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About eWillys
Welcome to eWillys.com, a website for vintage jeep enthusiasts. I update this website nearly every day with jeep deals, jeep history, interesting reader projects, jeep related info, and more.
These quick searches can help you find things on eBay. People list in the wrong categories all the time, so don't be surprised to see brochures in the parts area for example.
The links to posts below show jeeps grouped by models, condition, and other ways. Some of these jeeps are for sale and others have been sold. If you are unsure whether a vehicle is still for sale or not, email me at d [at] ewillys.com for more info.
Importantly, the allure of buying a project jeep can be romantic. The reality of restoring a jeep can be quite different, expensive and overwhelming without the right tools and resources. So, tread carefully when purchasing a "project". If you have any concerns about buying a vintage jeep, or run across a scam, feel free to contact me for help, comments or concerns .
On Sunday, while we were gone, Tom Cruze left the house in the morning and never returned. On Wednesday morning I found him in the ditch across from our driveway. He’d been hit by a car. The girls, especially Lizzy, who treated Tom like her puppy, remains upset with his disappearance. I brought Tom’s body back so the girls could sniff him in hopes it provides some closure, but Lizzy remains the sadder of the two.
Tom embraced his puppy role, eating with the dogs from their bowls, following us to the gate when it was time to open or shut it, and playing outside with us. He had no fear and was up to the task of taking on both dogs when they wrestled. He was only here eight months, but he made the most of it!
Here is Lizzy grooming and playing with Tom Cruze from January:
So, the greatest-dog-there-ever-was-that-was-actually-a-cat has gone to that great actor’s studio in the sky. He didn’t stay with us long, but he made a giant impact. He also helped the girls get over Zollie’s death. The house will be a quieter place without Tom’s giant personality filling it.
(Joe-in-Mesa took this video and most definitely earned his ride in the Tour Jeep)
After 3200+ miles of driving over the last 9 days we finally arrived home on Tuesday. Yes, we are tired and exhausted. It has been a LONG three days.
After Saturday’s rescue by Joe and Jan, we loaded the Tour Jeep onto Joe’s trailer and renewed our trek north, but within twenty miles we realized the brakes on his trailer still weren’t working well for us. After testing out some different truck towing modifications (more gain, more effort). We decided it was time to go to Joe’s place and see if we could make the other trailer work better.
Joe, meanwhile, had towed the trailer back to his house. Along the way his truck alerted him to a brake fault. So, it wasn’t us that was having a problem.
By the time we reached his house Saturday night, we were tired and frustrated. Two trailers weren’t working correctly, a heavy jeep needed to be Brough home, and the future weather forecast meant we needed to get home by Wednesday or risk the passes getting bad again. Thankfully, we had Jan and Joe to share some drinks, eat some food. and forget about life for a while.
On Sunday morning, Joe and I tackled the trailer issues. Our first task was to debug the running light issues. Why were some lights working and some not? After trial and error we learned it was a combination of grounding and loose wires. It was a big win when we got all the lights working!
While completing that task, we discovered the trailer wasn’t wired correctly for either of our trucks. That’s when we both learned that 7 blade plug-ins have at least two different wiring options (there could be more, but I haven’t deep dived on the topic). So, rewiring the trailer for OUR trucks, helped solve additional issues.
Once all that was done, the trailer brakes worked correctly. By Sunday’s sunset, we’d completed the work and done a half-hour test of the trailer (with FC aboard) around Phoenix.
Monday at 5am we left for Salt Lake. It was a long, somewhat nerve wracking drive given what happened on Saturday. Thankfully, things went smoothly despite encountering rain, snow, and some hail. We arrived just at sunset to and an-all-too-short visit with my sons.
Tuesday morning, again at 5am, we hit the road again. This time we were less worried about the trailer and more worried about the weather, as we had at least six passes to summit. At about 6:30am we reached Snowville, where we ran into fog an 0 degree temps.
The moon was bright at 7am, while the world around us was frigid!
I wondered just how long of a day it was going to be, but once the sun broke over the mountains, the temps improved, as did the road conditions. It was smooth sailing after that.
We must thank Jesse and Andrea for their “most excellent” hospitality and their support for buying the Tour Jeep. And, we can’t thank Joe and Jan enough for their incredible selflessness in coming to our aid, entertaining us, boosting our moral some, and helping us get the trailer road-worthy again. We couldn’t have done it without you!
Unsure if there will be updates on Thursday morning or not, but Friday for sure.
After years of successful trips, this trip seems to be a payback for all the lack of trouble we’ve had. Thankfully, we have made friends all over the country.
