Posted by Gordon Maney on Friday, March 07, 2003 at 11:33PM :
In 1973 I bought my first Power Wagon. It was a 1948. It said Power Wagon on both sides of the hood in big letters. There was no mistaking its identity. I still have that truck. It is in my shop.
During the time I looked for a truck, I saw M37Õs, WWII 3/4 tons, and also some WWII 1/2 tons. For a while I was unsure if these various trucks were different.... or, gee... where they the same?
In the beginning I did not know much about Power Wagons except for the fact that I was so very taken by their appearance, after having seen my first one, a 1965 Power Wagon, sitting in cab/chassis form at a salvage yard. It was for sale, having just had a big utility body removed from it.
It took me a while, and by looking at lots of them, to figure out how to tell the difference between these various trucks. They all had flat fenders, but only the one model actually said Power Wagon on the hood. There were other differences, of course.
Dodge produced some proud equipment during WWII; first the VCÕs, then the WC 1/2 tons, and finally the WC 3/4 tons, and yes, donÕt forget the 1-1/2 ton 6X6.
The successes of the Dodges in theaters of war, and the love and enthusiasm our GIÕs had for these trucks, gave rise to a decision by Dodge to offer a commercial version of the truck. That is how the WDX came to be.
It was called the Power Wagon, rated as a 1-ton truck. It had a closed cab, a longer wheelbase, and was a descendant of the WC series 3/4 ton. The cab had its roots in the 1939 to 1947 commercial truck cab. We are all nuts over them.
That is a Power Wagon. It requires no other descriptors, modifiers, or additional words. It could also be called the 1-ton Power Wagon, if you wanted to add a bit, but even that is not necessary. We know these trucks.
My reason for saying all this is that I have observed over a period of a year or more that the term flat fender, or FF, Power Wagon, seems to have come into some use. I am vaguely troubled by that, as it seems to not properly honor this truck which has sole claim to the term Power Wagon. It is needless to add this flat fender language, somewhat redundant, and manages to dilute the model name recognition. Plus, it fails to clarify differences between the Power Wagon and the M37, the WWII 3/4 ton, or the WWII 1/2 ton, all of which have flat fenders.
I have a 1967 W300, which is a W-series Power Wagon, and is a marvelous, capable truck, but it is not a Power Wagon in the sense that I am meaning it here. Don Evans is our qualified teacher and historian for that category called Power Giants, the 1957 to 1960 trucks, which also say Power Wagon. But, those are offshoots, they are descendants, they are not THE Power Wagon, they are Power Giants.
I submit to you that the Power Wagon deserves to be called just that, and really, only that. Worse yet, its name is much maligned, as the term is often used to describe WWII trucks, M-series trucks, and even some other brands of military vehicles.
In receiving ads from people, I very often have to remove the language Power Wagon from the description of a truck that is very clearly not a Power Wagon. An ad, for example, for a 1953 M37 Power Wagon, is the sort of thing I am meaning.
The truck you see pictured at the top of this forum page is a Power Wagon. It is the truck that caused Joe Cimoch to create this forum. Joe chose that picture for a reason. It is THE Power Wagon.
I think Power Wagon is the only designator need for these great trucks, and to clutter their name by adding terms is to dishonor them in a way. I am urging you to call them Power Wagons, and nothing more. Honor the marque.
A final note, my remarks are not directed at any of the individuals on this current forum who may have used this additional language. I have been considering comment for quite a while now, and it is sheer coincidence that any pertinent, individual posts were present at this time.
Thank you for your consideration in the matter of the Power WagonÕs identity.
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