My dad has a thing for old army vehicles so I grew up driving them. We had a 42 Ford GPW (typical WW2 Jeep) that we restored that was pretty cool, but it wasn’t much fun to drive. Way too cramped and uncomfortable.
The later Vietnam era M151 jeeps (also made by ford) were way more fun. They have an independent suspension (more or less A arm style) that really handles rough terrain well. Not much use for rock crawling as they didn’t have low range and a locker was never made for the differentials, but still a blast to drive. I put thousands of miles on one exploring the old logging and mining roads around north Idaho.
I was just back in Idaho last month and was able to take one of the m151s (in the pic) for a spin again. I’m not getting rid of the TJ any time soon, but it’s amazing how fun these are.