Junkyard Gem: 1982 Jeep J-20 4X4 Pickup
The Jeep SJ Wagoneer was built for the 1962 through 1991 model years, by Willys Motors, then Kaiser-Jeep, then American Motors and finally Chrysler. For all but the last few of those years, a pickup version of the SJ was manufactured as well. Today’s Junkyard Gem is one of those trucks, an AMC-built ¾-ton four-wheel-drive J-Series, found in a Wyoming car graveyard with snowplow mount still attached.
The Equality State gets meme-worthy amounts of snow in winter, and four-wheel-drive plow trucks tend to be in heavy demand there. The blade is missing from this Fisher plow assembly, but we can be pretty sure it moved cubic miles of the white stuff during its career.
AMC would sell you a factory-installed Snow Boss plow system for 1982, on your new J-Series, Wagoneer or Cherokee. This truck’s owner went the aftermarket route.
The Jeep SJ pickup began life as the Gladiator, a name revived recently on a Wrangler-based pickup. After that, it became the J-Series through the end in 1988. From 1974 on, the ½-ton Js were badged as J-10s and the ¾-ton ones were J-20s.
This one was sold new in Denver, about 100 miles south of the Wyoming state line.
It still has Colorado plates with 2013 tags, so we can assume it did most of its plowing in the Centennial State.
The American Motors Corporation bought Jeep in 1970, dropping the Gladiator name soon after.
Kaiser-Jeep had been buying AMC engines for its trucks since the middle 1960s (along with 225-cubic-inch Buick V6s with Dauntless badges), so it was easy for AMC to continue bolting in its powertrain hardware once it took over Jeep.
This truck has the 360-cubic-inch (5.9-liter) pushrod AMC V8, rated at a Malaise-y 150 horsepower and 205 pound-feet for 1982. A 258-cubic-inch (3.7-liter) AMC straight-six was base equipment in the J-10.
The AMC 360 stayed in production after Chrysler bought AMC in 1987, with the last ones built for the 1991 model year.
The transmission is the base four-on-the-floor manual with extra-low “granny” first gear. A three-speed automatic was available as an option.
The final J-Series pickups were built by Chrysler as 1988 models, after which they got axed so as not to compete with Dodge pickups.
Go ahead, drop a piano into your J-10!
You Jeep truckers just keep on truckin’ in the snow, don’tcha?
Avoid the embarrassment of destroying your date’s front porch by trading in your tank for a Jeep pickup.
