An amusing Postal modification

[Matthew Currie]

Apologies for the rotten photograph. I didn't feel comfortable opening a door of someone else's car, even though it was unlocked. Came across this in Queensbury, NY today. It's a Wagoneer, something around 88 or so, and very very rusty. There was a Mail, Frequent Stops sign on the back, suggesting that this thing is still in regular postal use. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor inconvenient steering wheel location will stay these couriers....

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[Begster]

Ya, I have seen at least two Cherokees like this, I actually know someone who has a '98 XJ that has this mod and drives it on her postal route.

 

[Matthew Currie]

Ya, I have seen at least two Cherokees like this, I actually know someone who has a '98 XJ that has this mod and drives it on her postal route.

I'd never seen a home-made one before. My mailman has a regular right hand drive one, and recently he went down south and bought another to have as a spare.

 

[RichP]

My neighbor whose computers I take care of, she has a right hand drive TJ Sport, lifted, locked and running 32's with solid AR aluminums to keep the brake dust down.
Interesting note, I had a 69 Willys wagon [same as the waggoneer only under the willys name], it had a mirror dash board, I could unmount the gauge panel on the left, pull the blank on the right and swap them over, cable would also flip behind the dash easily, holes were there for hanging the steering wheel as well as the hole in the firewall.

 

[Mutant_Xj]

My girlfriend was trying to get into the post office and needed a vehicle that was rhd or had front bench seats. Looking around online for a rhd jeep I found Kits to do that for the cherokees. They even have levers to use the gas and brake. I thought it was a neat Idea but hideous looking.

 

[rockwerks]

If its a rural route the person usually runs a jeep or other modified that way, My wife used a mazda pickup with a cap on the back, we modified it with racks in the back that pushed the mail forward as a bin was removed. rear window was removed. worked out great

 

[XJourney]

I'd never seen a home-made one before. My mailman has a regular right hand drive one, and recently he went down south and bought another to have as a spare.

Actually That isn't homemade. My mother's coworker used to have one just like that setup. There is a company out there that set those up.

My mother uses a RHD subaru. And has worked pretty good for her.

If any of you are getting into rural mail carrying. Be ready for the maintance costs. My mom goes through a set of brakes ever 20k. And gets about 120k miles out of her cars before the maintance costs more then the payments on a new mail vehicle. Just somethings I learned from watching my mother do 30 years of rural carrying.

 

[rockwerks]

Actually That isn't homemade. My mother's coworker used to have one just like that setup. There is a company out there that set those up.

My mother uses a RHD subaru. And has worked pretty good for her.

If any of you are getting into rural mail carrying. Be ready for the maintance costs. My mom goes through a set of brakes ever 20k. And gets about 120k miles out of her cars before the maintance costs more then the payments on a new mail vehicle. Just somethings I learned from watching my mother do 30 years of rural carrying.

not if you get a decent vehicle to start with a subaru is a POS for heavy duty work........jeep, mini truck etc. These are designed for the Heavy work not a fluff mobile subaru.

we ran the Mazda truck for 6 years and 210,000 miles, changed brakes once a year, changed the oil and lubed it period. Her route was 90% dirt roads and the winters where brutal. ran 29" monster mudders and a lockright in the rear of her 2x mazda truck.

 

[Matthew Currie]

Actually That isn't homemade. My mother's coworker used to have one just like that setup. There is a company out there that set those up.

My mother uses a RHD subaru. And has worked pretty good for her.

If any of you are getting into rural mail carrying. Be ready for the maintance costs. My mom goes through a set of brakes ever 20k. And gets about 120k miles out of her cars before the maintance costs more then the payments on a new mail vehicle. Just somethings I learned from watching my mother do 30 years of rural carrying.

Perhaps the picture doesn't do this job justice, but I think it's likely that this one is home made, though it may be based on a commercial version. The braces are ordinary angle iron. You'll notice that the glove box door is simply removed. The column is standard industrial stock with a standard pulley on it, and pillow block bearings bolted to a bracket. The whole rig isn't even painted. I didn't get a close look at how the pulley is installed on the left, but the column was pretty coarsely hacked.

I see a fair number of true RHD XJ's around here, because they're popular as postal vehicles, but often outlive their postal careers, since, as you point out, there comes a point where maintenance becomes poor economy.

 

[lazarus]

is it just me or does THAT design not allow the wheel to rotate a full 360 degrees? It looks like the angle or cross stock would hit the column before it went a full rotation?

 

[POSJ]

is it just me or does THAT design not allow the wheel to rotate a full 360 degrees? It looks like the angle or cross stock would hit the column before it went a full rotation?

It's a belt not posts.

 

[XJourney]

not if you get a decent vehicle to start with a subaru is a POS for heavy duty work........jeep, mini truck etc. These are designed for the Heavy work not a fluff mobile subaru.

we ran the Mazda truck for 6 years and 210,000 miles, changed brakes once a year, changed the oil and lubed it period. Her route was 90% dirt roads and the winters where brutal. ran 29" monster mudders and a lockright in the rear of her 2x mazda truck.

Actually her subaru is doing pretty good I thought. In fact it just turned ten years old this year. But it has it easy now she just retired last year and only subs once a week. It did alot better then the americans cars she used in the past. She never used a SUV, too tall, always had to lean down to the mailbox.

