Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Let's Do Coffee, We'll Talk

Doc M,
Actually when I said I didn't know that much about older Jeeps, I meant that I didn't have many of the models and years committed to memory, like the most of the older military ones. But I've heard and read quite a lot about the beginings of what is now Jeep. You are quite correct about the little Bantam car company winning the design and contract and then because of the rules of the game lossing most of what they actually created. But as much as Ford got to make a good number of those early 1/4 tons, you leave out the other most important player in this tale, the Willys Corporation who made just about as many Jeeps as Ford did. And Willys had the best engine for this set-up the GO Devil. See I'm not that old Jeep stupid. I know most of my history. I have a couple of good history books on the company.

So post war Willys made and and won a grab for the rights to the basic model and just as importantly the name, because with that name everyone knew what you were selling. Jeep, it's an American Legend. And so came the CJ-2's to be sold mostly as multi-purpose agro as well as daily driver type vehicle, with PTO's for all sort of extra chores. And then the rest was history. Flat fenders lead to the CJ-5's thru 8's. There were the "forward Control" flat nosed trucks with stake and dump beds, the Full Size SJ Cherokees and Wagoneers, and even the 10's and 20's pick-up trucks like we used to own, a '83 258, Selec-trac Cherokee, our first Jeep that got us thru snowy Syracuse in Medical School.

Later would come the first unibody Jeeps in the form of the XJ's Cherokee's and Wagoneers, as well as the MJ Pick-ups. These would lead the way for my personal favorites, the ZJ and WJ Grand Cherokees. Those early XJ's really paved the way for the full frame TJ Wrangers as both the TJ's and the ZJ's can find the original design of their suspensions first worked out in the frontends of those little XJ's.

Anyway, I'm pooped, so I'm out of here. Have a great night...
Paul