Jeep trivia time - Page 2

TwistedCopper · #21 (**permalink**) 10-29-2006, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bounty__Hunter

You are old

Ouch

Laph · #22 (**permalink**) 10-29-2006, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tardis454

The Jeep was originally designed by Karl K Probst of The American Bantam Company of Butler PA begining in 1938...

Your Right, I read that but I totally missed it.

Gone&DoneIt · #23 (**permalink**) 10-29-2006, 12:17 PM

I gotta jump in just because I have a question/challange for an answer presented, I believe if you look into it the monicker "Jeep" was actually credit to the vehicle being called a G.P. vehicle by the military standing for either General Purpose or (G) General, and (P) the 80" wheel base depending on who you ask. Just my .02 but I am 99.9% sure on this one.

Gone&DoneIt · #24 (**permalink**) 10-29-2006, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gone&DoneIt

I gotta jump in just because I have a question/challange for an answer presented, I believe if you look into it the monicker "Jeep" was actually credit to the vehicle being called a G.P. vehicle by the military standing for either General Purpose or (G) General, and (P) the 80" wheel base depending on who you ask. Just my .02 but I am 99.9% sure on this one.

Before the flaming commences, I dug this up online to kinda support what I am saying:

"before you got behind the wheel of one, you had to be taught to refer to it in army school jargon ~ a Ford GP.
Based on the scuttlebutt on durability, you asked for the stronger "GP" by name when checking one out from the motor pool.
Then as you drove it around, the "GP" on the data plate on the dashboard stared you in the face for every foot of the miles you drove the Ford GP.
When there was a mechanical problem, you had to go into the glove box for the manuals, where you were again presented its model name "GP" in bold face type.
Upon returning it to the motor pool or bivouac area, you had to fill out the paperwork explaining why the GP was missing it’s side view mirror, or gas cap etc.
Guess who had to fill out the paperwork requisitioning a replacement? Not the Sgt., he's got more stripes than you do. You got to fill out the form, and you had to look up the part # in your GP's Ord 7 or TM, and there you would find that the rear view mirror you broke when you hit that tree branch was listed as part# "GP-17723-A at a cost of .65 cents" Reference ‘TM-10-1348 Change #1 April 10 1942 Ford Parts List’

Yes, early prototypes were called the quad, the pygmy, the peep, but when the production Ford GP's were released with GP stamped right in your face, they soon stopped calling the 1/2 ton dodges 'jeeps'. And the rest is history. The Ford built amphibious jeeps or GPA's were called "Seeps" by the way (see below for more info on them).

When the vehicle is called in writing a GP, and you’re taught that name in class getting your driver’s license, and there, stamped on the ID Nameplate on the vehicle itself, is the name, and when you say it’s name, GP, out loud in a normal cadence, it's a "jeepy".
Yes, Eugene the jeep from Popeye is a cute character, and both he and the vehicle can do just about everything, well WWII Jeeps can do almost anything (WW2 USMC special "Front Line Ambulance" Jeep buried in mud), but if you dig any deeper than the folklore, it's pretty obvious how the 1/4ton War Baby got it’s name. :) How the other things prior to 1940 got to be called jeep I do not know."

mingez · #25 (**permalink**) 10-30-2006, 04:06 AM

Dude, you don't have to back that up with evidence. If you do a search, you'll see about 4000 threads talking about this.

Although that's one of the more eloquent versions.

TwistedCopper · #26 (**permalink**) 10-30-2006, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mingez

If you do a search, you'll see about 4000 threads talking about this.

Mmm Hmmmm. I know das rite.

Laph · #27 (**permalink**) 10-30-2006, 09:53 PM

The origin of the term "jeep"

There are many stories about where the name "jeep" came from. These, although they make for interesting and memorable stories, are not quite accurate.

