I don’t know how it was where you were, but in northeastern Oklahoma in the 1980s, Dodge pickups were never much of a factor until the the Cummins turbodiesel became available for 1989. The Dodge Ram’s new-found popularity that year was due almost entirely to the Cummins engine, and the heavier 3/4 and 1-ton versions appeared almost instantly and everywhere with flatbeds and gooseneck hitches all around Green Country. But back in 1972, Dodge pioneered the Club Cab, the first extended cab pickup. It may not have done much to pull Dodge out of its perpetual distant third place, but it did revolutionize the industry.
Re-engineered for 1972, the D-Series (later renamed Ram for 1981, but still the same basic truck) had most anything a pickup buyer could want, at least in those early years. On offer was a plethora of engines, from slant-6s up to the 400, with the 440 becoming available in 1974. Also new in ’72 was our pictured Club Cab, with extra room behind the front seats for kids or stuff, but not really enough room for too much of both. Happily, Dodge also offered a version with four genuine doors for larger passenger capacity and/or more lockable storage.
(image source vintageadvertisements)
Because of all this, it would appear Dodge had the jump on both Ford and Chevy. Ford introduced their extended cab “Super Cab” in 1974. And amazingly, Chevy and GMC didn’t get an extended cab until 1988. Dodge sales did grow over the previous generation, but never caught up. Including the closely-related, Blazer-like Ramcharger SUV, sales were just under 370,000 in 1975, and Dodge touted impressive-looking sales growth graphs of 237% from 1966 to 1976. But they were still far behind.
Our featured pre-1981 facelift two-tone blue and white Club Cab of indeterminate age (ED: we’ll guess 1974) has obviously led a hard life, but that isn’t letting it be slowed down too much. This would have been a really nice truck when it was new, but I’d guess it was put to work a lot sooner in its life than most modern pickups will be. Can you imagine seeing a new F150 Lariat (which starts at over $35,000) in a nice gated community hauling a load of fill with stakes actually in the stake pockets? (Do new trucks even HAVE stake pockets?) The closest you’ll likely find these days is steaks on the tailgate in a parking lot during a football game, perhaps with video monitors in the dash or headrests.
I don’t know exactly what else caused it, but the Dodge line was simply not viewed as a viable alternative to GM and Ford trucks in the ’70s and especially ’80s. The engine lineup got smaller and comparatively weaker through the years, or at least that is how it was perceived by us Okies. Certainly with the 360 being the top engine in 1988, the Cummins was a godsend the following year. Rather than tout the power of the Dodge, the few people I knew (one of which was a Tulsa cop) with non-Cummins Dodge pickups said one of their main motivations for purchase was that the half-ton Dodge was one of the least-stolen vehicles of any kind at the time. I guess it is generally true that if few want to buy them, few want to steal them.
As I review the pictures of this old Dodge, I still don’t know what it really was about the truck that left Oklahoma cold. It has nice lines, and at least in the case of styling, I would argue it has aged better than its contemporaries, especially in the case of the goofy-looking ’70s Chevy trucks, though the clean ’81 re-style of Chevy’s offering fixed the goof. Dodges certainly didn’t rust like a Chevy, or probably a Ford, for that matter. Or did they, up in the salt belt?
Whatever caused the Dodge not to catch on, I better appreciate the Dodge now than I did, as I suspect do many.
I knew that had to say something like that, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it…oh well.
It is too bad that these trucks didn’t catch on with the public, I found these to be somewhat pleasant to drive, all things considered.
Dodge had a hard time selling their pickups, due to poor quality of construction… When I worked for CalTrans, the state bought Dodge trucks because they were $600 cheaper than Ford or Chevy… Of course, since the repairs were WAY in excess of $600, the state finally got smart, and started buying Fords and Chevys. Dodge had a reputation for “dodgy” quality through most of the 1980′s, mainly trim and windows falling off, and they had a general feeling of “cheapness” compared with the other manufacturers. To this day, I refuse to buy a Dodge truck… “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…”
Didn’t Dodge pioneer the extended/15 passenger van as well?