On Saturday morning we left at dawn. We’d driven northwest about an hour, just passing Sun City by a few miles. At that point, we found Shell station that had room for us to pull in and check over the the trailer (check hubs for warmth, lights, etc). Of the six hubs, two were hot and one was warm. In addition, the truck was showing a trailer light fault, so, we found out, the turning lights had stopped working.
Hmmm .. not good.
After checking things over, we didn’t have a firm understanding of what was happening, but knew we didn’t want to go any further with the trailer as is. After a few calls, including checking with U-Haul, which didn’t have a trailer that could carry the FC, we called our good friends Joe and Jan. Joe is a former Army Engineer, so it was fun to say that Army was rescuing Air Force.
They immediately changed their plans and came with their trailer (capable of carrying two jeeps), offering to let us take it home (and then I’d return it and come back with our trailer).
After swapping trailers, we put the FC back onto their trailer. To celebrate what looked like a victory, and to wait one of Ann’s former Khobar Tower colleagues (who wanted to make a quick visit to say hello), we enjoyed a beer in the FC, just hanging out and talking: our first group event! What great fun that was!
David, Joe and Jan having a drink in the FC.
Eventually, Joe and Jan had to leave, so they took our trailer home, testing it along the way (during which they found the electric brakes were having an issue.
Meanwhile, Ann’s Khobar Tower friend arrived, so we spent a few minutes meeting with Tim. It turns out that Tim had grown up in a jeep club near Pismo Beach, and his dad still had a built CJ-3A. So, Tim shared pics of the FC with his Dad, which of course both thought was cool.
Once Tim left, and with Joe’s trailer in tow, and the FC atop to it, we drove to Wickenburg, but our truck was having some problems talking with his trailer brakes. They would work, but not as good as we expected. We experiment with the “gain” and the “braking effort”, but that didn’t seem to do enough to make the brakes work like I wanted.
By then it was 3pm. Long story short, we decided to return to the Phoenix area to stay at Joe and Jans and fix our trailer. So, I’ll be going through all the wiring and working on the brakes. So, that’s the task this Sunday morning.
This is the big surprise… Jesse and Andrea have agreed to sell us the San Juan FC Tour Jeep that Jesse built from the cab up, along with the trailer. You can see more pics from the build here: https://thefcconnection.com/jesse_ybarra’s_tour_jeep_journal.htm
We consider this a great honor and can’t thank Jesse and Andrea enough! Jesse was instrumental in encouraging us to visit the round-up for the first time in 2012. Ever since that first visit I have wanted an FC tour jeep, but given there are only three of them, I never thought it would be a possibility.
Much more about this later, as we have a long drive home in front of us!
Me telling Ann, “trust me honey, the is a short cut to Arizona” … I don’t think she believe me! (the dually barely fit on the bridge).
Over the last four days we’ve encountered more snow and bad weather going into and trying to get out of California than we have in all of our other trips over the past 12 years combined!
On Sunday we drove from Prosser to Eugene, Oregon .. no problem!
On Monday we drove a few hours, but then stopped in Medford for an In-N-Out burger and some Harry-and-David store shopping. That’s when the snow started falling. Knowing we had a 100 miles of mountain passes to cross, we thought that even though it was only 1pm, it would be best to spend the night in Medford and tackle the passes on Tuesday.
It sounded easy enough, but then I was feeling a little off, like I was really anxious or stressed and my heart was racing a bit. I just didn’t feel quite right. Then, about 4pm, Ann got a call that her aunt had suffered an aneurysm and was on a breathing tube. There was some confusion and we thought she had passed. So, given the way I felt, Ann said we should go to the local ER. So, we spent a few hours in the ER. They did some tests. We talked to the heart doc. I was perfectly fine. It’s all very embarrassing, but sometimes it’s good to share the embarrassing stuff along with the instagram-perfect messaging.
An unflattering pic of me in the ER … Ann took a variety of pics; she was almost enjoying herself.
hmm … our conclusion is that I was having some kind of anxiety attack. Why, I don’t know. Was I nervous about snow in the passes? Nervous about the trip? Was I nervous about the feeling itself, afraid that I might be having a stroke like my father, which created a feedback look of nervousness? I have no idea! Whatever it was, things settled down that night and I’ve been fine ever since.
UPDATE: This post originally appeared August 14, 2015:
1) Lining up on the first really flat ground they have seen on the entire caravan, the Jeepers stop at Miller Meadows for their Sunday lunch.
This 1955 article in the 1955 July/August issue of Willys News covered the recently completed Jeep Jamboree. The author reported that as part of an awards ceremony, the award for the oldest passenger went 68 year-old Mike Millard who was a former Rubicon Springs-Lake Tahoe stage coach driver. He must have had some great stories!
