The word jeep

[Barry Donovan]

I was watching freiburger rant on where the word jeep came from.

I was looking for korean war vehicles, more the road going kind, ..but it seems government pygmy, built by ford is the 1950 of choice..


Government Pygmy=GP.= jeep.

based on the original submission to the U.S. Army by the builders.

http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor...sp?armor_id=41


interesting.. the answer was indeed right there on the net.

if you ever hear "willys jeep"..
correct them by saying,
jeep came first.
willy is just a suffix.


jeep willys.

I guess the vehicle I was looking for is called an m38.. it saw actual korea service. That was made by willys, looked like a jeep...and that was not its name.


this one is pretty cool.
I was looking for 1950.
why there is ww2 stuff on front...who knows.

[oletrux4evr]

Here's a good clip Barry;

[Barry Donovan]

that is a great video.



Something I learned being in the gulf 1 generation..
the mercator syndrome.
actual size of lands on maps was not reality. Like maine is huge on a map, but it is actually smaller than spain.
That is a reason, even tractor trailers stayed small.. jeeps were outright silly in size.

the map above has france, germany and United kingdom all inside of america.

..and they called it a "world" war.

Do not doubt the new bigger consuming vehicles of today...
there is damn good reasons.

anyway, The GP nomenclature, it is ford avoiding the truth.
the kc135e I worked on.. most call them by every number than the one boeing gave it,

the 717B

they still do not speak it out today...and they invented it.

You would have to be a crew chief or one that new better.
I like the jeep wherever it came from.



There was a jeep in some distant relatives yard. I played on it when I was a kid, my dad played on it when he was a kid, and the guy that actually drove them was getting to be very old in the 1970s.

He was very serious about the jeep.
I finally went and got assigned a veteran plate number after 20 years of being a wandering zombie...
found it to be a famous hill number in north korea.

If by chance I find an m38, 1950... I'd give that plate to it.
They are not cheap in genuine good shape.

maybe I'll donate the plate..but as if my tour is not blindingly insulting to administration already.
I should just keep it. Respect myself.

when a ghostly feeling keeps going acts of god.

[Deaf Bob]

GPV= General Purpose Viechle, soldiers during WWII called them GP, thus Jeep (gee pee)
At least that was the version I read eons ago..

[Monster]

When it became obvious that the United States was eventually going to become involved in the war raging in Europe, the U.S. Army contacted 135 companies asking for working prototypes of a four-wheel-drive reconnaissance car. Only two companies responded to the request: American Bantam Car Company and Willys-Overland. The Army had set what seemed like an impossible deadline of 49 days to supply a working prototype. Willys asked for more time, but was refused. The bankrupt American Bantam Car Company had no engineering staff left on the payroll and solicited Karl Probst, a talented freelance designer from Detroit. After turning down Bantam's initial request, Probst responded to an Army request and commenced work, initially without salary, on July 17, 1940.

Probst laid out full plans for the Bantam prototype, known as the BRC or Bantam Reconnaissance Car, in just two days, working up a cost estimate the next. Bantam's bid was submitted, complete with blueprints, on July 22. While much of the vehicle could be assembled from off-the-shelf automotive parts, custom four-wheel drivetrain components were to be supplied by Spicer. The hand-built prototype was completed in Butler, Pennsylvania, and driven to Camp Holabird, Maryland, for Army testing September 21. The vehicle met all the Army's criteria except engine torque.

The Army felt that the Bantam company was too small to supply the number of vehicles it needed, so it supplied the Bantam design to Willys and Ford, who were encouraged to make their own changes and modifications. The resulting Ford "Pygmy" and Willys "Quad" prototypes looked very similar to the Bantam BRC prototype, and Spicer supplied very similar four-wheel drivetrain components to all three manufacturers.

Fifteen hundred of each of the three models (Bantam BRC-40, Ford GP, and Willys MA) were built and extensively field-tested. Delmar "Barney" Roos, Willys-Overland's chief engineer, made design changes to meet a revised weight specification (a maximum of 1,275 lbs. including oil and water). He was thus able to use the powerful but comparatively heavy Willys "Go Devil" engine, and win the initial production contract. The Willys version of the car would become the standardized Jeep design, designated the model MB and was built at their plant in Toledo, Ohio. The familiar pressed-metal Jeep grille was actually a Ford design feature and incorporated in the final design by the Army.

Since the War Department required a large number of vehicles to be manufactured in a relatively short time, Willys-Overland granted the United States Government a non-exclusive license to allow another company to manufacture vehicles using Willys' specifications. The Army chose Ford as the second supplier, building Jeeps to the Willys' design. Willys supplied Ford with a complete set of plans and specifications. American Bantam, the creators of the first Jeep, built approximately 2700 of them to the BRC-40 design, but then spent the rest of the war building heavy-duty trailers for the Army.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep

[Monster]

Jeep History: "Autobiography of a Jeep" 1943 United Films; World War II

http://youtu.be/DTKe2uyWjI4

[Loren]

Dad had told me, GP was an official designation that kinda sounded like a particular cartoon character's name, which seem a natural to apply over. More Wikipedia:


Eugene the Jeep is a character in the Popeyecomic strip. A mysterious animal with magical abilities, the Jeep first appeared in the March 16, 1936, appearance of Thimble Theatre strip (now simply Popeye).......

.......Many, including R. Lee Ermey, suggest that soldiers of World War II were so impressed with the then-new Willys MB that they informally named it after Eugene the Jeep as it was "small, able to move between dimensions and could solve seemingly impossible problems."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_the_Jeep

[silver_bullet]

That's the one I was waiting for!

[Barry Donovan]

When a company is huge, or invention so overwhelming.. the origin of words goes away as a selfless

like "iron".
jeep is there in infamy for sure. We all know what it is. Build variants.

If someone called my ten geared subaru like a jeep.. all understood. Or the suzuki samuri.

powerful word.

[Monster]

jeep is there in infamy for sure. We all know what it is. powerful word.

Yep.

[silver_bullet]

as cool as the Jeep heritage is, I am not the only one who feels that they have wandered too far from their legacy... several refer to the later models as "Heeps". I tend to agree...

[67 Malibu]

I agree but they are only one of many companies that has veered towards insignificance by "wandering too far from their legacy". A great example was Harley Davidson when they eventually ended up in the hands of AMF in 1969. Yes, AMF. Think bowling here. Generally considered to be some of the worst years in the history of HD. And right smack in the middle of my prime riding years. I owned a couple of the AMF Harley's in those days & there were plenty of jokes about them. And of course, plenty of clever come-backs too. It wasn't until 1981 when Willie G. Davidson & a group of like minded investors were able to return them to at least a partial footing of their original ownership legacy that they began to recover. But I have to think that kind of family legacy type of opportunity is the exception for most companies.

[Jover4x4]

Jeep- acronym for Just Empty Every Pocket, as with any car obsession..........

[JRoberts]

Like the quick beginning of the "Jeep" all of American industry jumped into the war effort more quickly than I think we can comprehend today. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was correct when after bombing Pearl Harbor he said they had "awakened a sleeping giant."

[SuperBuickGuy]

You know, they were so close to properly naming it - they started with "J" but forgot to add unk



if you like tow truck drivers, buy a Jeep - you'll meet lots of them.