When did Jeep first go intoaction in WWII

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

Unless I am mistaken, the first Jeeps to see action would have been some of the preproduction vehicles. 1500 of these were supplied from each of Willys, Ford and Bantam, all copies of the original Bantam but with each company's own improvements and delivered by May 1941. At least some of these were supplied to the UK under lend-lease in mid 1941 and went into service in North Africa.

John

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John

I think you will find that the 1500 from Willys were the MA model,
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...11/06/1452.jpg

the Ford ones likely the GP (without the W) as they made about 4.5K of that model
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...11/06/1453.jpg

and the Bantam the BRC-40
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...11/06/1454.jpg


The Toyoda made AK10 has more of a resemblance to the original 1940 Bantam prototype, and given that the plans were distributed to the US Army and both Ford and Willys-Overland could easily have been stolen.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...11/06/1455.jpg

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Originally Posted by antichrist

Bit of trivia...
Japan's first 4WD "car" (the AK10) in WWII was patterned after a Bantam captured, I believe, in the Philippines. They intentionally made it not look anything like the Bantam though.
It later went on to become the Land Cruiser.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...11/06/1451.jpg

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The front suspension on that has me intrigued.

What does every one reckon, 1/4 elliptics ?

transverse leaf ?

or solid, centre pivot like a tractor ?

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Originally Posted by rick130

The front suspension on that has me intrigued.

What does every one reckon, 1/4 elliptics ?

transverse leaf ?

or solid, centre pivot like a tractor ?

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I'll go for twin 1/4 elliptics each side like the WW2 Russian GAZ 67 4wd field car.The non floating hubs aside from being 6 stud look very GAZ like, although the banjo type diff is very different.
Can't see any steering linkage but the angle of the steering column suggests that it would have a short longditudal push/pull steering drag link, hence my reason for thinking twin 1/4s
Wagoo.

The Willys MA, there is one restored example in Aust :) I beleive it was at Corowa this year.:)

The Willys MA, there is one restored example in Aust :) I believe it was at Corowa this year.:)

Quiz:

Can anybody tell me the correct name for the front spring layout ?

Rick,

I can clearly see lower links on the knuckle, a single upper link, and a coilover in the right hand guard.

Its simply a three link with some sweet Bilstein coilovers.

;)

Steve

I'm surprised no ones linked to Wiki yet [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willys_MB"]Willys MB - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svg" class="image"><img alt="Question book-new.svg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png"@@AMEPARAM@@en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png[/ame]

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Originally Posted by UncleHo

Quiz:

Can anybody tell me the correct name for the front spring layout ?

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Would 'Harsh and Unyeilding' be the correct name(s) for the front spring layout? If correct, What did I win?:)
Wagoo.

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Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

John

I think you will find that the 1500 from Willys were the MA model,
the Ford ones likely the GP (without the W) as they made about 4.5K of that model
and the Bantam the BRC-40

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Yes - my information is mostly from "The Story of Jeep" P.R.Foster, 1998, ISBN 0-87341-564-7

The W in the GPW stands for Willys - as the engine was Willys design, much to Ford's disgust. And this engine was why the Willys preproduction was basically the vehicle chosen for mass production, as it was markedly more powerful than the other two although this resulted in a much heavier vehicle than the original specification, and heavier than the other two (all were overweight - spec called for 1300lbs, but this was relaxed to 2160lbs, easily met by Bantam and Ford, but Willys struggled to get that low from 2450lbs for their "Quad", the MA's predecessor)

John

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...11/06/1437.jpg

the GAZ 67 what an odd front spring arrangement