Went to the wilds of the North Idaho WA border to pickup that old Plow truck Doug sent the link to, I'd already been talking to the guy for two days, but didn't want to post anything for fear of jinxing it...

Ad read, "67 Dodge Plow Truck, 318, chains, etc". We ended up going there Wednesday kinda unplanned (didn't even have my truck tools with me, extra fluids or anything), wife had a dental cleaning, I called him for a heads up "we're still planning to come look at it" (p'up date was set for not this weekend but the next on account of him working nights 12 hour shifts till then.) All the sudden he tells me on the phone he already fixed the busted taillights and he can be there if we show up in the evening. Hellacious drive, most incredible beautiful scenery you ever seen, following Priest River, climbing into the mountains higher and higher.


We get there and lo and behold, the truck is pretty dang nice for what it is, but it looks like a early '65 on back, xcept it's got an LA318, which could be just a newer motor transplanted into place. It had been set-up to run on Propane when he got it (big ol round tanks under each side), originally from Missouri (still had a bent-up Missouri front plate under the WA plate), he'd converted it back to gas, plowed his place out for 19 years with it... they had 7' of snowfall last year. He's retiring next year and got a practically new F350 Diesel with the same plow on it "to make his life more comfortable".

Bringing it back was a nightmare, didn't get going til 9pm, it puked coolant everywhere by the time we got back to Newport, lights were all over the place, no power, pinging like crazy on hills, coughing and spitting back through the carb, stinky exhaust leaks, barely enough brakes to get it slowed down, truck all over the road (funky dry rotted old bias play tires with not enough air in them), collapsed front springs from plowing all these years. Finally made it the first leg of the trip by 11 pm that night. Did a bunch of repairs the next day (don't even want to go into details... I got it home last night, after another unplanned repair session at a Napa parking lot, more coolant puking, changed the rad cap, belt... Guess it would be too much to ask someone to make a vehicle road worthy before selling it when they know you have a long road trip ahead... The truck runs like a top now, a days work and a trip to the muffler shop, still didn't like pulling hills with that plow on it ;-( Wifey says no smoke out the back, man those 318's are TOUGH as nails!!!

Anyway, back to supposed year of the truck ;-) Man was I pleased to see it looked like my old favorite, four headlight Dodges of mid '65 on back when I first saw it. I've never been that fond of the big "pie plates". All my best memories are of the earlier trucks... But the title says it's a '67? My gut feeling is that it's older, but maybe not, just got an older cab on it? Title year got changed in a typo? Did Dodge sell it like that in '67 by some fluke reason?

I can't see where the cab's been changed, the vin looks legit, matches the title, all rivets original. Round gauges, small back window, 4 headlight, lighter down by the ignition switch (?), 420 trans (noisy as hell and about shot from plowing, dumped it and refilled it yesterday, never saw that much metal come out of a trans on a fluid change, from gear grinding I suspect).


The bumper's welded on the frame! Might just leave it on and have another bumper built to mount the plow on, other than that, looks like I'll be sporting a big ol cable operated Western 8' 6" Pro Plow on the W300 by the time snow flies. Got all very decent non split rims/good tires on it now, a fully set of never used ice breaker chains for all six tires, should be amazing!


The VIN is 1381299216. Be very interested to figure this one out.


Here's some pics, early this morning.

<center>



<P>



<P>




<P>




<P>




<P>