The agricultural four-wheel drive Bernard Cournil built at Aurillac: a reinforced frame of his own from 1960, registered with the Mines as the “Tracteur Cournil” type JA1, and from 1961 the body of folded 2 mm sheet with the steeply sloped bonnet and wings that let a driver see his wheels on a mountain track. Jeep (Dana) axles were the only original parts carried over.
MODEL LINETracteur JABUILT BYBernard Cournil, AurillacPRODUCED1960–77OPERATED INFrancePRODUCTIONAbout 1,200 in the 1960sLAYOUT4 wheels · 80″
The record
Cournil had converted surplus Jeeps for Massif Central farmers since the war — flat floor for milk churns, rear opening, power take-off, hydraulic lift, plough and cutter bar. The JA1 of 1960 turned the conversion into a vehicle of its own: a diesel tractor that could reach 50 km/h on the road, pull a plough and, as a registered tractor, be driven without a car licence. A self-locking differential was offered from 1964–65, the first in France according to Unusual Off-Road Locomotion. Sales were mostly local to the Massif Central and, after 1965, the Basque Country; the Hygiene Department, police and customs also bought them. The firm failed in 1970 and Bernard’s son Alain built 53 more between 1971 and 1977 before the rights were sold.
Research status: draft — identification, dates or figures could not all be pinned down; the summary says what is unresolved.
PRODUCTION RUNAbout 1,200 in the 1960s (Unusual Off-Road Locomotion); 850 by 1972 (TRUCK, December 1978); 53 more in 1971–77
COUNTRY OF ORIGINFrance
OPERATED INFrance
STATUSout of production
RECORD KINDBase model
MODEL LINETracteur JA
FAMILYTracteur JA
WHEELS4
NOMINAL WHEELBASE80″
BODY STYLEPick-up
VARIANTS1
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Body styles & colours
Factory colours
Blue-grey
Codes on hover. Hex values are representative approximations of period paint unless a source states a measured value.
Imagery
No published image yetA rendering impression or a free-licence photograph will appear here once one is published
