Hugh’s Truck: 1991 Dodge Ram 250 Cummins Diesel
This next car come as a seller submission from Hugh, who wants $500 or trade for Miata for his truck: It is time to deaccession this Dalton highway spec Dodge Ram 250 Cummins turbo diesel pickup from the family fleet. My uncle, who crewed on the Garretson Enterprises LeMans ( Paul Newman) and IMSA (1981 24 Hours of Daytona win with Bob Garretson Brian Redman and Bobby Rahal ) teams, drove on the one lap of America a few times, and did the great American cross country race in a Studebaker Indianapolis race car and numerous other auto adventures, bought this for a trip to the Arctic circle because he really liked driving to out of the way places.
Patina not for the faint of heart.
The Dalton highway, to quote a couple of grafs from Wikipedia:“ directly parallels the pipeline, is one of the most isolated roads in the United States. There are only three towns along the route: Coldfoot (pop 10) at Mile 175,[4] Wiseman (pop 22) at Mile 188,[4] and Deadhorse (25 permanent residents, 3,500-5,000 or more seasonal residents depending on oil production) at the end of the highway at Mile 414.[4] Fuel is available at the E. L. Patton Yukon River Bridge (Mile 56), as well as Coldfoot and Deadhorse.[4] Two other settlements, Prospect Creek and Galbraith Lake, are uninhabited except for campers and other short-term residents.
The road itself is mostly gravel, very primitive in places, and small vehicle and motorcycle traffic carries significant risk. The nearest medical facilities are in Fairbanks and Deadhorse. Anyone embarking on a journey on the Dalton is encouraged to bring survival gear. Despite its remoteness, the Dalton Highway carries a good amount of truck traffic through to Prudhoe Bay: about 160 trucks daily in the summer months and 250 trucks daily in the winter.[4] The highway comes to within a few miles of the Arctic Ocean. Beyond the highway’s terminus at Deadhorse are private roads owned by oil companies, which are restricted to authorized vehicles only. There are, however, commercial tours that take people to the Arctic Ocean. All vehicles must take extreme precaution when driving on the road, and drive with headlights on at all times. There are quite a few steep grades (up to 12%) along the route, as well.”
https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/50-james-dalton-highway-usa.html
“Truckers on the Dalton have given their own names to its various features, including: Taps, The Shelf, Franklin Bluffs, Oil Spill Hill, Beaver Slide, Surprise Rise, Sand Hill, Ice Cut, Gobbler’s Knob, Finger Mountain, Oh Shit Corner, and the Roller Coaster. The road reaches its highest elevation as it crosses the Brooks Range at Atigun Pass, 4,739 feet (1,444 m).
The highway is the featured road on the third, fourth, fifth and sixth seasons of the History reality television series Ice Road Truckers, which aired May 31, 2009 to present. It is also the subject of the second episode of America’s Toughest Jobs and the first episode of the BBC’s World’s Most Dangerous Roads featuring Charley Boorman and Sue Perkins. Polar bears are known to traverse the Arctic region of Alaska and can be seen wandering the outskirts of Deadhorse at the terminus of the Dalton Highway.”
My uncle had some oil company connections and was able to continue past the end of the highway to Prudhoe bay, because well why not?
I would have washed it but then someone would think that there was some leak that I was hiding so there you have 29 years worth of grime.
So what does a Dalton highway spec pickup have besides the obvious Cummins engine for reliable motoring at 4,739 feet on the “world’s most dangerous highway” (the author has obviously never driven on the Long Island Expressway on a Friday night)?
Radio works!
A ridiculously over-built and high numerical ratio rear axle and a Getrag 5 speed transmission with a parade gear first, stump puller second, I might get a speeding ticket in a school zone third, reasonable speed around town fourth, and fast enough to not get a ticket for driving too slow on the freeway in most states fifth.
Hella headlamps that point down for some reason.
A really impressively big fuel tank.
Honest to god no messing around truck tires.
