We looked at the USPS LLV the other day, but its predecessor, the Jeep DJ-5 Dispatcher, also qualifies as a long life vehicle, as this one proves.
Although last built in 1984, I still see a few being used by USPS Contract Carriers on rural routes. I couldn’t see the front end (it was too fast for me to catch), so I can’t make any assumptions as to which of numerous engines (3.8 L AMC six; GM and AMC 2.5 L four) used in them this one likely had, but it’s probably a safe assumption it’s not the AMC/Audi 2.0 L OHC four used for a couple of years (1979-1981).
More: CC 1982 Jeep DJ-5 Dispatcher – Still Delivering The Mail After 30 years
I still see these from time to time delivering mail. I’d buy one if its condition were right, and the price was within what I can afford. I’d also have someone put a small diesel 1.5-2.0 litre diesel engine under its hood.
I can still hear these very clearly. They were blue until some point in the ’80s, when they turned white. There were also late square-headlight Pintos in the same scheme. Those must have been annoying as delivery shuttles.
Spent many hours in one of the last of the Kaiser-built models which a good friend owned in high school. Chevy 4 cylinder (the 153, IIRC) and a 2 speed automatic that I presume was a Powerglide. Being so lightweight, it would actually scoot along quite well. Maybe the last really, really simple vehicle made.
Years ago a coworkers husband bought one of these.
The idea being that the right hand drive would be ideal for his at the time extra income paper route.
His particular D-J5 was purchased at some sort of government auction ,but evidently perspective buyers were not allowed to actually start any of the auctioned vehicles before bidding.
He won the bid,the jeep did run , but it turned out to be a nightmare as far as reliability.
After a few months he quickly sold it for a more conventional type vehicle.
That was the exact reason my friend bought his Dispatcher – a morning paper route. His experience was the opposite of your friend. I wonder if the Post Office turned these over more frequently in the mid 70s than they did later. Or maybe it was just luck of the draw as to whether you got a good one or not.
There are a handful of old DJ-5’s in my area of Cape Coral still running, in traditional white and retrofitted with flashing yellow LEDs.In SW FLA, vehicles that stop often get rear ended often.They sound like Iron Dukes ( had a Fiero,) but could be AMC 2.5’s. Most of the fleet are Grumman LLV’s, the Windstars vans have been long gone, maybe the transmissions didn’t hold up to heavy duty usage? None of these have A/C, but at least the carriers aren’t on foot- we have heatstroke dew points six months a year. They have old school dash fans.
In the Rockies years ago, I saw left hand drive Subaru wagons used as dispatchers. Does anyone know more about theses?
Did you mean a RHD Subaru?. I don’t know much about them other than if you had the proper documentation that you were a rural mail carrier you could special order one. (Truly a special order, not like everyone around here that thinks that any vehicle that was ordered is a “special” order). Don’t know if you can still get them or not. There is a mid one still on the job delivering mail on a route near me. This page http://www.cars101.com/postlsub.html says they were available from 97-99. Though other searches show that there is at least one company that will still convert them.
The Wrangler was also available in RHD as a special order. One of the local water utilities has a couple for their meter readers in the rural area.
Ah the RHD Legacy wagon. Offered from 90-99 to postal carriers in the USA, they were made to USA specs. They were made and converted by Subaru.
Most were automatics but a few were ordered with a manual. The passenger side front seat was removed in favor of a metal tray(for putting mail on)
Other then that, they did not differ from the LHD Legacy L wagon.
The mail tray is attaches to the same mounting points as a seat in the car would be so that you could buy a drivers side seat from a LHD Legacy in the junk yard and it would bolt up correctly. On some the seatbelt on that side was left where it was but on others it was omitted. All the mounting holes for the seat belt buckle, seat belt itself and the retractor were there. You simply bought the trim piece for the B Piller (with the hole for the seatbelt), the seat belt and the buckle and all the bolts from the junk yard and now you have a pseudo JDM car.
Given that the Subaru is a Japanese car and made in RHD versions at home, it didn’t so much need “conversion” as just to be built with Japanese market parts for the key items.
Before it could be legally sold in the USA, it had to have its headlights changed from the ones a JDM Legacy to ones for a US market Legacy due to the fact the driving a car that is RHD in in the USA that has not had the headlights converted will blind every driver coming on from the other direction(even in low beam mode) due to the fact that the RHD headlights shine to the left while the ones on a LHD car shine to the right so as to prevent glare.
