History of the Dodge Truck

[Jim Gaspard]

I was piddlin around the internet doing a search for a short bed, low side tailgate and came across this site I had never seen. Interesting reading. Of interest to us are some great Pilothouse truck photos and narrative, particularly the B3.

http://www.allpar.com/model/ram/ram-history.html

[Allen I.]

Thanks Jim.

I was all over that site when I first started doing research on flat heads but never thought to look at truck info.

While you are there, I recommed taking a look at the section on flat heads.

http://www.allpar.com/mopar/flat.html

[41/53dodges]

if pilothouse trucks were more popular than others, why do you never seem to hear about them or find them as often?

[pflaming]

Why, if so popular, not as many around. (1) I read somewhere that the Dodge Trucks were more expensive than Chevy or Ford. (2) I think Chevy and Ford had more distributors, (3) F & C may had a better marketing program. Others will have better answers. When I recall who had Dodge trucks when I was a lad, these were the more wealthy farmers.

[HanksB3B]

No wonder I thought the coil wire to my new set was too short...According to this photo, my coil is upside-down. Why I never noticed that in other pictures I'll never know. Oh well something else to do now.

Hank

[Jim Gaspard]

Taken from Don Bunn's B-Series Truck book, there were 27 truck body models from 48 to 53, including Conventional Cab, COE's Panel's, Pick-ups, Power Wagons, Express, Platform & Stakes.

Production by calendar year were:

1948 - 172,020

1949 - 151,513

1950 - 125,773

1951 - 169,000

1952 - 162,871

1953 - 105,248

Many of these were in military pools, corporate fleet trucks for industry and farm production while I believe F & C were more targeted for the mainstream consumer supported by heavy advertising, marketing and as you mentioned, more dealerships. Of the million or so Pilot-House Series and Power Wagons produced in this period I think our Forum and the PW club probably represent a high percentage of the survivors, I would estimate a wild guess of under 2500.

[Young Ed]

The average survival rate of any car is 10%. So I would think there are a lot more then 2500 pilot houses around.

[John-T-53]

In the last 8 years that I've owned mine, I've only seen 4 other B-Series Trucks in person, by chance. One of them was a Panel that used to live in south San Clemente, but its owners recently moved.

Never seen any B-Series at a car show, but at the same time I never made it up to Pomona yet.

[pflaming]

John, I know of four for the picking here in the san joaquin valley. You are in a much smaller ag area, yet for the four I know of, I see chevys and fords all the time, so I agree they are at least scarce if not rare. I have never seen a pilot-house on the road around here. I have two friends who have their father's '50 chevy pickups parked in their garage(s), original owner trucks.

[John-T-53]

I lived in San Luis Obispo for 10 years, a big ag county, and that's where I bought mine. But never saw another up there....Chevys and Fords left and right like you said. All the ones I've spotted in Orange County have been on the road, but parked.

This Friday, my old Dodge is about to do another drive up the 101 to its new home in the Bay Area. Time to be spotted and represent!

Wikipedia has an entry for the B Series Pickups, and it states these trucks are now rare because they're known to "buckle and break in the middle".....what the freak?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_B_Series

[Jim Gaspard]

I so hope Ed is right on with his 10% estimate because that would mean there are approximately 95,000 1948 - 1953 Dodge-series truck sleepers out there in the woods, barns and places unknown. And I may yet have hope of finding my shortbed lowside tailgate, my floorboard plate, a passenger side sun visor, a stainless set of B3B grills and the holy grail 610T radio. What we really need is a Pilot-House registry to keep track of what we know exists. Anyone up to writing a program. I have three entries from my personal harem (my trucks are my vice, get it?).

[Young Ed]

Jim the 39-47 guys run a registry for all the trucks. Keeps track of size serial number and I think they even track the dead ones people scrap or find in junkyards. Perhaps they'd share how they do it with you pilothouse guys.

[Bob_Koch]

I read the wikipedia link. Where did the idea that these trucks break in the middle come from????? Or,that's the reason there are so few of them. I've seen a crack or two by the rear springs, but nothing in the middle.

anyone else hear of this?

[Young Ed]

I think that can happen to any truck that is overworked or overloaded. I saw a mid 90s chev tow truck where the frame buckled between the cab and bed

[townwagon]

There are a lot of the PH trucks left...At least sitting in fields or junkyards.

