Having lived where there is snow on the ground for four or five months out of every year, and this year, record-breaking snowfall levels, it’s nice to have all four wheels providing power to the ground. This 1985 Dodge Ram W-150 4×4 certainly has that ability, and it’s listed here on eBay in Baker, Montana. The current bid price is $2,800 but the reserve isn’t met yet.
In late-1980, Dodge gave its D/W-series trucks a mild plastic surgery session and renamed them the Ram series trucks. The former D-series rear-wheel-drive pickups and W-series 4×4 pickups were now Rams, as were the Ramcharger, and the Ram-50 truck, a rebadged Mitsubishi import. The first-generation Ram pickups were made from the 1981 model year until mid-1993 when the newly-designed Ram trucks came out. If you think about it, those “new” 1994 Dodge pickups are basically the same design as ones made today, so that’s a solid 30-year run, wow.
This truck looks rock-solid. We don’t see any underside photos and with 122,000 miles it hasn’t spent all of its life hiding in a garage, but I don’t see any glaring rust issues at all. The seller doesn’t mention rust, but it sure looks good, other than a couple of dents. The working area of the short bed looks solid with a coating of surface rust as you’d expect after 38 years of being on the planet and working probably all its life.
I love the look of a short-bed pickup and being a full-sized truck, it should have enough legroom for almost anyone. But, having some extra space behind the front seat would sure be a bonus for hauling things out of the weather. I guess that’s what toppers/caps are for, although, that sort of defeats the purpose of the cool look of a short-bed truck. The interior looks much nicer than I thought it would. The door panels could be painted to freshen them up if the next owner wanted to.
The engine is Dodge’s 318-cu.in. OHV V8, which would have had 140 horsepower and is backed up by a three-speed Torqueflite automatic. The seller says that this one has “a new Edelbrock 1406 Performer Series 660 CFM electric choke carburetor”, along with a new “distributor, spark plugs, coil, and spark plug wires.” This sounds like a great one and it looks good to me. Hagerty’s at $7,000 for a #4 fair-condition example, for the record. Any thoughts on this short-bed W-150?
Do a manual hub conversion and drive it. Cool Ram 🐏
Ya got that right!!stan
Scotty writing up a 4×4 macho pickup? Has the world gone mad? I know, work is work. Just so out of character for a guy that brings us some of the strangest items. I can only imagine what DOESN’T get printed. This is a great find, in that, Scotty speaks the truth, in a northern locale, these pre -diesel Dodges, when they were called Dodges, were very popular among rural folks, farms especially. Not sure why, I suppose because they couldn’t get IH or Studebakers anymore. Farmers were very brand loyal, and be a cold day in Hades before Farmer Brown drove a Ford. Some people still operate farms, mostly because they can’t afford to fail, so they go deeper and deeper. A truck like this is perfect. Nothing fancy, the birds can crap all over it, but it can still be very useful. Pull wagons, winter plow, short in town runs, hey, we have to get out of this mindset, we need a brand new Super Duty to go 3 miles to get groceries. Great find, should by all rights, be gone by the time I finish,,,
I have to admit, being a Chevy & GMC guy, I didn’t like these trucks much when they were new. But this body style has aged well & grown on me the last few years. I would rather drive this truck than one of the massively oversized new offerings from any of the manufacturers. I would not be surprised if bidding eclipsed $10-12,000 before it’s over.
Bidding ended at $3,750 and no sale, bummer.
But, it’s been relisted with a buy-it-now price of $5,900.
Location has a big Ipact on price. In many areas it is just another old c truck