John Wichman's moose buggy more closely resembles that of Jeep's original inception, but barely. An original CJ-10 body (used as an airport tug mostly, never sold as private transportation) was fitted onto a 31/44-ton Chevy frame. Inside the framerails, John's got a big 454ci with a Holly TBI fuel-injection system that sends power down to a TH350 tranny spinning an NP205 transfer case.
John kept his cab more original inside, which is just fine for us. The steel dash was laid out so nicely from the factory, there's hardly any reason to modify it. John did fit it with a few extra gauges and switches, but most of it is as it came from Jeep. Even the original specs placard is still above the glovebox.
Up front, John triangulated the upper and lower links so he didn't have to use a track bar. Normally, this would give some bumpsteer if it had a crossover steering system, but John did away with any hard linkage and went straight to a P.O.S. full hydraulic steering system. That four-link grabs onto a Dana 60 front axle, also fitted with 5.13 gears and a Detroit Locker, and floated by coils on custom coil buckets and bumpstops that retain the coil when fully flexed out.
Once the trail put Brook's buggy in a more accommodating position for our pictures, we got the chance to check out what he put together. Under the front is a Dana 60 with 35-spline stub shafts, drive flanges, welded U-joints, a Lincoln-locked diff, and 4.10 gears. It's fitted with a P.O.S. full hydraulic steering system and custom hysteer arms to carve those big tractor tires. A front radius-arm suspension was utilized with 14-inch King coilovers to help the big buggy flex. It's attached to the original '76 Chevy frame that has had generous amounts of tube welded to it for the exoskeleton. Taking all that power from the 513 Caddy motor is a TH400 tranny with an Art Carr full manual reverse valve body to give Brook the utmost in control and some compression braking to boot. Behind the tranny you might notice that Brook flipped his NP203 transfer case upside down and used a WMS doubler kit to reduce gear ratios even further with a flat-mounted NP205 (of course with 32-spline outputs).
On the trail we found one little mud hole we bribed Brook to romp through. This isn't really what his buggy was made for, but we'd ask a guy in a golf cart or a combine to hit the same mudhole if we thought it were possible. Brook just took the bait, and made a mighty splash to boot.
John built an exoskeleton around the CJ-10 body and Chevy frame to keep that rare body in one piece above the 44-inch Swampers on 15-inch rims. In back of that cab there's enough room for gear or the occasional moose, should one drop onto it. A custom smokestack exhaust also resides in back of the cab to give this moose buggy a real work tug look. And just because this CJ-10 isn't tugging planes anymore doesn't mean that its work is done. The exocage has mounts for a Gin pole to do some logging with. Does your 4x4 have one of those? A 14-bolt axle with 5.13 gears, a Detroit Locker, and homemade disc brakes sits under a leaf-sprung rear done with a shackle flip to keep the springs a little flatter for a better ride.