BIG DAWG PICKUPS

The original off road Dodge. My 1918 WW1 light repair truck built by Dodge Brothers. No electrical system, hand crank only, kerosene lights for the battle field, acetylene spot light. It carried 5 boxes of tools for repair and maintenance including a vise and chain hoist. 6 known to exist out of about 1200 built.

 

I would really like more details about that great looking truck. As you can tell I am a little biased in favour of these old Dodges!

 

I've had a few old Dodge pickups.
This one is my current 1949 Dodge pickup.

Its on a Dakota 4x4 chassis, has a efi 5.2 (318), has a 46RE (727 OD) auto trans, 3:55 gears. It gets driven year around and has logged around 30,000 miles since June 2022.


Gauges are Speedhut. The "new" dash has about 1500 miles on it.

That 1918 Dodge is COOL!

I had a 58 that I managed to get a motor & trans into, but my wife's youngest brother wanted it, so my wife persuaded me to sell it to him cheap. Then he conned his other brother in law to paint it for him cheap. Then he sold it 2 weeks later. That was the last vehicle my wife tried to persuade me to sell to anyone.

 

Long, long gone, but it was fun when I had it almost 40 years ago

 

Had to post this one from my past too. It was really a Big Dog, my kids called it Big Blue!

Big Blue was a work truck. It was a 50 Dodge (started as a 2 ton truck) on a short box 80 Dodge 4x4 chassis, 360 ,727, 355 gears. Notice the roof of the car parked on the other side of Big Blue? Big blue was over 8' high at the top of the roof, the back 1/2 of that 360 was under the firewall, the cab is lifted 6" above the frame, I didn't want to cut the firewall. It pulled my car trailer, hauled scrap to the scrap yard, plowed the snow off my driveway, a work truck in any sense of the word. For over 12 years it did everything (at 10 mpg) I expected it to do, and I expected it to do everything. Even won a trophy at a car show once!

Big blue gave up its life to save mine, in a head on crash @ 30 mph in Oct, 2011. Big blue was replaced with a Dakota 4x4 (years before the current truck). The car on the trailer became its daily driver summer replacement, some of the insurance payoff from Big Blue was used to build it.

 

Way effing cool!
When I was younger it did not appreciate real early stock cars and I am so sorry it took me to get into my 40s to fall in love with teenies and a military one is even cooler.
Edit: I too am a little biased for old Dodges
Here is my 1960, flat 6, 3 on the tree, I don't think the truck has one option. Unfortunately I don't have a newer picture than this but since This picture was taken The fenders have been painted and I replaced the front windshield and back window other than that it's still a full-on farm truck.

 

I'll break up the Dodgers with my 63 C10 Farm Truck from Missouri. It was ordered with and still has at the moment a 292, this is the first year Chevrolet made and offered the 292, other options the Big Back Window the Z61 & Z62 & RG, RG is special option 10 ply tires & HD Wheels, has the Factory Overload Rear Leaf-Springs with HD Coil Springs and had 4.10 gears the 4.10 gears have been replaced with 3.73 at some point in it's farming day's, has HD Front Coil Springs Shocks & suspension, still has the factory spare tire rear mount hanging behind the differential, has the Deluxe Steering Wheel & Deluxe Heater. She still has most all the special ordered options that the original owner ordered for working her on his Missouri Farm back in the 1960's. Last picture is the 63 C10 being trailered from her home state Missouri to Michigan. She's not much to look at right now but some day it will again be in its glory. She's a Old Farm Dog...

1Nimrod

 

Never owned one, but always thought the old power wagons were as cool as can be.

 

What about Studes, Jeeps, Internationals, and other weird stuff?

There is a zone in the configurability manufacturers design into truck platforms (do they still do that? it seems anomalous today) where the line between pickup truck and heavy goods vehicle becomes blurred. There is a lot of potential in that zone. And where it gets interesting is where, as some manufacturers developed heavy trucks from pickup cabs, other heavy truck cabs are crying out for a pickup truck to be back-developed from them. I've wondered about an American-style full-size pickup derived from a Mercedes-Benz Kurzhauber type. Others have had the same idea, but the results were too 21st-century for my taste, so I'm not linking.

Another contender would be the '60s/'70s Toyota FA truck:

(here with George, Western Cape plates)

 

When I was a kid, my neighbor had a 1954 civilian Power Wagon like that. I got to drive it a few times...I liked the tag on the dash that specified maximum speed in each gear/transfer case setting, it could get up to 4 mph in low low. And only 45 in high high.

I guess he should have hung on to it for another 45 years, they're worth something now. Back then it was a $1500 truck on a good day.

