thauto
EN · ไทยLog inList for free
BattlePorQyaplakal.com · Bring a Trailer
All diaries
dodge2 min read·16 Oct 2026

1978 Dodge Ramcharger. Auto Friday No. 156

BattlePorQyaplakal.com · Bring a Trailer

Good morning! :)

I already mentioned this truck once, back in the IH Scout feature. When the talk turns to full-size American SUVs of the 1970s and '80s, the first names that come up are usually the Ford Bronco or the Chevrolet Blazer. The rival from the third member of the Big Three, Chrysler, is far less known. So that is the one we are remembering today, across 28 photos — with thanks to Bring a Trailer (BaT).

General Motors got to this class first in the US with the Chevrolet K5 Blazer / GMC Jimmy. To make life easy when building a competitor to Ford's Bronco, they did not invent anything from scratch: they simply took the production K-series pickup, shortened the wheelbase, capped the body with a removable hard top — and there was your Blazer. A few years later Chrysler followed the same recipe, carving the Dodge Ramcharger and Plymouth Trailduster twins out of the Dodge D-Series pickup in 1974. As for Ford, the second-generation Bronco on the F-100 platform did not arrive until 1978.

Today we take a closer look at what these full-size SUVs actually were, using the Dodge as our example. And a rare one at that — the dealer-installed Top Hand package. Only 202 were made for the US market, plus some number for Canada; I have no exact figures on those.

2. Underneath it is a traditional body-on-frame full-size pickup, the Dodge D-Series in D100 and W100 form (4x2 and 4x4). The pickup line had just been updated in 1974: rear-wheel-drive versions gained independent front suspension and disc brakes. The Ramcharger was likewise offered in both four-wheel-drive and rear-wheel-drive versions.1 / 44
3. The four-wheel-drive version, like this one, has solid axles and leaf springs front and rear.2 / 44
4. Compared with the shortest pickup, the wheelbase is cut by a further 9 inches (23 cm).3 / 44
5. Otherwise — given that the base spec came with front seats only, plus an easily removable roof — it is essentially still the same pickup.4 / 44
6. The special paint — wheels included — the bull bar and the roll bar behind the cab are all part of the dealer-installed Top Hand package.5 / 44
7. The base engine was the 225 cu in (3.7 L) six with a three-speed manual. For extra money you could pick from a whole range of V8s, from the 318 to the 440 (5.2 to 7.2 litres).6 / 44
8. Some 4.7 metres long and a touch over two wide. Not a small machine.7 / 44
9. A poorer photo, but the same truck. This is what it looks like with the roof off. After the 1981 facelift the removable top was dropped — at about the same time as GM and Ford did it, incidentally.8 / 44
10. Here, though, the body stripes that had faded over the years have been brought back to their original colour.9 / 44
11. And yes, from this angle it is a pickup through and through.10 / 44
12. Inside, everything is fairly basic.11 / 44
13.12 / 44
14. You could choose either two separate front seats or a three-seat bench.13 / 44
15.14 / 44
16. A hundred on the speedo — miles per hour, naturally.15 / 44
17. A spartan radio.16 / 44
18. First-generation 4x4 Ramchargers had full-time four-wheel drive and a two-speed transfer case with a lockable centre differential in both ranges.17 / 44
19.18 / 44
20.19 / 44
21. This example has the 360 cu in (5.9 L) V8 under the hood.20 / 44
22. 170 hp and 366 Nm. With this engine and an automatic, top speed was 140–145 km/h and 0–100 km/h took 14 seconds. Not bad at all for a two-tonne four-wheel-drive brick.21 / 44
23.22 / 44
24.23 / 44
25.24 / 44
26. In total, a little over 100,000 first-generation Ramchargers were built (1974–1980). Not many next to the Bronco or Blazer, which were turned out at 60,000–80,000 a year.25 / 44
27. All told, counting the facelifted second generation, the truck stayed in production for 20 years, until 1993.26 / 44
28. And that is all for now.27 / 44
Quote (Rainstrider): "Lone Wolf McQuade with Chuck Norris — that's this truck, isn't it?" Yes, but the post-facelift one, already from the '80s.28 / 44
Quote (Rainstrider): "So it was a K5 that Schwarzenegger was pushing?" Yes, a 1973 K5 Blazer.29 / 44
1978 Plymouth Trail Duster Sport 4×4 with a soft top.30 / 44
Quote (Magadanec79): "I don't know what it's called. The removable thingy." Removable hard top :)31 / 44
The very first K5 Blazer, 1969.32 / 44
1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer 4×433 / 44
At the time, the first-generation Bronco was a compact off-roader with no relation to the big pickups. 1974 Ford Bronco Ranger 30234 / 44
The forefather. Dodge W100 Adventurer35 / 44
...36 / 44
Quote (DepMod): "Wasn't that the one Schwarzenegger had in Commando?" Already covered above. A 1973 Chevrolet K5 Blazer. They all look alike.37 / 44
...38 / 44
The D-50 (top) next to the rest of the range in a 1980 ad. :)39 / 44
Speaking of full-time 4WD. It was dropped in the second generation (from 1981, I believe). The transfer case had reliability problems.40 / 44
Quote (Zoro): "By US standards of the day this was a subcompact SUV." A subcompact SUV by US standards of roughly the same era is something like the Dodge Raider. Which is 70 centimetres shorter, 35 centimetres narrower and almost half a tonne lighter.41 / 44
Quote: "A subcompact SUV by US standards of roughly the same era is something like the Dodge Raider." Or, say, the S10 Blazer or Bronco II. And all of them only appeared in the early '80s. In the first Ramcharger's day the concept simply did not exist.42 / 44
Full-size versus compact, made plain: Bronco and Bronco II.43 / 44
Full-size versus compact, made plain: K5 Blazer and S10.44 / 44

0 likes

Comments0

No comments yet — be the first.