Dodgeboy49

Times change, and we've had to list our 1950 Dodge COE for sale. Located in eastern Washington, take a look if interested. https://lewiston.craigslist.org/cto/d/uniontown-1950-dodge-cabover/7612012862.html

COE's are a mixed bag to work on; with the front wheels and inner fenders removed, there are hardly any bolts or fasteners that are difficult to reach. The tranny and clutch are really easy to work on since you can just about sit upright under the high cab. On the other hand, there isn't much you can do WITHOUT removing the front wheels. Even cleaning the points has do be done through the fender. I dread the day the engine has to come out- wouldn't be too bad if a person had a little forklift, but doing it with an engine hoist will be a nightmare.

Wow, that looks fantastic! I've been dreaming of making mine look that good for about 24 years now so there may be hope for it yet!

Looks like a '54, since it has the early cab and beveled bed rails. Hood medallion indicates a flathead-6. Hard to tell if those are 15" rims, but if they are it would probably be a 3/4 ton. They also offered a heavy-half around that time which had the bigger box (which this appears to have) but also had 16" rims. Looks like it has a good load on; is there a story behind this truck?

I have an early '48 pickup bed in service as a utility trailer; when I first put it together I didn't have wood or much money to buy anything good, so I ripped out some strips of exterior sheathing and slapped a coat of house paint on them to serve as bed planks. I fully intended to replace them with something better after the first year, but after four years of uncovered outdoor storage they are still as sound as can be. Granted, the exterior plywood may have better glue but I think any advantage would probably be offset by my admittedly slapdash preparation and installation. Well prepared oak plywood on a truck which actually receives some care instead of being a compost bin on wheels would probably last very nicely. Are the savings worth the risk? That's a question only you can answer.

I changed from a 3-speed to a 4-speed in my '49 half ton largely because the 3-speed was shot. It's true that the 4-speed only gains you granny low going forward, but it also gains you a lower reverse gear. I anticipated that this would make backing a trailer easier (which it does) but I was surprised at how much it helps with regular driving as well, especially in crowded parking lots. On the flip side though, the 4-speed I found happened to be a straight-cut non synchro transmission, which means I have to double-clutch everything. I did find that I had to change the bell housing (though I think I could have drilled and tapped the original fairly easily) and also the floor pan; the pans for the 3-speed floor shifter have a slightly different hole location than the 4-speed pans. Also remember that the 41-47 transmissions had a shifter in a different location than the 48-49 transmissions. They'll work fine, you just have to have your hole in a different spot on the floor.

That's a great find! I'd just about bet on the mileage being original; here in the western states it was common for trucks to show very low mileage because they spent their lives chugging around wheat fields in low gear. They may not have had many miles on them, but probably had a bazillion hours on the engines.

Out of curiosity, when did Dodge introduce synchronized 4-speeds? I noticed a '54 half-ton parts truck for sale the other day which still has a flathead and 4-speed in it. Even if it is only synchro in 2nd through 4th it would still make life easier while retaining the drum brake.

Depending on the wrecking yards in your area, you may get lucky with some very nice used tires. Our local yard used to buy all the school buses when they came up for auction. Several came in with 20" wheels and tires, and being school buses, the tires were usually in excellent shape. We've gotten a couple sets of radials that way which we run on the 20" lock ring wheels; one set was only about a year old. The buses in our area see some rural duty so they typically have pretty good drive tires in the rear. Unfortunately for us, the yard closed down, so we may someday be in the same boat of looking for a better option.

I switched over to 12 volts in 2000 and was curious to know how long the stock horn and starter would last. 22 years and 40,000 miles later I'm still wondering how long they'll last. Neither have had any service or maintenance in that time. It is entirely possible that I've gone 22 years on luck; others' results may vary, but these seem to be very robust units.

My dad and I are getting ready to put together a 1950 Dodge one-ton dually for him to drive around. We have a 1950 Dodge 2 1/2 ton cabover that he likes to take to shows and parades, but it is getting more difficult for him to manage it as he gets older. The one-ton will be easier to get in and out of, drive, and park just by virtue of it's smaller size if nothing else. We have a 236ci flathead with split manifolds to put in it (we've got the extra length figured out) and a T5 transmission to go behind that. Dad still can double-clutch the old trannys, but the synchros will take some of the stress out of the ride and allow him to enjoy it longer. The drawback to switching to the newer tranny is that we will lose the stock parking brake. Our friends tell us just to throw a rock behind the wheel but we don't roll that way (...er, we're afraid we WILL roll that way). We've tried to find an old-type six lug rear end with a parking brake in the drums, but so far no luck. My dad kind of has his heart set on keeping it a dually, so that pretty much limits us to either a six or eight lug application. We're finding that there are more modern eight-lug rear ends (containing parking brakes) which measure out to be a good fit for the back of the truck, but then we'd have to find a way to switch to eight lug in the front. We haven't found any eight-lug straight axles which are narrow enough to look appropriate under the stock fenders, but I'm wondering if there might be a possibility that there is an eight-lug hub and drum that would fit on the stock spindles? If that were the case, we would be able to dispense with the lockring wheels which would be kind of nice also. We don't need to do anything wild like IFS or disc brakes; despite the OD tranny and speed parts this will never be a "fast" truck. Does anyone have any ideas which might get us past this roadblock? Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Every post is better with a couple pics.

Some years ago, we brought home a 1950 Dodge one-ton from a salvage yard. It was missing its original engine and trans, but still had the factory stake bed and was in pretty reasonable condition overall. My dad has been wanting to put together a rig that is mostly original in equipment and appearance, yet not so perfectly restored or preserved that we can't do some fun things with it. We've come to the conclusion that this truck might be a good candidate for this project. At some point in its life, this had a 360 and automatic (also now missing), but we are going to put in a 236 flathead and T5 transmission. We will have to do a little work to fit the longer engine, but nothing major. It is essential that we use the longer engine because around the same time we found the truck, we also scored a dual-carb setup from a scrapper. The manifold fits the longer engine, so there we go. We are hoping the 5-speed will allow the truck to reach 55 mph, and my dad is looking forward to having syncromesh gears. The biggest problem with going to the T5 transmission is the fact that we will lose the parking brake. If this were a lighter truck, we could change out the rear end for a newer unit with cable-operated parking brakes very easily , but we are both pretty set on keeping this in its old-style dually configuration. I am wondering if anyone has encountered a good solution, either by retrofitting a parking brake on to the original axle (maybe a backing plate swap?) or if there is a newer axle out there which has a similar width and correct 6-bolt lug pattern? Thanks!