Behold the mighty Power Wagon! Nothing can stop it, although it did stop here on this corner a few blocks from my house recently. Perhaps only CC can stop it? Even if it moves on, we will freeze its appearance here for…as long as the CC archives still have a home somewhere. Will that still be the case 50 years from now? Will this actual steel and rubber Power Wagon outlast its digital representation?
So much for the questions. Power Wagons are not really about abstractions; they’re as real and palpable as it gets. Let’s run our virtual hands over this one.
The Power Wagon name is of course legendary, thanks to the original, which was heavily based on the Army’s 3/4 ton WW2 truck. Like Jeep, Dodge figured it might as well try to make some more money from their very profitable war-time contracts after the fighting ended. They grafted on a civilian Dodge pickup cab, and built an eight-foot bed specifically for the PW. The 126″ chassis, 4-speed transmission, transfer case and the 230 CID flat head six were essentially carry-overs, and had more than proven themselves.
Although the original Power Wagon was made until 1968, the name was also used on Dodge 4×4 pickups and utilities. It’s of course long become iconic.
It’s not really any different than the typical 4×4 pickup of the era, with a transfer case and solid axles with raised ride height. Of course this generation Dodge pickups still had solid beam front axles on the 2WD versions too, but they were a typical dropped-center axle to give a lower ride height, as was the fashion back then.
I’m not sure what’s under the hood, but more than likely it’s the LA 318 V8, as that seems to be what most of them have. In its time, that was considered to be more than enough motor for the tasks at hand.
And as expected, it has a heavy duty four speed, meaning a very low first gear. And the ubiquitous saddle blanket seat covers. The instruments are a bit different (and duller) than the ones used in the early years of this generation, which started in 1962. But otherwise not much has changed since then, and not much would until the new generation replaced it in 1972.
Looks a bit like the bed in my ’66 F-100, except in slightly better shape. I’m assuming that from that distinctive light green shade of paint, this was a former US Forest Service truck.
There used to be gobs of green former USFS trucks in town, as the service is big out here, and churns through a lot of vehicles. But they switched to white some years back, precisely because the pea green negatively affected resale values. Now it’s impossible to know if it is a former USFS vehicle or not. I’ll be sorry to see the last of them, but if this is anything to go by, that might be a while.
Now that’s a somewhat different hitch than we see nowadays.
It’s late and I’m powerfully tired, having used my old truck to do some various rental property chores. If you can think of anything else, chime in.
Love it. Want something like this while my shoulders can still handle the steering.
You assume it doesn’t have power steering, eh?
What a sweet old Dodge. For reasons unascertainable, I find myself more heavily attracted to Dodge pickups than those from Ford or GM if considering any time period prior to 2000.
Count me in the minority but this forest service green color is, while maybe not attractive, refreshing and memorable in a good way. It looks great on this Dodge, much better than white would.
I believe ’61 and not ’62 was the 1st year of this generation. I had a ’61 D100 that looked a lot like this but with a different grill and push button transmission.
Dodge may not have been able to pull off the civilized urban cowboy style of truck all that well back then, but when it came to gnarly, hairy-chested work trucks, nobody did it better.
Maybe it’s because I’m weird, but I love the color, and I also love Sweptline Dodge trucks. Every once in a while on my semi-rural commute, I’ll see a heavy-duty Sweptline in very nice shape being used as a sugar beet hauler. As a result, I’m wondering if my retirement job should be driving a beet truck…the oldest one in the fleet, please.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/junkyard/idle-hands-and-the-craigslist-classic-1964-dodge-d300-et-al-daddy-wants-a-stake-truck/
I can, I can, think of something else to chime in with Mr N, and it may be no surprise that it’s irrelevant.
You’re not “powerfully” tired, because that adverb would suggest that your tiredness has great power or strength – and no doubt, it might, but not in that way – but you really mean the adjective “powerful”, though of course, as you (attempted) to apply it here, it was meant as the colloquial adverb powerful meaning “very”.
It being some years since Twain wrote his last work encompassing any regular use of the word in its colloquial adverbial form, I cannot help but admire your adoption of this near-archaism this very day. It’s almost as if you fell back on old learning because you were tired, or something.
Say, there’s a very sweet ole green-ish truck in your pictures here, and it’s nothing if not powerful attractive.
Alas, like Proff. Dr The Don above, I need to try such an obtusely attractive truck before my shoulders aren’t powerful enough, that is, before them shoulders becomes powerful sore from the wheel turning, because without the assistance of power, that there steering is sure powerfully overpowering.
At any rate, to those out there who for a living ever druv them, to you, all power.
