Fred Oliver posted these at the Cohort, shot in Pownal, VT. Well, Vermont is known for a streak of old-school Yankee thrift, and someone is using a pretty old truck for a fifth wheel hauler. I’m not quite sure whether it’s a ’66 or ’67 Dodge, as there seems to be very little difference. This looks like something I would have done with my poor old Ford, but then this is not just a mere “half-ton” D100; it’s a D200.
And if it’s a ’67, the 383 V8 was available that year to supplant the slant six and 318 V8. But even in the rather unlikely case it has that, this old Dodge has its work cut out for it.
Related reading: CC 1967 Dodge D200 Camper Special PN
Paul,
In full disclosure: Pownal (pop. 3,400) is in Bennington County, VT, and is the southwesternmost town in the state. I was born, raised and educated in Bennington, the county seat and its largest town (pop. 14,000), so I am very familiar with Pownal and its people. Yes, you are right – we Vermonters are a flinty, thrifty type.
I know exactly where that truck and “camp” are located – however, to protect the owners’ privacy, I can’t divulge its location.
Burlington here, the only reason Vermont’s streetscape doesn’t look like Oregon’s is road salt.
So, a newbie RV question: for these fifth-wheel models, how are they supported when the tow vehicle is not attached? And is it “better” structurally to have them sitting on the supports or the tow vehicle? Just wondering, since it seems the pictured setup is rather hard on the truck.
Presuming my gooseneck stock trailer works similarly, there’s a jack pole at the front that is used to raise/lower the trailer onto the hitch. You can see the handle for it in the attached photo.
RVs have landing gear near the front. It is barely visible if you look closely at the bottom right corner of the trailer. And to answer the question, it is better stored on the landing gear than sitting on the hitch/truck. It is more stable and hence, better from a structural perspective.
Those Polara wheelcovers don’t look bad on it at all.
That front bumper is a nice touch as well.
Those old D 200’s are pretty stout. Dad and I used one for our wood hauling rig. With sideboards up, we could haul a full cord of wood. Barely softened the ride and made the truck sit about level. Ours was a ’68 with a 383 and 4 speed. Limited slip rear, and aftermarket dual exhaust. I wanted that truck for my first car, but no go. I believe the side trim on the pictured one makes it a ’66.
With the amount of road salt used up there, and the age of this rig…how is this even possible? Did that truck come from out west?
This certainly can’t be road worthy, can it? Yes, agree that those old Dodges where tough as battle tanks. But, I can’t imagine this rig not getting pulled over by the first law enforcement that spotted it. Maybe a good set of air shocks would help?
Sure. Why not? There were fifth wheel trailer back in the 60s, and 3/4 ton pickups were used to haul them.
I worked at a construction company in 1973 that built basement concrete walls. We used to haul the big stacks of forms on a big Ford trucks, but then the owner decided to ditch the big trucks, bought a couple of gooseneck trailers and a couple of IH 3/4 ton trucks to haul them.
Here’s a similar 3/4 ton Dodge from about 1971:
71 was the last of the old style. This would have to be at least a 72.
I don’t see issue with it. The rear end is squatting a bit but it looks like that ground is lumpy and the trucks rear tires are in a low spot. This truck is old and grizzled but it looks to be mechanically and structurally sound from what little we can see.
My money is on this rig being a 3/4 ton which is what id want hauling this. whats scary is fwd minivans and CUVs hauling tandem axle trailers down the freeway doing 70+. Usually they’re squatting DEEP at the rear, which isn’t where your drive wheels are. And fwd is just light duty hardware, not up to towing heavy loads. Yes, people tow with it but having seen what’s under them, I wouldn’t do it on North American freeways. What goes on in other parts of the world with their road speeds is a different ball o wax…
FYI: I reside in THIS part of the world 🙂 ;
“FRATZOG” extra front licence plate FTW (The Fratzog is that stylised-deltoid logo used by Dodge from ’62ish to ’76ish).
Still getting the dreaded “posting too quickly”. Towed this 36ft fifth wheel about 30 miles with my old ’70 C10, this thing is heavy. Did the job though, the overloads kept the truck a lot more level than this. Towed a 32ft fifth wheel almost 1000 miles without overloads, it sat about like this Dodge, but was surprisingly stable despite the rake. Didn’t get pulled over, but only drove during the day since the headlamps were pointing towards the moon. That old beast would handle all my crazy overloading for years. But you needed to make sure the trailer brakes were hooked up and working well. Backing into a tight space without power steering was a real workout. Wish I had taken a picture of the hitched up combination.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/truck-of-a-lifetime-thirty-years-with-my-67-chevy-c10-not-always-smooth-sailing/
I really like these old Dodges, although they would be in a battle with the Studebaker Champ widebed for the ugliest pickups of the 60s.
It always amazed me how many pickups were painted red. Way more, it seems, as a percentage compared with cars. And boy did that old single stage red enamel look like crap if someone was not out there regularly with the polishing compound and wax.
When I was ordering my ’93 Chevy the salesman’s book I saw showed red as the second most ordered color for trucks. I got white, #1, of course. Grandpa’s ’53 Chevy truck was originally red, faded pink by the time I drove it.
Thanks for posting my photos, Paul. An interior shot is attached.
In addition to its innate coolness factor, this truck stood out for me as being apparently rust-free. It even looked good up close, though I didn’t peek underneath. A friend who lives up there tells me that some people use old motor oil as undercoating, so maybe that was the secret of this trucks longevity. It certainly doesn’t look like it has been in a garage all its life, and the old plates give the impression that it wasn’t brought in from elsewhere recently.
The size of the trailer relative to the truck also stood out. Regardless of the engine, it must be slow and steady traveling with that thing, especially up hills, and white-knuckle downhills with hot, fading brakes.
Thanks, Daniel, for catching the FRATZOG plate. I wondered about it, but assumed that it was a nickname, and didn’t think to look it up. My family had a 66 Dart when I got my license. Perhaps my friends would have considered the car “cool” if they knew that it had a fratzog on it.
Your interior picture confirms Ozzy 85 that its a 66 – the painted dash nails it because a padded dash was standard on the 67s. So I guess that would make this one an end-of-the-line wide block 318?
I love vintage working pickup trucks, but on this one I can’t get past the google-eyes of the white-painted headlamp surrounds.
Yes, they do look odd, like pie plates.
Yeah, this is my least favorite front end on thes trucks, I prefer either the original quad headlight version or the final more squared off version. I don’t necessarily mind the google eyes in and of itself but the lack of cohesiveness with the clearly carried over sheetmetal. It looks as rudimentary as the home made bumper below.
Having said that, I can get past it for this particular truck.
I’ve always thought that the “Google eye” headlights on these were supposed to resemble the headlights on the Chrysler Turbine car, just done on the cheap. Think of the big white bezels as marshmallow trim and they seem better. Who doesn’t like marshmallow?
Nice. Here’s an even older Dodge COE I saw still at work late this past summer.
Second try. First effort to attach didn’t take.
I love this truck, the hub caps, the paint fade, the partial trim and “tan line” from the missing bit, the license plates, the amber gumball on the roof, the flying lady hood ornament – this thing just oozes character.
+1 to all you said , to complete the picture add the sound of an old V8, bonus points for a hole in the exhaust somewhere.