Fred Williams' Kaiser Jeep FC-170

Fred Williams is from Denver, Colorado and is the very proud owner of this 1964 Kaiser Jeep FC-170. The FC is short for "Forward Control." Fred has this to say about this rare bird Jeep...

The Forward Control jeeps were made from 1957 to 1964 and came in a variety of models. All of these models are considered ugly and contrary to flatfender owners we fc owners are the flatfaced jeepers.

The first forward control models were called FC-150's and were basically CJ-5s with a different body, same wheel base and frame, but a lot more metal. These short wheel based FC-150's are kind of spooky to drive, but imagine a 6 foot bed on an 81 inch wheelbase. Now, that's efficient! Well, soon after, they made a 103 inch wheelbase and called it the FC-170. It had a pickup bed about nine feet long and even came in a dual rear-wheeled version with an 8,000 pound GVW (7,000 for the single rear wheel and 5000 for the FC-150) The 150 had a 4cyl F-Head and the 170 came with a 6 cyl. L Head.

Around '58 or '59 the 150 got a wider track from 48 inches to 57. This was to help with that top-heavy feeling and to keep from falling over on curves. Willys and then Kaiser would build these things pretty much any way you wanted them. Flat bed ore box, dually, 3 or 4 speed and even open-topped, though I've never seen one like that since they sure seem to like rust. These trucks were built specifically for the comercial field, though anyone could buy one. They were most commonly used by farms or the such, forestry, lanscaping, firetrucks, even Jeep tours and golfcourses. It seems that the same holds true for today's forward control and cab-over trucks. They all seem to have a load of mulch in the back about 5 shovels on the sides. Tell me, have you ever seen a new cab-over Isuzu, Ford, Nissan or Chevy out wheelin? Didn't think so. Hopefully, that will get the bug in someone.

I must admit, That driving one of these is a new game unless you have VW bus experience. The FC's don't go very fast and most of the time you don't want them to. The 150 had 5.38 gears and 170 4.88s. You have to learn to drive differently. You get to everything much quicker in an FC because you're sitting in front of the engine and on top of the front wheels. So, expect a thrill. Especially on hills where going down feels like a sure-fire faceplant and going up is all sky.

The Jeep guys tried to pass some of these trucks off on the military and designed 4 models for them; each of which came with a 3 cylinder Cerlist diesel (no, you cant find parts at NAPA). The models included an FC-170 model, a crewcab, like mine with that aluminum top and side facing wooden bench seats in the bed, an ambulance that was just a van without windows, and a van which was an ambulance with windows. All of these were on the 103 inch wheelbase. Most of these came with a 3 speed tranny and powr lok limited slips in their Dana 44 front and Dana 53 rear. Unfortunately, Kaiser was taken over in '64 when the military versions were being built, so production numbers were lost. I'd guess no more than 800-1500 were ever built; if that. The van version was probably the rarest. Willys also made a civilian van version, but only about 2 or 3 prototypes, and who knows if they ever survived.

Check out all the details on Fred's FC-170 in Reader's Rides.

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