Jeep Trucks, an Incomplete History: The AMC/Chrysler Years

"Just Jeepin'" (macintux) 11/28/2018 at 08:05 • Filed to: History of Jeep Trucks, Jeep, Gladiator

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Not technically a truck, but who can resist a Jeep fire engine?

As I mentioned (arguably novella’d) in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! posts in this series, we collectively seem to have forgotten the long history of Jeep trucks. I’ll be honest: when I bought my Wrangler, I didn’t know anything about them. I probably would have recognized the name “Comanche”, but “Gladiator” would have drawn a shrug, and while “Jeep Truck” from the Willys era would have been recognizable as an abstract term, I certainly didn’t know it was a product offering.

Jeep had a truck offering for 45 years uninterrupted, until the retirement of the Comanche in 1992. How did we erase those trucks from history?

One of these is a cultural icon. The other, not so much.

I suspect this cultural amnesia traces back to two incontrovertible facts. When most people hear or see the word “Jeep”, the image that springs to mind is the classic topless 4x4; just as importantly, it’s been 26 years(!) since Jeep built a production truck.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . George H.W. Bush was still president the last time Jeep offered a truck. The U.S.S.R. had just collapsed. I still had hair!

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This narrative resumes in 1970, halfway through the truck era at Jeep. Like Willys before it, Kaiser decided that making and selling automobiles was expensive and someone else could do it better. Enter AMC, who bought Kaiser Jeep from Kaiser Industries in 1970.

(Incidentally, if you’re a fan of the Humvee, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! traces its roots back through this sale as well. Kaiser bought the General Products Division when Studebaker decided to get out of the auto business—sensing a theme here? AMC later renamed it to AM General and sold it to offset some of Renault’s losses.)

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Before we dive into the AMC era of Jeep trucks, let’s take a moment to revisit how we arrived here. Under Kaiser in 1963, Jeep introduced what’s termed the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , short for “full-size Jeep”. The first vehicles offered were the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ; later wagons on this platform would include the original Cherokee and the Grand Wagoneer.

All of the FSJs were body-on-frame, and all offered four-wheel drive of one sort or another.

During the early years they all sported the Brooks Stevens-designed Rhino grille. Kaiser started branching out with grille design on the wagons in the mid-60s, but the Gladiator trucks retained the Rhino grille until the AMC purchase.

The other truck that AMC acquired with Jeep was the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which was available in several body styles, including a roadster and a pickup.

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Jeep Commando (1972-1973)

The original !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from 1948 was a design icon created by a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Unfortunately it wasn’t off-road capable and couldn’t compete with cheaper roadsters from other American automakers, so it led a brief life.

When Kaiser introduced the Jeepster Commando in 1966, it didn’t match the timeless beauty of the Willys, but it was nonetheless a very attractive vehicle.

AMC was a scrappy underdog in the U.S. automobile industry, and buying the iconic Jeep brand surely seemed like a coup.

It’s not clear, however, that AMC knew at first what to do with its new prize.

The Jeep Commando. The less said, the better.

Amidst declining sales, AMC decided to shake up the design a bit. Regrettably, the new Commando design was not entirely in keeping with the previous aesthetic.

AMC at least had the decency to take away the “Jeepster” designation and just call it the Jeep Commando. Its nickname was “Bullnose”, which pretty well sums up the drastic (and many would say unpleasant) changes.

Unsurprisingly, the new Jeep Commando died a swift death.

(I’ll admit: the Jeep Commando is starting to grow on me, just so long as I don’t compare it side-by-side with the Willys Jeepster.)

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J-series (1972-1988)

The name “Gladiator” was used for marketing purposes; each Jeep truck had a model number that started with “J”. Thus, when AMC dropped the Gladiator branding after 1971, the trucks were simply Jeep trucks, or J-series.

J-20 pickup with a razor grille. This one, as of the 2018 Toledo Jeep Fest, had fewer than 5000 original miles.

