So ugly it's cute. That's the way Glen Burgess describes his restored Jeep® Electruck, or DJ-5E. Glen has a great Jeep DJ-5E restoration project, of perhaps the last surviving model of the 352 manufactured, one of five sold to Canada Post. The 1976 factory original electric postal truck was found by Glen in a farmers field in Ontario Canada. The restored Electruck weighs nearly twice the weight of a gas-powered Jeep DJ-5 because of the heavy lead-acid batteries. Interestingly there was a recall on the 1975 model.
AMC worked with Gould on a 20-horsepower compund wind DC Motor and two 27 volt batteries for a total of 54 volts. The vehicles were capable of attaining 4o mph for up to 29 miles. The United States Postal Service (USPS) ran a Route Profile Analysis to determine suitability of electric postal delivery vehicles and it was favorable. Interestingly Taylor-Dunn company already has an Electruck® that can reach speeds of up to 25 mph and provide over 40 miles in range. Taylor-Dunn trademarked the Electruck name in 1994. We'll have to see if the next generation of Jeep Electric Vehicles are able to find their way back into the service of the USPS.
