Petrol with a Roadranger

Talking to a old guy the other day about trucks and he reckoned he drove both inter and dodge petrol V8s that had 10 speed roadrangers behind them. Said they were pretty quick in there day.
I have never heard of roadrangers behind the petrols before was it a factory thing or just some mod that someone did or is the old guys memory going.

the 392 inters had Road Ragers behind them ..and the exact word of a international salesman said to me was they could hardly turn the flywheel ....the dodge V8s had more got up and went

Ive been chasing the mythical Dodge 361 with 10 speed and bogey drive from the factory for what seems like a lifetime, ive pretty much given up and bought a 361 with the 5 and 3 as the rr behind the petrol may just remain a myth.

ive never seen a RR behind a dodge 318 0r 361 .. i doubt i ever will

Ive seen one but I'm pretty sure it wasn't factory, it was a late AT4, 361 with 10 speed and a 4 speed joey behind with a 2 speed rear(single drive), I'd imagine that with 80 gears to play with you would be pretty busy.

My father used to have car carriers in the 70's, two of his mates used to have Dodge's. Both of them had 700 series with 361's in them. Athol bought a new D5N 700 fitted with a 10 speed roadranger mid 70's, single drive, reasonably long in the wheelbase. The truck is still sitting is in his shed in Marybourough and apparently isn't rusty, though I havn't seen it. Heap of new parts up there as well as a D5N 700 with a 6V53 bogie drive but the cab is very rusty. I talked to Athol about buying what he had ages ago and he is quite happy to sell it, but only as one lot, and he wasn't chasing silly money for it all either. Only catch is it's on the wrong side of the country for you. Both Smithy from Bundy, and Athol reckoned Chrysler would put what you liked in a truck when you bought it (within reason). Funny thing was, Smithy had the same truck, but 5X2 and he reckoned it went heaps better than the one with the roadranger in it, they reckoned it was the gearbox that made the difference. The one Athol has still got was replaced with one with a 6V53 in it.

i agree with Cam about chyrsler back in the day putting what you ordered into the truck ..ive seen factory 361s in 600 series etc ... i doubt that anyone specced a perkins for a 700 prime mover though?

Perkins, that would be steady. Both Smithy and Athol were fans of the 361's. There is still a Dodge at Smithy's with a frame and trailer on it, used to get about 6 cars on it from memory.

drove a d5n 700 361 petrol and a 15 speed road ranger bogie drive factory fitted carting logs was a great old banger there was allso one out warburton way doing the same job allso there is a dodge 600 318 in melbourne with a road ranger but was fitted by the owner so much better than the 5 speed and joey boxes so many times in the bush only time to grab one gear and keep going tried with the 5 by 3 came to a halp to fast then had to try to hold it before it bolted backwards and get 2 gears no wonder a bloke had a heart attacks

Brisbane City Council used to have 2 of 6x4 1910A's with the 392's and 13 speed RR's. You had to be quick at changing I tell you.
One had a crane in front of the tray and used to take Chlorine Gas in round cylinders up to Mt Crosby water treatment plant. If I remember rightly no warning signs plastered all over the truck back needed then either!

The second one was just a tray as well, but got converted to Prime mover duties to replace the single axle Dodge LAD cab with V8 in it. It used to pull the single axle drop gooseneck low loader. The first day on the road it ripped off the bright new ally wheelarches on the rear drive. This truck was replaced by the Kenworth 10x8 tilt tray in 1986.

There were a fleet of Drag Trucks for the bitumen as well of 1810A Accos 6x2 with a 345 (I think) and just the 5 speed. Broke my foot dropping one of the many Diffs i did, pinions on it. They would rev real hard and I can't remember what was the reason for the failure, but they would pull some enormous revs and the compressor and alternator brackets would fall off. They were not anywhere near as good as the 10 or so Dodges. So they replaced the Inters with more Dodges of the 361 variety.
Coincidently the Inter v8 dissy rotor looks very similar the Dodge one however it is 180 degrees out, makes for a good engine fire while your trying to set the floats on the Holley too!

At least the new Dodges had air brakes,--- well at least to the brake master cylinder anyhow!
These were more reliable with their Heavy Duty 361 motor, 3speed joey and 5 speed main and bogie drive, but still with the hydraulic braked wheels. If memory serves correctly they were purchased around the $20k ea back in 1980-1 from Austral Motors in Brissy.

The only thing the drivers used to complain about was the piddly little fuel tank which meant the fuel tank cap wore out as opposed the EFN/R Bedfords which had a massive fuel capacity.

Ahh the old old days when everything was petrol and hydraulic brakes, reckon we went through just as much brake fluid as petrol in them days. Theres nothing like having brake fluid dribbling down your arm into your armpit on a cold morning too. >