1965/67 Dodge W200 Power Wagon firetruck

[Atmobil]

One early Saturday morning in Januray I came across advert on finn.no (norwegian site for advertising things for sale, similar to craigslist) for a 1967 Dodge W200 powerwagon firetruck. It was only 2,5 hours drive away from my home. I rang up the seller but was too late, someone else had already said they where going to buy it. I kicked myself for calling to late!!

But I have not forgotten about it, I noted down the registration number and have regulary checked on to see when it was sold. But it never got sold, and today I happened to be in that area on a work trip. I decided it was time to visit the seller. He was not home but the W200 was still there.
I called him and talked to him by phone and now it looks like I am going to buy this truck.
I took some photos with my mobile, not the best of shots as the weather was nasty and I was freezing and shaking all over.

These pictures the seller sent me by email earlier, in January

Iamgine that, 3 years ago I travelled around the globe to by a Dodge truck and now I might by this that is just 2,5 hours away from me.
Not 100% what to do with it yet but I think it is really cool that it is a 4x4 W200 and a Power Wagon. Now I need to study what that actually means.
It is a 318 poly, just like my D100 and four speed manual (I'm guessing NP435?)

Strangely enough the truck is registered as a Fargo and modelyear 1967 but the VIN is: 2281514137 and that says it is a 1965 truck (I can also tell that by things like the doorhandles) and the badges all read Dodge.

Note also that it is registered for 5 people. I can take the family on trips in this

[Jim B]

Pretty cool rig.  Looks like it could use a good restoration.

[Oldcarfan27]

Double check that rust, that frame looks crusty. Make sure it's not fatal.

Best wishes on your purchase. 

[Brian Austin]

In some export markets, Dodge trucks were badged as Fargo trucks.

[Cpt Tuttle]

Weirdly enough I had sort of a similar problem with an old Willys firetruck I had, registration said 1954 but I came to the conclusion that it probably was from 1952.

I hope that "motorredskap" isn't the same thing as in Sweden because here vehicles with that registration are limited to 30 km/h....

Edited April 13, 2019 by Cpt Tuttle

[Atmobil]

11 hours ago, Cpt Tuttle said:

Weirdly enough I had sort of a similar problem with an old Willys firetruck I had, registration said 1954 but I came to the conclusion that it probably was from 1952.

I hope that "motorredskap" isn't the same thing as in Sweden because here vehicles with that registration are limited to 30 km/h....

The modelyear in Norway is always by the date of first registration so I'm guessing that this was built in Warren, Michigan in 1965 and exported to Norway, due to the long and complex bureaucracy of the time and the conversionwork that was done it was probably not done and ready before early 67.

"Motorredskap" (translates in to motor implement or tool in English) is no longer a thing one can get here in Norway but older vehicles that registered as such will still keep that status. In earlier times that was usually used on tractors, trucks and other vehicles (like this Dodge) that was not used in everyday traffic. Usually they could weigh more than the normal 7500kg or 3500kg and still be driven with a normal driverslicence. Before they where also able to drive trough road-tollstations without paying and could use the "colored-diesel" (tax-free diesel for use in machines and equipment that are not road-vehicles). Some 15 years ago it was very popular to buy something like a Mitsubishi Pajero, Toyota Hilux or similar registered as a "motorredskap" (they could be registred as that if the had something like a plow mount on the front) to avoid paying road-tolls and drive on cheaper fuel but today that role has gone over to the electric cars that pay no road-tolls, have lower yearly taxes, don't need to pay for parking and can drive in the buslanes.

The "motorredskap" part of this Dodge is simply the pump at the front. It has a 500 litre water tank in the back aswell as space for a lot of tools and equipment. The bodywork at the back is mostly aluminium on the outside but it is steel on the inside parts of the construction. It has two "seats" in the back. I will post more pictures of this soon.

[Cpt Tuttle]

I guess something similar with my 1954 Willys, it was registered the first time on BD (Norrbotten county) plates, and when they centralized the vehicle register in 1973, many vehicles got the same model year as the first date of registration. It had a locally built wood/aluminium body so it might have been finished in 1954.

Similar things still happen, one of our 60s Volvo tractors is a 1982 model according to the paper work, since it was in the military register until then, and got a new model year when we bought it and registered it in the civilian register.

"Motorredskap" is more of something that has similar rules as a tractor here, but still is not a tractor. Like mobile cranes, forklifts, excavators and such. You only need a tractor license for that, and are allowed to drive it regardless of the weight, but it has to be limited to a top speed of 30 km/h.

[Atmobil]

Third time is the charm, I went togheter with a colleague of mine on april 7th. We worked on it for a number of hours but did not get it to run. We had to return home but I took quite a number of pictures of it that day:































As you can see, the conversion work that was done to this is quite good. They have used a complete cab and from what I can find they have just removed the rear-window section and kept the original roof and lower part of the rear cab wall. It is also not as rusty as one would first suspect. The hood bad and the firewall is rusty where the hoodhinges are attached. The rockers are gone but the cab mounts look to be ok.

April 15th and we had another go. Left home at about 8 in the morning and got where the truck was at about 11. Started working on it, replaced the coil and the resistor but still no start. A friend of my colleague lives in the area and cam to help us. We decided it was best to tow it to his place since he had a garage full of tools and parts:



Many hours of work and many attempts at starting it followed. We tried replacing the carb, the plugs, the plugleads, the coil (again), the ignition points, the condenser, the carb and we tried to bypass the fuelpump and the gas tank with an electric fuelpump (hooked up directly to the battery) with fuel hoses going from a gascan on the "frontbumper" and nothing worked. We tried to tow it and see if it would start while under towing ut no-go.
The vary last thing we tried was to replace the distributor it self, we installed the one that came in my D100 that was broken and had been fixed by welding the plate that holds the points in place and making the wacuum pump unusable (so I had removed it and made a coverplate for the hole from a Mercedes doorskin). This one worked just fine in the D100 and now in the W200 the engine fired up right away :dance .
We let it run for a bit and then stopped it and tried to fire it again and it fired right up. We went inside for some dinner and then tried to fire it up again after about 30-40 minutes. It fired right up yet again so now we decided it was time to drive it home (this was about 8.30 in the evening). We shut the hood for the last time and the hood hinge on the passenger side decided it was time to give up (it had rusted loose from the inside of the hood) and shot up like a canon. We got a strap and strapped the hood down, drove to the nearest gasstation and filled up the tank (the lady behind the counter commented that she thought it was a charming looking truck). We drove trough the night. It was getting cold and it got very dark but it ran just fine.
We got on the ferry at about 10.30 and I was home at just before midnight.

Here it is on the ferry.

So, I have had it home for a couple of days now. Driven it a bit more and it looks like it all works just fine. It has some leaks here and there and it will need work but from the documentation inside it it looks like the 15 000km (just under 10 000miles) is correct.
But at the moment I can not get it in to my garage, it is to tall. I will have to remvoe the ladderrack and lights in the roof to be able to drive it inside.
Here is some chassispics:













And here it is parked outside my garage last night.