Now here’s a rig to lust after: a heavily-reworked Jeep FC (170, I assume) camper. It’s sporting a “Turbo-Diesel” badge on its stubby front end, and a nice smoke stack. Looks like some modern comfortable seats too, although to what extent they’ll mitigate the rough ride is a question. We haven’t yet done a proper FC CC yet (the closest we came was this), but I’ve kept my eyes open for one. This on was posted at truckcamperporn.com, which does a pretty good job of living up to its name.
The last time I saw a Jeep FC in the flesh…I was too young to know what I was looking at. Seriously…a garage near home kept one around. Then finally got rid of it. I was about five or six…we didn’t frequent that garage. I just remember seeing it, over and over.
Anyway…based, as they were, on the CJ5/CJ6…they were a creative idea that turned out to be less satisfactory on the road. The first years, they kept the narrow track of the CJs…that was bad nooze. Later they found wider axles to match the bodies; but by then the moment had passed.
It represented a sort of nadir of the Jeep marque…Kaiser had bought Willys by this time, Willys having one foot in bankruptcy court…the go-go 1960s and the SUV craze were still years away. The Wagoneer was still on Brook Stevens’ drafting table. And the Buck-And-A-Quarter contract from the military had yet to let.
Lean times, those; and just the military sale of M38A1s couldn’t keep Willys Motors from doing any more than just marching in place.
That’s one serious camper! I’d be fun to do some Forest Service/undeveloped camping with a rig like that.
Our school district owned a bunch of these when I was in grade school, and one of them was always sitting outside the mechanical room at my school. It was greenish-blue with a stake bed and a plow. I remember being fascinated with it, sitting up so high with all its mechanical bits hanging out underneath.
I’ll bet this camper would have sat real nicely on that flat bed.
All this needs is Portal Axles to be the Jeepin’ version of the proverbial internet Vahallamobile. Its already got a Diesel conversion.
The Jeep FC was more successeful elsewhere. In India it was built until the mid-to-late 1990s and included a FC-160 version http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jeep_FC-160_CowlAndChassis.jpg
Great idea though other than the diesel engine it has very little attraction to me as it will still have the fall over Jeep suspension and frame. Do this to a cabover Landrover aqnd youd really have something. The Jeep cabover didnt come here in any numbers nor did Jeeps at all really once the Wilks brothers redesigned it into the LandRover NOBODY wanted the flat-land device from America, 45 degree side loading means business on hilly country and Jeeps are hopeless on a hill, thats the reason virtually no Military organization that isnt directly US supported will countenance Jeeps.
It’s got a Mercedes turbo diesel in it. This is a local truck and was for sale a couple years back. Here is the build thread on it http://bb.bc4x4.com/showthread.php?123204-My-FC170-Build but you may have to be a member to see it. If so here are the basic specs
Truck has ~50,000 miles on it.
Frame up build, Specs:
Engine: Mercedes OM617 Turbo Diesel (5 cylinder) ~200,000 km
Transmission: Mercedes 4 Speed Automatic
Transfer Case: Divorced NP 205 new seals, yokes
Drive Shafts: 3 custom from Abby Springs
Axles: Dana 44 front and Dana 60 rear (1992 axles)
Springs: Stock rebuilt with bushings
Air ride: Front Firestone air bags and rear air assisted shocks
Brakes: 1 ton brakes, Power with dual reservoir (under dash), all new lines
Fuel: New lines, lift pump, and 3 pre-filters.
Wiring: All rewired, new fuses, glow plug timer, electric wiper, etc..
The Dana axles will help it, those were used on the Holden Overlander and are much wider than stock Jeeps, Sorry its just that outside the US the old military jeep was seen as friendly fire, 4 bodies in a tight grouping add the gas and ammo and you run out of jeep and wheres the Lewis gun mounting it was rubbish. We had our own Hummer built out of Chevrolet trucks not puddle jumper pickups, 3 tonners and the LRDG chased Rommel across north Africa in them, jeeps stayed on the flat out of the combat.
I saw one of these in the flesh a couple of months ago. It had the narrow axles, very, very knock knee’d .
Speaking of camper porn: Here’s a unimog camper built from scratch. http://www.ki7xh.com/camper.htm No idea if his $78K asking price is/was realistic, (it won’t be in my garage), but it’s a labor of love. I think he still has plans on his pages, or at least sufficient information to build another one like it.