Jeep Pickup Truck History: The Lineage Is Longer Than You Think

The way most people spin it, the Gladiator concept from 2005 spurred the Wrangler pickup fever burning the foreheads of Jeep fans today-leading to the 2020 Jeep Gladiator pickup!-but the pangs have been cutting our gut far longer than that. Jeep produced pickup trucks continuously between 1947 and 1992, when the Comanche quietly dipped out of the market. (The Comanche's platform-mate, the Cherokee SUV, lived on through 2002.) So what kept Jeep from re-entering the truck game before the Gladiator came along? Perhaps Chrysler, after acquiring Jeep in 1987, didn’t want a small pickup overlapping with the Dodge Dakota. Or maybe Jeep simply wanted out of the truck business. Whatever you believe, it doesn't much matter now: The 2020 Gladiator mid-size pickup is a thing, it's real, and there's no more waiting. For a load of the truck's bed-tastic predecessors, we've gathered their history here for you.

Shortly after introducing the CJ series, little more than a civilian-ized version of the wartime Jeep, Willys-Overland brings out the larger "4x4 Pickup" in 1947. Available in 1/2-ton panel-van and 1-ton pickup forms, the truck is initially powered by a 63-hp L-head four-cylinder engine and is about as bare-bones as the CJ.

While modern when first put on sale, the nameless "pickup" becomes decidedly stale by 1965, its final year. A full three years earlier, the more modern J-series comes online (initially, the pickup's replacement isn't called the J, but rather goes by the name "Gladiator"-sound familiar?) There are a few updates over the pickup's nearly 20-year life cycle, including a switch to the Willys F-head four-cylinder in 1952 and the addition of a 115-hp (SAE gross) inline-six in 1957.

Far and away one of the coolest pickup trucks ever made, Jeep's FC-series hits the market in 1957. Engine choices include a 72-hp (SAE gross) L-head four-cylinder in the 3/4-ton FC-150 or a 115-hp inline-six in the 1-ton FC-170. Two wheelbases are offered, but both iterations are solidly stubby in appearance; combined with the FC's endearing happy face and go-anywhere capability (not to mention a bevy of power take-offs and tractorlike attachments), it is a natural mechanical farmhand from day one.

The FC, like the Willys-Overland 4x4 Pickup sold alongside it, goes through life with few updates. A dualie rear axle is briefly offered with the FC pickup but after 1962 is available only on FC chassis cabs. Recently, Jeep sent its fans into a veritable freakout when it created the Mighty FC concept, an endearing and brutally capable experiment that wore cab-over styling evocative of the original FC’s.

Jeep's longest-running pickup, the J-series, first debuts for 1963 and refuses to go out of production until 1987. To put that in perspective, the J-series overlaps with the Comanche for two model years and sees the Jeep name passed from Kaiser to AMC and, 17 years later, to Chrysler. Initially sold with the ludicrously bad-ass "Gladiator" name (now affixed to Jeep's Wrangler-adjacent pickup), eventually that moniker gives way to J-series, becoming the J-10/J-20 in the 1970s.

The J initially comes with a 230-cubic-inch inline-six making 140 horsepower, but in 1964 a low-compression, 133-hp "economy" version of the same engine becomes the truck's base motor. A V-8 becomes optional for the first time in 1965, but the entry-level engine is swapped for a 258-cubic-inch AMC lump good for just 110 horsepower (SAE net) in 1971. The J's front-end styling would (much later) be adapted to the megasweet Wrangler-based J-12 pickup concept in 2012.

The original quad-lamp front end is swapped for a Wagoneer-like piece with a full-width grille in 1970; it is updated again in 1979 with square headlights. The J's famous roof lip-essentially a horizontal visor that sticks out over the windshield-disappears in 1981 as part of an effort to improve fuel economy, and the truck soldiers on for another six years.

If you're beginning to gain the impression that Jeeps tend to be long-running, tough-to-kill workhorses, get ready for the Jeepster Commando. Initially conceived in the late 1940s, slow sales killed the Jeepster by 1951; but, like a cockroach after a nuclear blast, the Jeepster improbably returns in 1967 with mildly revised front-end sheetmetal and the old L-head four-cylinder engine making 75 horsepower. A Buick-sourced V-6 is optional. Apparently, someone at Kaiser-Jeep figures the Jeepster can compete with the contemporary Ford Bronco and the International Scout. Four body styles are available, including a convertible, a roadster, a wagon, and a pickup.

