Author: Barry

Our friend John Ittel lost his battle with cancer. We don’t want to dwell on that sad fact. We would rather talk about all that John has done for us and for the hundreds of people who have been touched by his generosity.

John loved to talk about Jeeps, but not about himself. So we were happy when he agreed to share his story with us. You can read it here and we hope you will do so. John also loved to introduce people to all the things that Jeeps could do. Thousands of people have seen the working Jeeps demonstration held on John’s family farm, as part of the Willys Jeep Rally each spring. Barry wrote an article for the Farm Collector magazine about the demonstration. John didn’t really think he needed to have his name appear so many times. He wanted to make sure that his friends from the Willys Jeep Rally got equal billing. We knew how his friends at the Rally felt – they were thrilled to see him get the credit he deserved. The article is here.

The first time we met John in person was at a Spring Willys Reunion near Cleveland. We were admiring the Newgren “Farm Tested” decals on his lift. We asked John where we might find them and he said “I’m not sure. I had those made and I have some spares. Give me your address and I’ll send them to you.” He wouldn’t accept any form of payment, “Except maybe an ice cream sundae at some future date.” That ice cream sundae never happened and we suspect that we owed him at least a dozen.

A few years later John, another visitor at the demo, and we were discussing some Jeep part the visitor was missing. John said “I think I have a spare in the machine shed. Let me see if I can find it.” and headed off on his golf cart. He returned a few minutes later, dejected because he couldn’t find the part. The visitor, said he understood and would keep looking. John said “I just can’t find it now, I’m sure it is there. Give me your address and I’ll send it to you.” We are sure he did. We have heard dozens of testimonials over the years of similar acts. John was always generous with his time and was a gentleman in very sense of the word.

Barry was lucky enough to get to visit with John in late August. While it was necessarily a short visit, and they were following strict pandemic guidelines, Barry managed to get a tour of the farm and to visit some of John’s favorite spots in Hueston Woods. Before he left John said he wanted our help researching a brochure covering a late 1940s Jeep event that happened in southern Ohio. John and Barry talked about doing an article and that when John’s treatments and the pandemic were over, they would do a research road trip.

We plan on doing that research road trip when we get through this pandemic. John won’t be at our side, but he will be in our hearts.

Barry & Evan

And they are still in business.

The following note was received @farmjeep.com a few days ago with the subject Stratton Equipment –

“Stratton would sub their work out to a small fabricating shop on Cleveland’s Westside. It was Sedalack Machine then bought out and called E & K Products. I know this because E&K is the family business. My Grandfather, Dad and now my Brother Dave and Uncle Lee run the business today. I remember helping build the implement lifts, paint them red, apply the Jeep Approved equipment decal and then help crate and ship them… I was young but if I remember correctly E & K got the rights for the implement lift when Stratton left the business… Let me know if there is anything I can do to help or if there would be interest in possibly resurrecting some of those Stratton parts. Ernie Klimek III”

Stunned, I read the note twice. Was it really possible that we could finally answer all the questions about the last “Jeep Approved” hydraulic lift? Was it really possible that Stratton lift owners could buy OEM(!) replacement parts? So many questions.

First, I want to thank Ernie and his local Jeep dealer

I immediately responded that we were indeed interested, but I had to know first why Ernie had sent the note. Ernie replied that he had been in his Jeep dealer’s waiting room while having his wife’s vehicle serviced. On the wall were several pictures of vintage Jeeps, including one with a caption stating the “Jeeps were used on the farm.” He said to himself “Yes they were and I helped build the Stratton lift.”

Ernie went home and did a search on farm Jeeps and Stratton. He found our site and our incomplete Stratton history. Evan and I will forever be grateful to Ernie for taking the time to write us. It has ended 5 years of frustration. We knew that there had to be someone out there with knowledge about the Stratton Lift.

What happens now?

Ernie, who now lives near Seattle, has been in touch with his brother and they are looking for documents, including blueprints related to the lift. E&K Products made other products for Stratton, so there is a lot of material to review. E&K is a busy place these days, so it may take a while to determine what components they might be able to produce.

Ernie and I are working on an article that will cover the history of his family’s business and the making of the Stratton Lift. Evan and I will be rewriting our version of the Stratton lift history.

We will also post updates on what and when E&K may be able to produce replacement parts. We just couldn’t wait to share the news.

Barry@farmjeep.com

After years of ignoring an oil leak, we finally fix it.

https://www.farmjeep.com/ole-blue-gets-a-much-needed-oil-leak-fix/

Dave @ eWillys has just published this historic document. It should be required reading for anyone interested in Farm Jeep history. It clearly spells out Willys’ post-war marketing campaign and even hints that a Jeep might be for fun. Be sure to read historian Keith Buckley’s comments.

1944 ‘Jeep’ Planning Brochure

In June, 2018, Barry posted a note at earlycj5,com, a “discussion board for ECJ5 enthusiasts”, asking for farming stories. One of the members, Dan Montgomery, responded that he had home movies of a large custom baling operation using CJ5s in Northeastern California from the late 1960s. Dan’s CJ5 story has since been published in The Dispatcher Spring 2020 magazine. We asked Dan to post a version of the story, along with video and stills from the home movies here.

The story and accompanying movie are important because they happened two decades after the introduction of the CJ2a and the beginning of the Farm Jeep era. Following the introduction of the CJ5 in 1954, Willys reduced the amount of farm related advertising, A few examples appeared in the late 1950s and little if any farming ads have been found from the 1960s. As a result, we have done little to showcase the CJ5 and the second decade of the Farm Jeep.

