Build Card

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Tom, would your 47 WDX have come from the factory with the repro draw bar shown ? My computer is preventing me from posting pics.

[Tom Petroff]

Yes
Mine is original to the truck and stated on my build card.

Tom

[53Crusher]

Clark- I have the same e-mail for Todd as Tom posted. I bought mine from him about two years ago, so maybe you too will be in luck! Super nice reproduction and if I recall it was already primed and came with all the hardware necessary to bolt on. All I had to do was paint it and install.

Here is a link to his page with a little more info for you.
http://www.t137.com/ToddSomers/Drawbars/index.htm

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Tom, I asked because my card also calls for a draw bar but the bar that I have is different from yours. Do you know the meaning for the punch out of EXP hub.

[Tom Petroff]

If your drawbar is different it's either homemade or modified.
As far as the Hub, No I have no idea. Someone else might.

Unless it's for the rear belt pulley.
Your truck have or remints of the rear PTO assembly?
Tom

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Thanks

I asked because if the punch card on your site for "WDX" is your truck our trucks are identical except for the engine governor, my truck was built 8 days earlier.

[CSCameron]

Thanks Tom and Tim, I've sent him an email. I'll let you know what I hear.

Thanks again,
Clark

[Mkeller131]

Can you tell me how that draw bar works? I have one on my tractor and of course its hydraulic. I dont see how this one operates exactly.

[Clint Dixon]

Can you tell me how that draw bar works? I have one on my tractor and of course its hydraulic. I dont see how this one operates exactly.

The draw bar is not a 3-point hitch or even a 2-point hitch. It is kind of like a draw bar on a tractor from the 1930's or 1940's before tractors started being produced with all manners of different hitches. It does not "operate" in the sense that it has no "lift" capabilities or automatic "hitch up" capabilities. It is static. What it does have above and beyond most tractors is a vast array of adjustment. Just pull out hardware or pins, readjust for your needs, and reinsert hardware or pins into different mating holes. By mating up different holes, the drawbar can in effect be lowered, raised, extended, retracted, adjusted to pull an implement directly in line with the truck, or pull a few inches to the left or to the right of the center line of the truck. Adjusting hardware to a different set of holes can make a difference in any one of these directions (or sometimes more than one direction at a time) by a little as an inch or as much as five or six inches.

All the drawbars shown in earlier posts are correct for the Power-Wagon. Todd's reproductions were exact. I believe he sold the last one about 2 years ago. The problem was that the upfront cost to make them was high and there really was not much interest from collectors. So, it took him a long time to unload his inventory and recoup costs. To make an assembly like this, one has to make a LOT of drawbars to bring the cost down to what a collector would be willing to pay. Unfortunately, that prevents one from making them "per order".

There was actually an earlier drawbar than the ones shown in the images. It mounted to the rear face of the rear crossmember instead of the underside of the rear crossmember. If you have one of these then you have the holy grail as none have ever been found or photographed on trucks sold to the puplic. They only appear in preliminary Dodge literature on the Power-Wagon. The images show what appears to be a prototype and the images mistakenly found their way into the very early literature. I would not expect one of these to ever be found on any Power-Wagon with a production date newer than December of 1945 - which narrows down the possibilities to almost zilch.

Junior

[Clint Dixon]

Here is an image of my two trucks back when I had a drawbar on each one. One is an original. One is Todd's reproduction. Can you tell which is which?

Thanks to Phil Street at t137.com for hosting the image. Also while at t137.com, check out the rest of the site. You will find information on the Monroe 3-point hitch that was produced by the Monroe Auto Equipment Company (the shock absorber company) that replaced the drawbar and gave the Power-Wagon the ability to accept attachement of common Catergory I 3-point implements.

If you find that you do not have a drawbar, but you actually have a Monroe hitch, then you need to email me directly at dpcd@t137.com as I can better help you further.

[Clint Dixon]

Here is another image from Phil Street's t137 site. This is a very early truck. Note that the drawbar is still the same as all the other ones shown in this tread. Note however the unusual holes in the rear face of the rear crossmember - two on the left side angled slightly inward from top to bottom, and a mirror image of these on the right side. These holes can sometimes be found in very early truck frames. These are the holes where the earlier "prototype" drawbar mounted. The drawbar brackets actually mounted to these four holes with rivets.

[Matthew Welcher PWA]

Clint were all of these a "Dealer" option at the time or were they an aftermarket designed just for the Power Wagon?

[Mkeller131]

thanks guys for all of the great information. It looks like on my build card, which is at the beginning of this thread, that Sch Bus is punched. My truck is not a school bus. Did that mean something else?

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pics

I cant seem to be able to post pics here, maybe another time thanks for all of the input.

[Clint Dixon]

Clint were all of these a "Dealer" option at the time or were they an aftermarket designed just for the Power Wagon?

I would go even further than dealer option and say factory equipped. It was not a MoPAR option - so not dealer installed. I would say the majority rolled off the factory floor with the drawbar already installed if it was ordered.