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Trencher’s First Appearance?

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This photo from the October 1954 issue of Kaiser Willys News got me thinking. Anyone know when the first jeep trenchers were manufactured?

1954-10-kaiser-willys-news-trencher-marines

 

4 Comments on “Trencher’s First Appearance?

  1. CraigInPA

    Auburn made trenchers in the 1940’s. The earliest jeep-a-trench I’ve seen has been a ’53. I suspect there were earlier ones.

  2. Lew

    May be a dumb question, but in and 800′ ditch there are likely to be obstacles. Is there any capability to bend the line at all with a trencher like these?

  3. Bob

    Well I’ve seen them on ’46 Jeeps. The first ones had a manual wheel to lower and raise the boom. I suspect you could do a very gradual bend with them, but not much.

  4. David Eilers Post author

    Thanks guys! It turns out I had the answer already. A 1947 Willys Overland industrial equipment book included a category for “Ditchers”, the only one of which was Auburn’s Jeep-A-Trench. So, I’m not sure why the article above made such a big deal out of the trencher? That photo appeared on the front page of the newspaper.

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