David EilersOctober 26, 2017

Trencher's First Appearance?

This photo from the October 1954 issue of Kaiser Willys News got me thinking. Anyone know when the first jeep trenchers were manufactured?

CraigInPAOctober 26, 2017 at 1:38 PM
Auburn made trenchers in the 1940's. The earliest jeep-a-trench I've seen has been a '53. I suspect there were earlier ones.
LewOctober 26, 2017 at 2:02 PM
May be a dumb question, but in and 800' ditch there are likely to be obstacles. Is there any capability to bend the line at all with a trencher like these?
BobOctober 26, 2017 at 2:53 PM
Well I've seen them on '46 Jeeps. The first ones had a manual wheel to lower and raise the boom. I suspect you could do a very gradual bend with them, but not much.
David EilersOctober 26, 2017 at 4:23 PM
Thanks guys! It turns out I had the answer already. A 1947 Willys Overland industrial equipment book included a category for "Ditchers", the only one of which was Auburn's Jeep-A-Trench. So, I'm not sure why the article above made such a big deal out of the trencher? That photo appeared on the front page of the newspaper.