JEEPS on the Farm
Eighty years ago, a new kind of vehicle drove into the world. Months before the U.S. entered into World War II, military leaders had a plan to build hundreds of thousands of light trucks that could go anywhere, serve a hundred purposes, and become known simply as “jeeps.” Within 17 months, during some of the darkest moments of the war, planners in Washington, D.C., were wondering how this same “jeep” could be used to feed a post-war world.
Several books have addressed both the development of the jeep and the post-war “Universal Jeep.” This article’s focus is on the story of jeeps on the farm, beginning in 1942 and ending in 1970.
As war raged, military jeeps were tested to determine suitability for farm work
In April 1942, the Department of Agriculture conducted exploratory tests on jeeps at the National Tillage Machinery Laboratory in Auburn, Alabama. In May, a press release was issued:
“Supplied by the War Department and a motor car manufacturer, two of these tough and nimble ‘battle buggies’ were tried out by engineers … who reported they did good work in plowing, harrowing and other farm operations (row-crops excepted).”
The “motor car manufacturer” was Willys-Overland, which had been building the military jeep (and which would always take exception to the idea that the magazine, under the title “Someday There Will Be Harnesses on the Jeep.” In its January 1943 issue, also reported on the Auburn tests in an article titled “Jeeps on the Farm.”