After the Dalton highway trip my uncle used the truck as a daily driver, to tow race cars, and improbably enough competing in Porsche Club of America rallies and winning. When my uncle died in 2000 the truck was outfitted with a Timewise rally computer system. In the ensuing 21 years we never figured out how to get the speedometer / odometer reconnected and working but it was really superfluous when my mother was using it as a farm truck towing walnut trailers for a couple of years and then to go to the dump or the steel yard or the galvanizing place for art stuff.
It’s been pretty much parked for the last two years, on account of my mom being 92 and not needing a truck like this. I just drove it about 50 miles to pick up a bandsaw a week ago and it drove quite nicely for being something of a beast. The brakes were done just before we convinced my mother to stop driving it a couple of years ago and they seem fine although the ABS light stays on. Windows go up and down.
So what’s wrong with this if you want to drive it on normal public roads?
The quality of Mopar paint circa 1990 is laughable. On this truck it mostly is not there at all. I ground out actual holes in the roof near the drip rail over the windshield and patched it with epoxy a few years ago. The tailgate also has holes in it. Heater looks like it has been disconnected. Turn signals seem MIA. Many cracks in the windshield. Tires need to be replaced. If you want to know how slow you are going you would want to do something about the speedometer.
I tried to teach my son to drive in this many years ago, he very slowly in the parade gear drove into an empty canal and when I pulled it out with a caterpillar tractor the side of the bed got a dent. Says AC on the dash but who knows?
What’s cool about this if you want to drive it on normal public roads?
People come up to you and just start talking about Cummins turbo diesel pickups. It’s almost like the people who talk to my sister about her 1967 21-window VW bus except people talk to her in crosswalks when she stops for a light. At least with this people strike up a conversation when it’s parked. They are also stranger then the VW people although nobody has claimed to have been conceived in a Cummins turbo diesel pickup the way the VW folks do. The largish turning circle is compensated for by its complete obliviousness to curbs. Fundraising carwashing cheerleaders leave you alone. It’s got a big tow hitch.
If it were up to me I would run down to Tractor Supply and get some Allis Chalmers Orange paint and a big brush, paint this, and fix things up. If I were a little more ambitious, I would find a dead milk truck and do a body swap.
Unfortunately we need to get rid of this before the registration and insurance run out on april 28, and If we can’t sell it by then it goes to the local pick and pull.
I really got tired of the stupid tailgate latch, removed it, and upgraded to a more secure pin.
Hitch house is not a drive through wedding chapel.
What’s LE stand for? Lowered Expectations? Note Fire extinguisher. Note mysterious wiring. Electric brake controller for trailer is a vestige of it’s race car hauling days. Probably does not work.
Needs new tires
Big diesel tank.
Secret hood opening bailing wire to inside fender
Windows go up, windows go down, power locks work. Compares favorably to a Mercedes Benz diesel. Working vent windows!
Tailgate is quite rusty but the bed itself is not. The rust is probably the result of filling the bed with dirt for a few months at a time to make it tow farm trailers better.
Truck bits.
This Leer bed cap comes with it.
So there you have it, a truck that has both driven the Dalton Highway in 1992 and beaten Porsches in competition.
$500 or a Miata
Clean title ( for a relatively dirty druck) in hand
Contact hugh@hughcrawford.com
Because the ad doesn’t seem to mention it anywhere, I have to ask… is this truck new or used?
Oh, it’s hardly used at all. Mostly just moved out of the way occasionally.
Where is it? California somewhere from the plate. Does “walnut trailers” suggest Central Valley, or maybe just up into the foothills?
I’d buy it in a minute if I were in the same hemisphere.
Tracy California.
At $500 for 5000 lbs, this is one of the better deals $/lb of anything out there in the multiverse. According to Wikipedia, the only raw elements cheaper are S, C, N, O, Ba.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prices_of_chemical_elements
I dub this a new element; Hughtanium. Trucksten. Dieselese?
Even more delicious – Dijonaise’s distant cousin, Dieselaise.
