Jeep FC fans to celebrate 60 years of the uber-capable oddity

1957 Jeep FC-150. Photos by the author.

Ditch digger. Hay hauler. Plow pusher. Tow truck. Fire fighter. Street sweeper. Like its brethren Jeeps, the Forward Control series of Jeeps filled an almost endless variety of civilian and military roles. Unlike the more recognizable off-roaders, the FCs appeal to a narrower group of enthusiasts who will congregate this summer to celebrate the workhorse’s 60th anniversary.

Despite the existence of a pickup truck in the mid-1950s Jeep lineup, designer Brooks Stevens believed the company would benefit from a second, more compact pickup, just as capable but better able to navigate city streets. As it happened, with sales of both Kaiser and Willys automobiles in the United States winding down, Kaiser-Willys engineers had been searching for new uses for the company’s Jeep lineup and thus new variations, according to Pat Foster’s book, “The Story of Jeep.”

Just adding a pickup bed to the back of the recently introduced CJ-5 wouldn’t provide nearly enough cargo area, Stevens figured, but shoving the cab forward and eliminating the hood – a la the Volkswagen Type 2 – would allow for a decent-sized six-foot bed atop the CJ-5’s 81-inch-wheelbase chassis.

The production model based on Stevens’s concept, dubbed the FC-150 and powered by the company’s F-head 72hp 134-cu.in. four-cylinder, debuted in December 1956 for the 1957 model year. Jeep marketed the FC-150 as a truck that offered “turnpike performance plus off-road traction” capable of one-ton payloads but also – perhaps influenced by Stevens, who just a few years earlier had emphasized safety in his designs for Kaiser-Frazer automobiles – on its safety merits. “Split-second all around visibility is provided with 2747 square inches of cab glass area,” one ad noted. “Easy handling and riding qualities make it the ideal truck for driving to town after the farm chores have been completed.”

With encouraging early sales coming in, Jeep then introduced the larger FC-170 on a 103.5-inch wheelbase and powered by the same 115hp Super Hurricane 226-cu.in. L-head six-cylinder found in the larger Jeep trucks and in the Kaiser-Frazer cars. In addition to more power and more cargo space, the FC-170 also offered greater capacity with a GVW of up to 9,000 pounds.

While Stevens pitched the idea of a six-door minivan based on the FC, Jeep only offered the two trucks as pickups, with stakebeds, or as a cab and chassis – to civilians, at least. Starting in 1962, Jeep produced four variations on the FC-170 for the U.S. Navy – a pickup (M-676), a double-cab pickup (M-677), a van (M-678), and an ambulance (M-679) – all powered by a Cerlist three-cylinder diesel engine.

Sales of the FC ended in 1965, and though Jeep tantalized FC enthusiasts in 2012 with the JK-based Mighty FC Moab concept truck, the company hasn’t returned to the forward control format in the 50-plus years since.

That hasn’t stopped a core of enthusiasts from seeking out FC variants that haven’t been worked into the ground, among them Dan DeVries of Lake Mills, Iowa, who agreed to take over the FC Jamboree after fellow FC enthusiast Dan Horenberger died in November. Horenberger, according to DeVries, only hosted one such gathering but intended it to be an annual event.

The Jamboree, scheduled for September 8-9, would be the second nation-wide annual FC-focused event, alongside Jesse and Andrea Ybarra’s FC Roundup in Phoenix.

For more information about the FC Jamboree, visit the event’s listing on Facebook.