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I have owned this PW twice! I originally bought it in 1979 and sold it in 1987 only to buy it back in 1991 for more than I sold it for. It is now in need of complete restoration. It was originally built for the U.S. Navy and has the ID plate of Navy Stock# C78A900-2501, Contract #15875FS. It was bought surplus by the Seattle Police Department for unknown use. It was then bought by the Kittitas County Sheriff in Ellensburg, Washington for use in Search and Rescue. I bought it at county auction in pretty sad shape. The rear drop in was out and laying in the back of it, the windows were broken out, the front floor boards were rusted out, the brakes were innoperative and it had six antennaes mounted on the roof (seems they last had used it as a mobile search command station). Strangely it did have an almost new rebuilt 230 engine. I then did a body on restoration and drove it regularly for several years. It was once featured in Off Road and Four Wheel Drive magazine. I eventually installed a (dare I say) Chevrolet 292 six coupled to a GM syncro 4spd. This set up did much better running back and forth over the Cascade mountain passes besides having oodles of torque off road. I gave the original engine and transmission to a close friend (also a dodger) who had installed it in one of his military dodges. I subsequently got my engine and transmission (complete with the military Dogde) back from his wife when he passed away.
As originally built it did not have a winch. At first I installed one of the MU2 units in a mounting of my own design. I subsequently replaced that with a later NOS surplus unit from an M37 mounted in a curved front bumper off a 40's Reo truck. The curved bumper is really very asthetically appealing and affords storage compartments on the back side in front of the wheels. I also built a set of 20" wheels that utilized 8:25 X 20 tires. Weight as pictured was right at 8,000lbs. It now has 9:00 x 16 tires and wheels back on it.
Sadly the PW has not run for some 15 years now as the engine dumped a rod. Shortly after that my first wife (who was driving the Dodge when the rod let go) and I split. I subsequently lost my happy home and shop in the settlement. I did manage to hang onto the Dodge although it cost me dearly.
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