What in tarnation is that there feller a talkin bout?
Lord only knows. I don’t read his comments no more, as he clearly doesn’t when he writes ’em.
The problem is, when you use the word “powerful” that way, you sound like Jed Clampett.
Are you trying to tell me how I feel?
Frankly, given how tired I was last night before even starting this post, it’s quite obvious that I was actually quite powerfully tired. In fact, I’ve been genuinely powerfully tired for the past three weeks, ever since I discovered that one of my rentals had a roof that’s been leaking and slowly rotting out the roof decking as well as a whole section of wall below it. And since I had new tenants scheduled to move in, I was powerfully motivated to tear it all apart and rebuild it quickly, which my 67 year old body wasn’t exactly enthused about.
And then I come home and see there’s nothing scheduled for the morning at CC.
But I’ve managed to find a curious new state these past weeks, of being powerfully tired. I’m not exactly a fan of it, but it’s gotten the job done.
So there, Doctor Baum. A new diagnosis for your text books. Or is it Professor Baum? Maybe both. I’m digressing, but my grandfather had three doctorates and was a professor, so when addressing/writing him officially, one had to write: Sehr geehrter Herr Professor Doktor Doktor Doktor Niedermeyer
You make a powerful case.
My appellation only rises to “Dear (No.6)”
And it has a set of Dualmatic hubs, one of the first competitors to Warn’s offerings and of course the classic White Spoke “Wagon Wheels”. Curiously they have the open caps that are supposed to allow access to change the setting on your locking hubs, but good luck doing that with the Dualmatics.
What’s the last option listed on that ad for the red PW? I can’t quite make it out; looks like “pintle mask”. Whazzat?
Pintle Hook:
Right, then!
…What’s a pintle hook?
Old military style trailer hitch.
Thank you! Now I’ll sleep tonight. 🙂
I never noticed Ford script on a hitch. Interesting.
Granted, can’t say I ever studied any markings on ’em. Usually by the time one might be low and close enough to notice that he’s not in the mood.
Also standard hitch for towing multiple trailers with a semi truck.
The only good type of hitch. They swivel. They lock the in the trailer tongue much better than a ball hitch. They are also much more robust. They are also very good offroad.
Sorry, Daniel, I can’t blow the ad up to see better, or find a better one on line. Maybe someone else will have better luck.
Attached is a picture of a very nicely restored Dodge WC-52, the three-quarter ton plus front winch version of the Power Wagon that Dodge built for the Army from 1942 through the end of the war. It was used as a large pickup, or with side benches could carry eight GI’s with all their pack-quite a compact vehicle for that capacity. If Wikipedia is to be believed, Dodge built over 337,000 Power Wagon ancestors during the war in various versions-almost half as many as the ubiquitous Jeep.
I had always just respected them until I learned that Dad was trained in 4 X 4 truck operation on this model out in West Texas near the end of the war, when the Army Air Force still thought they would be bombing Japan from bases in China and would need more truck drivers for the Burma Road. He recalls his month in Texas as a wonderful lark, driving around on sand dunes with his buddies, getting stuck, and winching each other out; the only real danger being the risk of really bad sunburn in those open cabs. Family and friends always remarked that Dad was a very, very good driver on loose roads or in the snow and ice, and now I attribute some of that skill to his month in Texas. Never got to ask him if they also got to drink some Shiner Bock, that would have topped it off.
Of course, your father’s experience of the war may have been different. Dad always considered himself very lucky in that regard, as did we.
Trying again.
Love the look. Who said Virgil Exner didn’t understand commercial vehicles? The ’61-’71 Dodge trucks are so interesting because they started off wild and were successively toned down over the years, particularly the grilles and hoods. This example is from one of the last years that used the original hood with the faux louvers stamped in it. They never lost the beltline dip on the Sweptline box or the funky greenhouse. I am told Dodge Truck desperately wanted to retire this generation of light trucks by 1968 (probably after seeing the ’67 light duty GM trucks) but Chrysler didn’t have the money after redesigning the A and C bodies in ’67 and the B’s in ’68. The project to replace the ’61 style Dodge light trucks didn’t get off the ground until late ’68, and resulted in the new ’72 models.
Raising the question of why Chrysler couldn’t do piecemeal updating, like an IFS setup and some other things underneath the old cab. Ford did pretty much the same by completely revamping the underneath of their trucks before the new body went on for 1967.
I think the real answer is that trucks at Chrysler got lower priority than almost everything else because management didn’t really value them.
Yep, trucks really didn’t become big for them until the ’70’s, and then they got spooked again with the RV crash in ’79.
