<– Day 15 – Sunday May 13th: Great Scott, Another Jungle Jims? | Day 17 – Tuesday May 15th: Cheese N’ Hardware –>

Day 16: Monday we drove from Cincinnati to Columbus, Ohio, via Roger and then Rick and Paulette’s places.

The first step towards facing your problem is admitting you have a problem. Yes, I have a problem. I have Jungle-Jim-itus. After saying our goodbyes to Scott, our first stop of the day was at Jungle Jims (just happened to be on our way, sort of). Our goal was to explore the gluten free aisle, then check out the coffee aisle. We were fairly well-behaved and managed to leave with only a few items.

Our second stop of the day was at Roger Martin’s house, where he plans on holding another Southwest Ohio FC gathering this summer. Since we won’t be around for that event, I got to have some early hands on FC fun. Roger’s been working on a green and gray FC-170. It runs great, but needs some more body work. He pulled it out of the garage and let me drive it around his property. I liked that it didn’t have a windshield!

Roger then showed me his newly acquired FC-170 backhoe. It still needs some work to run, but it looks pretty neat.

Roger’s friend Paul, whom we’d met in 2013, was back with his 1942 GPW. He’s been slowly replacing incorrect parts with GPW parts, thanks in part to Roger, who’s always looking to help locate the parts Paul needs. 

The temperature reached 88 degrees by 11am, so eventually we stepped inside and cooled down with some water. After chatting for a while, it was time to head out for our afternoon adventure.

Rick Riley, whom I’d yet to meet, had learned that I’d be in the Ohio area, so he’d invited me to drop by and see his jeep collection. We reached his place about 2pm, then sat down in his garage for a chat. While talking, I noticed a T-90 transmission that had been cut-away. Rick told me he uses it to demonstrate how a T-90 works. He also uses it to demonstrate how to disassemble/assemble a T-90. I thought it a great idea!

After we finished with the T-90, Rick began showing us the jeeps. That’s when his wife Paulette came bouncing down to meet us. It’s safe to say that she’s as excited about jeeps as he is. We spent the next hour touring the nooks and crannies of the their vehicle collection; both of them had plenty to share about every vehicle. I limited the photos to jeeps, but there were some beautiful cars, International Harvesters in various conditions and much more.

In fact, Rick has the largest collection of Desert Dogs that I’ve seen east of the Mississippi (standard dogs, both solid letter and outline letter, some PCVs, and the dogs with the double zigzag down the center .. see latter example below). Rick raced jeeps for several years in the 70s and Desert Dogs are still his favorite tire (he also has several terra tires). Obviously, he has good taste!

Now for some vehicles. This truck with a driller doesn’t work at the moment, but Rick hopes to get it running and operating. It’s a pretty big project, but he seems to do a good job getting his vehicles running.

This backhoe truck ran just fine and the backhoe works. Rick fired the truck right up, hopped into the seat, and showed us how it worked.

Of course, some people just can’t have one backhoe. We found another one in one of the sheds, next to a trencher.

This CJ-6 was interesting. It had an Allstate half-top, and Allstate branded plow, and Allstate branded winch made by Ramsey, and an Allstate branded post hole digger, possibly made by Roper. I didn’t get pics of all the parts, but did see both them located elsewhere.

I can’t remember seeing one of these runabout’s before. Rick and Paulette owned two of them at one point, but they sold one. They like it for driving around large tractor or vehicle shows.

This 4-door truck has sits on a modern chassis and I”m told is great to drive. You can see a CJ-2A with a half-top (white) and tow-setup peering out from behind the truck.

About this time I was looking at a CJ-5 that I thought had a Dumas seat in between the standard seats, but then I realized it had no seat-back. It was just a padded console. Rick explained that it was made by Runck, a company that also made roll bars, roll cages, bumpers, and side strips. I’d never heard of Runck, but I got a quick education on them as Rick and Paulette had a variety of examples.

This shows the center console (the pick above shows the front of it).

Below you can see the side strips made by Runck (and some Desert Dog tires).

The rear bumper is particularly discernible. The posts at either end and the “R”s help it stand out. The front bumpers have smaller posts. I’ve seen these bumpers on other jeeps, but never knew what they were.

The roll cage bends and mounting positions of their roll cages make them easy to identify once you know what to look for. Rick had several examples installed in jeeps, but this was the easiest to capture in a photo:

Rick was a charter member of the Miami Valley Four Wheelers, a club founded in 1973.

You’ll probably not be surprised to learn that they have a boneyard:

This wagon was a surprise. Though it has 39,000 miles, the seats still have their plastic seat covers. It’s in fantastic shape.

This ex-fire department FC-170 has a plug-in to maintain the electrical system.

Finally, this DJ-3A is a bit of a conundrum. It’s an automatic. At first Rick mentioned it was a 1955, but the only data plate is a Navy plate. I tried to read the data plate (mounted to the firewall) as best I could and something was stamped 1955, but then I took a pic, something I didn’t examine until doing this post. It’s then that I saw the feb of 1957 stamp and a serial number (12812) consistent with that time period (though it didn’t have the pre-script of 56337).

Yet, the body has what should be a post 1959 fresh air vent on the passenger side. And, the transmission cover certainly isn’t standard, even for column shift DJ-3As (I have original covers in both of mine). I left unsure exactly what year this was, but it was most definitely an automatic.

Our visit ended with a surprise. We were offered the chance to take Paulette’s modified Jeepster out for a spin. They didn’t have to ask twice, so Ann and I hopped into the Jeepster and drove it a few miles. Ann attempted to take a panorama pic while driving, but it didn’t work out so well.

So, many thanks to Rick and Paulette for sharing their jeeps and stories with us. Somehow, we never did get a picture with all four of us, so I guess that means we need to go back some time???

On Tuesday we head for Ann’s Great Aunt Mary just east of Cleveland. On the way we plan to stop at an Amish hardware store that Roger suggested we see.

 

<– Day 15 – Sunday May 13th: Great Scott, Another Jungle Jims? | Day 17 – Tuesday May 15th: Cheese N’ Hardware –>