In July, 2020 our friend Dave @ eWillys posted Four CJ-5 Oriented Questions that made us realize that we have neglected this important member of the Farm Jeep family. So in the coming months, and beginning with Dan’s story, we plan to bring together more CJ5 stories, and links to CJ5 information. We will need your help and look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions.

For now, set back and enjoy a great CJ5 Farm Jeep story.

https://www.farmjeep.com/robert-millers-hayfield-hero-jeeps/

While you are celebrating an earlier American Revolution we think you will enjoy the story of another revolution. This one involves farming and the introduction of a new kind of vehicle, the Willys Jeep. When equipped with a Monroe Hydraulic Lift and Newgren “Farm Tested” implements, the Jeep changes the way the residents of Pleasantville view the future of farming.

The movie, developed as part of an ad campaign to promote the then new Monroe lift, is an “infomercial” in every sense of the word. You will learn how the equipment works and even how to plow a field with the Jeep.

While we discovered the movie over a year ago, we wanted to be sure that we weren’t violating any copyright laws in making it freely available. At this point, we believe the movie to be in the public domain, as the original copyrights were not renewed, nor have any new copyrights been filed.

We are aware of at least two other copies of the film, but it has not been available for public viewing for 70 years. It is presented here with a preface to give some context to the viewer.

Farm Jeep just seems like the proper name for the vehicle that followed the “military jeep” in 1945. It is short and aptly descriptive. Willys-Overland certainly thought it was a great name and had submitted a federal trademark application in 1943. The application was rejected in January 1944 as “being too generic” and Willys was forced to come up with a new name. That name was “AgriJeep” and the trademark was granted in December, 1944.

The “AgriJeep” name was only used on the early experimental models, dropped in favor of the simple “Jeep” name for the introduction of the CJ2a in July 1945. We were reminded of this bit of history by an eWillys post titled August 1945 Farm Journal Article “What About the New Farm Jeep?”. This Farm Journal article is worth its own post and we will write about it later.

Since we couldn’t attend this year’s Willys Reunion, we thought it might be fun to revisit the 2015 spring show, featuring the AgriJeep.

We will take our tour courtesy of CJ3b.info and end with this video. Enjoy!

Over the past several years, we have been perplexed by the statement in early Newgren lift ads and articles that the lift was operated by a “control on the dash”. Yet our own Newgren lift had the control between the seats and this arrangement appears in the 1947 installation instructions.

In a 2016 post, we wrote the following –

The controls are where?

While looking over the ads …, we noticed  a strange statement on a January 1947 ad titled “YES you can use Hydraulic-Lift Implements with  the UNIVERSAL ‘JEEP’.  The statement – “Hydraulic-lift implements raised and lowered by control on the dash.” – got our attention.

The ad, shows the Newgren lift, that normally had the driver control between the seats.  The Monarch Hy-Lo Jeep pump did use a through-the-dash control.  We know that the Monarch pump was used with some Newgren lifts, but we had assumed that was at a later date.

So the question is was this an ad misprint or had Willys (or Newgren) started using Monarch pumps in place of the original Newgren unit. The answer appeared as we were reviewing the information we have on the Love lift.

As can be seen when comparing the ad above to this newspaper report (thanks to ewillys.com), the photo is the same.  Our assumption is that the lift in the ad was a Newgren was our error.  The earliest Love lift did use controls on the dash.

Update – Not our error

Just look at this undated announcement of the Newgren lift –

Note “Finger Tip Operation” shows lever between the seats.

Same picture again and yes that is a Newgren lift in every picture.  But still strange timing…

Fast forward to 2018

Dave once again added to the mystery –

That old control on the dash issue The eWillys article also included an early ad for the lift plow.  In the body is the statement “A touch of the control knob on the dash lowers the plow into operating position.”   We have written a number of times about the “control on the dash” that appeared in the earliest Newgren ads.  

  We have never seen pictures of the “dash knob” but believe this early brochure confirms that the control was always between the seat and the idea of a “dash knob” was an error by the marketing staff.   Thanks to Dave for providing some summer fun.      

Then this brochure sold on eBay-

Dave at eWillys posted about the sale of this early brochure. At first it appeared to be exactly the same , but take a look at “Finger Tip Operation” photo. There is a photo of the dash control!

Here is proof that at least for a short period of time Newgren used the Love pump and dash control. Thanks to the seller on eBay and to Dave for posting the pictures that have finally solved this Farm Jeep mystery.

We recently lost out on an opportunity to buy a Monroe lift installation manual. Today that same manual showed up in a folder of a project we are just starting to work on. We don’t remember when we picked this up, but it must have been several years ago. Some day we will get organized, but for now we are very happy to have found it and have done a quick scan. Just click on the cover.

Terry E. sent us a note about our plans for 2020 shows. Sadly, it appears that we won’t be attending shows this summer. Instead, we are going to create a couple of virtual shows, based on the many events we have attended these past years. While not close to the fun of interacting with people, it should provide some fun memories for us and maybe kindle an interest in attending Jeep and farm shows in the future for others. Now we just need to sort through hundreds of photos we have taken over the past decades.

For a quick show fix, you can head over to the Shows section to read about past events. Or take a look at last years Spring Willys Reunion. How about a visit to the demonstration held at the Willys Jeep Rally

While we won’t be adding new shows, we will be adding a new story soon. Dan Montgomery has written an article, “Robert Miller’s Jeeps: A small town story of hayfields in the sun, wheelies at night and growing up with Jeeps” for the Spring 2020 Dispatcher magazine. If you don’t already subscribe to this great magazine, now is a great time to do so.

Here is a sneak peak at what makes Dan’s story of interest to us –

Stay tuned and stay safe!