anyways…” and then we moved on lmao. Long live the LLV. I wanna buy one when they retire and camp in it or something.