Sf Chronicle Article On $100 Jeeps Just After Wwii

Came across this today.
$100 for a jeep? World War II surplus frenzy hits Bay Area

 

Interesting. Bottom line ... the post-WWII surplus Jeeps existed, but there were too few of them to supply the demand. Government agencies had first priority, then veterans, then the public. They never made it as far as the public.

Back at the Jeep dealer ca 1971-2, I was fortunate that I could wander around their back lot freely. BC bid on surplus often, and bought derelict Jeeps whenever he could. He had M38A1s and M170s in the back lot, as well as plenty of civilian Jeep junk. I recall he bought several M715s when they came to auction first. These were in great shape, while most of the M38A1s were just hulks. Clearly the service was dumping the M715s, but they cannabilized the M38A1s to keep them going as long as they could.

Also, I believe the M38A1s were in high demand from government agencies, and as after WWII, these agencies got first pick. It seems that lots of fire departments got M715s for use as brush trucks. These M715s appear occasionally now on the used market, as their utility to the fire departments ends.

 

As I've mentioned here before, my father was captaining a landing ship (LSM) in Japan when WWII ended.
One of his assignments was dropping Jeeps and other equipment into the Pacific ocean.

He brought one Jeep back to the US and actually drove it from San Diego as far as Chicago before getting busted. He lost the jeep and was almost court-martialed.


The "jeep in a crate" or "government warehouse full" myth was kept alive by con-men. Probably still is.

I was once offered a "jeep in cosmoline for $100" ….I just had to put down the money, up front, and get nine other suckers to put down the cash to buy a "minimum" of ten Jeeps. I told him I'd give him $200(!) if he showed me the jeep.

 

I got into my old volunteer fire department up in NC back in 1976 shortly after they got an M715 from US Forestry Service. It was still OD green (many layers!) with no top. Forestry dropped in a 300 gallon water tank and 12hp Briggs powered pump with a hose reel in the bed, and called it a brush unit.
No one knew much about it, so they got up with me because I had Jeeps and this one said JEEP on the tailgate. I spent over 20 years building that thing into a very capable rig. It makes me sad, because when I was back up there a couple years ago, "my" old M715 was sitting outside behind the burn training building at the neighboring department, wasting away and the 'gator green paint all faded.
-Donny

 

While my father was in the motor pool in the Army at Fort Riley, Kansas, 1960-62, the army would scrap any vehicle (including M38a1's) if it had a drip from anywhere at a rate of 1 drip per minute or faster because it was easier to replace than to fix. They would sell for a nickel a pound (I kid you not). My father says there was a soldier whose uncle would come up from Texas every couple months and take a tractor trailer load. My father said he wanted to make a leak in his jeep so he could buy it but at $64 a month pay, even a nickel a pound was to rich for him.

 

Interesting My grandfather was a Sgt at Fort Riley Kansas pre war and my mom was born there in 1940. One of the last Mounted cavalry brats.