I never understood the reasoning behind Dodge’s instrumentation packages in the 60′s and 70′s. You had your basic idiot lights, then you stepped up to the gauge package, which consisted of a temp gauge, and ammeter, and an oil pressure idiot light. Never made sense to me. For one thing, the oil pressure is probably the most important engine parameter to watch, and an idiot light that doesn’t come on til the engine hits 7 psi or less is good for nothing but telling you when it’s time to get a new engine. For another, an ammeter runs the full output of the alternator behind the dashboard to get to the gauge. That can be a tad dangerous, if a wire were to break or loose insulation behind the dashboard. And, as to your referring to the 70′s Chevies as “goofy-looking”, I submit, it is all in the eye of the beholder. I happen to think that the 81-87 redesign ruined the looks of a perfectly good truck. But, I’m biased, as my first truck was a 1976 K-10.
I spotted some nice vintage ads of these pick-ups when Dodge introduced the new generation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYkaW_zNEEo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p8zF0OD-44
And since the basic bodyshell was unchanged to 1993, here some vintage ads from the 1980s and early 1990s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ3mcjYCDPw&feature=related (this ad aired in Mexico)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdpPrsNqin8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqs2aXAbTEQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaqGli0DJys&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuIb8oIi5fY&feature=related
These trucks have grown on me with time but they don’t hold a candle to a late 70s F-truck.
Only the full-size Mopars were commonly called “fuselage” designs, but really, every new vehicle from 69-72 had the signature fusey detail: an uninterrupted curve from rocker panel to roof, without the shift in angle that most cars have at the base of the window pillars. The top pic shows this off best.
So, the fuselage era didn’t end until the “Peterbilt” Rams debuted in 1994!
Everybody refers to 1994+ Rams as the “big rig” look or similar today, but back in 94 when the restyled Ram debuted, it was supposed to evoke the look of pickups from the 1950s. Remember, retro was big at that time.
In the 2002 restyle, the grille got considerably taller, the headlights got bigger, and the rear fenders lost most of the sculpting over the wheelwells. IMO, that’s when it really morphed into the “big rig” look.
Everything I’ve read suggests that it was a result of studies that suggested that customers liked the idea of a “big rig” look on their light duty trucks.
I was living in Bartlesville when the re-styled Dodges came out. Before them the square ones were rare, even the Cummins powered ones. But as soon as the re-style happened, one started to see them all over. I might also add that there is a difference in the Tulsa truck and the Enid truck. One for looks, one for work.
The reason Dodges have never been big sellers might have to do with the fact that the sheet metal and accoutrements have always been piss poor. Don’t get me wrong, I like them well enough, but it’s like driving a tin can.
People read Consumer Reports back then too. The Dodge soon developed a reputation for unreliability, relatively speaking, compared to the Ford or Chevy.
Dodges always appeared to me as having poor build quality and thin upholstery.
I do have a soft spot for previous generation Power Wagons.
The LA blocks were plagued with clogged heat riser passages, which accounts for their poor CR scores.
You were in Bartlesville, I was south of Nowata, and it seemed like every third ranch or farm had a brand-new Cummins Dodge for several years. I think the most accurate way to put it is that of anyone buying a new farm truck from 1989-1993, they were far, far more likely to buy a Dodge than they were just a few years before.
Talala Grocery had to install a larger diesel storage tank to compensate for the sudden swarm of diesels!
Amazingly there is still a 93 model (2wd, standard cab, short bed) rumbling around my school districts fleet.
I saw these era trucks mainly used by gov’t agencies around here. Once the Diesel showed people who towed large trailers started to snap them up, but it wasn’t until the redesign that they became common in private ownership around here.
Dont think these trucks were really popular anywhere compared to Ford or Chevy…A friends father-in-law bought a new ’73, 7500 4WD and shortly after purchase he was coming home from work over the Sellwood bridge when a cop pulls him over. Turns out said cop was also looking at this very truck and pulled him over just to make sure it was it!
Up north, the Dodge’s had a rep for falling apart and yes in the salt belt they did rust. Starting in 73, Ford actually stepped up the use of galvanized steel and the Fords of the 70′s are considered by some to be the best pickups ever made. Their C6 three speed automatic has approached legendary status for reliability. And the Chevy 350 engine and auto trans is another combination that will run forever if given the most basic of maintenance. I currently have a 79 old farm truck in that combo that has led a hard life but runs and runs, although it’s got more rust on it than metal.
Me, there really isn’t an old pickup I don’t like (with the exception of the Ford unibody). I’ve owned 58 and 65 Fords with the 300 and the three on the tree and in that combination they were bulletproof. I owned both at different times in the early 80′s, drove them everywhere, and they never left me stranded. When I bought a new one in 90 it was also the 300 but an auto and it did not break down once in ten years.
