1974 Dodge D200 5/4 ton

[rob love]

My initial drivers course was on those Dodges along with the Deuce in 1978.

By what I saw, the Dodge Powerwagons were primarily a reserve truck. On replacing the 3/4 ton M37, a good portion of them may well have been used in the Olympics much as the M151A2s were....on the world stage they wanted us to look modern, and not driving 20 year old trucks.

Eventually when the chev 5/4 ton came out, they went to the regular army, while the reserves primarily got the Dodges. The reserves did get the odd 5/4 ton where they required a special platform such as the CPs or line trucks.

If memory serves, there was an ambulance version of the Dodge. While the bulk of the Dodge fleet was replaced by the chev 3/4 ton in 81, the ambulances remained in reserve at air force and militia units until eventually replace by the CUCV fleet around 1986. We still had a Dodge cargo converted into a tow truck when I was in Cypress in 89, but it was de-commisioned and replaced by a Hino that year. I personally removed a lot of the equipment like the Warn winch and moved it over to the Hino.

Funny thing was that while the reserves were getting fresh trucks every 6 or 7 years, the regular force milked along with the 76 5/4 tons from 1974 until almost 94/95. Of course, until the CUCV came along, the commercial trucks the militia used did not have 24 volt capability so things like a heater for the back or a radio could not be powered form the truck.

These commercial fleets were just a cheaper replacement rather than buying a full fleet of expensive SMP (yes, the chev 5.4 was considered a SMP) for both the regular and reserve forces. While that changed somewhat with the LSVW, the reserves did get their silverado milcots instead of G-wagons for the most part.

On a larger size, the same is done today where the International Defense MSVS was the militia replacement for the MLVW, and the regular force was supposed to get their true SMP replacement around the same time. However, with the almost decade long delay in replacing the MLVW, many of the MSVS have migrated over to the regular force to cover until the Mack/Volvos eventually get delivered (2017?)