Copper Range's flagship - In the 1970s, a mining company developed a line of utility vehicles

摘要

General Eisenhower said the jeep, that humble quarter-ton utility vehicle, was one of the tools that helped the Allies win World War II. Dressed in civilian clothes, the Willys Jeep easily found work. Marketed as an industrial workhorse (as compared to today's Jeep, that fun-loving sport-utility vehicle), the Jeep stayed true to its roots, performing a wide array of different jobs, often aided by attachments and modifications. For several decades following the first civilian model, the CJ-2A, new Jeeps could be found working on farms, construction sites and airport runways. It made sense, then, as underground mining methods moved toward wheeled equipment and supervisors grew tired of walking, that modified Jeeps would get some attention. Compact and four-wheel-drive, they could easily maneuver through narrow, low drifts. The conditions were brutal, though. On the job underground, it became evident that while the initial cost of a mass-produced unit might be attractive, mines were formidable foes to the Army jeep's descendant.