It wasn’t until Dodge redesigned them with the big truck look (93?), that I started to notice the Dodges with any real interest. In the diesel world, the 5.9 Cummins engine is considered the best ever put in a truck as is the Allison trans put in the Chevy. Not so much with the 07 and forward Cummins 6.7 as the pollution control has hit all the diesels hard with respect to reliability and mileage. The diesel trucks are where the car world was in the mid 70′s as they try to make their engines cleaner without killing reliability as the EPA regulations for small truck diesels have just recently kicked in.
The problem Dodge still has with both diesel and gas pickups is that their engines (Hemi and Cummins, although Ford’s 6.7 is getting a good rep.) are considered best in the business, but the rest of the truck is still perceived as inferior as to quality. In the diesel world the wisdom is that the perfect truck is a Ford Superduty, with a Cummins 5.9, and an Allison transmission.
Right now Ford owns 50% of the new pickup market. Dodge (Ram) and Chevy are going to have a hard time cutting into that as Ford is at the top of their game right now. But again, I will drive anything as an old pickup are like puppies to me. I never see one I don’t want to take home no matter how stupid it might be.
In my experience, the Dodges did not catch on because of quality. The build quality ranged from average ot awful. A friend’s dad bought a new 73 Dodge van and it had maybe the worst paint job I have ever seen on a new car. By this era, the Dodge carburetion and electrical systems were more troublesome than the others, and many became very finicky and hard to start.
Then there were those bodies. They felt cheap, just like every body Chrysler was designing at that time. The doors often fit poorly, the window hardware was crappy, the knobs would often break off from the window handles, and the whole truck gave off this vibe of cheapness. Structurally, they always felt a little twistier than the competing trucks. And yes, they did rust. Maybe not as bad as the 73-79 Chevy (which was absolutely horrible on this) but still bad.
My brother in law farms and has owned a lot of trucks, Dodge’s reputation, particularly with the 4x4s, was that they were mechanically very stout and durable, but were otherwise crude and trouble-prone in everything other than basic engine/transmission/axles.
You all know my fondness for Mopars, and I always kind of liked these. But after the 1972-73, it seemed that Chrysler had a contest for finding progressively uglier grilles to stick on the front, at least until the 1981 redesign. We still see them occasionally around here. One of the last ones I saw had the sheetmetal across the top of the windshield rust away, and the roof panel would baloon-up as the thing got much over 25 mph. But the truck was still earing its keep with a load of something or other crammed in the back.
And that is still the perception of the Dodge. The engine will outlast everything else on the truck.
After the fiasco that was my 1976 Chevy 3/4 ton C-20 that I owned two years to the day, I didn’t own another truck until our Gremlin was ill. I bought a new 1980 Dodge 1/2 ton long bed. Maroon. Very basic, added my 5-year-old cassette player, bought a step bumper for the rear, added a rear slider window and was good to go.
18.5 mpg, 225 slant six, 4 speed w/OD and nuthin’ else! That truck was so easy to drive even with manual steering that wifey drove it effortlessly.
Unfortunately, I made a major error in judgment buying this, as it was our only vehicle – mom lived with us, wifey was a stay-at-home mom at the time and we had grandma’s car – well, we kept it for only 7 months when it dawned on us our daughter was on the way. We needed a different vehicle. Of course I lost my shirt on it when I traded it for our 1981 Reliant, but made up for it by keeping that for 7 years!
I HATED to give up the truck, but never should have bought it in the first place. Lesson learned.
One consolation: That 1980 Dodge was the the last full-size pickup on the market with an all-metal (stamped aluminum) grille! That’s worth something, isn’t it?
I am sure I would have loved your truck. Buying that truck in 1980, your Dodge Dealer should have treated you very, very well. My mother was shopping for a new Omni or Horizon that year. After years of declining quality and the precarious state of the company (and the horrible economy), ChryCorp buyers (particularly for something other than the OmniRizon) were almost like a cult at the time, and a very small cult at that.
My car-mentor Howard had an early 80s slant 6 Dodge pickup for awhile. I never got to drive that one, but I drove enough slant 6/sticks to know that it would have been a nice combination in that truck of yours. By the way, this was the same reason I had to let go of my 29 Ford Model A. Wife and one kid were ok – everybody in the car and nobody in the rumble seat. Kid no. 2 came and the A got used for solitary drives only. Peaceful, but not really that much fun anymore.