If anyone has a question or would like something tested or photographed I am here with the truck. I’m really tempted to put it on California non-op but my family would have a collective fit.
If I had ranch land, I’d be there this afternoon to pick up this beast because you’re not far from me. It needs to spend the rest of its days as an off-road-use-only workhorse instead of a parts donor, but I understand your predicament. Maybe non-op it and then just park it behind a walnut tree and claim ignorance if anyone asks why it’s still around.
It’s actually pretty comfortable to drive for all it’s beastliness, not bouncy at all when empty and the ugly seat feels great.
My mother was still driving two ton loads of compost home from the dump with it at age 89.
Absolutely thats what you should do. Disposing of such a family heirloom in such a cavalier way is well…….unAmerican! On the other fuel injector, I’d love to drive this around my high altitude no smog Calunicornia abode. I’ll bet its loud! I could drive by the houses of the 70 K new Cummins Deesel owners with their heated seats and slushbox trannys and give the blue placard folks angina!
Keep the truck Put your foot down! Are you a man or a mouse!
The exhaust is remarkably quiet, just the usual diesel clatter. On the other hand if you buy it I might have some 3 inch irrigation pipe and a cutoff saw you could borrow.
Email address for Hugh was wrong when first posted – fixed now.
Looks like the perfect car for out at the cabin… once again back in Alaska!
Freaking awesome!
Oh man, if this were in SoCal I would buy it today. 🙁
A 6-hour blast up the 5… and then a 12-hour chug back down the 99 to the 58, stop at the Voyager in Mojave Spaceport for a flying pizza and a Cosmic Cola, then up over the 14… and so forth.
I know, it’s just the thought of driving an unknown $500 vehicle 6+ hours back, likely towing a rented trailer with the car I drove up there on the back. It would be much more feasible if it were less than 100 miles away and I could call AAA to pick it up.
Maybe Vince would go with you. I’d offer to go, but I live on Neptune. If I lived in SoCal (or almost anywhere in NorAm FTM) I’d have bought it already. Like Valentine Michael Smith, I’ve always had a soft spot for patina and a good story.
That sounds like a plan!
This wouldn’t even notice that the grapevine was anything but level if you went that way.
I’d get new tires if I were dragging a trailer anywhere- well I’d get new tires anyway
I worked for Gale Banks for a number of years and always wanted a 1st gen Cummins. I had a 1984 W150 for a while and when driving it, you knew it was a truck. Nothing comfy about it, but it also had add-a-leafs on it at all 4 corners. I had a 2001 F250 powerstroke and it towed that W150 around like it was nothing. The truck you have with the manual and 12v is stupid reliable and will likely run long after the rest of the truck falls apart. Good thing those era Dodges are really easy to work on since they are mostly unchanged from the 70s.
So I went out and played with the truck because people are asking about driving it to Oklahoma or LA or wherever
One headlight is burned out and needs replacement- the other lights up but I can’t find the high low beam switch so maybe they both should get replaced
Running lights and tail lights all work
Wipers work , washer works and even has 20 year old fluid in it !
Turn signals and brake lights don’t work- seems like a fuse but I can’t remember where the fuses live
Discovered that there is a joystick that adjusts the mirrors! It works!
Adjustable steering wheel works!
Those last two were a surprise. I’ve used the thing 20 years off and on and never noticed them.
If this were for sale in Maine it would fetch 15K at least. In the last year pretty much any running truck is now at least 15K. Sadly only exaggerating a tiny bit.
But mainly I so want this. It would be a perfect running mate to my 2003 VW Wagon TDI. It would continue in its compost hauling duties.
It is just short of “free to a good home” pricing I’ll admit.
