CJ2A jeep West.Aust

[Jacques Reed]

Good Day,

i found another family archive photo which may be of interest and actually has military connections.

The photo is of our family camping at Indian River Delaware about 1954.
The interesting part is the trailer is a Ben Hur WW2 trailer.

Dad bought it new as best I remember from a surplus outlet. I think it was all wood construction as by the time dad sold it in 1973 it was very rotted. Later war ones were all steel construction I believe.

They were not designed to be towed behind Jeeps military or otherwise, but dad fitted a pintle hook to the back of the jeep shown in the background and it worked. Carried all the camping gear for our annual vacations at the seashore for a few years.

He did some outright dangerous things by todays standard such as carting a ton of anthracite coal in it 40 miles from the coal region of PA to our home for the coal fired home heating system. he only did it once, however, until mom put her foot down and demanded we get it from a local supplier. Winding, steep, roads in a Jeep with a ton of coal behind him was a recipe for a disaster.

Hope this is of some interest.

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Jacques Reed

Good Day,

i found another family archive photo which may be of interest and actually has military connections.

The photo is of our family camping at Indian River Delaware about 1954.
The interesting part is the trailer is a Ben Hur WW2 trailer.

Dad bought it new as best I remember from a surplus outlet. I think it was all wood construction as by the time dad sold it in 1973 it was very rotted. Later war ones were all steel construction I believe.

They were not designed to be towed behind Jeeps military or otherwise, but dad fitted a pintle hook to the back of the jeep shown in the background and it worked. Carried all the camping gear for our annual vacations at the seashore for a few years.

He did some outright dangerous things by todays standard such as carting a ton of anthracite coal in it 40 miles from the coal region of PA to our home for the coal fired home heating system. he only did it once, however, until mom put her foot down and demanded we get it from a local supplier. Winding, steep, roads in a Jeep with a ton of coal behind him was a recipe for a disaster.

Hope this is of some interest.

The trailer in your pic looks bigger/higher than the jeep is.

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Mike,

It sure was! The Ben Hur type trailer was meant to be towed behind larger GMC's and Dodge WC's from what I read. I wonder if any were left behind in Australia after WW2?

You couldn't get away with it today, and even then, I think Dad took a big chance towing it. Having said that, 6 vacations to the seashore 140 miles from home with no incident someone up there must have been looking after us.

Dad had the optional Jeep rear seat that clipped into the rear bed of the Jeep too. Thats where my brother and I sat. Photo from Life magazine archives.

Cheers

[Mike K]

My informant in San Francisco recently mentioned, the RHD mail jeeps are still in service in his suburb at least. He wrote, they used to sell off the clapped out examples but that doesn't happen any more.

Reading this: It looks like the L134 'Go Devil' side valve engine was fitted in the The DJ-3A Dispatcher up to 1965 . So where were they sourcing the engines from ? Were these side valve engines made new up to 1965 ? If so, the engine had a 26 year life span of production in the USA.

https://cj3b.info/Siblings/Dispatcher.html

More reading

https://www.just4x4s.com.au/news-and...-3a-gala/14040

Article re: the L134 'Go Devil' engine. Didn't know it was also license made in Japan and Argentina. Would this have been for the Japanese jeep copies and the Argentine built jeep type vehicles ? The author of this article may be confusing the side valve L134 with the F head 134 ... needs some more research. Some of these motoring journalists do not do good research , they are not always 100% correct , the information should be taken as a 'maybe'

https://www.motortrend.com/features/...-encyclopedia/

Those Ben Hur trailers are scarce in this part of the world, not seen one myself but there I believe there are a one or two up North.