Dodge D Series

July 5th, 2007 by Shenron

Everyone remembers the “D”, or D Series Dodge truck, the descendant of the B, and C Series. It lasted as Dodge’s premier truck for nineteen years beginning in 1961 and ending in 1980, its successor is the Dodge Ram. It was a full size pickup truck with either a two door or four door design, and was based on the AD platform with front engine and rear wheel drive, along with four wheel drive. There were three generations in all, and was the first Dodge truck to have both an alternator and an automatic by using a three speed push button in the first generation of truck. t was also the very first truck to introduce crew cabs, and the engine with the most power this vehicle could handle was the wonderful wedge-head V8, producing 365 horses. In 64 the D Series Dodge was redesigned and included a better engine, with the 383 2 barrel as standard – allowing it to use 258 horses. This generation was short, and had various small changes – the most radical being the transmission – a 3-speed dash mounted or column mounted lever shifted automatic.

In 1972 the entire D Series Dodge was redesigned and looked different, and included some newer features lacking in previous models, such as the independent front suspension and also the 440 cubed inch engine as the standard for the light truck versions. It had an updated three speed column shifted automatic transmission and was put to use with the 440in RB V8 engine giving it 235, the other engine which was 400 cubic inches had 200 horsepower. In 1981 the line was not discontinued, but rather it lead onto a new generation which would have been the D series’ fourth – however they renamed the D Series the Dodge Ram, and thus the Ram was born – however the body style remained mostly similar until the Ram’s own revision in the nineties. The D series is a solid truck, useful in almost every situation and powerful for its era – although it was not entirely as popular as Ford, it has its place in history (The D Series Medium Duty was produced until 1978 along with the other versions – rather than discontinued in previous years leading up to 1978).

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