Did you know the biggest Dodge trucks of 1961 through 1975 used the 1956 cab design? You will - plus a history of the “fifth wheel” - as Steve explores this huge Dodge BD600 truck.
@@strokermaverick I love em all, first car was a 70 Torino (GT clone) that I bought in 2000 for $4,500 after selling my racing go kart….turned around and sold it 8 months later for $6,000 and an 88 Trans Am GTA. Wish I still had it.
I used to drive one of those, though it was a bit more heavy duty. A C 900, with a 250 hp Cummins with a 10 speed Road Ranger trans. 58 mph pulling a 4 axle trailer with 78,000 lbs on the deck. You knew where there where hills that hardly anybody noticed. Back then all trucks where extremely noisy inside. rattling, vibrating, hot smelly fly traps. No wonder truck drivers love their job.
Two speed rear axles are actually meant for split shifting, essentially doubling the "speeds" of the transmission, turning each gear into two gears, which made it easier to pull heavy loads back when engines weren't as powerful as today. It wasn't a low gear for towing, high gear for highway, you actually shift the axle in between transmission shifts while accelerating. (low 1st to high 1st, high 1st to low 2nd, low 2nd to high 2nd, high 2nd to low 3rd... and so on) Many trucks had decals on the dashes or above the windshields that gave instructions on how to split shift with the 2 speed axles.
One year while attending the turkey rod run in Daytona I ran across a vendor of old car and truck brochures and literature. I bought a book on collectible dodges, as I owned a 1969 Dart GTS I'd restored at the time. Yes, numbers matching 4 speed, X block and heads 340. Lol Anyway, I ran across a 1961 dodge p.u. brochure, one of the engine offerings was a Cummins 6 cylinder (of course naturally aspirated) diesel.
More of this please! While I love Cudas and Stangs and Novas as much as the next guy it’s great to see some lesser known vehicles get some love. Especially trucks and vans, and of course semis as well! Definitely hope to see more videos like this one!
I started out hauling cars a million years ago in an old bat-wing dodge 318 Detroit. Put aluminum wheels and painted it all up when the 318 died I built a big silver92 and had a good old truck. It was a 1975 model with a stinger 5th wheel 9 car 96in wide before the 102 wide came out.
A gentlemen up in Nova Scotia used one as a gravel truck. Use to drive it wearing a white shirt and tie. If I can remember it was a 1968 and had a 413 gas engine and it used lots of it.
Check out the very rare Dodge Big Horn version of that truck Steve,it was a long hood made from 71-75 but only a few hundred were produced making them the hemi cuda of Dodge trucks.
Fun to see this and see you cover the LCF Dodges. I own one of the rarest of the rare in the LCF series trucks. Mine is a 1963 Fargo LCF 1000 with a tandem axle drive and the Cummins NH 230 with a 5 speed and 4 speed auxiliary trans. Mine was originally a dump truck.
@@Dancing_Alone_wRentals. Thanks. Fargo was just a re-badge of Dodge for Canada and some worldwide export markets. Chances are if you saw a picture of a Fargo LCF 1000, it's mine (Unrestored black with white and a blue tow strap on the front bumper). It's rare and possibly the last one left but not exactly valuable.
...an old boss of mine had one of these with the 413ci...air brakes and vacuum wipers...didn't get to see it finished, was going to be a flat bed for taking his '70 'Cuda to shows...that 413 was torquey...it would almost pick the left front off the ground if you popped to quick in 1st...
Great video, thank you ! I had a 1961 Dodge W-500. 4 wheel drive, with the older A series 318 gasoline engine, 5 speed manual trans, the 2 speed Timken 223 transfer case. I put the biggest clutch I could get onto that pre-drilled flywheel, it would climb hills easily, with chains it was unstoppable
I've been restoring a 1972 D500 the past couple of years. I've been doing the opposite and taking pickip truck parts to fix my medium duty truck. I figure we need to save a few of these workhorses that built North America. That truck is a rare gem, sad to see it in that condition. Neat history!
Just a few weeks and Steve is coming back, I'll be glad i been watching old videos over and over to keep his income going, can't wait to see new videos
Our grain truck is a 1968 Dodge C900 single axle semi.The frame was stretched to install a 18' grain box on it with an air tag. Equipped with a 6-71 Detroit, 10 speed Eaton, air brakes, and dual headlights on the swing out fenders. I believe they changed them to a single later in the years.
Those old Dodge trucks where way ahead of everything else, in terms of engine access for service. Only worked on a couple, they apparently didn't sell real well. With GM, Ford medium duty trucks from that era you lifted the hood, and the motor was way down inside so you'd lay on your belly or just crawl in. (IH had the "butterfly" hoods that weren't "too bad".) Dodge also did medium duty trucks with the Sweptline and 70s pickup cabs and a hood like the GM and Fords. Kind of a step back for the guys working on them. I have no facts to back it up but I bet the 50s look of them stopped a lot of people from buying them straight away. It's 1974 you need trucks for your business, do you buy ones that look like new trucks or ones that already look like they're 15 years old? No truck buyer ever asks a mechanic what's east to work on. Lol
A while back I dove into some research on the Dodge WC series of trucks built for WW2 after seeing a rusted out one on another channel. The WC series turned into the Dodge Power Wagon after the war.
There is what I think is a 1970 flat front Dodge COE tractor for sale near Somerset PA, if I were 30 years younger I would be on it! LOL. Great vid on the old "big" truck Steve.
