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Book Review: Haynes Enthusiast Manual – Military Jeep, 1940 Onwards


Book Review: Haynes Enthusiast Manual – Military Jeep, 1940 Onwards

Haynes has been in the repair manual business for decades and now they are trying to branch themselves out into the enthusiast book market. We scored a copy of a new title from their enthusiasts’ manual line called, “Military Jeep – 1940 Onwards (Ford, Willys, and Hotchkiss). Since the military Jeep was such an important part of the history of this country and since we love old flat fender models, we checked it out. It is an interesting volume, that is for sure. 

For starters, we think it is a bit of a misnomer to call this book a manual. It would provide little actual assistance in the event you were to try and use it while repairing your old Jeep. It is a relatively complete history of the iconic vehicles which provides general technical information about them and  the story of the Jeep’s interesting development. 

The importance of the Jeep with respect to the role it served in WWII simply cannot be overplayed. Dwight Eisenhower himself said that the Jeep was one of the top three reasons that the good guys won the war. Outside of the dozens of configurations, attachments, and uses engineered for them, soldiers on the front line came up with pages more. Every inch was designed to have a practical use, and each system on the vehicle was designed to be easily serviced, durable, and if need be, bypassed.

We enjoyed the detailed history of how the Jeep was designed and how many pre-production attempts were made before the final design was decided on. Frankly, it is confusing as hell because there were multiple companies on the initial contract for developmental work, then a couple companies were actually producing them, with Ford being the biggest dog (although Ford’s design was not the chosen one for the final product). Eventually, Ford factories churned out hundreds of thousands of Jeeps, because Willys and American Bantam just didn’t have the capacity to build them in the necessary volume.

If you are a lover of old Jeeps, military vehicles, or automotive history, this is a good book for your shelf. If you are looking for something that will help you fix your old Jeep, don’t even think about this book. Overall we came away with a favorable feeling after reading the book, but we weren’t wrenching on a 1945 Jeep, either.

The book can be found on Amazon.com and wherever books are sold.

Jeep manual large 

 


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