I feel like when most of us think about early (as in ’60s and ’70s) shortened-truck-like SUVs, we tend to think of vehicles like the Ford Bronco or the International Scout or the Chevy Blazer, and, oh yeah, the Dodge Ramcharger. What we almost never bring up, though, is the Plymouth one! Yes, Plymouth did have a Bronco-like SUV from 1974 to 1981, and, sure, it was basically just a re-badged Ramcharger, but it existed, dammit. Just like Samuel Pepys and enchiladas, this thing was once part of the world, and it was called the Trail Duster.
Does anyone remember this? I mean, maybe there’s not all that much to remember, since the Trail Duster really only differed from the Ramcharger in name and some trim details. But still, as Plymouth’s only SUV ever, it’s worth at least a couple of neurons in your brain, right? Sure it is.
I can’t recall the last time I actually saw one of these out in the wild; it has to be at least 30 years or so. Oy. That’s sobering. Let’s lighten the mood with a 1978 dealer promo video for the Trail Duster, complete with music that’s just a tiny bit too loud:
There’s a lot of fascinating stuff here, and you sort of get the sense they were reaching for details to be excited by. Like, sure, this is convenient, but making a big deal about the fusebox location feels a little weird to me:
I can’t think of another car that has a fusebox as easily accessible as this one, sure (right on the dash when you open the glovebox door) but that also just makes me wonder how often these things were popping fuses? Like, how often do you really need to get to your fusebox?
They also make a point of showing the Electronic Ignition System box in the brochure, which I recognized because the same unit failed at least twice in my old 1977 Dodge Tioga RV, which used the same setup. Maybe by showing fuses and that module they’re subtly preparing the owners for dealing with these dodgy electronics?
Speaking of electrical stuff, the training film lists the upgrades for the Light-Duty Trailer Towing Package. What the hell is the HD (heavy duty) flasher? Do they mean the blinkers/hazard lights? Did they have heavy-duty hazard lights on these things? What does that mean? A more intense shade of amber at the front, a more intense red at the rear? They blink harder? With a louder click?
(Commenters have pointed out something I should have realized: this is referring to the flasher relay, which would need to support extra incandescent bulbs on the trailer, and hence would need to be uprated!)
These things were kind of handsome in their way, too. I feel like when I did see them they tended to have the metal rear cap, but I do like the canvas top option you see there. I can’t recall ever seeing that in the wild, but look at what you could do with it:
The sides could roll up! That’s pretty fun, it feels very safari-like! Maybe if the US had a higher population density of giraffes and lions and wildebeests this would have been more popular.
The Trail Duster had some strangely austere basic trim levels. Like, look at this: the base level had only one seat? Who the hell was ordering that? Hermits who moved a lot of ladders, maybe? I can’t recall another non-commercial vehicle that had an optional passenger seat.
One thing the Trail Duster had that was ahead of its time was a cooler in the center console, which, according to this picture, seems like it would also have been great at keeping your binoculars nice and cool.
Also, a this is a good reminder of just how chromatically deprived the modern automotive world is. Look at that! Fourteen different colors, all dramatically different and vivid! It’s fantastic! Just to see the miserable state we currently are mired in, these are the colors you can get a modern Mopar SUV, the Dodge Durango, in:
Jeezis. Look at that. A dark red, a dark blue, and six grayscale colors, four of which I can barely tell the difference between.
Also, I bet you have to really look for the fusebox on a new Durango, and probably can’t yank fuses out while cruising down the highway at 70 mph, seatbelt-less, yell-flirting at someone on your CB.
Aren’t passengers always optional?
I had zero clue this thing existed. You could tell me this entire article is a big prank, and I’d believe you.
Maybe a year ago, there was a 2WD Trail Duster on BaT. I’d almost forgotten about the Trail Duster, but I’m not sure that I ever knew there was a 2WD version. Those have to be truly rare.
Plymouth also offered their version of the Dodge B-series van in the 1970s. There was an ultra-short passenger version called the Voyager, which served as a predictor of the minivan by the same name 15 years later.
“dodgy electronics”
Careful, that’s a good way to get sued.
On this vehicle, they should be referred to as “plymouthy electronics”.
Aren’t those the computers and systems that Mr Punkinheads crew use?
It’s funny, I knew about the TrailDuster, but I learned something that should have been patently obvious. I had NO idea that the RamCharger/TrailDuster could be had with a removable top. I figured they were more like the SJ Cherokees of the world, rather than the K5/Broncos. I have NEVER seen one with a removable top.
I think the later ones went to a full tin top, but the early ones had a removable top.
I pass one in town parked in someone’s backyard that has a decrepit soft top.
Unlike Blazer/Bronco these were full removable tops.
The first 3-4 years of the Blazer, it’s top was also fully removable.
