We’ve seen some great pickups here on Barn Finds over the years and this one ranks toward the top for me. A 1966 Dodge W300 Utiline one-ton 4×4 that’s rock solid, with a V8 and four-speed manual? Yes, please. It was owned by the Southwestern Public Service Company and can be found listed here on eBay in Woodinville, Washington. The current bid price is $7,600, but the reserve isn’t met.
These big work trucks, park service trucks, forest service trucks, etc., are my favorites. This beautiful beast was bought new by the Southwestern Public Service Company (now Xcel Energy based in Minneapolis), a power company. It was bought in Carlsbad, New Mexico and that may explain the solid condition. The seller has included a few underside photos (nice work!) and it looks rock solid. This truck has a 133″ wheelbase, a nine-foot box, and it appears to have the optional manual front hubs and has only 34,000 miles. I won’t be able to sleep tonight thinking about this one. This is the 8,500 GVW version, but if you wanted dual rear wheels, you could have 10,000 GVW.
The second-generation Dodge D/W-Series pickups were made from 1965 through 1971 and came in both D-Series rear-wheel drive and W-Series 4×4 versions. This one has what Dodge referred to as a Utiline box or bed, commonly known as a stepside. The giant front bumper with a Braden winch makes up for not having a rear bumper. The bed could use some new wood, but the seller is including the original painted grille, along with the chrome one they installed. It looks like there are also a couple of extra split rims (scary), and are those the original cab steps back there? The seller has another truck available for a little extra cash.
The seat looks great, much nicer than a lot of replacement seat covers, in my opinion. I spy some surface rust and possibly naughtier rust on the passenger floor, but hopefully that’s an easy fix, and then it’s Dynamat-material, and some nice rubber flooring and you’re set. I would maybe add another floor shift lever, wowie! This truck has optional vacuum-assist “power brakes”, so that’s fantastic. Power steering wasn’t available, so prepare to have Popeye forearms within a month of driving this beast. Hagerty is at $10,900 for a #4 fair-condition truck and $16,100 for a #3 good truck.
The great-looking engine is the optional “premium” 318-cu.in. OHV V8 with 202 horsepower and 288 lb-ft of torque. The Premium 318 included a hardened and shot-peened crank with a vibration damper, tri-metal main and connecting rod bearings, and “Stellite” (a cobalt-based alloy)-faced exhaust valves with Roto-Caps. It’s backed by a four-speed New Process 435 manual and two-speed transfer case sending power to Spicer axles with optional manual front hubs. The seller says this truck is wearing most of its original paint (amazing!), it runs great, and you should all chip in and buy it for me. No, really! Any thoughts on this green beast of a truck?
This is a great truck Scottie.!!! Its a beast for sure. Besides the rust on the passenger floor, the rest of it looks as solid as a rock. This thing was built to work . I think I’d install a rear bumper, many modern cars would probably go right underneath you in a rear collision. But other than that, I’d leave it as is. ( other than maybe do something about those split rims ).
Thanks, sir! I was hoping I didn’t miss any glaring issues or features on this one. We had split rims on our ’69 F-250, and I remember a guy at Firestone telling us that a coworker got killed working on them. That’s always stuck with me all these decades.
What a cool truck.I’d be very interested in it,
if I had a need for something like this.
Badazz.
Good write-up Scotty. This is a seriously cool truck. Winch, four wheel drive, manual transmission, manual hubs, no power steering, dark green paint– it was made to work. I hope the next owner has experienced how these ride and drive, otherwise it will be a rude awakening. Amazing it has survived.
I agree, I think it needs at least one more shifter…. maybe something like the wipers needs a floor lever??
Ha, a wiper lever on the floor, that’s what it needs! Maybe a cigar lighter socket on the floor with an 18″ cast iron handle…
Scotty, no power steering isn’t an issue anymore. Putting in an electric power steering is now easy and there are no new belts or hydraulics required.
I’ve always wondered about that, JohnfromSC. I’ve heard that a junkyard Prius or other hybrid electric power steering system is pretty popular to use. That would be a game-changer on this rig.
Wow! Great truck! Big, green, mean machine.
Another cherry to pick, flying to Oregon next week to pick up a Cummins powered suburban 2500 series with 4wd, would love to tow this beautiful Dodge home as well, keep up the great work on helping me spend my 401k.
Loved the article. ✍️ and love this very tough 4wd one ton. The 318 and smooth NP trans are a nice driving combination i bet. Too cool. 😎 thanks SG.
Thanks, Stan! I really like this one.
Spend it while you can, Bob! My wife and I are thinking the same thing, life is dang short.
Outstanding. Stout. Perfect.
I am familiar with the realities of life on the back of a line truck after 40 years in the tools. This truck is an amazing survivor. A lot of utility trucks will have low mileage but are mostly beat up. I would love to be the new owner. The utility I worked my whole career for had dark green and yellow as their company colors. It would look good in the July 4th parade.