UPDATE: This story was originally published August 29, 2016:
A story from the September 20, 1962, issue of the Toledo Blade (and a similar story on the 10th as well) shares the tale of Lou-Bette Herrick’s three month trip through South America. The Richmond Virginia native entered into the adventure after responding to an advertisement placed by Hilary Dunstervile for a companion to drive back to her native country of Venezuela. I did a little research on both women, but didn’t find any updated information on them. It doesn’t say what kind of jeep they used, but there is a reference in the article to camping out in the jeep, so it might have been a wagon.
Caption: Katherine MacGregor with Friends Before South American Trip To South America In A Jeep. Chicago, Illinois: Putting the finishing touches on their jeep before they leave for a year’s trip in South America are (left to right): Mrs. Katherine MacGregor Wallis, Mrs. Anne Knehans, Irwin Knehans, and Miss Iranket Wallis of Quito, Ecuador. Trip To South America In A Jeep. Chicago, Illinois: Putting the finishing touches on their jeep before they leave for a year’s trip in South America are (left to right): Mrs. Katherine MacGregor Wallis, Mrs. Anne Knehans, Irwin Knehans, and Miss Iranket Wallis of Quito, Ecuador.
UPDATE: This article was originally published April 9, 2015:
On July 19, 1945, the Toledo Blade published an extensive story about the unveiling of the CJ-2A to reporters. The paper is also full of interesting stories, such as the sinking of the Ticonderoga, the identification of a returning GI with amnesia that turned out to be a Nazi Agent, and the jailing of a Walnut Grove, California, woman who threatened a returned Japanese American soldier who was a POW in Germany.
UPDATE: This article was originally published April 11, 2015:
In 1965 Brits R.M.E. Diamant, his wife, and three children completed a five month drive around the United States in a Jeep Wagoneer Camper. Mr. Diamant intended to publish stories of their adventure in travel magazines in the UK and the US, but his article in the 1966 Jeep News was the only one I found.
I’ve created this rough map of their journey based on the places mentioned in the article.
The Our Gang 4 Wheelers in Georgetown, Colorado, have one more race this weekend (unless the ice holds a while longer). This video gives a short overview of their sport. The club also has an updated website with lots of images.
This photo is published on the Jungle Larry website on the store page. I don’t believe it is the same CJ-5 as the stripes are a little different along the driver’s side and the rear bodies are different (along with the lack of top and windshield).
This 8×10 black and white photo shows a Hemet Jeep Club member climbing a hill in his CJ-6. It may have been taken as part of one of their annual cavalcade events.
“Vtg Photograph Hemet California Cavalcaders Jeep 4 wheel Club By F.J. Wiff 8×10. Cool Vintage Photograph Of a Hemet California Cavalcaders Jeep 4 whelling club get together sometime from late 40’s early 50’s i would guess. Photo is an 8 inch by 10 inch Photo By F.J. Wiff or Wift im not sure.”
“They are like New never used . There are no marking on adapters.
Set comes with 2 adapters, 5 left hand thread studs and 5 right hand studs.
Flat Shipping is $95 usd. Worldwide . may ship from other locations.
UPDATE: I *think* things are back to normal? Well, not so much normal. I will do a few updates before our trip, then a few scattered updates plus some reruns during our week-long trip.
Due to ongoing updates to the site’s software framework, no updates Thursday morning.
This brochure for the 6000lb winch includes on the back a reference to Kelly Manufacturing as a distributor of Warn winches in the eastern US. I believe the print date is July 1968. View all the information on eBay
The print date of this brochure for the 8000 lb winch appears to be December 1970. It does not include a reference to Kelly. View all the information on eBay
For a couple weeks I’ve been having problems loading some images from Facebook Marketplace in my safari browser (I can load the same pages successfully in other browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome). This is an annoying issue because, obviously, it means I can’t see some ads for use on eWillys.
I finally determined that Facebook is experimenting with using Google’s “.WEBP” format for some pics. The solution is to update my Safari browser. Okay, that’s doable.
My problem is that the WordPress version I run (the platform under the eWillys skin) won’t let me post those files, which means I have to move those images to a photo program, then resave them as jpegs.Well, that’s a pain I don’t need!
So, I need to update my WordPress instance, but sometimes that breaks things. So, if Ewillys goes down, I tried updating and things didn’t go well. (I have other sites that update just fine, but my eWillys webhost has locked down the eWillys files tightly, which is both good (for security) but bad (for me manipulating things).
Anyway, if some of you also have the problem with broken images in some Facebook Marketplace ads, that’s likely why (Only seems to happen in some auto ads).