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Demo or Counter Display Hubs For Dealers

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: This post originally highlighted Paul’s Warn hub counter display model. Now, this post will highlight several different demo or display hubs with sections removed for dealers. Anyone seen images of other examples?

1. Cutlas Selective Hub: You can see a brochure for this early Cutlas hub here.  This was on eBay (last priced around $450), but sold away from eBay. See more pics of this here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/175866727203
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2. Dualmatic 2-lever Watson-style Display Hub: This hub has a Dualmatic sticker, but is the type sold under the Watson brand (Watson-branded hubs & Dualmatic hub lever variations). This display hub was also on eBay, though I don’t remember the price. It probably sold off ebay as a package with the Cutlas hub above. See more pics here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/175866718846

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Dana Spicer Hub/Lok Hubs

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Unlike the other Hub Lok hubs made for jeeps, this Hub Lok hub model was designed for early Ford Broncos. It is listed for $149 on the Bronco Graveyard website. I can’t confirm if these are rare or not.

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Originally posted on June 8, 2023: The seller of these Hub Lok hubs for jeeps sold the hubs with the original installation and operation instructions! The manual accompanying the hubs confirms that the Hub Lok hubs were sold by Dana and/or Spicer, which is what we thought, but lacked physical evidence as proof.

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An original dash sticker? Probably not another one of these around!hub-lock-dana-spicer-hubs11

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Wood Top on Rescued Jeep

• CATEGORIES: Features, Wood bodies • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Jordi bought this CJ-2A with an interesting hardtop (the plates indicate this is a jeep outside the US) and posted pics to Facebook. To me, this top looks most like a Station Wagons, Inc, body.  The suicide doors and certain elements are extremely close (especially in the Pop Mech ad), but not exact.

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Popular Mechanics Ad from the January 1948 issue of Popular Mechanics, pg 266.  This ad appeared in the February 1948 issue as well.

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Fiberglass Jeep-looking Body for VW Chassis

• CATEGORIES: Features, VEEP (VW Jeep), Scamp, Others • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Jason posted these pics of a jeep-looking fiberglass body with some unique aspects to Facebook. The hood is lower than usual vis-a-vis the fenders, the rear fender wells have a flare modeling into it, the rear mid-section looks slightly longer, it has a step with a runner along the entire side, and the rear has a unique flare on the back. Also, it is interesting that the top edge around the back is about as thick as a Bobcat or Parkette body.

According the discussion on Facebook, “I was told by the owner there was a local guy he in nh that was big into fiberglass I guess he also built cobra body’s and he made a few of these.” I suspect there aren’t many of these around.

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Al-Toy 1-seat Jeep Seattle, WA **SOLD**

• CATEGORIES: Features, toys This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $50.

Some idiot put the wrong link in this post … fire him!

This is missing the windshield.

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Jeep CJ-5 Camper 1/43 Scale Model 109€ (Euros)

• CATEGORIES: CJ5, Features, Models This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Blaine spotted this really neat model of a Jeep CJ-5 Camper setup. It’s pretty neat model and unique model that I believe is about 3″ long. It is shipped from Mannheim, Germany. In the post below this one, there’s some history about the camper inventor.

https://www.nasshan.com/en/autocult/ac09017-jeep-cj5-universal-camper-1969-usa

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Chuck Prater’s Camper and Dump Bed Prototypes

• CATEGORIES: Camping, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Originally posted February 20, 2021:

Charles “Chuck” Prater’s (1928-1913) jeep camper has been discussed in the past, but pics of his prototypes are less well known. Chuck must have been a curious kind of guy, because when he was an employee at the circulation department of the Palm Beach Post in Florida he invented an automatic paper bagging machine.

How he got involved with jeeps isn’t well documented, but in the 1960s he developed a unique camper setup that allowed a camper to be ‘hitched’ to the back of a CJ-5. He showed off his prototype to the Palm Beach Post in July of 1968:

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July 07, 1968, Palm Beach Post, Palm Beach, Florida.