Beautiful. I've got a 69 C700 that was a tractor stretched to a grain truck. I traded the frame for a 1967 class A motor home chassis with a 440. I put the cab on the chassis and shortened it for an 8 foot stepside bed. I didn't like how small the 16 inch wheels looked, so I have some old 17.5 inch motor home wheels. Still not digging the look, so I found a 1965 D500 flatbed for the big block and bellhousing for a Power Wagon project, and the axles will go under the C700 so the 9.00 20 inch tires will fill the wheelwells.
Had a Fargo 500, a Dodge 800 and 900’s on our farm. 500 had a 318 poly with a 5&2 trans. 800 and 900’s were tandem rear axles with 5&4 twin stick trans with 361 and 413 engines. Tough trucks and hard to downshift the twin sticks as a young kid.
My grandfather was a mechanic on these Dodge trucks. 50s & 60s. When I was a kid ( Pre internet days ) I would spend hours looking through his old service and repair manuals for Dodge trucks. I remember the term. (Theory of operation) where it would describe how certain components worked. I’ll bet no 10 year old kids do that anymore. Lol.
Hi Steve, it's hard to see in the video, but that looks like an old ORTIZ wrecker in the background. While other wreckers used small winches and channel steel, ORTIZ wreckers were built with box steel and huge winches. They were legends in their day for their brute strength. They routinely pulled vehicles bigger then themselves out. They were built in Hopewell Jct. NY up until about the early 90's. They faded away when the industry switched to hydraulics and wheel lifts. I would love to see a video on that wrecker so I could see if it's an ORTIZ. Great video Steve.
I live in Detroit. I remember back in the 80s when Chrysler was going through the bankruptcy. They were still using these tractors on their trucks at that time. I remember thinking they must be pretty solid and durable if they were still using them at a time one modern tractors were around. Very informative video
I'm friendly with a junkyard owner in Peyton Colorado, near Co Springs. He hasn't crushed anything I'm 40 years. I've driven around his 40 acres a few times, camera in hand, vidding his junkyard. Many 50s and 60s vintage patina'd gems, and lovely Corvairs... And Dwayne is a great guy, he knows where every single car came from. Maybe I'll venture out there next year
The 2 speed axle was a great option. I never understood air brakes until I started buying and selling school buses. The air actually releases the brakes, it over comes the spring that engages the shoes. No air, no move.
Can you do a video on that tow truck behind you to our right? That looks like a neat piece. I always liked these trucks, they're interesting looking with the old cab and the very flat nose. The L-700 cabover is also fun, using A-100 components.
Love seeing other vehicles like these trucks and stuff too! Great video Steve. Thanks for your charasmatic and informational videos, keep em' up, we are learning so much and I seriously appreciate seeing all these things! I've restored some pretty rusted stuff before.... Seeing some of these things makes me wish I could come down and pick up a few to restore. If there's a frame, the rest can be built off of I think. Have a great day!
I do like your junkyard crawls, Steve. It brings back good memories of going with my dad in the 70s and 80s scouting Hudson and Terraplane parts. We even found a Whippet one time ! He used to always say," At one time that car was someone's pride and joy."
Great video. Little known fact, when the fifth wheel came into general use is when trailers set up for use with the fifth wheel were called "Semi-trailers" because they did not have front wheels. And the term "Semi" was born.
First video I've seen of yours and I am so thoroughly impressed with the knowledge and the way you present yourself, that you are a true enthusiast. You got yourself another subscriber for sure.
I worked at Genest Ford in Manchester NH back in the seventies. Around 1976 we bought the contents of a trucking company that went bankrupt. We had to get all the vehicles out of the terminal in Waltham MA. We got quite a few of these and they had the Cummins triple nickel in them.
I drove a truck like that on the flightline during my military service late 90's. It was a refueler truck, had dual rear axles that could be locked, it was old Air Force stuff that was a hand me down to the USMC. I remember swinging open those fenders to do maintenance checks.
Can't tell you enough how excited I am that you put out all this content on RU-vid. As a junkyard enthusiast as well as a scale model builder, nothing really compares to some Steve Mags content! Excellent podcast as well. #carnerdsrejoice
I found one of these setting in the woods with a bunch of other cars back around Thanksgiving. It had a big block gas engine in it and as a professional mechanic I thought the side hinged fenders were the coolest. It was about a 73/74 model and I was curious if it was a 440 or 413. The 440 in my 68 Roadrunner started life as a medium duty truck engine.
You don't have to lift the trailer clear of the fifth wheel cause the pin has a shoulder on it that prevents that from happening. The fifth wheel jaw opens and you drive away from the trailer. the landing gear takes some weight off the fifth wheel if you crank it down far enough. Usually a 2 speed crank for lowering the dollies too. With air ride you can drop the truck bags and get away easier.
My uncle had 2 ten- wheel dumps. An 800 with a 361 V8 with an 8 speed Road Ranger and a 900 with a 413 with a 5 and 4. They were okay but you had to wind the piss out of them to get them where you wanted them.
I got to drive one of those big bad boys when it was new, it was built as a logging truck. It was Bahama Yellow. As far as I know, it was the only big truck the dealership sold in the years I worked there about 71-72. I loved that thing, I found any excuse I could to take it out for a drive. Maybe it explains why I’ve been driving a Cummins Ram 5 speed since 1991.
Very Nice Job, Steve.Very Nice Indeed❕I've watch You on Cars and Your Knowledge is Subproved. I didn't know You had knowledge in the Truck Field aswell in the SEMI Truck knowledge. I can tell You're ARE A Complete Car & Truck Aficionado👍🏽👍🏽