But they were all super leak prone, so GM made just the back removable (like the Bronco), while Chrysler made it a fully fixed roof.
My buddy in highschool had a ’71 K5, and while I wouldn’t say it was leak prone, it was SUPER floppy. I wonder if adding the roof above the front seats strengthened it up a bit.
When I say floppy, I’m referring to the truck itself, not the top. The top was fiberglass.
Good question. Probably.
We’re pretty spoiled by having fuses typically located behind an easy-to-reach panel somewhere on the driver’s side of the dash and/or in a big box under the hood. In the “good old days” the fuses were usually in a block under the dashboard, back on the firewall in a footwell, usually stuffed in there just or one side or the other of the steering column. You typically needed a flashlight and the skills of a contortionist to get to it. So putting it somewhere reachable from a seat and visible in daylight was actually a huge improvement.
It might also have been a bit of fallout from Dodge’s work on their Big Horn semi-tractor. They were serious about designing in a lot more accessibility to cab and dashboard wiring, and locating the fuse block up on the dash may have been something that carried over.
Meanwhile, Mopars of this era ate ignition ballasts by the dozens, so being able to open the glove box to grab a new one AND install it sure would have been nicer that having to access the front side of the firewall. Nice bandaid solution!
Which one of those is blue? I can’t tell. Is it me? It’s ok if it is.
I came down here to ask the same thing. I can’t see it.
But if one of them is blue, I suppose that’s enough to prove that it’s hardly a color and more a light suggestion of color.
I couldn’t tell, that’s for sure.
You’re right – difficult to tell. I went to the Dodge Durango site, and I have the say, the web design team at Dodge should be fired, for something that a high-school intern could’ve done better. When you click on each of the five “black” colors, the car configurator picture shows a very different color. One of them is deep red, another is deep blue. One of them is even a slightly darker-than-light gray.
But yeah, having five gray-scale colors is a bit much.
One interesting ’70s 4×4 fact is that GM and Ford bought in their transfer cases from Chrysler (specifically New Process Gear which Chryco owned). I have to wonder if that was the reason why you could get a 440 on a 4wd Trail Duster or Dodge truck but the Chevy/GMC and Ford 4x4s topped out at 400cid, the Chevy 454 and Ford 460 were only offered on 2wd trucks.
You could get a 454 4×4 Chevy, but it had to be a 3/4 or 1 ton. I remember being pulled out of the mud by a 454 powered square body Chevy back in 1986. Actually, the first truck was a 350 powered Chevy, and he got stuck trying to pull me out (he had 2 tires in the mud, 2 on dry ground, and the 2 tires, one on each axle, just spun.) The 454 Chevy guy just pulled right into the mud pit and pulled the Chevy out, then me (in a dune buggy with bald tires.)
In the Age of Incandescent, with a distinct lack of silicon to control it, flasher relays had to be spec’d for the expected load of all the attached bulbs.
As mentioned below, incorrect flash rate would be the result of adding an extra set of tail lights to the circuit on a standard relay.
You always knew when a bulb burned out too.
I just assumed the car was super excited about left turns specifically.
Turbo turn signals. All the rage in the 80s
THAT’S what that “Turbo” button and graphics package was for?
A friend bought a 1986 Ramcharger new in fetching 2 tone blue/white. Most of the ones I recall were 2 tone in that time period. Don’t remember seeing Trial Dusters. I prefer the grill and lack of tacky rams head.
Trial Duster? Isn’t that what OJ drove?
Some might see that Ram’s head as tacky, and that’s not wrong…. But I’ll tell ya I honestly do miss hood ornaments on cars. I’d be happy to see a Ram truck or Ramcharger with the Ram’s head even though it is kinda cheesy. Always loved seeing the Rocket Olds and Lincoln cross-hairs hood ornaments
There was one of these in my town back in the ’80s, always liked the look of them.
“Also, I bet you have to really look for the fusebox on a new Durango, and probably can’t yank fuses out while cruising down the highway at 70 mph, seatbelt-less, yell-flirting at someone on your CB.” – Probably while quaffing a beer.
Didn’t Plymouth have a Prospector pickup as well?
A heavy duty (thermal) flasher works with the additional current load of trailer bulbs. A standard one would flash slowly or not at all in that instance. Opposite of that is when you burn out a bulb and it flashes quickly.
The one-seater was like a full-size predecessor to a UTV. You ordered that if you needed a dedicated off-road vehicle for your farm. Presumably cheaper than the most basic pickup and short enough to not take up too much space in the barn.
It was mainly to advertise an artificially low base price. The top – whether soft or hard – probably cost extra too. GM did the same thing with the Blazer.
You’ve got the real explanation, but the UTV argument helps justify it.
Jeep too. My dad spent a lot of time at the Jeep dealership by court for his collection of Jeep. When I was a child, I remember the roofs and seats on jeeps cost extra. this was in the early 1970s.
