Jeep Dispatcher
The Dispatcher was the two-wheel-drive member of the Universal Jeep family, sold as a low-cost runabout and light delivery truck and, above all, as a mail carrier. It began as the flat-fender DJ-3A and was replaced in 1965 by the CJ-5-based DJ-5, which the U.S. Post Office bought in huge numbers until production ended in 1984.
Generations, newest first
DJ-5
Jeep Dispatcher 100 (DJ-5 and DJ-6)
The DJ-5, sold as the Dispatcher 100, put the round-fender CJ-5 body on a two-wheel-drive chassis and replaced the DJ-3A in 1965, with a long-wheelbase DJ-6 alongside. After the Post Office picked it over the Ford Bronco and International Scout in a 1968 trial, it became the standard American mail Jeep, with right-hand drive, an enclosed steel body, sliding doors, and an automatic gearbox. Each new engine and transmission pairing got a new letter, from the Chevrolet-powered DJ-5A of 1968 to the AMC-powered DJ-5M of 1983 and 1984, and AM General built it after 1971. A small batch of battery-electric DJ-5E Electrucks went to cities with bad air. The Postal Service chose the Grumman-built LLV as its successor in the mid-1980s.
Willys F-134 Hurricane F-head I4 · Dauntless 225 V6 (Buick design) · Chevrolet 153 I4 · AMC 232 I6 · and 5 more
Open body · Soft top · Enclosed steel delivery body with sliding doors (postal) · Long-wheelbase DJ-6
DJ-3A
Jeep Dispatcher (DJ-3A)
Willys's first two-wheel-drive Universal Jeep paired the flat-fender CJ-3A body with the L-head 134 four, a column-mounted shifter, and a Spicer 23 rear axle. Launched in the fall of 1955 as a 1956 model, it was sold as a cheap runabout and delivery vehicle in open, soft-top, and steel hardtop forms, including a version built for mail routes. From 1959 the brightly painted Surrey aimed it at resorts and rental fleets. Sales were modest, under 3,000 a year in the factory records that survive, and the CJ-5-based DJ-5 replaced it in 1965.
Willys L-134 L-head I4
Open body · Canvas half or full top · Convertible soft top · Surrey · Steel hardtop delivery body with sliding doors