Years ago, like in the 1980s, I was doing an art project in NYC taking portraits on the street with a 4×5 camera and Polaroid film. I put up a sign “free portraits” , no takers. The next time I put up a sign “portraits $2” and I had a line 20 deep. I even had the guy who was washing windshields of cars stopped at the light, a form of begging/extortion popular at the time, come up and ask if I’d take his photo. I said sure, and he walked away. A half hour later he came back dressed in an exquisite maroon velvet suit. In the photo you can see him holding his two dollars. One of the best portraits I ever took, and he was extremely proud of it.
Anyway, pricing is a tricky thing.
Forgot to mention that I actually do need a truck. Would it be considered ‘upside down’ to spend more on the shipping than the vehicle? This would be so good at the town transfer station with all the oldie richies in their suv blobs. And it would also go well with my pretty good for a guy from away old Mainer beard I have grown out.
And forego the mother of all road trips? I’d budget 3 weeks, zero freeways, only stay at motels where you can park outside your room door (exception for the Shinola Hotel), load up on pumpkin seeds, beef jerky and unsweet tea and get moseying.
Essential stops: National Bowling Stadium, Bonneville Salt Flats, Dinosaur National Monument, Devil’s Tower, House on the Rock, Oshkosh Fly-In, a pastie stand, Mackinac Island, streets of Detroit, that big waterfall, Ausable Chasm, where the Old Man of the Mountain’s face fell off, Mt. Washington, and a lobsta roll stand.
Between the fridge magnets and the petrol, shipping might be cheaper 😉
Just looked it up. $2600 to ship. So $3100 for a sweet Dalton Rd survivor Cummins transplanted to Maine. Still pretty tempting considering anything similar here has more rust holes than non holes.
I have actually done a similar road trip. Went the southern route in a 1998 Toyota T100 with two dogs from RI to CA with even a swing through the panhandle where I got to surf the gulf in a little sloppy 3 foot wind swell. Almost no freeways, staying in the back under a cap. But, this was 15 years ago, when time seemed be slower and more accommodating that it is now.
I’ve done CA to NY and back twice, but it was 30 years ago, and had to jammy it in 5 days each way, all freeway and I didn’t see aught but Flying J’s and taillights.
3 weeks meandering across the USofA in an old truck sounds super right now, even better if the cell coverage is patchy, and best (enemy of the good, sadly) if I didn’t need to care whether the cell coverage is patchy.
And this is about where Vince pops up again with a comment about all the comments on this thread. I’m thinking, V, that you and Hugh have uncovered an untapped wellspring of interest in something more than just undeservedly over-depreciated cars. We’re watching more than manual transmissions ride off into the sunset, part of our freedom is being pitched like a crumpled Whopper® wrapper out the window of a 200-mile-range electric appliance.
Now, I know diesel has to go, and that a big part of what we saw as freedom for the past 75 years was actually privilege wrapped in disregard for externalities; an extreme experiment in excess. It sure did create some nice things, eh? But at a cost that appears about to bite us in our CO2-propelled airbag coddled Whopper®-stuffed keisters like a seriously disgruntled velociraptor. This tension, among people of good intention, makes great discussion fodder, aye?
I agree 100%
Moving the car across the street in NYC for alternate side parking and thinking “one more time around the block and if I don’t find a space maybe I’ll go to Montreal for waffles” or telling friends who wanted to visit the family farm “go across the George Washington Bridge, turn left at Sacramento and it’s 70 miles on your right”. Seems like a different world now.
My grandmother’s family bought the first car in their town in western Pennsylvania, and when another family bought a car she said they promptly ran into each other because traffic wasn’t a thing. My children in their 20s don’t even have licenses, although one keeps renewing her learner permit.
There’s a video on YouTube that I got served up by the algorithm. It’s a Tesla 3 hat-brim-cam on the autobahn. The driver is silently rocketing down the fast lane and comes up behind a 911 GT, which promptly floors it. What a sound. Tesla catches up, Porsche blips it again. Tesla catches up, Porsche gives up and moves over. Tesla floors it. The only other exciting thing that happens is the Tesla slows down and gets off at an exit.
