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Copyright 2004 - Todd Paisley (paisley@erols.com)Last updated 21 June 2004
Fighting Jeeps May Become Post-War Agricultural Aid
Tucson Daily Citizen - June 22, 1942
TOLEDO, O., June 22 - Already dubbed the Army's "miracle car" for its amazing performances on world battlefields, the Jeep probably will get a job on the farm after the war.
Experiments conducted by the United States department of agriculture proved the car probably will prove the car probably will prove as versatile on the farm in peace as it has at the front in war.
R.B. Gray, head of the farm equipment research bureau of the department of agriculture, who supervised tests made at Auburn, Ala., announced that the Jeeps had shown themselves to be "highly useful" in plowing, harrowing and other field work.
During one of the tests conducted by gray at the department's tillage machinery laboratory, the vehicle pulled a 16-inch plow, cutting seven inches deep in bottom cotton land and made a record of 2.32 gallons of gasoline to the acre. The Jeep with its 63 horsepower engine and 4-wheel drive, pulled as much as 1300 pounds without wheel slippage, as registered by the bureau's dynamometer.
Experiments here were made by Carl S. Mundy, a practical farmer, in cooperation with Delmar G. Roos, chief engineer of Willys-Overland, where the jeeps are made. Dr. Mundy reported that he hauled a 1,700 pound wagon, loaded with 4,500 pounds of corn, for a distance of 13 miles and that counting the return trip the vehicle used only one gallon of gasoline or .02 gallons per ton mile.
Other farm chores performed by the car, according to Dr. Mundy, included the following: Cultipacking and harrowing a 24-acre field in siz hours, using only 2.125 gallons of gasoline per acre; discing a muddy field of 20 acres on 20 gallons of gasoline and hauling a 16-disc drill (three horse) over a 20-acre field on 10 gallons of fuel.