I do love these trucks, not least because of the incremental changes forced by low priority – new grille this year, new hood two years later. Rather like the Studebaker Lark.
simplicity is blissful. love it.
Thank you Paul for writing a post on this swell looking truck with vintage license plates to boot despite being tired and quite busy. I too will miss the USFS Green and try to photograph every car I find in that color. So far I have found full-size sedans, compact pickup trucks, full size pickup trucks, and full size vans in those colors. I even found a international 3800 in USFS Green in Oregon’s
Illinois Valley. There has to be at least one minivan out there in this shade of Green.
You could’ve been a fine journalist, Paul—putting together an immediately-engaging story against deadlines.
COLOR: I’m sorry to hear Forest Service concerned about resale (and so going to white), ’cause I see a coolness factor in the green.
PAUL THE LANDLORD: Sorry to hear of leak/rot problems and repair headaches…
There’s a similar-vintage PW on eBay right now in CO for $2500. New sheet metal welded in as needed, but engine sitting out at present. Still, the picture is a good kind of imposing (I almost called it a “powerful” image): https://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-Dodge-Power-Wagon-4X4-Manual-Classic-Collector-Pickup-Truck/174182639123?hash=item288e182613:g:pisAAOSwBq9eOyb0
My favorite is my 1957 k100 series 318 with 904 auto mustang front suspension lowered 3 almost done
I’m pretty sure that’s a ’68. The ’69s had a different hood without the fake air vents. Then again, Dodge’s truck production was a bit…flexible…in those years, and they may well have put an old hood a ’69.
I wouldn’t bother with this, except we had a new ’68 D100 Adventurer when I was a kid. Slant six, three on the tree, and the bed was rusted out by 1979.
I drove a 1970 W-200 while stationed in Alaska. Very similar to this except it had the Utiline (Stepside, if you must) bed. It had the 318 V-8, granny low 4-speed, manual transfer case and locking front hubs.
Impossible to keep the door cards screwed to the doors. The overhead of the cab was not fully double walled steel. The interior part looked as if it were trimmed out for a large sunroof, and in this area, on the inside of the outer roof, a patch of non-insulated fabric was glued on. That didn’t last long.
When I rotated out in April of 1973 it was still serving, although with an electrical problem that caused the parking lights to be on all the time the ignition was in the “On” position.
That Dodge truck might be a 1968 not a 1969. I mentionned some changes about the 1969 model at https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1966-dodge-d100-new-old-stock/ like a redesigned dash and the windshield wipers who was now parralel with no more “pick-a-boo” in the middle.
Yeah it’s definitely a 68, grill, hood, entire dash, side marker lamps are all 1968 and different on 1969’s great vehicles I have a 68 D200 Camper Special PS, PB, Auto. 318
Been in upstate NY since new but never seen a winter, salt was was the death of most of these in the north and in not too many years. Great truck and in nice shape for its age
Agreed. ’68 almost for certain. My ’69 W200 has a dash pad that runs full-width of the dash, and a “classier” instrument cluster (but functionally the same.) Judging from the picture, the 69’s had a thinner steering wheel rim compared to the older truck-only wheel, as well. Just as was mentioned, winter was the bane of these trucks with no inner fenders or liners. Before my cab became completely unserviceable, I had reinforced the door posts and hinges, cab mounts, and the rocker panel areas with structural steel so the doors would latch and the floor was supported. I worked for a man whose similar truck had such cab rust that you had to lift the doors up each time you closed them to align the latch with the strike. You’d never get away with that today! You couldn’t kill the mechanical components, however. Both the 318’s and the slant 6’s were unbreakable if given even marginal consideration. I was acquainted with a local farmer who had a D500 of that era (’67 I think) with the slant 6 and the same 4 speed as in the light trucks, with a 2 speed rear axle, and it ran beautifully lugging huge loads of hardwood cordwood with complete reliability until the cab just about fell off the frame. My sense was that the running gear had decades of service still left in it. Interestingly, my 69’s frame is more solid than that of many newer trucks where the sheet metal sometimes outlasts the frame. If I could obtain a clone of my truck as new, I wouldn’t trade it for any new truck I can think of. How many 2020’s will be operable in 51 years?? (the truck might still exist, but the software won’t be available, or the needed version “won’t be supported”!!)
What a great old truck. If I owned a piece of land I’d want one of these – I’d find work for it. Funny thing – this article illustrates the CC effect again. On my lunch break this afternoon I saw a late ‘70’s Power Wagon parked on a side street near my office in downtown Toronto. It was in solid shape, and looked like it got regular use. Needless to say, I grabbed my lunch and went back to work with a smile.