When the robots come, it’s going to be silent and dull, even when they start dicing us up into perfect 1cm cubes. When the AI comes, they will dice our minds just as effortlessly. I, for one, do not welcome our new robot overlords.
Yeah, what’s the fun in just arriving at your destination and not even being able to open the windows.
Now a car that might catch fire , loose wheels, fill with water, require recruiting hells angels to push start it, that sort of thing, that’s so much more worthwhile.
The truck has sold to a fellow DT Calander person (Vince what’s up with those?)
Keep going about cross-country trips in vehicles of dubious durability though.
I’ve driven back and forth between New York and California more than 20 times. A 1969 Malibu convertible in light rain on I-80 in Nebraska with the top down was wonderful. The wheels falling off the day before in Iowa, less wonderful.
4x, in a hurry, in an overloaded small black truck with no AC or headliner (roof/ceiling was one layer of sheet metal painted black both sides – could have fried an egg on the inside easily but for the gravity issue) and vinyl seats in the dead of summer, put me off it for years.
Funny story. I changed the spark plugs before one run, and sure enough one blew out under the abuse while traversing the hilly country of middle Missouri. I got it towed to a shop and the guy shows me how the middle just popped right out. Carbon scoring on the cylinder like a runaway droid that’s seen some action. Anyway, I asked him why it happened, and he says in his best drawl: “Why, it’s these here Champion plugs. You gotta use Motorcraft. You don’t treat your puppy like a dawg.”
Just wasn’t meant to be for me I guess. I was trying to work some other angles to get up there or get it transported, but ran out of time. This morning a friend in Livermore said he’d pick me up at the Oakland airport, doh. I’d say that may have been one of those once-in-a-lifetime type of deals. Best of luck to the new owner. 🙂
My first time across was in 1989 with a friend on our way to go windsurfing in the Columbia River Gorge. We were in a 1980-something Nissan Sentra. Just trading driving back and forth. No stopping. Somewhere in Nebraska we got bad gas and started going slower and slower and slower. To the point that somewhere in Wyoming we were going like 15mph on the interstate with the pedal floored. Our 19 year old idiot brains finally got the bright idea to pull over at a nowhere-ville truck stop that had a mechanic. Spent the night in a motel, but first headed to the bar where we heard someone had been killed by a tractor trailer while parked in the breakdown lane. Sobering to think how easily that could have been us. Turns out the catalytic converter was completely plugged. Convinced the guy to just pull it out and straight pipe it. We literally drove 90mph from there to Oregon. It was like driving a race car.
Good times.
Once while I was going to Bard College in the 70s I drove from New York to California with three Bard girls in my VW Dasher. I think the arrangement was that they would pay the expenses if I allowed them to attach a U-Haul trailer full of their stuff. Two of them could drive stick but one could not. We were driving “straight through” (my personal record is 42 hours for 2800 miles). When it was the turn for the girl who didn’t drive stick to drive I would sit in the passenger seat, drive to I-80, get the car up to speed and go to sleep until she got to an exit and I would take over. Finally, in Wendover we decided to stop at a motel.
At my 40th reunion, I was sitting next to the head of the Bard english department and it turned out to be her.
Yes, a lot of detail left out. who knows who might be reading this.
Glad to hear this truck went to another DT’er — seems like a fantastic old beast. And yes, if I had a farm, it’d be mine!
-Vince
Back when BaT was fun/interesting, there were several hilariously well written postings. and the comments were worth a second admission charge. this post may well be the best I have seen on DT.
I have part of a broken wheel I may sell on BAT.
Come to think of it, I should have pitched this to Myron Vernis…
I’ve got an old glass ping bottle of “ineffable whiff/stench of authenticity”. They can pick up a pump sprayer pretty cheap at Harbor Freight, amiright?
“ping” ffs – sb “pint”
fu autocorrect
“Authenticity” that needs to be sold on (or to) BaT.
… is what I meant. Welp, I’m made a right mess of that comment. Sure would be nice if we could edit or delete. But I’m not asking for that.