The emissions has to be USA spec
Later versions of this car were made in the USA(in Indiana) so they were converted USA market Legacys.
The 96-99 RHD ones rolled off the assembly line along with the regular LHD in the US they were not converted. They were built to US spec, they just used the necessary RHD parts when building it.
Opps 😉 ‘ole dyslexia…
Here’s one still on the job (as of last summer, at least) in the Wisconsin Northwoods (Minocqua/Woodruff/Lac du Flambeau area). Of course it wouldn’t be an old Leggy without a
littlelot of rust.One more shot…
In 1992 I purchased a 1977 dj5f, directly from the post office in downtown OKC. $950.00. Had to stand in line with the folks buying stamps to pay for it. It had 232 straight six with 727 torque flight. The body was cancerous. Postal mechanic sterred me away from some of the more troublesome jeeps. He also pointed out that older models had the master cylinder mounted under the floor directly in the splash zone of the front right tire. The 77 and later mounted it on the firewall.
I picked the best of the crowd bodywise, that would start and trans didnt slip, although no test drive was allowed, so kinda took my chances. Drive train was rock solid. The body on the otherhand was a rattletrap. I wore ear plugs when driving it, The noise was deafening otherwise. It was my daily driver from 92 until 98. I aquired a 90 gmc shortbed for reasonable price ( read:free) and the tourqe flight had started slipping baddly. Had trouble selling it until I put it on a postal jeep website and then the offers flew in. We had moved back to Texas by then and a man from dallas drove 6 hours from dallas to purchase it for 500 the starter had gone out on it by that time but he wanted it anyway.
I have been searching for another ever since, but with a better body.
Wow – a 232 I-6 and a Torqueflite – that thing must have really flown!
Fun little trucks .
I always wanted one but here in So. Cal. they were $1,500 + so it never happened .
There was a body builder here that bought them surplus , hacked the tops off and re sprayed them in bright primary colors , added ” SAFARI CAR ” decals and sold them for good money…
The U.S.P.S. gave a whole bunch of them to the L.A.P.D. , spare engines and so on , we ran them as parking enforcement vehicles for a few years then they lost interest and stopped maintaining them , eventually all were scrapped as junk .
-Nate
Rural Delivery near me drive regular sedans. Driver sits in middle, steers with left hand and loads boxes our passenger window. Quite scary to see driver in center at a distance.
I have childhood memories of these cars. I can remember seeing these in my small town Ohio neighborhood for many years. I wanted one as a teenager, but quickly moved on to other cars instead.
A neighbor down the street has one of these painted in olive drab as a rolling advertisement for their paintball shooting gallery business. When they brought it up to Michigan from Indiana, it was painted a lurid flourescent orange inside and out. They mostly masked off the glass parts and shot the olive drab paint on top of the orange, but didn’t do any jambs or underhood areas. It’s quite jarring to see the hood open or the sliding door open with that bright orange peeping out from under the olive green.
The idea was to use the car as a mobile billboard was short lived. After a few months driving time it was clear that the DJ was a POS. Multiple breakdowns had rendered it to yard art, which in our neighborhood is a bad idea, as we have some pesky neighbors who call the city on every minor infraction. I helped to tow it to the paintball range, where it now sits as an immobile billboard for the business. It’s something of a landmark, they just tell everyone to turn into the parking lot where you see the camo Jeep…
I worked on a few of these for a friend who was doing a rural route. His usual driver was one that the Post Office had converted to diesel in the early 80’s as an experiment. They must have done a batch as he had the official P.O. parts book for it. Teledyne Continental Litre engine, quite Italian. Plenty of power and if memory serves A904 Torqueflite transmission. His fuel economy was fantastic. A terminal head crack finally sidelined it to parts for the other two gassers he had.
I haven’t seen one of those in many years. Those LLVs have taken over. They are more practical as they can carry more mail, and I get about 5 pounds of junk mail a day. Routes are longer than they used to be, and mail carriers have to work harder. I knew one carrier close to retirement age who had to retire early because he couldn’t handle the increased workload. Mail carriers also don’t have the time to stand there and talk to you the way they used to do.