* Probably the most popular notion has it that the vehicle bore the designation "GP" (for "General Purpose"), which was phonetically slurred into the word jeep. R. Lee Ermey, on his television series Mail Call, disputes this, saying that the vehicle was designed for specific duties, was never referred to as "General Purpose," and that the name may have been derived from Ford's nomenclature referring to the vehicle as GP (G for government-use, and P to designate its 80-inch-wheelbase). "General purpose" does appear in connection with the vehicle in the WW2 TM 9-803 manual, which describes the vehicle as "... a general purpose, personnel, or cargo carrier especially adaptable for reconnaissance or command, and designated as ¼-ton 4x4 Truck", and the vehicle is designated a "GP" in TM 9-2800, Standard Military Motor Vehicles, 1 September 1943, but whether the average jeep-driving GI would have been familiar with either of these manuals, is open to debate.

* Many, including Ermey, claim that the likelier origin refers to the character Eugene the Jeep in the Thimble Theater (Popeye) comic strip. Eugene the Jeep was dog-like and could walk through walls and ceilings, climb trees, fly, and just about go anywhere it wanted; it is thought that soldiers at the time were so impressed with the new vehicle's versatility that they informally named it after the character. The character "Eugene the Jeep" was created in 1936.

* The term "jeep" was first commonly used during World War I (1914-191

by soldiers as a slang word for new recruits and for new unproven vehicles. This is according to a history of the vehicle for an issue of the U.S. Army magazine, Quartermaster Review, which was written by Maj. E. P. Hogan. He went on to say that the slang word "jeep" had these definitions as late as the start of World War II.

* "Jeep" had been used as the name of a small tractor made by Modine.

The term "jeep" would eventually be used as slang to refer to an airplane, a tractor used for hauling heavy equipment, and an autogyro. When the first models of the jeep came to Camp Holabird for tests, the vehicle did not have a name yet. Therefore the soldiers on the test project called it a jeep. Civilian engineers and test drivers who were at the camp during this time were not aware of the military slang term. They most likely were familiar with the character Eugene the Jeep and thought that Eugene was the origin of the name. The vehicle had many other nicknames at this time such as Peep and Pygmy and Blitz-Buggy, although because of the Eugene association, Jeep stuck in people's minds better than any other term.

Words of the Fighting Forces by Clinton A. Sanders, a dictionary of military slang, published in 1942, in the library at The Pentagon gives this definition:-

Jeep: A four-wheel drive car of one-half to one-and-one-half ton capacity for reconnaissance or other army duty. A term applied to the bantam-cars, and occasionally to other motor vehicles (U.S.A.) in the Air Corps, the Link Trainer; in the armored forces, the ½ ton command car. Also referred to as "any small plane, helicopter, or gadget."

Early in 1941, Willys-Overland demonstrated the vehicle's ability by having it drive up the U.S. Capitol steps, driven by Willy's test driver Irving "Red" Haussman, who had recently heard soldiers at Fort Holabird calling it a "jeep". When asked by syndicated columnist Katherine Hillyer for the Washington Daily News (or by a bystander, according to another account) what it was called, Irving answered "It's a jeep."

Katherine Hillyer's article was published on 20 February 1941 around the nation and included a picture of the vehicle with the caption:-

LAWMAKERS TAKE A RIDE- With Senator Meade, of New York, at the wheel, and Representative Thomas, of New Jersey, sitting beside him, one of the Army's new scout cars, known as "jeeps" or "quads," climbs up the Capitol steps in a demonstration yesterday. Soldiers in the rear seat for gunners were unperturbed.

This exposure caused all other jeep references to fade, leaving the 4x4 truck with the name.

Willys-Overland Inc. was later awarded the sole privilege of owning the name "Jeep" as registered trademark, by extension, merely because it originally had offered the most powerful engine.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep

TwistedCopper · #28 (**permalink**) 10-30-2006, 10:08 PM

There's one thing for sure... it came from the GI's. How or why it started could be debated forever. I'm kind of partial to the GP theory but who knows...