A Jeep Is Better Than A Tractor

According to ages of members souvenirs are not the same!
I use my CJ5 in the garden but no tools attached. I'll look for horse tools to cut the grass, it can exist yet.

 

That is a HYTECO lift made by Hydraulic Tool & Equipment Co. of Hollydale, California. I was sent a copy of the sales brochure just yesterday. I have this clip on DVD, but hadn't seen it online. Thanks for posting.

 

I have a brochure thats all about the jeeps use in farming and how its better than a tractor. Ill scan it and post here for you guys

 

I just found this video too... Very cool Stuff!

 

That footage was taken at the Willy Jeep Rally, held the first weekend of June in southeastern Ohio. Great event. Note that the CJ5 plowing has a Newgren lift. One of the engineering feats was that any of the "Jeep Approved" hydraulic lifts would work on any of the post-war models. The Newgren lift was only produced for a couple of years in the late 1940s.

 

Here it Is called Jeep Operation Data Brochure

 

I use a couple of pages from this as part of my display On the spread where it says "The Jeep is easy to operate" it shows a very young boy driving. Willys had a number of ads showing women operating the Jeep and promoting its ease and safe operation.

 

These photos, shot in 1968 by a Soviet spy satellite, show one of the referenced Miller's Custom Works CJ5 Jeeps pulling a hay baler at, probably, the Christensen Ranch in Likely, CA.
OK, these are really scans of an 8mm movie. Sorry about the low quality, but the amazing part is how quickly I was able to locate this movie.

 

That is great! Any chance we could see more of the movie?

 

Sure, though it may take some time. I'll get a film-to-video transfer done. I have other movies from Likely and Jess Valley ranches, one or two may have Jeep footage.

 

Sent a PM

 

I cant speak first-hand, but while driving some back roads in the Aptos, CA area a couple decades ago I happened across a very early CJ2A that had settled pretty well into the ground. It was still wearing the front weights and had a wide variety of implements scattered around it, plow, discer, and I forget what-all. The owner said his grandfather used around the orchard for years and based on the number of attachments they must have put it to good use indeed.

 

The Newgren "made for the Jeep" implements are collectible. Sad to think they have probably all disappeared by now.

 

I haven't had proper analog-to-digital transfers of my family's 8mm movies yet. I need to separate the good stuff from the bad stuff before paying to do that. But I did project a few reels on a piece of cardboard and make quick and dirty copies with my camera. I can't find the reel with two Jeeps zipping, side-by-side, up a dirt road in the Warner Mountains, with passengers passing a can of beer across the gap. Sorry for that.
This is more detail than anyone needs, but in case you are curious:
1. All these clips seem to be from 1968. Fifty years ago, baby.
2. The opening sequence is probably shot at the Christensen Ranch, in Likely, CA. But it could also be the Flourney Ranch (Likely Land and Cattle Co.), in nearby Jess Valley. The latter ranch is now run by the sons of the man who was in charge back in the day.
3. Susanville-based Miller's Custom Works owned this fleet of CJ5s and matching hay balers. Can anyone tell the year of the Jeeps?
4. Note the weights on the front bumpers. At least one Jeep seems to have a water tank (or an old fuel tank?) sitting in a frame attached to the bumper.
5. The goofball hand-pumping gas from the back of a Dodge truck is my dad. He was not usually like that.
6. In the next sequence, my mom is driving the Jeep. My little brother is in the passenger seat, then my big brother jumps in. I'm the clown in the middle. (Unrelated, but: My big brother, always big and strong for his age, went on to be the California and U.S. high school champion in the shot put.) At the end of the sequence, Mom and my brother seem to be pretending they don't know how to fix the baler (?)
7. In the Jeep-and-baler cleaning sequence, my dad is the guy in the white T-shirt. The hay crew was a mixture of veterans and college students. The blond guy is one of those of the students. I remember that one guy went to Cal, and the other went to Stanford. Note the tow bars on the Jeeps. The Jeeps seem to be set up for maximum flexibility. Also, those fields look dry, but there were hidden boggy section. I remember being in a Jeep with my dad and little brother when we the baler sunk in a bog. Another Jeep helped pull us out via the tow bar.

 

Hmmm can't see the video.

 

Thanks. Try now.

 

I know! That baler would make me nervous now -- I'd be afraid off being wrapped in alfalfa and wire and shot out the back Wile E. Coyote style.

 

With my beater CJ7, just yesterday, I was raking hay a 1/4 mile from the house, and smoke started billowing. The hood latch was jammed, so I made the 1/4 mile run to the the garden hose. With hose to douse the hay wad and a hunting knife to slice 6-8" of top-quality hay "rope", I was able to get to the remaining embers on the center cross-member/skid plate. A few anxious moments, but all is well. Smoldering hay smoke is nasty--cough, cough---1st time that's happened and once is enough!

CJ and rake is pictured in post #13

 

Yow!