The Rhino grille had been one of the key stylistic touches on the Gladiator throughout the Kaiser years, but in 1970 AMC replaced it with the razor grille then found on the Wagoneer. Of the several grilles that festooned the FSJ lineup over the years, the Rhino and razor are probably the favorites among enthusiasts.

AMC also dropped the Buick “Dauntless” V8 in favor of their own V8 engines, supplementing the famous AMC I6 that remained in use until 2006.

Among the more notable AMC features introduced to the FSJ trucks and wagons was !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a full-time four-wheel drive system.

Quadra-Trac featured a limited slip center differential that could be locked for more challenging terrain.

The J-series trucks did not survive the Chrysler purchase of AMC in 1987, although the Grand Wagoneer was sufficiently popular that it continued for a few more years before being retired and replaced with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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CJ-8 Scrambler (1981-1986)

Jeep in its classic form, a topless 4x4 aerodynamic brick, isn’t a car. Or, really, a truck (hence its exclusion from this series until now). Years after its introduction automakers would start using the term “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ”, but very very few SUVs have ragtops, and not all that many even have part-time four-wheel drive or solid front axles, so within the SUV market the Wrangler is unique.

(No, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! no longer has a ragtop, sadly.)

A Jeep enthusiast will tell you that a Wrangler isn’t a car, and isn’t a truck: it’s just a Jeep.

Nonetheless, on two occasions the CJ platform morphed into something resembling a traditional pickup truck, and Jeep is poised to announce the third such “crossover”, so let’s take a peek at the best-known prior example, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

The most famous Scrambler is surely Ronald Reagan’s, which he used on his ranch in California.

Its name isn’t actually the “Scrambler”; that was just a popular appearance package. In some foreign markets it was named the “Overlander”.

The CJ-8 is tied with the CJ-6 as the longest wheelbase on a true CJ at 103.5”. (Yes, the CJ-10 was longer, but we’ll get to it shortly.)

It didn’t have a separate pickup bed, just a cab separated from the rest of the body, a modification which has been available for many other Jeeps over the years via the aftermarket.

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CJ-10 (1981-1985)

I warned you in the first post that we’d be seeing the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! eventually. Alas, its time has arrived.

A very early Jeep CJ-10 from Australia. This is...not the prettiest Jeep ever designed.

The CJ-10 was not, in fact, a “real” CJ: it had a CJ body, but was otherwise a modified J-series truck (J-10).

It was not sold in the U.S., and given its unconventional styling, it’s not clear whether it would have been successful here. Certainly it was another sign that AMC (charitably speaking) wasn’t afraid to tamper with the traditional Jeep design language or (uncharitably speaking) was clueless about what made a Jeep a Jeep.

Much like the Cherokee (XJ) and Wrangler (YJ) to come, it had rectangular (no, not square) headlights. Unlike other CJs the headlights were in the fenders, not the grille, and the grille had 10 slots; certainly not unprecedented as I covered in earlier parts of this series, but never before were the outermost slots cut off by the fender.

Of particular interest to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! crew: the CJ-10A was built and sold to the USAF as an airplane tug. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! documents one owner’s transformation of a CJ-10A.

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Comanche (1985-1992)

This clean Comanche was participating in the 2018 Toledo Jeep Fest parade. Note the 8-slot grille, shared with the early XJ Cherokees but something Chrysler eventually “corrected” to standardize on 7-slot grilles.

And now we reach what some feared would be the last ever Jeep truck, the (relatively) famous !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

The MJ Comanche shared a platform with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a unibody SUV that sold more vehicles than any other Jeep, ever. (Admittedly that’s true only if you treat the ZJ and WJ Grand Cherokees as two different vehicles, which some object to, but they’re not writing this so they can take a back seat.)

A 10-slot grille!

The Comanche was a unibody design like the Cherokee. Mostly. The cabin was unibody, but the bed was on a frame.

