Posted by Eric B. on Wednesday, December 22, 2004 at 0:34AM :
In Reply to: They were not "created" posted by Paul Cook on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 at 11:58PM :
My way of looking at it is not as elegant as yours, but we end up in the same place!
I look at it like this:
Dodge got the Military contract to make light duty VC 4wds, mostly based on the 2wd trucks of the same era.
Then the trucks were upgraded and modified to fit real world (read WAR) conditions until they ended up with the 3/4 ton WC-51, WC-54, etc.
At the end of WWII Dodge saw a market, had the tooling, etc, so they make the WDX using the knowledge gained from the WWII production.
As the military is more interested in reliable then flashy, that is what Dodge built them, and that philosophy is what went into the Power-Wagon.
There are not many WDX only parts in a WDX a few examples are the frame, front fenders/nose, and bed. Most of the rest of the early WDX parts are either exactly the same as other 1946 trucks, or versions of some part used on a previous model modified just enough to get the job done.
True "Parts Room" Engineering!
Other companies also made trucks at about the same time with about the same purpose, though most were not as strong as the Power-Wagon! Things like Land Rover, Jeep, etc.
A Rugged, Mobile Power Plant, that was the purpose of the Power-Wagon.
Mike Stone often comments that the WDX-WM300 Power-Wagon should be viewed as a piece of construction equipment, I agree up to a point, and it also can be looked at as a pioneer wide track 4 wheeled tractor!
In any case, they are a great example of strength and beauty in a single package.
Eric
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