Knocked it out of the park, Scotty, and what a great truck! Make it all the better with JohnfromSC idea of electric power steering-tho maybe add a retractable rope ladder for getting into the cab..
And the “parts truck” would be a good one to build too IMO.
Well done again, Scotty.
You are way too kind, Nevadahalfrack. Ha, retractable rope ladder! I’m 6′-5″ tall, so it’s probably perfect for me, but I might figure out how to put the cab steps back on.
Works like a truck. Rides like a truck. Awesome
Hey guys, possible to tell me what all those shift levers do?
TIA
Rick, I don’t know for sure, but there was a “driver-adjusted hand brake on the transfer case”, according to a 1966 Dodge truck brochure. And this truck has the optional PTO, so one may be for that, along with the two-speed transfer case? The “Orscheln lever” parking brake is seen under the dash on the left, and here are a couple of photos of the floor levers.
Here’s another one.
Well then…
Thanks!
Perfect grocery getter or mall hopper. Seriously this is truly a work truck on steroids. Four levers to play with and just so much presence. I could see it parked in my driveway and my butt in a lawn chair with a few chilly ones gazing at this and thinking how neat this truck is. If I lived in the West I would be all over this. Even though it is way more truck than I would ever need. I don’t think I have seen one of these in my area of the mid Atlantic in donkeys years. GLWTS
That’s exactly what I would do, Carbob. I wouldn’t have many other uses for it other than sitting there and looking at it, just enjoying how incredibly cool it is and how lucky I was to own it. Shipping costs would be horrendous in today’s world, but it would be fun to pick away at the floor rust, the wood bed floor, and whatever else it needed and drive it on the weekends. I’d want a spare tire on the driver’s side and bigger mirrors, like this one.
That is a great image Scotty. The mirrors looks great painted body color too. These trucks just looked and were tough.
The driver adjusted handbrake is to the far left and pulls up on Sweptline Dodges (my favorite pickups and yes, I’ve had 2, both 2WD Half tons (D100, where this is a W300). You can see the E-Brake Handle (engaged) in the picture of the driver side floor (note the knurled adjustment handle with the paint long worn off, protruding toward the camera, just under the dash, to the left of the steering column.
I would imagine the 4 sticks to the right would be (I’d guess, in this order but it should duplicate the WM-300 Power Wagon) Transfer Case 2WD-N-4WD, Lo Range-High Range, Power Take Off Engage-Disengage to the Braden PTO Winch and Reel In-Reel Out Cable on the Winch, with the lever on the Cable Drum being a hand Clutch.
This one is cool in its own right as 65 and 66 model year trucks had “Refrigerator Door Handles that pivoted outward opening the latch mechanism. Notice the instrument cluster is black, where as most (non-fleet) trucks had an “engine turned finished” panel in 1966.
Thanks!
That is absolute gold, Jakespeed, thanks much!
These are my favorites too – thanks for the write up!
For me these Dodges are also the best looking trucks, although I like the earlier and the following frontdesign better.
But most important – it’s green!
Drove one equipped like this ( light USFS green! ) for a couple summers on the forest roads of the Routt Forest, NW Colorado. Long, wide, tough. Wish I had that one or this. My dad had one for Colo Game/ Fish, but a short box.
Good memories.
Dang, look at all them lee’-verrs.
Pretty nice, but only for off road use. A highway would be pure hell in this. Plus, no air, no heated seats, no touch screen? The horror!
It would be slow going fer sure ) But it would provide a hell of a contrast to the air conditioned power wagons and F350s of today. Qui en es mas macho?
Someone correct me if I’m wrong. But I thought the white dash gages were only a 1962 option.
You may be right, ScrooLoose! I just spent too much time trying to find photos of 1962 through 1966 Dodge D/W gauge clusters, and it seems like 1962 matched up with this truck more than the 1966 truck gauges. Hopefully a Dodge PhD expert knows for sure. I can’t find anything in brochures listing that, but I did find a 1962 brochure showing these gauges in white with a black face. Nice work!
Scotty.
Now that I seen the E-Bay photos, the extra truck mentioned seems it possibly could be a 1962. With the quad headlights. I would bet the gauge cluster came from that truck. ScrooLoose.
So much for Hagerty; their #3 good-condition value of $16,100 is what the current bid is, and the reserve isn’t met.
WOW! $25,600 and the reserve isn’t met with 39 minutes left! The seller must not want to sell it. That’s basically Hagerty’s #2 excellent condition value, and this is not an “excellent condition” truck. Sigh… I shouldn’t be disappointed, but I am.
Well, here’s the auction update: this one ended at a jaw-dropping $27,601, and even that bid price, over the #2 excellent-condition value, wasn’t enough to meet the seller’s reserve. U n r e a l.
“Honey, I tried to sell the truck, but apparently nobody wanted it…”
Not sold with a high bid of $27,601, reserve not met.
Steve R