The Jeepster is a curious entry to the Jeep lineup, not least of all because Jeep had other, more modern rides to shill. Nevertheless, this resurrected relic survives for six years before finally being snuffed out in 1973. Before that happens, Jeep actually sees fit to update the Commando's styling for 1972 (the Jeepster part of the name is dropped that same year), but the changes not only made the rig look a lot like an International Scout or maybe a Chevy Blazer, they come too late to stave off its execution.

Look at the mania today over a Wrangler with a pickup bed, and it's easy to pinpoint when it all started. In 1981, Jeep releases the CJ-8 Scrambler, which, like the J-series, is immediately cool from day one. With a five-foot pickup bed fitted to a CJ chassis, the Scrambler can be had with either an 82-hp four-cylinder or a 110-hp inline-six. There are hardtop and softtop variants, too.

The Scrambler's pickup bed isn't so much a bed as it is an open cargo bay that's separated from the cabin by way of the removable top. Regardless, the CJ-8 features a big open bay that, technicalities aside, is a usable and spacious area. Its variety of sticker packages, available white wheels, and our crushing sense of '80s nostalgia put the Scrambler up there with the J-series and the Comanche in our hearts. The CJ-8's life is cut short by the one-two punch of the Comanche in 1986 and the CJ-murdering Wrangler in 1987.

If it were possible to encapsulate the 1980s automotive landscape in a collection of creases, angles, and rectilinear design details, the Jeep Cherokee nails it. Jeep then cranks that dial to 11 with the Comanche, a regular-cab pickup based on the Cherokee that shares the SUV's gloriously '80s angularity, only with a pickup bed and an optional roll bar. It's pretty damn sweet, right?

At its launch, the Comanche boasts three engines, three transmission options, and a seven-foot, four-inch bed. A 2.5-liter four-cylinder with throttle-body fuel injection and 117 horsepower is standard, while a Renault-sourced 85-hp 2.1-liter turbo-diesel is optional. (Yes, a stick-shifted diesel Jeep truck was a thing, though it came during a time when most Americans were still choking on thoughts of GM's terrible diesel cars.) A GM 2.8-liter V-6 engine with fewer horsepower than the 2.5-liter four (but greater torque) stands at the top of the range.

Happily, this mess of engines is cleaned up over time, starting in 1987 with the phase-out of the diesel and the replacement of the sad V-6 with the now-legendary Jeep 4.0-liter inline-six. The six puts out 173 horsepower and 220 lb-ft of torque, and later it is bumped to 190 horsepower. The 2.5-liter four receives more advanced fuel injection in 1991 (for a boost to 130 horsepower), and Jeep adds a short-wheelbase body style with a six-foot bed to the lineup in 1987.

Okay, so we said Jeep's pickup-truck well ran dry in 1992, but that's not entirely accurate. What we meant to say is that Jeep's factory-offered pickup-truck line ends years before the Nintendo 64 came out. Jeep pickups, sourced elsewhere, are far from dead. Take the JK-8 conversion kit, which Chrysler's in-house parts and accessories arm, Mopar, releases in 2011 for the JK-generation Wrangler Unlimited. For a few thousand bucks, owners of four-door Wranglers can purchase the parts necessary to convert their ride into a regular-cab pickup that looks the absolute bomb. Beyond that, there also are things like the hand-built, bring-piles-of-money coachbuilt AEV Brute Double Cab.

After years of rumor and speculation, Jeep's homegrown, Wrangler pickup debuts as the 2020-model-year Gladiator. Only it isn't as "Wrangler-based" as everyone expected. Instead, unlike a modern Scrambler-i.e., a Wrangler with a bed bolted onto the back-the Gladiator pickup was designed from the ground up to compete in the mid-size truck segment. The frame is all-new and tougher than the Wrangler's for class-competitive towing; the front end, though similar to the Wrangler's, is massaged to enhance engine cooling (again, for towing); and there are numerous outdoor lifestyle–enhancing features unique to the truck.