When I go to a junkyard I often find more than one in a yard. Most are picked over, and since I started hunting in 1998 a lot have been crushed (I only have pictures of some, I didn't start documenting all PH trucks I found until 2004 or so).

I would not be surprised if I had looked at several hundred personally.

There used to be about 10 junkyards within 2 hours of my house with old stuff in them. When I first found those yards I took pictures of most of the trucks, and there were at least 30 48-53 trucks scattered throughout those yards.

Since then I have pulled parts from a lot of them, and a few of the yards have crushed.

In comparison there were maybe 12-15 1939-47 trucks in those yards, and less than 10 1957-60 trucks. The majority were the 61-71 trucks, dozens and dozens of those.

Eric

[townwagon]

Oh, and Ed I think the main reason the 39-47 registry has junkyard trucks is because I send them to Dave. He complains a bit about my junk trucks, but he does add a lot of them to the list.

Eric

[Allen I.]

I know of 6 in a bone yard near me ... not much left on em. The one in my driveway. One in a friends garage and his parts truck out in a field. There is a 1 ton in a field in wine country near me that has not moved in the 2 years I have known about it. Only the one my friend drives has a bed on it. The rest are flat beds or have nekkid rears.

I can try to get serials for the ones in the boneyard next time I am out there but that won't be for a couple months.

As for buckling in the middle, when I took off my running boards, I found a couple holes (quarter sized) in the frame around the rivets that secure the brackets for the running boards.

Allen

Edited March 10, 2010 by Allen I.

[Reg Evans]

I read the wikipedia link. Where did the idea that these trucks break in the middle come from????? Or,that's the reason there are so few of them. I've seen a crack or two by the rear springs, but nothing in the middle.

anyone else hear of this?

I have owned at least 35 of these trucks over the last 20 years and never saw one that had buckeled in the middle. The article also stated "when combined with the enlarged 108in wheelbase for the B1-B" Huh?...weren't the previous W series 1/2 ton trucks on a 116" wheelbase.

[48Dodger]

I'm with you Reg....I've worked with a few frames doing "mods" and haven't found anything like that. I imagine a few stress points due to abuse (overloading) could develop cracks, but the article makes it sound like the frame "gave up" and "buckled".....thats just silly.

The 37-38 were called "fore-point" trucks because the cab was moved forward. Was the 39-47 frame used for the new 48-53's. I know the frame is wider than the other two makes, but where is the "enlarged wheel base"? "...notorious blind spots..."???? Reads more like an opinion than anything.

48D

Edited March 10, 2010 by 48dodger

[smallblockjunkie]

when I did my frame I found a few cracks by the middle cross member so just cleaned the cracks and welded them then boxed the frame.

[JBNeal]

I reckon information from Wikipedia should always be taken with a grain of salt since anyone can sign up and contribute, no matter how correct that information is. The whole notion of 'notorious blind spot' kinda irks me as purt'near all trucks of that era were built about the same with regards to aft visibility and optional corner glass.

As most research goes, it's good practice to find multiple sources that verify particular information. But with the advent of the internet, it's becoming more common that multiple information sources are repetitions from the same source. At any rate, allpar seems to do a decent job referencing historical documents as Don Bunn has done in the past with his publications (IMO).

[48Dodger]

"Rear quarter glass were also made optional for the first time to eliminate the notorious blind spots created by pilot-houses."

Created by Pilot-House's.......there weren't PH's until 1948, and they came with the corner window option! To be "notorious" and "optional for the first time" that would imply the PH was around prior to 1948. This guy must think the 39-47's were Pilot-houses. geesh.

48D

Edited March 11, 2010 by 48dodger

[Reg Evans]

I wonder......is there a way to get the author to correct this erroneous information ?

[48Dodger]

I say we all post an article just about 48-53 PH's and work together at getting it right. He only posted a paragraph...maybe he'll read "ours" and get a clue. lol.

48D

[Bob_Koch]

Wikipedia is open to anyone to add or edit content. So I did! I removed the offending sentence as it wasn't true.

And I've added some new content.

Having done that, provide your suggestions as to what content should be added. I"ll make the changes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_B_Series#Pickup_truck

Edited March 10, 2010 by Bob_Koch