Also like the Cherokee, it had a solid front axle even when not equipped with four-wheel drive.

It had a very long bed (7’ for the first model) but was too narrow for a sheet of drywall to lay flat between the wheel wells.

AMC threw a variety of darts at the wall: different bed lengths, two-wheel vs four-wheel drive, bucket vs bench seats, several appearance packages. The unibody construction, however, made it difficult to chase the crew cab trend.

The Comanche was a solid competitor to the existing mid-sized pickups of the day, but that fact helped seal its fate. Dodge had the Dakota for the same target market, and the Cherokee assembly line was busy churning out XJs, so ultimately Chrysler decided to end Comanche production.

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In hindsight, Jeep trucks were doomed the moment Chrysler bought AMC.

The Gladiator/J-series trucks were long in the tooth and competed with Dodge; the Comanche was much younger but its unibody design wasn’t ideal for a long-term truck platform. And competed with Dodge.

It’s certainly not surprising that Chrysler decided Jeep needed to stay in its lane and out of the truck market, but that leaves open the question of why FCA has decided a Wrangler-based pickup truck is now appropriate.

Obviously, the answer involves money, and lots of it. The Wrangler has massively increased in popularity, primarily thanks to the controversial introduction of the 4-door Unlimited model. As distinctly unfond as I am of other design choices for the JK Wrangler model, making it family-friendly was obviously a huge boon, no matter how the purists howled.

Jeep is once again carrying an automobile company, much as it did AMC, and Kaiser before that, and Willys before that. This time, however, it’s profitable enough to do more than simply allow FCA to tread water; hopefully that means that the Jeep brand has a long life ahead of it, and that the Jeep Wrangler will continue as it always has: ragtop, solid axle, removable doors, foldable windshield. Unadulterated fun.

As long as the Wrangler can do this, the world is a better place.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Just Jeepin' 11/28/2018 at 08:27

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When I was living in Arizona I came across a very clean 1980ish J10 for $3k that I still wish I had had the funds for at the time (that or the 454 dually Suburban squarebody I came across)

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Just Jeepin' 11/28/2018 at 08:33

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Its crazy that there has not been a Jeep truck on sale during my entire life (26 years)

Just Jeepin' > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 11/28/2018 at 08:40

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That is a shame. They’re not easy to find in good condition, and 3k sounds like a steal.

Just Jeepin' > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 11/28/2018 at 08:41

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I almost used you for that  example, funnily enough.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Just Jeepin' 11/28/2018 at 08:46

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It’s amazing what you could find for a decent price out west and since nothing rots like it does in the midwest you really are just worried about the mechanicals. I also remember coming across a ‘70s International 1-ton pickup very similar to this one for about $5k

Just Jeepin' > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 11/28/2018 at 08:47

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I’m tired of off-roading being equivalent to mu dding, and obsessing about rust. We re it not for family (and a house I can’t afford to get rid of) I’d probably move out there.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Just Jeepin' 11/28/2018 at 08:54

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We moved back mostly due to family, spending all your vacation time going back home gets annoying real fast.

Just Jeepin' > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 11/28/2018 at 09:02

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If your dad is interested in all at swapping his hard top for a soft top, this might be a pretty good deal. Just got an email about it.

https://www.bestop.com/national-buy-back/

(I was confused: it’s not actually a full top swap, just the front section. I’d forgotten that Bestop had started making that mod.)

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Just Jeepin' 11/28/2018 at 09:19

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He actually has a softtop too, but he was wants to sell it

Tristan > Just Jeepin' 11/28/2018 at 14:35

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I still don’t hate the pig-nose Commando. It’s not a great design, by any means, but it doesn’t deserve the hate it gets. Besides, it allowed for the installation of the legendary AMC straight-6!

Just Jeepin' > Tristan 11/28/2018 at 14:37

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I think if it didn’t replace the Jeepster, and came with a nicer grille, it would have been much better received. 

