Ok look, this is important. I have been hinting to my wife that this fantastically clean and sweet 1978 four-wheel-drive Dodge tow truck would be the ultimate road trip vehicle because we’d have to get it home from Washington State to our house in Massachusetts. With a 2bbl equipped 360, it won’t use a ton of gas (damn it man! stop laughing, you are blowing this for me!), with the sweet and clean vinyl bench seat it’ll be perfect for those hot summer days when the only thing you want is for your legs to actually meld into a seat and require you to forcibly rip them off said seat when exiting the car and it is virtually rust free. Safety being every mom’s concern, this bad boy has four wheel drive so the snow won’t be any problem at all.
Outside of the insane justifications I am making up to lure my wife into the ownership of a second wrecker, this is a pretty sweet truck with lots of potential. The 2bbl 360 is a let down but let’s be honest, a 440 will practically install itself in that engine bay. The wrecker unit is fully functional and the truck recently passed a state inspection for safety and that junk so you can put your 16 year old daughter in it so she car drive to school. Chicks go gaga over these wreckers, just ask me how I know. I’d paint this thing orange, add some late 1970s Power Wagon tape stripes and get the wrecker unit painted gloss black. Adding a nasty, cammed up 440 with dual quads on it, obnoxious exhaust, and air horns and the thing would pretty much be a dream whip.
While we see lots of late 1970s and early 1980s tow trucks, it is very rare to see a Dodge from that era. This truck as bought by the Navy and lived the easy base life for many years until it was sold at a public sale and it eventually ended up with the tow truck company that is selling the truck. The actual sad part is that using that tow sling on a modern car would result in your destroying the car you were trying to help. Vintage tows only, we’re ok with that.
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I recently bought a 63 D300 Tow Truck and am in the process of getting it back on the road. The poly 318 runs great after a carb rebuild all thats left are the wheel cylinders and tires. Buy it!!!!
Brilliant plan Brian. Genius. She can haul your ass right to divorce court with this truck.
The one we had here at the Dealership in the ’80s had 4.56 gears and a Thermoquad. It was identical to this one. Same pushbar, same tow body. It could tow the gas station, but it couldn’t pass it.
That would be a long, slow drive across country!
I dunno, I’m kinda likin that it’s red white and blue, and would probably expand on that in a repaint. This is Americana through and through. I doubt there is a Chinese part on it. Might have a couple Japanese electronic parts, but not much. Try that Then she will love it. “It’s our Patriotic Duty Honey”
” the truck recently passed a state inspection for safety and that junk”
Nope. Nope Nope. As a resident I have never seen a state safety inspection. Now if it was brought in from another state, they check the VIN’s but that’s it.
Don’t bring to Pa then, we definitely have state inspection laws and even that little hole in the floor would have to be fixed first!
Lohnes has a problem, this might be the cure
I need this real bad. Why I don’t know, but I need it.
the only thing i would do is stuff a cummins in it.