David EilersDecember 12, 2020

Valentine Welder & Mfg Co. Lightweight Jeep Prototype Photos

Nick Oxander found and shared these photos on Facebook. It appears this lightweight prototype was manufactured by the Valentine Welder & Manufacturing Company; yet, this same vehicle has been credited in other places, such as Hemmings and on eWillys, as the KEL Kaiser extra-light jeep. Anyone have an insight into this conundrum?

6 Comments

Bob WDecember 12, 2020 at 8:37 PM
Very interesting!!! I've done some research on the Medium, Light and Extra-Light trucks and don't recall ever seeing Valentine mentioned. I'm thinking they must have been working with Kaiser.... http://www.cj3a.info/temp/2098438.jpg
David EilersDecember 12, 2020 at 9:14 PM
Bob: It's an interesting puzzle for sure!
Mark S.December 12, 2020 at 10:03 PM
Very interesting, Bob's Kaiser photo has same registration number as Nick's. I tried to read the dash tags, but can't quite make them out, maybe one of the computer guys could enhance enough to read them. I did see that the prototype had zero miles on it.
1. David EilersDecember 12, 2020 at 11:11 PM
  Mark, I hadn't noticed that ... I thought the Werner one was slightly different as well (that's one I've seen in person).
Mark S.December 12, 2020 at 10:08 PM
The Werner Museum prototype is slightly different. The display tag says that 37 were originally built. As Bob says, maybe Valentine was modifying or adding equipment to the prototype.
Bob WDecember 12, 2020 at 11:56 PM
Kaiser had several different prototypes. I just posted the photo with the registration number to show that the military considered that one a Kaiser vehicle.