I stopped by Jon Sandahl’s Tube Chassis Designz chassis shop yesterday to have some stuff welded for Buford’s suspension resurrection and on the way there, my eye caught what looked to be a 1970s Dodge Power Wagon fire truck. I cruised on down the road and vowed to stop on the way back to check it out. I was correct in my initial assessment. This is a mid-1970s Dodge Power Wagon truck converted into a professional fire apparatus. It is really freaking awesome. I crawled all over it and saw what I could see, but the real beauty is in the big and fully exposed Hale pump mounted in the front of the truck. With the ability to move 750 GPM , this is no weak stream!
I have seen plenty of “brush units” locally based off of dually trucks, some with tube steel exoskeletons on them, but this is the first time I have seen a Power Wagon truck and especially one with that great big pump up front. From looking up from the bottom, it seems that this truck is powered by a 360ci V8, has a 4-speed manual transmission, is 4WD and packs a pair of big axles. The front appeared to be a Dana 60 and the rear was the always lumber inducing Dana 70. The pump on the front of the truck looked to be driven off the front of the crank, as there was a big shaft passing through the grille and heading in the direction of the crank pulley. I didn’t want to go so far as opening the hood, so I am guessing there.
Sure, the people passing by probably wondered why a grown man was excitedly flailing around this truck, talking to himself, and making vroom, vroom, noises, but the police didn’t show up, so I’m doing a better job at controlling my emotions.
On to the photos!
Behold the complete bitchin' greatness of this truck. Look at the front pump. That type of frontal exposure is illegal in like 26 states.
The truck is in really nice, solid shape. It has been well maintained over the years. It is not being sold by a town, rather a private party.
This looks like a piece of equipment you could really do some harm with. All those gauges, levers, and controls mean fun...or exploding stuff....which is also fun.
1970s Dodge trucks were some of the best looking of the era. Minimal styling changes mean that this is anywhere from a 1974-1977.
The hood and Power Wagon badges are cool city. This ain't no run of the mill pickup chassis. Power Wagons were built tough!
Don't even think about trying to remove the grille off of this baby. Ain't happening. There's plumbing everywhere!
Yeah, you are reading that right. This sucker will pump 750 gallons per minute!
Apparently this is the company that did the conversion. Saulsbury was a company based out of NY and was in the fire truck business for many years. The company was purchased by E-One fire trucks and swallowed up into that company.
This baby was built like a Sherman tank! Big axles, lots of springs and even big time plumbing!
“Vroom Vroom!” is right! I’ll bet the steering was a little heavy on that puppy