This is a familiar sight in my neighborhood, as this old Dodge has been living at this house for about 15 years, along with its owner Scott. It gets used hard, as Scott cuts and salvages old and downed trees, and similar odd jobs along those lines. The 3/4 ton Dodge is his faithful companion, and we always wave to each other when I’m driving my old ’66 F100.
The trailer made out of an old Datsun pickup bed is a somewhat more recent arrival here.
And in the driveway sits a classic old-time Eugene-mobile, a VW T2 bus whose backside is slathered with bumper stickers. And appropriately enough, it has a slab of wood for its rear bumper. It’s not the only T2 in the ‘hood, but the number of T3s is over the top. Stay tuned.
Nice bus, would like to see a closer shot so I can see the stickers. I always get a kick out of that, since sticker slathering is relatively uncommon here so it’s more amusing than anything.
Are bus prices as crazy in the PNW as they are in Toronto area? Anything half decent is advertised at $20k and $10k will get you a rusty T2 with a side order of hopelessness.
I’m surprised that Datsun 520 bed didn’t rust out before the rest of the truck even in Oregon.
These early version (72-79?) Dodge D series trucks have just about gone extinct here in Rustopia. It was a shame that the bodies weren’t built better on these.
Rust doesn’t discriminate. In the Chicagoland area all trucks rusted pretty equally (Harvesters and Toyotas excepted). The Dodges seemed to disappear quicker because they never sold well. Rare from day one.
I had a ’74 D200 Club Cab in that same color back in the ’80s. One tough truck. I sold it when the transmission went south . . . but I shouldn’t have.
These Dodges always make me smile, sadly I no longer see the couple that were regular visitors to my ‘hood.
Even with 3/4 ton gear, this thing rides lower to the ground than today’s 1/2 tonners, while the styling is clean and purposeful – one of the best designs of the Engel era.
Plus whether it’s got a slant six or a 383 under the hood, it will run forever; ditto on the transmissions.
Thanks to CC, I realized how closely the ’72 D Series shared certain styling and exterior trim design details with the then new Plymouth Satellite. I thought the wheel arch design looked clean and modern on the Satellite. For a couple years, at least. Didn’t think it translated well to a pickup. I found the Dodges didn’t look as masculine as Fords. Nor as clean and modern as the Chev pickup design for 1973. Ford and GM had better two tone paint combinations as well.
I thought the Dodge pickups looked too generic, and were already looking dated by 1975/1976. When in fact, Chrysler was just breaking in this exterior design.
Excellent point. These trucks also exhibited the fuselage-like barrel sides from the B body cars too. Unfortunately, the 71 B body’s flimsy-feeling body engineering translated as well. I always saw it as a shame that Dodge didn’t do a new truck line in, maybe, 1968 when their bodies felt more sound.
These never looked better than in their first couple of years. But as you note, they never looked quite right in later years when the stylists tried to butch them up.
At the time, I thought the Dodge medium sized trucks looked better than the pickups. Especially in their better defined, and more aggressive, wheel arch design.
Not surprising, the Dodge medium trucks were even more rare and less competitive with Ford and GM, than the pickups. They did seem to be popular for farm use.
Better pic…
The ’74-’77 Dodge D-series mediums were solid trucks, but they were held back by Dodge’s poor commercial truck dealer network and a lack of a diesel engine option. These trucks were dropped in the U.S. and Canada after the 1977 model year so Dodge could build more vans and motor home chassis at the Windsor truck plant. These medium duty D’s continued in production in Mexico until 1993.
So can we call these ‘Fuselage Trucks’ then?
I see where you’re going there. I don’t quite agree. I always felt Dodge had a cleaner body than Chevy through the 70s, 80s and a bit of the 90s.
The Army used both 3rd generation Dodge and 3rd generation Chevy pickups as MP trucks on some physical security posts.
For some reason known only to the GSA planners, all the Dodges were equpped with a slant six while all the Chevys had a 350.
As an officer, I didn’t have to worry about trying to catch someone. I didn’t mind the Dodges. My duty MPs on the other hand all strongly preferred a Chevy. Imagine that. A young man (at this post and time, MPs were mostly male due to the mission) preferring a more powerful vehicle.
Even though I didn’t mind the Dodges, I have to admit they were real dogs with the smog choked slant six. I had a pre-smog slant six Valiant in college that would have run circles around these later engines. The slant six was an engine that seemed to suffer more than most with smog control devices. Absolutely zero performance and very cold blooded to boot. With the big Federal blue light bars of the time, I recall top speed on a long straightaway being a hair over 80 mph. Took forever to get there too.
Naturally the 350 Chevies were much better performers. However, physical security posts rarely required high speed driving and that was where the trucks were primarily used.
The Dodges did have a couple advantages over the Chevies. The government bought both Dodges and Chevies as strippers. No power steering, brakes or anything other than an automatic.
I always considered the Dodges easier to steer and the rear brakes didn’t seem to lock up as easy as the Chevies. You’d never use the word “handling” in a sentence with either vehicle, but the short wheelbase Chevies were more of a handful during slippery conditions or off the pavement.
The other advantage I appreciated on the Dodge was that you could shut off the heater/vent fan. The Chevies were wired so that the fan always ran. Since the fan motor could interfere with the mobile IDS (Intruder Detection Systems) used on certain high security posts, you always had to shut down the engine for certain ground surveillance modes.
However, at the end of shift, even the worst beat-to-hell POV I ever had offered a more pleasant drive back from the station to my BOQ.
A little piece of advice is to not try to figure out the mindset of the GSA procurement folks as you will wind up pulling your hair out trying to figure it out as there really is no rhyme or reason trying to figure them out.
Case in point, after going to Lincoln tech for auto repair and starting out my auto repair career, I quickly tired of it and went back to school for a degree. While in school, I worked full time at USDA and went to night school.
One day in 2006 the person in charge of that GSA location, asked me if I would go with her to the local Chevy dealer to pick up 2 cars that had been ordered. I jumped at the chance to do so. The 2 vehicles in question were new Chevy Trailblazer SS with the 6.0 V8. It seems that somebody originally ordered them from the factory with certain specs and canceled the order after they had been made. So GM offered them at a big discount to the US Government over a regular Trailblazer
This Dodge is reminding me of the unusual colour scheme Bell Canada used to brand their Dodge pickup trucks in the 1980s. From the bed forward their trucks were silver, with a navy ‘Bell’ logo. While the bed was navy blue. Even with brand new trucks, they looked accident damaged with their mismatched front and rear. Can’t find a pickup online showing the livery. Here’s a medium duty International.
I love the 1979 Light & Medium Duty Dodge trucks .
I bought one used and so loved it I began to buy, refurbish and resell them, never had a complaint nor one come back .
My Brother still has the 1979 Dodge Crew Cab long bed service body truck he bought in about 1989, it still runs strong and works harder than any comparable new truck .
-Nate