Tristan > Just Jeepin' 11/28/2018 at 14:41

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Agreed. Jeep people are weird. You would have thought the world was ending when the YJ got square headlights. Then, Chrysler had the gall to install COIL SPRINGS in the TJ! THE NERVE! Then the JK came along- it was too big to fit down a trail and the 4-door RUINED the Wrangler. If Jeep fans made the decisions, the CJ-2A would have been the end-all, be-all, and Jeep wouldn’t have survived after about 1949.

Just Jeepin' > Tristan 11/28/2018 at 14:43

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It’d be interesting to contrast Jeep with HD, where it seems like they let the fans make the important product decisions.

Tristan > Just Jeepin' 11/28/2018 at 14:47

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And remember when Pontiac listened to their customers and built a car based on everything they asked for?

How’s Pontiac doing these days, anyway? Haven’t heard from them in a while...

punkgoose17 > Just Jeepin' 11/28/2018 at 15:22

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I like the Jeep Commando. It does not scream Jeep. That same nose could be on a Bronco or a Scout. I think because the design is a little generic is why you don’t like it.

Just Jeepin' > punkgoose17 11/28/2018 at 15:44

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I think you’re right. As I commented elsewhere, I think the two key flaws were replacing such an attractive vehicle with such a utilitarian one, and the very non-Jeep grille.

If it had a different name and  grille, I think it would have been much more successful.

slipperysallylikespenguins > Just Jeepin' 11/28/2018 at 18:15

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I’m not sure if they still sell it but for a long time foreign governments could buy the J8 based on the JK platform.

Just Jeepin' > slipperysallylikespenguins 11/28/2018 at 19:46

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Good point, I’d forgotten about the J8.

I may do a military truck follow-up, so I’ll add that to my notes. 

AfromanGTO > Tristan 11/28/2018 at 20:24

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No Pontiac owners ever asked for the aztek..... We asked for fun powerful rwd cars. They could even be from Australia or Europe as long as they were fun. We were doing great and about to have our own truck until it was decided buick was a better option to save...........

GetHothInTheHothTub > Tristan 11/28/2018 at 22:36

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They decided to build a truck, and then...well...

Tristan > AfromanGTO 11/28/2018 at 23:02

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No, the general public wanted a Swiss army knife for their #activelifestyle. Pontiac fans wanted rwd V8 goodness.

Tristan > GetHothInTheHothTub 11/28/2018 at 23:04

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Shoulda brought them to the US.

:(

scramboleer > Just Jeepin' 11/28/2018 at 23:35

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Just Jeepin' > scramboleer 11/29/2018 at 00:01

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Just how many Jeeps have you owned?

scramboleer > Just Jeepin' 11/29/2018 at 01:45

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Six, if one includes the Willys:

1982 Scrambler

1966 Gladiator (sold)

1961 Willys Delivery (sold, basket case)

1964 Willys Travell er

1948 Willys Truck (in pieces)

1999 Grand Cherokee (sold)

Mom, Dad, and sister have had four more (now one).

Just Jeepin' > scramboleer 11/29/2018 at 05:06

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Amazing. Almost makes me feel like a poser writing this series, never having even ridden in any of the trucks I talked about .

scramboleer > Just Jeepin' 11/29/2018 at 10:57

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Well, that was the clearest explanations of the Jeep saga that I’ve ever seen.Thank you.

Jeeps are my main hobby. I love all cars, but have a soft spot to Jeeps...

Just Jeepin' > scramboleer 11/29/2018 at 11:33

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Thanks for the compliments.

I find myself torn about writing long pieces like this for Oppositelock: my first Jeep Experience post got a large amount of feedback, but after that it became a trickle. And this series was mostly quiet until the Gladiator unveiling (and frankly still is: basically 4 people commenting).

On the other hand, this has helped me rediscover a basic truth about myself: this is my core learning technique. The best way for me to learn about something is to write about it for others.