In the Chicago area I don’t think Dodge trucks were really seen as inferior, especially the vans. GM and Ford were pretty well established with multiple manufacturing and distribution facilities in the area and people tend to be loyal to local companies that support the community.
So what is the deal with those wheels and the side-exit exhaust?
Pretty sure the wheels are aftermarket. Not sure on the exhaust but alot of guys won’t run a replacement all the way back because it’s cheaper to kick it out the side.
And it usually sounds better too. Particularly on a Mopar 360.
I think that the poor quality of things like door handles, window cranks, and door latches helped to keep the 60′s and 70′s Dodge pickups down. By 1967, Chevrolet had finally learned how to build pickup door latches, and the 67-up Fords were generally pretty solid too.
At work I happened to be the guy who went down to Transportation to pick up the brand new truck that was assigned to our code. It was a 1978 Dodge short wide box truck with the slant six, Torqueflite, manual steering, and power brakes. I got into the truck, got a big gob of grease on my jacket from the seat and another one on my hand from the steering wheel. With the driver’s door closed I could see daylight over the top of it and rain water was coming in. I started the truck and found that the windshield wipers were fouled up and didn’t work right. I returned to the office and asked for them to be fixed before we took the truck. We had Moby Dodge for quite a few years, and it held up remarkably well under the service it had – the shipyard speed limit was 20 mph, and the industrial area was full of crane and railroad tracks. We were a 24×365 operation, so that meant that the truck was started probably 20 to 40 times a day, the engine never quite fully warm, never quite fully cooled down. But nobody liked the damn thing. It steered hard, the door latches and hinges were weak, and the driver’s seat would be wet every time it rained because of the ill-fitting door. Once we were out on the end of a pier and when the passenger door was opened the wind caught it and blew it against the stop so hard that it couldn’t be closed again. We limped back to the shop, and I yarfed on the door with a 2×4 to get it to where it would close again. That truck made me ashamed to be a Mopar guy.
The 70′s were not a kind time to Mopar men. My dad had company cars that were usually Dodge Monoccos. One of them had two of the four doors that could not be opened, and he was in a profession that getting in or out of the car fast could be pretty important. And as JP pointed out, the electrical gremlins could be quite cruel.
I starting driving in 1980, and Mopar’s rep. was pretty bad by then. Although, I loved my grandmother’s late 60′s Newport. Iacocca turned me onto them in the late 80′s though and the Mopar car and minivan I owned treated me well.
But their trucks have never been able to overcome the atrocious build quality of the 70s. Especially since the Ford and Chevys (very prone to rust) were pretty reliable for the time.
But I have to say that my last two company vehicles were a 2009 F-150, and now a 2011 Ram. Both stickered about the same, and I’m partial to Fords. But the Ram is by far the nicer truck for the same money.
Which would I buy if I were looking at new trucks. I’m not sure.
Moslty Dodges were in fleets, i.e. lowest bid contracts. They did try with the Lil Red Truck package in 1978. Car and Driver had one in a Top Seed road test. 116 mph?
THe truck in pic looks like it has the ’78 grille, but can’t be sure.
And my uncle and cousins were die hard Moparites even during near collapse in 70′s. Mostly since they knew how to ‘baby’ them. Chicago and St Louis had many Dodge vans and pickups running around due to loyalty to the local assembly plants.
I hear you talking Zackmand and JPC. I had a wonderful 75 vette (thats corvette not chevette) and I had to sell it because I couldn’t fit the kid in the package tray behind the seats.
One of the servicemen who worked for me had a yellow whale with that body style. He couldn’t seem to keep it running because of electrical problems. When he bought a new toyota he tried to sell it to me. I loved the king cab but by that time I had one with an 81 nissan and wanted no part of that headache.
BTW, in 1971, I bought a 69 chevy pickup at Ferris Automotive in Ponca City. The owners son was a friend of mine in the Navy. He had a 69 Dodge that I compared it to before I bought. The dodge wanted to wonder all over the road and the Chevy just handled better. Thought I would throw out those Okie connections there. IMO the dodge just wasn’t as good in any way as the chevy, Even a chevy with a 307 and three on the tree.
Funny you should mention that about the two 69′s – that was my experience also.
My dad had a 70 Chevy for a few years and it was very tight, handled well and power was good (350/350 combo).
