Dodge Power Wagon

If a view of one of these doesn't stir a few memories, nothing will. What you see here is a Dodge Power wagon vintage early 1950's. This is a civilian version of the infamous 3/4 ton Military vehicle of WWII and the Korean War. Back before the wine and cheese crowd took over 4-wheeling, Dodge Power Wagons were 4-wheeling. Never a vehicle for the Mrs. to buzz down to Safeway with, these things are just ugly. What you did not do with one of these things is high speed 4-wheeling. They were powered by the classic 230 Cu. In. Dodge flathead 6. If it had a wet dew around the sparkplugs, it didn't run. There are few survivors among those who honestly believed that the brakes would actually work the next time you needed them. Properly equipped with a set of mud chains on the front axle one of these things would go plenty of places that no man would consider trying to ride a horse or even walking. Mud chains were, of course, a necessity, (the cross bars are extra large) because standard highway chains would quickly tear themselves apart, and there was no taking a run at anything because this thing was so heavy that it would only pull itself in heavy snow or deep mud in "low and under", but if slogging through would do it, it did it. No 4X4 pickup has ever been made that was tougher than this thing but when the neighbor wanted to buy it for a few hundred dollars, it was outta here.

Dodge WC-53 Carry All

Dodge SUV

Dodge SUV

Just for Variety here are some photos of a Dodge 4x4 Ambulance said to be USN (U. S. Navy Surplus). These came to me from Seneca, New York, and though I have seen similar things, I'm not sure I have seen this identical combination. The body is clearly the Dodge body that was around in WWII era, and resembles closely the civilian power wagon featured above. The bolt together wheels are typical military. The Dashboard sort of confirms the military orgin of this vehicle, as it is the classic military dashboard (and not the Dodge civilian dash). Officially this vehicle is known as a Dodge WC-53 3/4 ton Carry All and was manufactured in 1942 and 1943.