Posted by Ricker on July 24, 2000 at 09:08:53:
In Reply to: Powerwagon wanted posted by Steve Salzman on July 21, 2000 at 18:07:12:
Lou brings up a good point about wheel base. The 1/2 designation means nothing, really. What you want is a long wheel base. You also want something with a lot of springs in the back. My W150 has the same rear suspension as my D200, but uses a 9.25" axel instead of the Dana 60.
You'll want big brakes.
Other then that, you should be able to find a decent truck that wi;ll work well for you. Just pay attention to the tag inside the drivers door for the GVW, that's the important one for hauling a load, not the 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton. etc. designations.
I love the 70's trucks and have owned many of them. My 79 w150 is my daily driver! It's got full time 4x4, just under a 7000 lb GVW, a mildly built 360, automatic, and it'll tow anything and go anywhere. My D200 could haul and tow even more (9000 GVW) but since it was two wheel drive, would get stuck on level dry pavement!
The only real draw backs to the 70's trucks is they are rust buckets! You're in CA so you have a better chance then I, but even there they will rust out the floors pretty easily due to poor design of the weather stripping.
One other thing that may or may not be a problem to you is there is almost no way to run dual exhaust on these PW's. That is unless you run stacks, side pipes, or run the exhaust outside of the frame rails tucked up into the body.
One more thing to consider is that in 1978, the lowly Dodge pick up was the fastest production car available in the US!