I later drove a friend’s early 70′s Dodge 1/2 ton and was shocked at how flimsy and ill-handling it was. His was a slant 6/auto and he drove it into the ground, but it also took a LOT of attention to keep it herded down the road. It’s no wonder they had trouble selling them, and you don’t see too many examples about (especially compared to the now-ubiquitous 68-72 Chevy/GMC’s that have almost achieved cult status).
It seemed like Dodge’s biggest focus for the pickup market in all the years prior the ‘big-rig’ look was always the military. Chevy and Ford were much more attuned to what the civilian market would buy, and Chrysler’s lucrative defense contracts were essentially the primary reason for their pickup’s existance. So what if they were built like tin cans? All the military wanted was something with anvil-like running gear, and on that front, Dodge trumped the competitors.
It seems like, to this day, you can still find a few of the old-style Dodge trucks running around on military bases and posts, which is a testament to the rugged reputation of the drivetrains.
“Dodges certainly didn’t rust like a Chevy, or probably a Ford, for that matter. Or did they, up in the salt belt?”
Oh, yes they did. Where I was from, the Cleveland area, this generation of Dodge truck was actually pretty popular. Of course, that’s all relative; pickups weren’t really ubiquitous at the time. But the customers of the time – contractors, utilities, city DPWs – found them no less or more desirable than Fords or Chevys of the period.
And of course the drivetrain was a known quantity – bulletproof. What was NOT known until several years had passed, was how badly those were doomed to rust.
That generation of Dodge truck disappeared pretty quick…now you see it; now you see it with huge sheets missing from the side of the pickup bed; now you see the naked door with the skin corroded off; now you see it with Dumbo-ear fenders flaying out in the airstream.
And now you don’t. What’s left of it is over at Jalopy Jungle with hundreds of its similarly-affected bretheren.
I think a few people hit the nail on the head already not so great styling and QC problems. I have a fair amount of experience with 1980′s rams and some with the 70′s (my 1988 Ramcharger is still parked behind my parents house in need of a radiator with 175,000 miles on the unopened 318 727 combo.) As mentioned the door trim would decide to fall of one day for no reason but you could always start and drive the things. Basically the drive trains were bullet proof everything else well was not quite there. I had a friend who was a sales guy at a local dodge dealer in the late eighties, He had a great motto at the time Ram tough, tough to look at and tough to sell. As mentioned above the Cummins was really what kept Rams alive until the 94 redesign. I still see a number of the older gas ones around as there seems to be a reasonable number of mopar people here in CT. As noted in the seventies (until 78 I believe you could order engines up to a 440 (almost bought a 76 club cab with a 440 when I was in high school but decided it had to much rot) However in the eighties you were limited to slant 6 318 and 360. Reliable choices but not much power with smog equipment. Some one above mentioned slant six four speeds I have driven two of them one quite extensively both were 4wd. While great trucks with awesome pulling power for the engine size ( I once pulled a 30 ft Scarab 5 miles with one) they both had the same issue with a problematic clutch where the clutch would refuse to disengage at times, Not sure exactly what caused it. one of my friends at the dealer mentioned that he heard it before with slant six 4wd owners but never heard of fix as not many trucks were actually built that way. On the club cab they never had much for seating back there which may have been part of the problem, my friend has a 93 club cab with a cummins and it basically has the same jump seats as a ford ranger. If i recall correctly Dodge actually dropped the club cab from 1980 until 1990 for some reason not sure why but I always found that odd as you see quite a few extended cab Fords from that era.
I agree that the Cummins was the lone bright spot for Dodge in the 80′s thru ’93. My buddy has had two 90-ish 3/4 ton regular cab long beds with the Cummins. The engine won’t die, but it shakes the rest of the crappy plastic junk right off of the truck. The grills are always hanging by a single plastic tab, the dash is about 100 pieces of rattling plastic. Another guy I know has an early restyled dodge–maybe a ’95 or so. The hard plastic dash has completely descintigrated from the FL sun leaving a gaping hole in the top. I have seen dashes crack and split, but this thing had nothing to support it! Pure disposable junk.
Learned to drive on an ’85 Dodge pickup with a 318 and a 4-speed with granny gear…and no power anything (brakes, probably, but steering? Hell no!). Now that’ll teach you the size of a two-lane…
I bought my 75 D150 Club Cab in 1984 for $1000. I still have it and it has never failed to start even on the coldest day. It has never broken down and left me stranded. It is big, ugly and the 318 w/ auto sucks a helluva lot of gas. But it has served me well, first in construction and then as a boat hauler.