I’ve decided to create a new category that tracks the early jeeps located in museums.
Bill Maloney has shot a variety of early jeeps, among other vehicles, that appear in eastern US Museums. Below are some of the images he has taken at the Militia Museum of New Jersey, in Sea Girt, NJ. One of the more unique vehicles is the Prototype Extra Light Air Drop (see other lightweight jeeps here). Bill doesn’t provide any info about this particular light weight jeep, however Mark Askew, in his book RARE WW2 JEEP, identifies the vehicle below as a later version of a light weight jeep made my chevrolet. There is an earlier version of this vehicle that had, at the very least, a slightly different grill and different lights.
Click here to see all of Bill’s 4×4 pics.
Here’s an extended MB Transport Willys (Ok, I don’t really know what the official name for this is). I assumed these were built special for the Coast Guard?
This is a pilot version of the CJ-2A. Note the location of the spare tire.
Here is an example of Bantam’s BRC-40.
This is a pic of the Austin Champ:
Wow, That is some original and rare stuff.
I like the wheel and tire combo on the long beach jeep and the ag tires on the 2A pilot.
Thanks
Thanks for that bit of history. I enjoy learning about the different vehicles that brought us to where we are today. The Chevy looks more like an airport tug, being a single seater. Is it 2wd? I just saw photos on the internet recently of the extended MB. I wish I could remember where I saw it and what it was called. Does the museum have an original specimen of the good ol’ Bantam, that started it all? **Steve E.**
I’ll have to double check, but I thought the original prototype Bantam was lost to history. However, one was recently reconstructed based on drawings.
http://www.ewillys.com/?p=19344
Interesting about the Chevrolet Extra Light. A number of years ago a lady advertised an “airborne jeep” in the local paper. She said her late husband was an exc at General Motors and they had retired to the lakes area around Austin, Tx many years ago. He had brought with him a prototype of a jeep GM had built around WWII. The jeep had an Indian motorcycle engine and the fenders were plywood ? (not steel).
I told that military motorcycle enthusiast (David Sarafan ?) about it but don’t know if he was interested and contacted the lady. Sounded really interesting to me.
Wonder if that was another CEL prototype.
Kees
Kees,
I agree, that does sound interesting …
– Dave