CJ2A jeep West.Aust

[Mike Kelly]

Not a Land Rover but a Right Hand Drive CJ3A jeep.

https://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/download...b6325971_1.jpg

Notice the side step.
https://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/download...b6325940_1.jpg

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Mike,

I never knew any RHD CJ2A's were brought to Australia. I remember Jeep produced RHD vehicles in the US for the domestic market. Rural mail delivery postmen needed them to access the roadside mailboxes. Our Postie in the sixties had a RHD Wagoneer from memory.

The first vehicle I ever drove was my dad's 1946 CJ2A at about 14 years of age.
Pictured with my mom, is when it was a bit newer around 1948. I first drove it in 1964. Harvest Tan colour with factory orange wheels with pinstripes. Fancy for a Jeep!

He bought it, a demo model, from the local Jeep dealer in Reading PA around 1947. He told me they used to give demo rides over mounds of earth at the Reading Airport, Spaatz Field. I think the dealership was called Ira Freyer Jeep and they were still in business twenty years ago when I was last in Reading.

He drove Jeeps frequently during the war and loved them. Photo of him is on Goodenough Island New Guinea where he spent 3 years of WW2 in the US
Army Signal Corp.

Looking at the archive photo It has a different windscreen to my dad's. One piece instead of two. A quick search on the net makes it a CJ3A based on that. Oh! to find a RHD CJ2A or CJ3A in Australia in any case.

Cheers,

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Jacques Reed

Hi Mike,

I remember Jeep produced RHD vehicles in the US for the domestic market.

Jeep in North America was still making right hand drive Jeeps for export right into the 80s. I once ordered a new front carpet for my CJ7 after picking out a number from the old microfiche. Bonus was they sent two in the box by mistake. Downside is that they were for the right hand drive model, and did not match up to my floor.

[Mike Kelly]

Originally Posted by rob love

Jeep in North America was still making right hand drive Jeeps for export right into the 80s. I once ordered a new front carpet for my CJ7 after picking out a number from the old microfiche. Bonus was they sent two in the box by mistake. Downside is that they were for the right hand drive model, and did not match up to my floor.

Yes that would be correct , the export RHD CJ7 ..... back in 1980 my WW2 jeep was on display in the Melbourne Motor show at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. At the time, Bill Patterson motors were the official Jeep agency in Victoria and they wanted a WW2 jeep for their display at the show. Bill Patterson loaned me a new CJ7 for two weeks ... I remember it had a AMC Rambler 6 cyl. motor in it , think the jeep was a Quadra Trak model. The vehicle over heated easily ... it had a problem. The jeep stand got a 'honourable' mention' award https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/a...rson%20jeep%22

Jeeps assembled here were different to the US models in some respects , during the 1960s, Jeep had a deal with Ford Australia and Australian Jeeps had Ford Falcon engines fitted.

This article is good but is a little vague about the early days . LHD was banned in Victoria in 1948, so you could not register any LHD jeeps beyond that year. The article mentions Don White who worked at Stokoe Motors, Don told me about the Willys MA and Bantam BRC jeeps that he saw running around Melbourne when the U.S. forces first arrived at Port Melbourne, this is a first hand witness account.

https://cj3b.info/World/AustraliaHis...%20in%20Alaska.)

[Mike Kelly]

Originally Posted by Jacques Reed

Hi Mike,

I never knew any RHD CJ2A's were brought to Australia. I remember Jeep produced RHD vehicles in the US for the domestic market. Rural mail delivery postmen needed them to access the roadside mailboxes. Our Postie in the sixties had a RHD Wagoneer from memory.

The first vehicle I ever drove was my dad's 1946 CJ2A at about 14 years of age.
Pictured with my mom, is when it was a bit newer around 1948. I first drove it in 1964. Harvest Tan colour with factory orange wheels with pinstripes. Fancy for a Jeep!

He bought it, a demo model, from the local Jeep dealer in Reading PA around 1947. He told me they used to give demo rides over mounds of earth at the Reading Airport, Spaatz Field. I think the dealership was called Ira Freyer Jeep and they were still in business twenty years ago when I was last in Reading.

He drove Jeeps frequently during the war and loved them. Photo of him is on Goodenough Island New Guinea where he spent 3 years of WW2 in the US
Army Signal Corp.

Looking at the archive photo It has a different windscreen to my dad's. One piece instead of two. A quick search on the net makes it a CJ3A based on that. Oh! to find a RHD CJ2A or CJ3A in Australia in any case.

Cheers,

With all of that family history Jacques, you should be into jeeps ! It is surprising how many early CJ jeeps turn up for sale on the Australian sites.... I've seen a few CJ2As, most of them are LHD. You would find a RHD CJ3A , they do surface now and then. There is a good source of information available on the Willys Australia F/B page.

Yes the original post should read: West. Aust. CJ3A jeep. More info: https://cj3a.info/cj3a/cj2acj3a.html

[Mike Kelly]

1949 Advert from a South. Aust. dealer. I think some of these early CJ2A and 3A imports were LHD

Jeep truck was available in Australia as early as 1949.

Stokoe Motors were marketing the Station Wagon as early as 1947. Featuring "Right Hand Drive"

[rob love]

With regard to the right hand jeeps in North America for deliverys like the mail, I believe these were under the DJ model as opposed to CJs. The ones I saw were 2 wheel drive

[Jacques Reed]

Yes, they were the DJ model. My Dad was a postman and I remember when the 2WD Jeeps in right hand drive were introduced. Dad never drove them but was issued with a three-wheel scooter, the "Mailster" as they were called when the Post Office decided to mechanize his suburban mail delivery route. Prior to that he had a walking mail route of 5 miles a day he told me. After that they increased the size of the route, and he covered 7 miles a day.

Rural mail delivery postmen supplied their own vehicles as opposed to the suburban delivery route postmen who were issued vehicles. My dad was a workmate of our rural delivery postman and I seem to remember he told me he had a long wait for a "special order" right hand drive Jeep.

[David Dunlop]

Did the DJs used by Canada Post have a sliding door to make things easier on the rural routes?

David

[Mike Kelly]

Some pics from the Willys Aust. F/B. Early CJs in Australia

This looks like LHD CJ2A or 3A with a home made windscreen ? And a RHD CJ3A mocked up as a M38 (with a VMVC sticker on the W/screen).....The NSW CJ2A was for sale recently.

I forgot to post this link - looks like a RHD CJ2A

https://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/download...b6419182_2.jpg

https://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/download...b6419182_1.jpg

[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 Kelly]

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 Kelly]

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.