Yeah, I’m surprised at Torch. My mind immediately went to a ranch worker or utility worker driving alone a few miles off-road to go fix some broken thing, with a couple of shovels, post hole diggers, an ax, a toolbox, and a spool of fencing or cable next to him where a passenger would go.
A guy I knew in highschool had one (rural midwest early 90’s). It was rough. Last one I remember seeing, but it’s possible I’ve sited one here or there. Given the differences between the ramcharger are minimal, and the condition most are in these days, I’m not sure a causual glance would even tell you if it was one or the other.
I’ve seen plenty of Ram Chargers in person, but I have never once seen a Trail Duster. I can only conclude that they sold 10 of these throughout the product run.
The Trail Duster is sort of like the Chrysler Aspen, you know they existed but you might have only seen one of them, and just assumed it was a Durango.
I saw an Aspen once and absolutely did a double take!
I saw an Aspen HYBRID once and almost wanted to wait and talk to the owner about how/why they ended up with such a unicorn…but then I realized that almost nobody buying an Aspen Hybrid was a “car person” and would just think I was creepy.
The 2-mode hybrid that GMs and Mopars were putting in a few trucks/SUVs very late 00’s-2010ish? And a Chrysler Aspen at that? Yeah that is quite a magical unicorn. That market they wanted for the Aspen I think was a slice of the Escalade/Navigator/Yukon Denali pie, I just can’t see who’d choose one over any of those aside a die hard “It’s Mopar or No Car” type.
Slightly off-topic, Canada used to use the Fargo branding for it’s Chrysler dealer network. The US used Dodge Trucks with Dodge dealers and Plymouth Trucks with Chrysler-Plymouth dealers.
Much like how the Plymouth Trail Duster survived one year into a redesign, the Fargo pickup survived one year into the introduction of the 72 D-series. The Fargo brand was discontinued for 73 and just replaced with Dodge Trucks, but you could still find evidence of the brand’s existence in the model years leading to the 81 truck redesign. The Dodge and Plymouth trucks still carried some of its parts branded as “Dodge/Plymouth/Fargo” like an Easter egg before the days of automotive Easter eggs. The repair manuals for Dodge trucks, up to the next redesign for 93, would still have the sign branding for all three even though only the Dodge Trucks brand was the only one left.
https://blog.consumerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/1971-737×1024.jpg
Captain Pickup, the hero we need but don’t deserve
I now really want a Fargo pickup to haul a wood chipper. Let’s hope a survivor had that Tru-Coat.
I remember being astounded by this same thing in the order guide for my ’72 Blazer.
It’s clearly shown in the advertising too. “Order only the seats you need”
https://autocatalogarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Chevrolet-Blazer-1972.pdf
I wonder how many were actually equipped that way.
My buddy bought an new 1995 jeep wrangler with the optional rear seat and bumperettes package.
The standard interior included both a left-hand armrest and a right-hand armrest, even if there was no right-hand seat!
A heavy duty flasher does make sense for a trailer package – you’re flashing more lights so there would be more current load.
However, it’s far more redolent of a shifty-looking fat man in a macintosh.
Yet most of the Ramchargers of the same era that are still on the road around here (yeah, there’s a surprising number of those; dunno if any of them are actual Trail Dusters, though) in East Tennessee seem to be either white or silver. Presumably most people just didn’t go for one of the other twelve colors, alas.
The turn signal flasher relays that plugged in under the dash came in standard duty and heavy duty. The wiring and electrical systems back then were so sketchy that the standard duty one would not work with trailer wiring. I remember well.
Dodge also had an optional passenger and rear seat in the challenger demon- a dollar each, if i recall correctly.
When I was in high school, the girl I was dating rode horses and often had to help work there to afford her hobby. So I’d go help out sometimes too. The owner had a Ramcharger of this generation as his farm truck and he’d often let me loose in the fields for fun since I helped out. It was a rusty POS, and it stored a smelly old moldy tarp all summer long that covered some piece of equipment over the winter. But it was cool as hell for a 17 year old.
My uncle bought a used one — maybe a ’77 model or so. Even then, in the early 1980s, my young brain thought a Plymouth truck was peculiar.
” Look at that! Fourteen different colors, all dramatically different and vivid! It’s fantastic!”
and NONE of them are gray, just one silver.
No black either.
It seems to me that half the colors are not that dramatically different. Maybe it’s just me?
It’s just you.
The Trail Duster name was used or one last year in 1981 when the Ramcharger was redesigned. While it’s tough to come across the first gen Trail Duster, the 81 model year is considered the rarest of them all.
The only difference between the Dodge and Plymouth models were the badges, aside from the fist few years when there was a small difference between the grills on each.
I prefer the Plymouth grille. Less busy looking than the Dodge ones.
LOL
I always liked the pre-refresh taillights better.