any cool 1st gens?

Bought recently, turned over 200k today.. so according to the odometer it is new lol

1983 crew cab w350 4spd 360 5.9L

heres my girl! 126k miles

this truck is sick

Just joined the forum. Building a 1990 W250 into a daily driver foolsize trail rig. I've gotten a lot done but still have plenty to do.

I want that brush guard dwysywd. Only if I didn't have a plow mount, that is. I still have yet to see with my own eyes a crew cab of one of the older Rams.

And that trailblazin' one you got Landmissle is your daily driver? Gee, makes me wonder what your leisure cars look like.

Roadkill said:

And that trailblazin' one you got Landmissle is your daily driver? Gee, makes me wonder what your leisure cars look like.

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LOL... Fair enough. Only other vehicle I own is an older Ninja 650R that will be converted to dirt use soon enough. If I want posh then I drive my girlfriend's Infinity.

When I was wheeling/building a Jeep ZJ I was always opposed to full size rigs. I wanted a diesel and an opportunity got me the Ram. Now I love it and can't figure out why I wouldn't want one. I got it bone stock and decided to make it more useful for my needs.

1980 w150 snocommander

My Family has had this truck since new snow plow was taken off for warn winch bumper 318 with TF Transmission Im in the processes of a full Restoration on the truck can't decide on what motor do put in yet

randocommando said:

My Family has had this truck since new snow plow was taken off for warn winch bumper 318 with TF Transmission Im in the processes of a full Restoration on the truck can't decide on what motor do put in yet

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My choice would be a modern Hemi...

I just bought an '87 Power Ram.
I've been trying to get back into a first gen 1\2 ton Dodge since I Sold my '86 D150 a few years ago. I have had a lot of trucks since then (motsly Fords) and have been empty inside ever since. I really wanted an '85 but I found a local Mopar gearhead with a factory original '87 with the 318 and 77,000 original miles. Not a lick of rust and it has been treated well its whole life. I couldn't pass it up. Most of the first gens around here are lifted, 2wd or rusted to crap.
This old girl is a true survivor. You know you are buying from the right guy when you pull up his drive and there is a Little Red Express parked beside a Warlock and he's got two Challengers in the garage.

Needless to say... I'm satisfied with the '87...

There is one down the road I've been trying to buy for a while, They think I'm some odd ball stalker.... little do they know.... lol

SixGuns said:

I just bought an '87 Power Ram.
I've been trying to get back into a first gen 1\2 ton Dodge since I Sold my '86 D150 a few years ago. I have had a lot of trucks since then (motsly Fords) and have been empty inside ever since. I really wanted an '85 but I found a local Mopar gearhead with a factory original '87 with the 318 and 77,000 original miles. Not a lick of rust and it has been treated well its whole life. I couldn't pass it up. Most of the first gens around here are lifted, 2wd or rusted to crap.
This old girl is a true survivor. You know you are buying from the right guy when you pull up his drive and there is a Little Red Express parked beside a Warlock and he's got two Challengers in the garage.

Needless to say... I'm satisfied with the '87...

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Nice find. I had an '86 D150 and that truck got the worst MPGs of any truck I've ever owned. I took it to a shop to have it tuned up and when I asked what was wrong with it they said, ' Nothing's wrong, probably just the way its geared.". 10 MPG when I was in college and too poor to pay for gas lol.

The '86 I had wasn't all that bad...or I was too young to notice/care. I paid $800 for it in Southern Pennsyltucky. A poor series of events led to a broke down chevy (my daily driver that I drove out there) and my girlfriend (now wife surprisingly) became "homeless". I spent another $600 on a 1970 Terry Camper (18ft and loaded with all our belongings probably 5,000 lbs). We lived out in the woods until late 2010 when we hauled that heap all the way to Los Angeles. If you would have asked me then if I thought we would have made the trip I would have said "Who cares, it'll be a fun journey". If you asked me today to take a carburated small block half ton and load it to the bump stops and pull an overweight trailer across the country (I-70 so plenty of elevation) I would tell you no way. But we made it. Looked like the beverly hill billies but we made it. And seeing the country through that bid 'ol windshield was worth every mile......

Here she is in Colorado somewhere high on I-70. The hood is up checking fluids. She made it the whole way. Of course the tranny blew up two weeks after we got there....


to add to that, if you look at the picture you can see the sag...I had even added helper springs and blocks to keep it off the stops...no such luck. Thinking of it makes me shake my head now. When I took it to a tranny shop to have the tranny rebuilt the guy said it was smoked beyond recognition. I asked him how long it had been going out and he told me for quite a while. I explained to him my epic journey just two weeks prior and he pretty much called me a liar to my face. I had this picture on my cell phone and showed him. He had some choice words about the travel....I still keep this picture around to show people how crazy the trip really was.

My wife, dog and I had a similar epic trip in 78' from San Diego to Northern California where we blew an engine towing a totally loaded down 24' travel trailer we lived in. Threw a junkyard engine in it and headed for Norfolk. It was the best trip I've ever made, no real plan and no idea if we'd make it...

when towing a trailer espcially as long as that you want to keep the weight somewhat balanced which is why your truck is squatting so much with the trailer. you only suppose to have 500lbs of weight on the tounge and it looks like you have a lot more than that on there. most people do overload their vehicle when towing a trailer because they don't really understand towing. just hook on and go is how most look at it.

that truck looks familiar

I've been looking at the newer motors thinking of putting a cummins 4bt in it, still trying to find the right 4bt i have a shop who can do the conversion and rebuild the motor they specialize in cummins was told i could get 300 hp to the ground in a 4bt but the the cost would be about the same price as buying a new Hemi from mopar but i could get 25mpg with the 4bt

randocommando said:

I've been looking at the newer motors thinking of putting a cummins 4bt in it, still trying to find the right 4bt i have a shop who can do the conversion and rebuild the motor they specialize in cummins was told i could get 300 hp to the ground in a 4bt but the the cost would be about the same price as buying a new Hemi from mopar but i could get 25mpg with the 4bt

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I wouldn't use a 4bt only because 6bt's came in them a little later. Maybe find a donor diesel and put it all together. Or maybe just do a body swap.

there is nothing wrong with sticking a 4bt in first gen. many people have done it.

crazzywolfie said:

there is nothing wrong with sticking a 4bt in first gen. many people have done it.

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Didn't mean to imply there was anything wrong with using a 4bt other than later models already having 6bts. Back in the seventies I made some adaptor plates for bolting 727's to some surplus 4bt in San Diego. They went into a couple of 3/4 ton chevy pickups.

i think with a 4bt you might possibly be able to get better fuel mileage even if they don't put out quite as much power but it will weight less. i would guess a 4bt weights as much as a standard gas engine.