1978 W200 with 48K original miles.

[Jonas Smith]

I found this W200 for sale. It's the original owner, and has 48K original miles on it. He had the 440 engine overhauled less than 5K miles ago. I asked him the reason for the rebuild, and he said the truck was out when Mt. St. Helens blew and got dusted good with the ash from it. He showed me the receipt from the shop that did the work so it is legitimate. I should add the he is a retired Navy aviator and lives on a airfield and is meticulous about the mantinence of his stuff.

Anyway, it is the adventurer LE model with all the bells and whistles. AC, PS, PB, factory tachometer and all that. 727 transmission and the full time 4x4. It has a few issues from not being driven (I think) like the heater fan only going on low speed, the oil gauge and tachometer dont work. The interior is basicly pristene. the carpet is screwed up a bit, but he has new carpet for it. Dual fuel tanks also.
Since my only truck right now is my '53 power wagon, I was thinking about getting this for more on road worthy like jobs like hauling my power wagon and the occasional 300 mile trip to Idaho.
I'm not a fan of the tires and especially the wheels that are on it right now. I have a nice set of original steelies from a '98 3/4 ton Dodge that I can put on with taller tires. So I can plan on spending $800-$1000 for a new set of tires if I bought the truck. The paint on top of the hood is baked off and the overall condition of the paint is fair to poor. It's oxidized pretty badly. I think it's beyond the point of a buff and wax job. The bed appears to be galvanized though.

My question is, what would be a fair price to offer this gentleman for the truck? I have owned several of the earlier Power Wagons, but never a 72-93.
Also, what kind of fuel mileage can I expect from it (always a concern) and are the full time transfer cases robust enough to pull a 12K lb goose neck trailer?

Thanks!

[USN78W150]

W200

Great looking truck, and nice that it has the Dana 60 front axle and dual tanks. I hope you end up buying it. The transfer case should not be a problem with your large trailer, but the weight of the trailer would dictate that the truck have 4.10 gears. It may already be equipped with 4.10's. Speaking of goosenecks, does anyone know of a ready to buy hidden ball setup to fit the '72-'93 trucks? Or would one have to be custom fabricated?

[712edf]

Jonas,

I have owned (still got one) two almost identically equipt club cabs. Both had the Dana 60 front & the NP203 t-case. Both were 4.10.

I got each of thme for $800, but neither were in as good of shape as this truck, inside nor out.

I have seen trucks like this, only maybe better cosmetically, being listed in the $4500 & up range.

Similarly equipt crew-cabs of this era go for over 3 grand, depending on condition.

See if the owner would bite with an offer around $2000. If it were mine I'd want more for it, but I don't think he'd be insulted either.

towing expect 8 mpg, level ground.

[Jonas Smith]

Thanks for the reply,

So would 12MPG be possible with the truck running without a load? I seem to have had good luck getting increased MPG out of V8 Internationals by running a well tuned and properly sized 4bbl carb and dual exhaust if not headers.

Are there other things that can be done to the engine to let it breathe more. De-smog it or something?

Why is the D60 front so desirable?

Jonas

[712edf]

Yes 12 mpg is possible unloaded, maybe more. Alot depends on what was done on the rebuild, mainly compression ratio of the pistons. These trucks had sorta low compression ratios when stock which robbed power. Also due to the GVW this truck probably burned leaded gasoline, therefore wouldn't have hardened valve seats stock, but this may have been addressed with the rebuild.

Typical attention areas where mileage/power gains are achieved ( in addition to better pistons) are camshaft selection, carb/intake combination & exhaust selection.

How stock (or modified) is the engine currently? What mileage does the seller currently get driving it?

A properly built & set-up 440 is a torque monster & can get mileage in the mid-teens, but you have to be a light footed driver too.

The Dana 60 is a full-floating hub type front axle with larger axle shafts, larger u-joints, larger ring/pinion than the more common Dana 44. The 60 is larger, heavier & stronger than the 44 in virtually every respect. The 44 of that era had a sorta hidden grease fitting that often resulted in improper maintenance & premature wheel bearing failure.

I don't suspect that the owner will take less than $3000-3500 for the truck, just depends on his/her situation though.

Bucky

[DODGEBOYS]

that truck would be a $6500 piece all day

[ram fan]

That's a nice looking rig! Around here, it would probably go for the $3-$4k range. It's getting tough to find them in such nice shape especially with all the goodies and what things that are not working on it seem like they may be fairly easy fixes. I hope it works out for you. Keep us posted!
Craig

[KRB64]

You can't find a truck that age in that condition down here. Dented up & rusted ones gor for $1,500-2,000 depending.

I thought that TRUCK motors of that vintage already had hardened valves due to their duty rating and could run unleaded?

[USN78W150]

W200

Everything from '71-'72 and newer has hardened valve seats from the factory, whether it is a car or a truck.

[QuantumJo]

What a great starting point for a reso. Nice rig. If I'm not mistaking the first big block heads with hardened seats were the 456.

[rxinhed]

Everything from '71-'72 and newer has hardened valve seats from the factory, whether it is a car or a truck.

The factory heads on my '77 W300 with a 360 were not equipped with hardened seats. When I had the rebuild done, these were added. The FSM also addressed the hardened seats, recommending that the proper fuel was used.

I paid $1500 for a '75 W200 similar to the truck in this thread. It had a rebuilt 440, all the other goodies and D60s with 4.1 gears. The deal came with a D200 parts truck with similar equipment and a 400.

Cheers!

[712edf]

I believe I just saw an ad listing the truck Jonas pictured F/S for $3250.

Bucky

[ulte1383]

Wow!

I wish I had that one! Or the money it would cost to separate him from it. This one has the same marker lights on it as mine, and I need to replace one lens. Does anyone know where I could find one or where a dead one lives that I could get one from. I'm in Colorado Springs.....

Thanks,
Paul