From the CJ5camper.com website we have this additional photo of the prototype, year unknown. You’ll note that the camper in the pic above seems to lack the blue color added to the pic below, so this may have been taken after the Palm Beach Post photo?:

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The Palm Beach reported a few months later on September 25, 1968, that Kaiser-Jeep agreed to manufactured Chuck’s camper idea:

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For reasons unknown at this point, Chuck waited almost two years later (August 24, 1970) to file his patent (approved August 15, 1972). The patent included several illustrations. Below is one of them.
1499078752660894799-03684048At some point after he filed his patent, Waldron Motors presented Chuck with camper #1. Curiously, the caption indicates he patented the idea, then sold it. However, the information above suggests he sold the idea, then patented it?:

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This newspaper clipping was posted to thegentlemanracer.com’s site.

Being the inventor he was, Chuck didn’t stop inventing after the development of the camper. He expanded on  his basic camper invention with a similar dump trailer idea. This article comes from the cj5camper.com site and is undated:

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I searched but could not find a patent or another other information about the dump trailer.

According to his brother-in-law Sam Williams (see his comment in this post), Chuck built another camper that fit the CJ-7, one which Sam owns.

 

 
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1954? Truck and Camper Durango, CO $5000

• CATEGORIES: Camping, Features, Unusual, Willys Trucks • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Mike shared this unusual camper. The shape of it reminds me of the late 1940s Book mobiles (or see below post). The box on this truck appears a little taller than the book mobile boxes, so this truck and the book mobiles may be unrelated.

The truck is listed as a 1954, but the grille suggests it is earlier. It’s unclear whether the camper on back is original to the truck (special order for example) or whether someone added the camper later. That said, the interior faux wood and carpet screams 60s or 70s to me. The “Jeep” radio would have also been added at a later date. Note the Warn hubs are IH branded hubs.

The jeep sports a “Rednor & Raine” Jeep sticker from Trenton, NJ, which as of 1965, was a jeep only dealer.  This also has a Princeton Theological Seminary parking permit, which is still an active institution.

https://westslope.craigslist.org/cto/d/durango-1954-jeep-willys-purpose-built/7659761315.html

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Dare County, North Carolina, Jeep Bookmobile

• CATEGORIES: Features, Fire/Police/Industry Vehicles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: This was originally posted June 18, 2020:

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April 1954, Dane County, North Carolina: https://digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/collection/p249901coll36/id/336. The jeep was painted green.

An April 15, 1948, newspaper article in the Winona Republican (Winona, Minnesota) claimed that there were roughly 377 bookmobiles traveling the United States, out of which only one was a jeep.

Two years later, by 1950, the jeep was proving more popular for use as a bookmobile, because it could access rural areas more easily than other vehicles. I doubt there are any records on how many jeeps were used as bookmobiles, but at least one appeared in multiple photos and articles: The Dare County Jeep Bookmobile.

Dare County purchased it’s first jeep in 1950, hence all the photos and news articles on this post. According to the library’s history page: “After the war, the library continued to grow. In 1950, the first bookmobile was purchased – a green Willys Jeep converted for this purpose began making regularly scheduled runs. As there were then no bridges from the mainland or to the Outer Banks, all trips involved ferries. Georgia Harwood retired in 1956, succeeded by Jean Turner Ward, who served as librarian for the next fifteen years.”

This full page article with photos was published in North Carolina’s News and Observer on April 23, 1950. It appears the new jeep bookmobile had just been put into service.

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Clipping from The News and Observer - Newspapers.com

This next article, which predates the above article by 13 days, was published in North Carolina’s News and Observer on April 23, 1950.

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North Carolina’s News and Observer on April 10, 1950.

Dare County’s digital archives provided additional photos:

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What a Difference a Dave Makes

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Two new hats showed up in the mail today. I asked family members, but they didn’t send them, so it must have been one of you guys?

My thanks to whomever sent them. Ann was sure a fan of them!  I will get some use out of them (if I can get them away from Ann).

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