1975 Dodge D5N 700 Bogie Drive

As they say 'wiser heads prevail' I thought it best to plumb the depths of the knowledge base in this forum to help answer a few questions.

I have been looking for a worthwhile restoration project for quite some time, and I think I have finally found one.

I am aware of a 1975 Dodge D5N 700 Bogie drive cab chassis that is for sale in NSW. It has the original 361 petrol V8, (with LPG) and 5 speed gearbox with the 3 speed 'joey' box attached. My preference was for the Detroit 6V53 and 10 speed gearbox, but that's another story.

The chassis looks straight and the cab has it's usual rust issues. Obviously I have some questions.

1) What would be a good price for this truck ?
2) Are rust repair panels available ?
3) Are engine rebuild kits available ?
4) How readily available are spare parts ?
5) How difficult is it to drive with the 5/3 gearbox ?
6) Does anyone know what the tanks behind the cab are ?

Here are some pictures of the actual truck.

Just an update for all that have been keeping track of my posts. The ebay auction for this truck ended. Max bid was $1,600 and reserve wasn't met.

Hi kaslkaos. Just my 2.2c (GST INC - sorry swishy ).
Two of the three tanks look like hydraulic fluid reservoirs.
The top one, which has been leaking fluid and the right hand side one do not appear to have ends that hold pressure.
The bigger one may be some sort of accumulator. I'm just guessing here, but this one appears to have rounded ends - which indicate a pressure vessel.
I once owned an International C1610 (ex army - great truck). Rust areas as described above. In particular around the lip of the roof. They all seem to go there.
Regards, Rod.
On looking at the ebay photos again, I note that the right hand one has a large hose (about 1 1/2" diam) coming out of the centre of it, which possibly does indicate a pressure or vacuum system for the brakes.
OK I give up. It's 1am and I'm going to bed.

if thats the dodge im thinking of it has a bent chassis (the lazy axle was retro fitted to a single axle dodge 700 series)+ a few other problems

Hey Kenny,

You must be thinking of a different truck. This one is bogie drive

its out parkes way or somewhere near there (when i said lazy axle i was just refering to the dual rear axles)also the guy said theres trouble with the dizzy it only runs on 7 cyls ..maybe a good spares truck or wait till scrap prices go up

Regards to all fellow Dodge owners out there.

Nice web site I stumbled on and found a discussion on one of my trucks I bought earlier this year.

Previous owners, Chris and Margaret were using it to cart water about on their little farm between Parkes and Forbes but being International devotees their heart was not in keeping the old Dodge any longer and I bought her on Ebay as noted by kaslkaos.

So, what was real and what was conjecture having read the posts?

She is a D5N 700 1975 build 361 petrol V8 with vacuum over hydraulic brakes.
The 3 tanks behind the cab are accumulator tanks for the vacuum system and are poorly positioned and plumbed for their purpose.

She has a 5 speed box with 3 speed auxiliary (joey gearbox) and yes the gauge cluster was missing from the dash as stated earlier.

The rear end is a bogie drive Rockwell diffs on Hendrickson suspension with electric 2 speed range on both as usual.

It never had a lazy axle retrofitted as suggested by someone.

What I liked about the vehicle was that although my previous owners knew little (or chose not to provide) information of the previous history, the truck gave up the info of it's originality herself by careful observation.

She was a cement mixer which suited that engine / gearbox configuration often and this was confirmed by no holes in the chassis for a turntable (or Tray or Tipper body) and heaps of cement material in the rear chassis cross member. She is the optional longest wheelbase available also usually only for cement mixers.

Adding to this was the existence of large angle brackets attached to the chassis behind the cab which the bowl configuration and drive motor should have been attached to.

The Truck now runs solely on Gas and has a brilliant sized mixer and dedicated Gas carby and starts and idles beautifully. Whilst the Gas system was obviously professionally fitted, the LPG tank was missing and Chris had rigged up an old Commodore LPG tank on the chassis.

Interestingly she has dual petrol tanks on both sides in the original position up under the cab and this would have blocked the usual expected location space available on the passenger side for the accumulator tank. Perhaps others have seen them differently?

The cab is essentially rust free and she has had the entire top half replaced but the windscreen and rubber not yet replaced, obviously ready for painting work. The doors close terrific with gentle closing pressure (no slamming) and I cant say that about any other Dodge I have owned.

Driving???
When we got her home we simply started her up and drove her off the tabletop onto the loading ramp and took her for a short bust down the side of our Airstrip. Of course my enthusiasm forgot the 2 flat tyres on the rear diff and the fact the brakes were inoperative and the clutch a bit the same but shifting the cogs by revs and feeling the 361 surge away was great. Did I say she has the original exhaust and sounds like you expect a big petrol to sound with a bit of loud pedal?

We intend to eventually fit a tipper to her on the station because thats cheaper rego in SA as a 1R3 instead of PM rego but time will tell.

We also have a Dodge AT4 600 Tipper fitted 318 with 5 speed and 2 speed diff and a great old 1960 Dodge 1015 Power Giant also with 361 petrol and 5 speed with 2 speed Rockwell fitted with air brakes.

Why buy this one then?

Well, while I like them for the grunt, the Jimmy supercharged 6V53 diesels (only 318 cubic inches) with RR boxes will make you profoundly deaf very quickly and you need deep pockets these days to rebuild and maintain.
So buy earmuffs, forget UHF or conversation and have lots of $$$$

The 361 and joey is easy to drive and cheap to fix the petrol engines.
Anyone who has driven a joey box will tell you it is no more difficult than having a conversation and on earlier vehicles owned so fitted the use of under drive, direct and overdrive was useful for the heavy sandy country where we used the under drive to fully utilize the relatively small available horsepower and the overdrive on the highway usually when empty to get along at 60mph all the way home.

Can anyone suggest a suitable place to obtain new windscreen seals?

Sorry to rabbit on and you can tell my passion for the old girl.

Cheers

G'day,
Any chance of posting up some photos of the truck as it is now?

Cheers
Stuart

the 361 are a tuff old big block i upped the compression on mine and added a 4bbl gas carby & dual exhaust ..she sounds "almost" as good as the detroit optioned dodge lol

Hi Kenny, You wouldn't know if the 361 and the 413 are the same as far as external dimensions go would you?

they are both used in the dodge trucks in the states (heavy duty versions) interestingly as far as i know they both (the heavy duty truck versions of both these motors) have 8 bolt flywheels ,also a different bolt pattern for the exhaust manifolds .. the 413 is a "RB" .. raised block ..so is probably about a inch or 2 wider than a 361 . . .