In my mothers case it isn't the rough roads that kill postal rigs, it is the 600 stops per day that kill the brakes and transmissions. Go 60 miles a day with the brakes getting a 10 second cool down between stops and that the auto tranny never gets into 3rd gear, it just shifts all day long. At my mom's office none of the rigs lasted more than 10 years at a time. But here it is dense rural (400-700 stops per day per route). The winters here are very mild, we only get 3 feet of snow all winter long.

I am sure your wifes situation is different, having 90% dirt roads(less stops per mile) would make the tranny and brakes last longer at the expense of the rest of the chassis. She probably has fewer stops per mile, just alot more miles. 6 years and 210k WOW. Here it is 10 years 120k and 6 sets of brakes and one auto tranny. And in the end you have a car that no one would buy , even though it is a "low milage" car.

Matthew you could be right about being a cheap copy. Looking closer I notice it has a belt, the one I saw was with a LONG bicycle chain. I last saw the set-up was when I was 12 or so(18 years ago) What about the pedals?

 

[RichP]

It has been a few years since drivers ed in HS, back then we not only had the classes our junior year as part of health and physed. Once we got our permits in NJ at 17 we were put into the drivers ed driving course. Those cars, all three of them in our HS, were equipped with dual controls, brakes, gas, clutch, steering wheel. Some only had brake and steering wheel on the passenger side but they were all from the factory like that.

 

[rockwerks]

Actually her subaru is doing pretty good I thought. In fact it just turned ten years old this year. But it has it easy now she just retired last year and only subs once a week. It did alot better then the americans cars she used in the past. She never used a SUV, too tall, always had to lean down to the mailbox.

In my mothers case it isn't the rough roads that kill postal rigs, it is the 600 stops per day that kill the brakes and transmissions. Go 60 miles a day with the brakes getting a 10 second cool down between stops and that the auto tranny never gets into 3rd gear, it just shifts all day long. At my mom's office none of the rigs lasted more than 10 years at a time. But here it is dense rural (400-700 stops per day per route). The winters here are very mild, we only get 3 feet of snow all winter long.

I am sure your wifes situation is different, having 90% dirt roads(less stops per mile) would make the tranny and brakes last longer at the expense of the rest of the chassis. She probably has fewer stops per mile, just alot more miles. 6 years and 210k WOW. Here it is 10 years 120k and 6 sets of brakes and one auto tranny. And in the end you have a car that no one would buy , even though it is a "low milage" car.

Matthew you could be right about being a cheap copy. Looking closer I notice it has a belt, the one I saw was with a LONG bicycle chain. I last saw the set-up was when I was 12 or so(18 years ago) What about the pedals?

You would assume wrong miles where right at 95 miles and she did all of one small town and several other outlying areas I believe it was around 600 to 650 depeniding on the season more in summer.

 

[spaulman]

Right Hand Drive Jeeps has a conversion for XJ's. More pics on their site.

 

[Matthew Currie]

Actually her subaru is doing pretty good I thought. In fact it just turned ten years old this year. But it has it easy now she just retired last year and only subs once a week. It did alot better then the americans cars she used in the past. She never used a SUV, too tall, always had to lean down to the mailbox.

In my mothers case it isn't the rough roads that kill postal rigs, it is the 600 stops per day that kill the brakes and transmissions. Go 60 miles a day with the brakes getting a 10 second cool down between stops and that the auto tranny never gets into 3rd gear, it just shifts all day long. At my mom's office none of the rigs lasted more than 10 years at a time. But here it is dense rural (400-700 stops per day per route). The winters here are very mild, we only get 3 feet of snow all winter long.

I am sure your wifes situation is different, having 90% dirt roads(less stops per mile) would make the tranny and brakes last longer at the expense of the rest of the chassis. She probably has fewer stops per mile, just alot more miles. 6 years and 210k WOW. Here it is 10 years 120k and 6 sets of brakes and one auto tranny. And in the end you have a car that no one would buy , even though it is a "low milage" car.

Matthew you could be right about being a cheap copy. Looking closer I notice it has a belt, the one I saw was with a LONG bicycle chain. I last saw the set-up was when I was 12 or so(18 years ago) What about the pedals?

I didn't notice the pedals. I'm not sure if it had any, but I don't know how useful it would be without them, and I didn't look too hard. The version I saw was pretty similar to spaulman's link, but as you can see, they left the left wheel on, and the construction was definitely less finished. It was clear from the contents of the seats that the driver was using the left hand controls when off duty.

 

[motorcityxj]

please explain to this city boy why the post office gives the urban carriers the ford windstar minivans, or the dj5 jeeps or gruman mini postal van like this

Why would the rural carriers not have a postal vehicle at their disposal ?


Me i would have to rock the flatfender if i was a carrier

 

[motorcityxj]

forgot about the little known alaskan postal cj8 that has to be the coolest postal jeep. No sliding doors to gay it up ! arty:

http://www.rockcrawler.com/trailreports/postalcj8/index.asp

 

[Ronbo]

Why would the rural carriers not have a postal vehicle at their disposal ?

Depends on the local postal authorities. My neighbor has to use her own vehicle(30+ year old DJ5, not some sissy Subaru, :laugh3: ), but some San Diego area carriers are supplied vehicles.