1961 POWER WAGON

Four-wheel-drive pickups are in high demand today, but in 1961, a four-wheel-drive truck was a rare sight. These trucks were not used as commuter vehicles or for family transportation. Dodge brochures from that time show new Power Wagons at muddy construction sites with men in boots and hard hats moving heavy objects about. The subject of this article is one such rare survivor of a hard working life.

1961 was a big year for new Dodge truck styling and mechanical innovation. Its new “Sweptline” design would continue for a decade with a few changes. Also new for 1961 was the “Slant Six” engine, a valve-in-head, four-main-bearing block that leaned to the right at a 30-degree angle to allow a long-stroke engine design while also fitting beneath a car’s low hood. The amazing durability of the Slant Six, aka “The Leaning Tower of Power,” became legendary. That said, a Slant Six-powered truck is not going to win a quarter-mile race, and it certainly isn’t going to blitz down the highway. That’s especially true of our featured 1961 Dodge truck, which is one heavy, short-wheelbase half-ton 4x4.

Dodge made these new Sweptline Power Wagons concurrently with the old-style WM 300 “round nose” Power Wagons built for extreme duty. The round nose WM 300 trucks were initially built for the war effort during the 1940s, and Dodge continued to manufacture them in limited numbers up to 1978. The final batch of WM 300 Power Wagons was sold in South America since they were no