by Amy Mattinat
Yes, there are Jeeps that Swim!
They drive on the road right into the water and float away being propelled by a propeller!
Back in 1941 during WWII the US Army decided it needed a swimming jeep (known as a SEEP - Sea Jeep) to ferry the big wigs to and from ships off-shore so they could direct the battles. They built about 13,000 of them.
Only…. out in the field they got stuck easily in the mud, and tended to tip over and sink in rough waters. Instead of fixing the problems the US Army gave most of them to Russia. For more history you can to Wikipedia.
Anyways… one of the automotive technicians that works at my shop Auto Craftsmen hangs out with a group of like minded WWII buffs, who enjoy finding old jeeps, tanks, big guns, amphibious jeeps and restoring them. The Crew has been working on this Seep for a while now. The engine had to be rebuilt, various parts hunted down and it was painstakingly put together and painted. Looks Great!
I had the honor of being invited to view the maiden voyage and go for a ride if it didn’t sink.

Last Sunday morning I got a tour of the groups “toys.” They had two buildings filled with thousands of parts & pieces (supplies) and numerous vehicles and big guns. I wanted to ride in them all… but today was all about the baby duck.
I followed the Seep down the road to a small lake. They monkeyed around with it for a while making sure it was “just so” and once they were ready, they jumped in and headed for the water.

Jim is sitting in the passenger seat. He does not like the water much and claims that he sinks like a rock… but he rebuilt the engine and wanted to make sure it was running well.
Some may say these are brave men to take the first ride. When I watch ‘the boys’ do these kind of things I call it “brute strength an ignorance.”
They drove around in a circle for a bit and I could see Jim had that funny look on his face that usually meant “we have a problem here.” He kept looking down and was waving his arms about.
Jim had opened the hatch that led to the transmission area and noticed that we’re taking on water Caption!

If you look closely you will notice that the boat-jeep is leaning a bit to the right.

Those of us on shore watched in amusement as they quickly headed to dry land. When they pulled onto the ramp we noticed a deluge of lake water coming out the bottom of the Seep.

Seems that someone had neglected to put in that last plug. But that did not stop them. They jumped into a pick up, raced back to the shop to bring back the ‘box filled with various sized plugs’.

Of course they found just the right size, plugged up that major hole and jumped into the jeep and drove it back into the lake.
This time there were no problems and it went in and out of the lake all afternoon giving each of us a turn to drive into the water.
Would you jump in the Seep and go driving into the lake?