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Watson Hub Information

October 30, 2017 • CATEGORIES: Features, Magazine • TAGS: . This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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UPDATE II: There’s a newer, updated Dualmatic hub post with comments about the Watson hub here. 

These hubs were created about the same time as the dual lever Dualmatic hubs. Moreover, we can state for sure now that there was a specific relationship between the Watson hub and the Dualmatic company.

How do we know this? Because both hubs share the same patent number 2854111:

watson-hub-instructions

dualmatic-hub-sticker

You’ll note that the patent number 2854111 is the same in both the above items, with both connected to this single lever design: https://patents.google.com/patent/US2854111.

UPDATE:  A 1967 Sears Jeep Parts Catalog had a set of hubs for sale that look suspiciously like the Watson hubs. One thing we’ve noticed is that some Watson hubs have “WATSON” imprinted on the hub, while other identical hubs don’t.

So, were these WATSON hubs that were private labeled, or had Dualmatic been making WATSON hubs all along, but now offered them for private labeling? It’s easy to think that Dualmatic might want to separate their Dualmatic branded hubs from private labeled ones. Changing the private-labeled version to this look would help that.

1967-sears-catalog-sears-watson-hubs

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Original Post: October 30, 2017:

Alaska Paul discovered this Watson Hub article in the 1958 issue of Science and Mechanics magazine. This suggests that the Watson hub was developed in 1956 or 1957, making the company a very early hub manufacturer.

The mechanism looks similar to the early Dualmatic hubs. In fact, the first Dualmatic hub patent filing was in 1956, for a single lever model. Whether that inspired the dual lever model by the California-based H. S. Watson company remains unclear. I have no evidence to suggest Watson ever patented its hub nor how long they sold their hub.

1958-10-science-mechanics-watson-jeep-hub-article

2 Examples of Watson hubs:

watson-hubs-1 watson-hubs-2 watson-hubs-3

Another example from a truck listed for sale on Craigslist out of Redding, California:

watons-hub-from-cali-truck

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“Gold Plated” Executive Gift **SOLD**

October 27, 2017 • CATEGORIES: Features, Models This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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UPDATE: **SOLD** Was on eBay.

Having the box makes this one unique. But, it appears the bumper has been broken.

“Made by Comet for retirement gift for WILLYS OVERLAND EXECUTIVES. This toy is in excellent condition, tires show very little play wear. Hard to find with steering wheel intact. JEEP embossed in tailgate is crisp and clear. “Gold plating” is in great shape with some tarnish that I will leave to the buyer to clean. Only blemish is right front bumper is typically broken. Box is in equally excellent condition. Both have been kept under glass as long as I’ve owned it.”

gold-plated-jeep-with-box

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Japanese Envelope on eBay

October 25, 2017 • CATEGORIES: Artists/Drawings, Features, Postcards This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Here’s an unusual piece.

“Vintage Colorful Japanese Jeep Envelope or Sleeve — New Old Stock… Newspaper like paper has colorful illustration on one side and line drawing on the other… Colorful illustration of a woman officer driving a jeep, a small doll dangling in the wind shield and a rose… Back side has line drawing of a little girl riding a donkey… There is also Japanese character writing… Good condition, new old stock, both top and bottom open… Piece measures about 5 1/8″ x 7 3/8″… ”

View all the information on eBay

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1949 Color Video of Exploring Southern Utah

October 24, 2017 • CATEGORIES: Features, videos This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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This CJ-2A has the spare tire on the side and sports a Beck “ECONO” Model F3B-100 hardtop.

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The CJ-2A has the same hardtop, but for some reason it no longer has a side mount tire.

Frazier spotted a wonderful color video from 1949. Credit for the one-hour length film goes to Ray and Virginia Garner. As I watched it the first time I was struck by the quality of the cuts, the closeups and faraway shots, and the overall sense of a narrative, despite the lack of sound. A little research proved that this wasn’t Ray’s first video. He’s got a long resume that stretched back to pre-WWII. He and his wife Virginia continued filming for years, traveling around the world, and made films for NBC and ABC News.

LINK FOR VIDEO==> Check out the one hour video that starts near Moab and ends within Canyonlands National Park. The jeep section begins at the 15:30 mark and lasts the rest of the film. You’ll eventually realize that there are two green CJ-2As, though I didn’t see a scene that ever showed both together. If you know southern Utah at all you will really appreciate this gem.

Here’s the archived description:
Movie (color, no sound, 57 minutes, 33 seconds): a home movie by Ray Garner shows various scenes in the deserts of the American Southwest. Ray and Virginia Garner take a road trip in a wood-frame station wagon, camping in the desert of Utah and Arizona. Scenes include Arches National Monument, sand dunes, the La Sal Mountains from Arches, cactus and other vegetation, Monument Valley, wildlife (caterpillar, lizard, insects, scorpion, “Hassayampa legend” sign; car travel in the desert; camping; a windmill pumping water; men climb El Capitan (Agathla Peak) in northern Arizona; the couple in a motorboat on the Colorado River. jeep ride at Dugout Ranch and Canyonlands, San Juan County; petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock; dynamiting a boulder to clear a path for the Jeep; Chesler Park and the Needles area; Indian ruins (Beef Basin?); small planes land and take off at Chesler Park; installing climbing ropes on rocks in Canyonlands to access Indian ruins; Wedding Ring Arch in Salt Creek Canyon; Indian ruins and petroglyph (“All-American Man”) in Salt Creek area. Final sequence shows more natural arches.

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Photos From the 2017 Mason-Dixon Willys Jeep Gathering

October 23, 2017 • CATEGORIES: Event, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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I feel like I have seen these two jeeps somewhere recently ….

Thanks to Gray and Dave for sharing photos form the 2017 Mason-Dixon Willys Jeep Gathering on Sunday. The weather was perfect and both reported they had a good time.

Dave noted, “Great show on a beautiful day, though a bit warm for the end of October in these parts. I didn’t do any counting but, I’m estimating around 10-12 used parts vendors with everything imaginable related to cjs, trucks, and wagons, and around 40-50 jeep vehicles including civilian cjs, the trucks, wagons, FC, Jeepster guys and, the military vehicle group that included a military wrecker, a WWII deuce and several jeeps. All in all, this is a great show that gets better each year. Thanks to the Union Mills Homestead site for having us and to Mike for organizing it.”

Gray added, “Such a great show . Lots of parts for sale and everybody was so nice!”

Below are a mix of Dave and Gray’s photos. The first one shows this year’s award winners:

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2017-mason-dixon-gray11 2017-mason-dixon-gray12

Continue reading →

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CJ-5 Serial Numbers with AA at the End

October 23, 2017 • CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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A reader from South Africa sent the serial number of his jeep to me, asking when it was built. I concluded that the serial number indicated he has a 1966 CJ-5. The curious part is that he has AA’s stamped on the end of the serial number.Here’s an approximate example of his serial number: 8305 211XXX AA ….  It turns out, he’s not alone.

Here’s an example (again from South Africa) of a CJ-6 with the AA’s stamped into the serial number: http://www.4-the-love-of-jeeps.com/cj6-big-red-comes-to-papa.html

The internet also has a few references to others with the double AAs. What I think is going on is that as a part of converting left handed jeeps to right handed ones, the company that did it was also adding a set of AA’s to the serial number. Does anyone know of this to be the case?

CJ-6 serial number with AA’s stamped in it.

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