I don’t know the full story here, but I suspect Jim didn’t have a good morning.

Jim writes, “Reason number 13 why you do not let your lazy good for nothing 250 pound coffee drinking buddy lean against your willys on jack stands in the gravel at 8am in the morning!”

Brian took a break from his CJ-3B and ran over to the Mounds ORV Park with his niece and nephew. In the pic they are showing off their ‘guns’ and their dirty jeep.

Brian writes, “Mathew came out from Seattle and was instrumental in helping me replace a blown 300 transfer case to get it ready to play.

We got to the Mounds ORV park around 11:00 am. located just north of Flint Michigan.  This was my first time in the park. I am not really a big fan of mud and water and was happy that it hadn’t rained for a week or two. The park was surprisingly empty, given it was a Friday.  There were only 3 vehicles in the park and about 15 motorcycles. We stayed in the park for 5-6 hours and played. It was great fun for the kids.

There were plenty of places to explore in the mud and, yes, I did get stuck 2 times in mud holes, using my winch to free myself. I quickly became friends with Ron and his family, while my winch line got to meet his late model Wrangler with open rear ends. I quickly discovered this really was not a place to be by yourself without lockers and a winch.

I found four ways to play: 1) Abundant standard mud hole’s, 2) A five acre treed area with winding tight trials called “Pines”, 3) A water hole in the scramble area 1 and, 4) a man-made rock crawl area.

Scramble area 1 is sand,  something like Kitty litter, so I tested the water by running the sides then ran the short way through the middle. Not thinking it was deep and only 50 feet long at the most, I decided to hit it the long way. At the 3/4 point my left tire dropped in a hole and the top of the fender disappeared.  My Niece McKenna, sitting in the front seat, said “there is water coming in”. Looking down it was only four inches of water; Looking up we had slowed to a crawl, wet, and laughingly chewing our way through the mud hole, sounding like an old Chris Craft.

Keeping my foot in it,  Mathew, who was sitting  in the back ,was thinking he was not going to get wet. However, to his surprise, the last five feet ascended out of the hole quite sharply, throwing the water to the back of the jeep and soaking Mathew’s butt. I don’t know how it got in the jeep but there was an inch of sand/kitty litter in the jeep. That hole was a lot of Fun!

The man-made rock crawls were about  300 yards that my 33’s navigated quite well. Mathew, being a newer licensed driver, was chomping at the bit, so I let him do some rock crawling and tight pines driving. He did quite good in both areas and shows a lot of potential as a Jeep driver. I was quite proud he learned to keep his foot off the gas. Below is a link to his claim to fame.”

I know I started driving on dad’s lap when I was young, but John might just be the youngest jeep driver I’ve ever met.  Thanks for sharing John.  Here’s his story.

John writes, “Hi Dave, this is my story. At the age of 2years 10 months, I was put behind the steering wheel of a 1946 CJ2a (this was in 1955). My Dad had me with him one sunny fall day sowing wheat in the north 40. It was the field with a 1/2 mile lane to it. In the back of the willys were wheat seed bags.

As Dad would run out of wheat in the grain drill, he would walk back & bring the Willys to the drill fill it up and continue on. I got to nap on the seed bags, laying in the sun.  As I napped, Dad could watch me as he would make his rounds with the drill.

As Dad finished up the field we were on the opposite end from the gate out of the field. So, here comes my first Willys drive. Dad stood me up on the seat, put it in low range, pointed the jeep to the gate, and away I went. He drove along side me till we got to the gate, where he stopped me, and said “move over I’ll get you through the gate!”

He said I made a fuss about moving over, but, after he got the Willys through the gate, he turned me loose again for the 1/2 mile drive up the lane. Dad said I would lay on the steering wheel and let it roll me around.

My love of Willys Jeeps are deep rooted, and this story is special as it was told to me by Dad only a month before he passed away. Mom said if she had known this back then, I’d would never had gotten to go out with Dad again.

John Waddle
The Waddle Family Farms Fayette Co. Ohio, Concord Twsp. est. 1853.

(We still have the 41 Ford Ferguson 9n, but the Willys has long been sold & Dad passed away in 1997, cancer got him at the age of 71.)

UPDATE: As I wrote to Dan, I spaced and forgot to add links to the rebuild of Dan’s Grandfather’s jeep. We’ve been following the rebuild here and here.  Too much playing with my kids, fixing my mom’s computer, pulling stumps out for dad and the dave-do list is growing …  I think you get the picture.

Dan shared this story with us hoping to encourage other readers to share those oddball stories involving jeeps.  That made me realize I still have a few to share, so I’ll write up a couple and share them as well.  Thanks for sharing Dan!

“One day my grandfather decided to transport his two horses in a single axle trailer behind his Jeep. While going down the road he noticed that something was wrong. The engine rpm was increasing, but he was slowing down.

After pulling onto the side of the road and looking things over, he noticed that the horses had moved as far back in the trailer as possible and that was lifting the rear tires off the ground.

He thought about it a moment and, deciding he was already half way there, he put the jeep in 4wd and finished off the trip.

When he was done he swore he would never do that again.”

If you have a story to share, please send it to me (d@ewillys.com)  and I’ll likely post it.