The Dodge Power Wagon

The Dodge Power Wagon is the story about a truck “too tough to stop” in the formidable jobs of war –  and now – rugged enough, and with power to spare, for the stubborn jobs of peace.

That’s a nice tag line that I wish I could take credit for but it comes from a Dodge promotional film from the late 1940’s. As the story goes many returning G.I.’s couldn’t find an equatable vehicle to the Power Wagon in terms of reliability and toughness. They wrote letters to Dodge for years hoping to that their voices would be heard. Ultimately they were successful when engineers decided to redesign the body lines for consumer taste and add a seat cushion cab. Seriously, that’s all they did. With little vision and very little expectations of success (quoting the film again) Dodge began the grand experiment.

All across the country the Power Wagon became a success anywhere regular trucks had failed. Obviously the folks at Luber Homes were ardent believers in the PW as they had no less than four trucks up for auction last month. Most of them were in poor shape but when it comes to a Power Wagon looks are purely cosmetic and really not necessary for optimal function.

In the extremely rare instance that my video left you wanting more check out the official Dodge produced film that I referenced earlier by clicking here.

This entry was posted in Famous Trucks and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to The Dodge Power Wagon

  1. Scott S. says:

    I purchased the two better power wagons at this auction and am presently working on getting the flat bed one running. I plan to bring it to the CNY annual truck show on July 9th at longbranch park.

  2. Glenn says:

    Do you have any more I need cabs hoods rad grills 225 776 6060

  3. Kyle says:

    Wow! I just ran across this video, and I bought the one on the right (with the service body). It’s pretty distinctive, and I was amazed to see it in the YouTube sidebar for another video I was watching!

    The truck’s in rough shape, but I wanted a project. Current priorities are the wheels, fuel system, rear driveshaft, glass and weatherproofing, and redoing the electrical system. Engine’s seized, carb needs some work, shocks and springs will need to be replaced, but the frame’s in great shape and it still steers and rolls quite easily despite the front left tire being essentially non-existent. With all the work I need to do, realistically, I don’t expect I’ll be done with it for a few years. But I’ve done some work on it already and will be tearing into it in earnest over the summer. I fully expect I’ll be able to get it back on the road again given enough tinkering time – it just needs some TLC.

    Thank you for posting this video! It was very very cool to see my truck.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.