So, I’ll probably keep doing this periodically. I have at least four more Jeep long posts I’ve been ruminating on, so surely at least one of them will eventually bubble to the surface.

( But, I probably won’t over exert  myself trying to meet a deadline like I did for these posts. The 3rd one clearly suffered from me rushing it through late at night.)

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Just Jeepin' 12/02/2018 at 19:47

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Couple comments since you invited them... I’m just late to the party.

When AM G eneral got sold off, it was less because of covering losses and more due to complications with a military contractor being under foreign ownership. Renault couldn’t purchase that portion of AMC, so an American manufacturer needed to step in.

In regards to the demise of the MJ, not only was it because the Dakota sold better and was cheaper to build (and didn’t take away profits from the money making XJ) but ChryCo and AMC before had been looking at winding down XJ production as well. In ‘91 and ‘92 the MJ was special-order only, in a bit of a “while supplies last” sort of mode . There were ~5 000 built in ‘91 and ~1000 in ‘92. AMC had already started working on the ZJ for launch as a second generation XJ around ‘90 or so, but Chrysler delayed development to work on their minivan. Whether AMC had plans for a ZJ-based ( “NJ” if you will) Comanche is unknown, but it’s true that building more MJs on the XJ line meant less profits, even for AMC, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they had already scratched the idea. When Chrysler launched the ZJ, they had also planned for it to replace the XJ, but instead of stopping XJ production to retool the plant, they built an entirely new plant in Detroit, which solved both the problems of maintaining XJ production and profits as well as appeasing the city of Detroit, where Chrysler had just shuttered the Jefferson plant. The only reason the XJ stayed in production was as a happy accident. I doubt Chrysler had any intention of continuing to build it alongside the ZJ, but it continued being a hot seller, so with no real reason not to keep building it, they stuck it out. But yes, Chrysler’s purchase did likely bring about the temporary end of the Jeep truck. Sales of the J -series trucks were already dwindling due to the 20-year-old chassis, and AMC didn’t have money to redesign the full-size platform. Had the ZJ been launched under AMC, it’s unlikely they would have kept the XJ in production because they definitely wouldn’t have had money to open an entirely new plant for the ZJ, so while it’s possible after the ZJ launch they might have redone the FSJ platform, it’s doubtful. And the MJ wasn’t likely to see redevelopment on the ZJ chassis either, so it’s hard to say that Chrysler is totally to blame . Not to absolve them or anything, AMC’s engineering department was just straight up better.

But back on topic. There wasn’t anything wrong with the unibody platform for a midsize truck. While it would have complicated adding an extra row of seats in contrast to a body-on-frame design, it wasn’t a huge obstacle to that. But the unibody platform was more rigid than a comparable body-on-frame truck, allowing for more comfortable handling of higher loads, whether payload or towed. The only common failure points in the body after years of heavy use have been that the frame tends to crack around the steering box which isn’t unique to unibodies, and the front spring hangers will separate due to corrosion, but that beats the whole frame bending down the middle like Toyotas seem to enjoy doing. Other than those two things, it’s a very stout platform. Even 28 years old and rusty with 535,000km on it, I wouldn’t hesitate to toss 150 0lbs into the bed of my MJ, or hook up a 5,000-lb trailer. I honestly have found my ancient decrepit MJ to be more comfortable pulling a 4500-lb trailer than I was in a 2017 F150, which makes no sense, given the f150's significantly higher tow rating, greater weight, and larger dimensions. The only advantage I’d give the f150 is better power. The only obstacle to being a long-term platform was the family SUV platform underpinnings which would need to see far more redesigns than a typical truck program, and poor marketing. They sold a better, more capable, more comfortable product than competitors, but by the time MJ sales were starting to pick up almost  by word of mouth alone, the program had long since been ended. 

Just Jeepin' > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 12/02/2018 at 20:14

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Thanks, it’s really helpful to have informed insight from someone with a vested interest.