CarBrandLogos archive · Dodge · 1945

DodgePower Wagon

The army's four-wheel-drive truck, demobilised and sold to farmers.

Photo: Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA · CC BY 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in Dodge history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Dodge Power Wagon, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Dodge had built the WC series in enormous numbers for the US Army, and when the war ended it had the tooling, the parts supply and a generation of men who had driven the things across three continents. The Power Wagon, launched for civilian sale in 1945, was the obvious next step: the military chassis and driveline under a civilian cab and a pickup bed.

Dodge Power Wagon · Bachcell at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

That made it the first mass-produced four-wheel-drive pickup available to the general public. It had a ladder frame, live axles on leaf springs, a two-speed transfer case and a flathead straight-six — 230 and later 251 cubic inches — with V8s arriving later in the run. Crucially it also offered a power take-off, front, centre or rear, so the truck could run a winch, a saw, a pump or a generator. For a farm, a well-drilling outfit, a forestry crew or a rural fire service, it was a mobile power station that could reach the job.

Dodge Power Wagon WM-300 · dave_7 from Lethbridge, Canada · CC BY 2.0

In production

It changed remarkably little for decades. Civilian production of the original ran to 1968 in the United States and to 1980 for export and specialised markets, by which time the design was three decades old and still selling because nothing else did the job as simply.

1963 Power Wagon ambulance · USAF official photograph by Senior Airman Dillon White · Public domain

Legacy

Dodge revived the name in 2005 as a heavy-duty off-road trim of the Ram, which carries the badge today. The originals, meanwhile, have become collectable, and a small industry exists to restore them.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1945–1980

Engine

230 cid Chrysler flathead engine

Technical specification

The Power Wagon, in detail.

Production: 1945–1980 (original); 2005–present (Ram HD)
Class: Full-size pickup truck
Layout: Front engine, four-wheel drive
Engine: 230 cid Chrysler flathead engine; Flathead Straight-six engine; I6; 251 cid Chrysler flathead engine; Flathead Straight-six engine; I6; 318 cid Chrysler LA engine; LA V8 engine; V8 360 cid LA V8
Assembly: Warren, Michigan, United States
Manufacturer: Dodge (Chrysler)