 

I have never seen a Toyota truck that was bigger then a small pickup!
I believe the only car company that is still building trucks larger then a 1 ton is Ford, and I suspect there are not many parts shared with their car line. Past the 1/2 ton mark, lots of things change, then things change again when the capacity gets past the 1 ton line.
Dodge built big trucks up to 1978, but most truck parts were truck only specific after the mid 60s, and almost everything over 1 ton was truck only parts.
I believe Chevy put their name tags on big trucks up to about the mid 70s as well.
A few of the big truck companies built pickups, International and GMC (GMC pickups were rebadged Chevy pickups), and possibly a couple more but those seemed to end in the mid 60s or early 70s as well.
My big blue 50 Dodge pick up shown above started life as a 2 ton truck. This is what my son saw.

This is what I brought to my shop.
The cab and hood are the same as a 1/2 ton pickup, the differences in height between the bigger frames and fenders was made up in the height of the running board's vertical pieces under the doors. There were 3 different front fender set ups, the 1/2 ton had smaller wheel openings in the fenders and no bolt on extensions. The 3/4 ton had larger wheel openings that were between the big truck shown in the picture and the much smaller 1/2 ton fenders, and also had different bolt on fender extensions then the big trucks had. Dodge also offered larger then 2 ton trucks as COE (Cab Over Engine), with those all the sheet metal ahead of the cab was COE specific. When I built Big Blue, I modified the big truck fenders and "shrunk" the big truck bolt on fender extensions.

 

Chevy would beg to disagree with you...

 

Is this renewed venture back into big trucks from Chevy? How long have they offered that big of a truck?

I don't follow anything modern any more.

 

super!!

 

They quit in 2009, then stared up again in collaboration with Navistar in 2019.

I don't either, I had to look it up.

 

This Power Wagon can get the job done and look REAL GOOD doing it!

 

Desert Power Wagon builds a look alike
https://www.desertpowerwagons.com/
A little pricey but cool, I saw a 90 something Dodge someone gave a Power Wagon Treatment to, looked good wish I had a photo.
Dan

 

I worked at Wolfis Standard Station as a teenager/young Dad the owner John Wolfis bought a new 1977 3/4 ton Power Wagon then added on a new Canfield Boom, it was one cold-blooded V8, but once warmed up nothing could hold her back, we picked-up hundreds of stranded vehicles on I94 and around Portage MI, it was a very dependable Truck and a power house.

Dustin
(1Nimrod)

 

My first new vehicle ever. 2025 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Z71.

 

I bought this '53 Ford F100 4x4(Marmon Herrington conversion) several years ago, but never did anything with it. Pretty rare truck, seems very few 1/2 tons were built. Always had a soft spot for vintage 4x4's.....

 

1970 IH.

 

This is the one I got to replace the Dodge. I kept it a few years, then the twins came along, and sold it and got a 66 Suburban to replace it.

 

These were my trucks from 1977 to 1980…wish I still had everyone of them, especially the 1974 Power Wagon (318- 4spd) and the 1977 short box (built 440hp) and the…….all of them damn it lol

 

For some history, these trucks were built in about June of 1918. The manual wasn't printed until August, and we all know nothing happens in the military without a manual. I do not think many made it to France before the war ended in November but I do have a few pictures of them on the battle field. Most were given or sold to forestry use or National Guard units, etc. Mine wound up in a military camp for the 28th Inf. at Mt. Gretna, Pa. about 15 miles from here. I spoke to a gentleman that lived in this camp when he was a kid. His father used to use this truck and he remembered riding in it when he was 5 years old. I took him a ride right after his 93rd birthday which was cool as hell. 3 of the ones known are in military museums, 3 are in private hands. There was at least one on Eisenhower's cross country tour on the Lincoln Hiway in 1919.

 

I've only ever had Dodge pickups or vans. I bought my 1st Dodge pickup from my dad around 1975, it was just a 65 3/4 ton Camper Special (they were slightly more heavy duty then a standard 3/4 ton pickup, had a few rare truck options). It had the old Poly 318, and a granny gear 4 speed. That old truck was in pretty rough shape, but I needed a truck at that time. Back then trucks had to pass a safety inspection every year. I managed to get it through 3 inspections (the first one was right after I bought it), but the guy that passed it the last time told me not to bring it back again. About the time it was due again, I traded it even up for a 4 speed Dodge car. We both got what we needed at the time.

Since then, there have been a lot of Dodge trucks pass through my hands, I bought and parted out a lot of trucks (and cars) between 1980 and about 2020. Picture taking was not a big thing in my life, and a couple computer crashed eliminated several of the few pictures I had. A few of those truck have been my hot rods, those have been posted on other threads here.

 

My company service truck.