That "Jeep" Sound

[FrankenJeep]

Ah....................there's something addictive to listening to a Willys "sing" in that certain way that no other vehicle can: if it hasn't been tampered with, there's that unmistakable "zuuuuuuuu-zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu" Jeep sound that just gets under a jeeper's skin! I've had this disease from high school onwards. Couldn't always HAVE a Jeep, but there was always one in the back of my mind. The satisfaction of puttin' it in 4W/Low range and listening to the jeep growling slowly back with a car in a ditch, effecting a rescue. Retrieving tourists' cars from sand traps at the beach.

So why do they get hold of us so? After all, they can be cantankerous, stubborn, finicky, EXPENSIVE.................but oh-so-F U N! All so we can hit the road on a warm, sunny day to cruise, to find a little unexplored trail or pipeline right of way and hear that unmistakable....................

"zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"!

Know what I mean, Vern?
FJ

[oilleaker1]

Started with WW2 movies and Rat Patrol. I bought my first Willys at 13. Took 2 years of working and saving to get it. Had to drive it in a field accross from my Dad's house until I got my permit at 14. The fan noise and the T-90 whine, and the smell of gear lube are always with me. I can safely say that I've done just about everything you could possibly do in a Jeep. Many, many fond memories. Driving it to football practice with no windshield at 40 degrees, shoveling out the seats, scraping both sides of the windshield, blown headgasket, clutch, cracked frame, torn out tranny, bald tires, stuck in all conditions and terrain, #@$%@, you got me going. I could write a book. Thanks, John

[RICKG]

We had a beat-up 2-A on the farm when i was a kid. It was the
"tool jeep", pulled the welding trailer and so on. I'd sneak out at nite
back to the equip lot, fire her up and hit the dirt roads. Dad got wise
and started pulling the rotor from the dist when he parked it after
it's days work was done. Not to be denied, i bought a rotor at the
parts store-you could always find me walking around with a rotor
in my jeans pocket..I know dad's smiling down at me now..

[FrankenJeep]

Started with WW2 movies and Rat Patrol. I bought my first Willys at 13. Took 2 years of working and saving to get it. Had to drive it in a field accross from my Dad's house until I got my permit at 14. The fan noise and the T-90 whine, and the smell of gear lube are always with me. I can safely say that I've done just about everything you could possibly do in a Jeep. Many, many fond memories. Driving it to football practice with no windshield at 40 degrees, shoveling out the seats, scraping both sides of the windshield, blown headgasket, clutch, cracked frame, torn out tranny, bald tires, stuck in all conditions and terrain, #@$%@, you got me going. I could write a book. Thanks, John

I sorta "fell" into the jeep hobby by delivering groceries and running errands for a storekeeper after school. He had a '46 CJ with a metal top.
Summertime was time to remove the doors and cruise from farm to farm to deliver stuff to the farm wives. I didn't make much money: heck, I'd have done it FREE just to drive. While Elisha was license-less, I got to keep the Jeep at home.

One Saturday, I decided I would clean up the yard of sticks and debris and trim up the hedges----which "necessitated" using the Jeep to haul the stuff off. Any thing to drive the Jeep! Our yard was large and had a field of broom sage behind, so I figured I would just dump the stuff out in the field. I made several trips , backing the jeep thru the field and using a pitch fork to rake the stuff out of the back. The last trip, I backed further than usual not knowing there was a deep ditch back there: it was concealed by the straw! Suddenly, WHAM!!!! And it felt like I was going over backwards on my head!!!! OH MY GOSH!! I got out to see what kind of fix I was in. The Jeep had fallen into a drainage ditch and the frame was solidly grounded on the transmission skid plate. The front end was looking skyward. I didn't want my Dad nor Mr Sellers, the owner, to know I had "stuck" the jeep, so I went and got some old planks and sneaked a jack out of the garage. I carefully jacked the jeep up and put planks and bricks under all 4 wheels, hoping that such would lift the vehicle high enough for the tires to grip. When I tried to drive out, putting the jeep in 4W Lo, it just kicked the planks out from under the wheels. I got more boards, tried it again with the same result: kicking the boards out from under, the wheels spinning uselessly. After 4 tries, I was MAD, and I went and made me some wedges by hacking one end of some sticks with a hatchet, down to a point. Then I took these stakes, or wedges, and drove them down behind each stack of boards so they could not kick out from under, and added more planks to each stack. I'd never hear the end of it if we had to get a neighbor's tractor to pull me out!

"ZUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!! ZUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" With the jeep REALLY "singing", and the wheels spinning, suddenly it lurched forward and I was UP and OUT of the ditch!!! WHEW! What a relief!!!!

It was one of the things I never told Pop about. Don't know why! I just knew at the time that I didn't want to give up that Jeep. When 'Lisha got ready to sell it, I was very sad. He offered it to me for $300!!!!!!!! In 1965, that was a fortune to a 17 year old kid! And Dad simply did not believe a kid needed a car, and he wouldn't loan me the money or sign for me to work it off. No amount of begging would change his mind!
Well, I HAVE my Jeep now, daggone it! This one is an M38, kinda similar to that yellow CJ2A. It "sings", and I smile. Recently KaiserWillys' parts catalogue featured a yellow 2A and, BOY, did that ever take me back!

FJ

[oilleaker1]

Trying to buy one from a family is like stealing one of their own. They are considered family airlooms. They literally have to die and the inheriters don't want anything to do with it before it is for sale. That's after they pushed it out of the barn/garage and let it rot for a while. Everyone that ever said "call me when you want to sell her" is forgotton. I usually can't say no when another shows up. Jeep Disease. John

[Phil4280]

Yerr its funny how we can fall in love with a sound of an engine or how a wine of a gear box or that certain exhaust note evokes memories.

One sound I just love is the note of a radial engine. Judge for yourself...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjcf5XybSvA

Its my M3 Stuart Hybrid tank going for a short run.

Phil...

[wilfreeman]

Kind of like Zuuuu - Zu - Zuuuuuuuuu - Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. You gotta rev it a little between 1st and 2nd when clutching - just to hear it if nothing else! It just sounds right!

[FrankenJeep]

Wasn't it Ernie Pyle that drew that famous cartoon of of the GI who was about to put his Jeep out of its misery by shooting it? Jeeps evoke strong emotions, and that cartoon really shows how we feel about our Jeeps!
Whatever it is, silly as it may be, I will always have a fondness for Jeeps, their funny ways, their stubborn nature, sometimes cantankerous doings and of course that sound that says, 'JEEP'!

[RICKG]

Wasn't it Ernie Pyle that drew that famous cartoon of of the GI who was about to put his Jeep out of its misery by shooting it?

Bill Mauldin for Stars And Stripes (Willie and Joe)

[jimm]

I missed this thread earlier.
Yup, I have to agree - the old Jeep sound is a major attraction for me. I liked it when I was a kid watching war movies and M*A*S*H, and I still do!

If you want a dose of that Jeep sound and don't have yours running, check out this video of the 9th Infantry Division, 39th Regiment, Easy Company reenactors: http://www.easy39th.com/goingtothefront.php for a ride in an MB.

[FrankenJeep]

"ZUUUU-ZUUUUUUUUUUU-ZUUUUUUUU!" My M38 is down right now, but that video just makes me want to hear it run again, sooner than later!

FJ