Browse Cars›Dodge Ramcharger 1st Gen

Dodge Ramcharger 1st Gen

Overview

Dodge arrived thirteen years after the Scout and five years after the Blazer, which tells you most of what you need to know about Chrysler's priorities in the early 1970s. The method was the Blazer's: take the D-series pickup chassis, remove nine inches of wheelbase, and put a two-door body on it with a roof that lifts off. The execution had its own flavour. A 1974 Ramcharger could be bought with no roof at all, with a dealer-installed fabric top, or with a removable steel roof carrying a flip-up rear window, and on the very earliest cars the door pillars were part of the roof itself, so taking it off left you with half doors. That lasted until the build date of 10 June 1974. Four-wheel drive was the only option in the first year and a rear-drive version followed in 1975, Plymouth sold the same vehicle as the Trail Duster, and the engine list ran all the way to a 440. Dodge built 15,810 of them in that first year and kept the removable roof until 1980, when the second generation welded it shut.

Distinctions

The defining attributes and collector status that make this car garage-worthy.

Octane Files Select

Renowned for its history, engineering, or cultural weight.

Collectibility scorecard

Rated 1 to 10 on the traits that matter for owning, driving, and holding on to a car like this.

Desirability

6/10

Rarity

6/10

Driving thrill

5/10

Investment trajectory

6/10

Usability

5/10

Ease of restoration

6/10

Cultural impact

4/10

Electronic dependence

Fully analogHeavily electronic

There is nothing electronic on a first-generation Ramcharger that could leave you stranded. Every engine is carburetted, the throttle is a cable, the TorqueFlite shifts hydraulically without a computer of any kind, the steering is a recirculating-ball box and four-wheel drive is engaged by hand. Emissions equipment arrived through the second half of the 1970s and adds plumbing and vacuum lines rather than intelligence. Nothing on the truck measures the driver's inputs or corrects them. Owners frequently fit later electronic ignition, and the swap is easy and reversible, but as delivered this is as mechanical as a 1970s vehicle gets.

Market data

Demand tier, price trend, and typical values by condition, based on recent sales data.

Demand tier

EntrySolidHighBlue-chip

A dependable market. Well-kept cars hold their value and find ready buyers.

Value trajectory

AppreciatingStableCooling

Values are climbing. The market wants more of these than exist.

Price by condition

Driver

$12k

Excellent

$26k

Concours

$45k

This is the value entry into the American full-size 4x4 wagon, and it has been rising with the rest of the category without ever catching it. The removable roof is the hard line in the market: every 1974-1980 truck has one and no 1981-onward truck does, so the first generation trades at a premium over the second. Big-block cars and the early half-door 1974 trucks sit above the band, which describes a 1977-1979 360 four-wheel-drive truck. Fewer good examples survive than the sales figures would suggest, because these were used as trucks for their whole lives.

Values as of August 2026.

Buyer's guide

What anyone seriously considering this car should know first.

Why it's worth it

The only vehicle in its class you could order with a 440 V8

Callout

The earliest 1974 cars had their door pillars bolted to the removable roof

What to watch for

Establish the date before anything else. Half-door 1974 trucks, built before 10 June that year, are a different vehicle with different door and pillar structures, and they are the ones worth chasing; everything after uses conventional pickup doors. Then work out the drivetrain, because rear-drive Ramchargers exist from 1975 and are worth considerably less than four-wheel-drive trucks. Rust follows the Dodge truck pattern: cab corners, the lower rear quarters and wheel arches, the floors under both footwells, the tailgate and the seams where the removable roof lands. Check the roof itself carefully and check that it is the right one, since a missing or mismatched top is expensive and not easy to source. Mechanically this is familiar Mopar ground and mostly good news: the Slant Six is close to unkillable, the TorqueFlite is one of the great automatics, and the V8s are conventional and strong. The parts picture is thinner than for a Blazer or a Bronco, so a complete truck is worth paying more for than a cheap one you plan to hunt parts for.

The Story

Driving character

A Ramcharger drives like a shortened Dodge pickup because that is precisely what it is, and the shortening is the interesting part. Nine inches out of the wheelbase gives it a quicker, busier gait than a D-series, more nod over crests and a noticeably tighter turning circle, and the tall body moves around on its springs in a way that asks for smooth inputs. The engines set the character. A 360 gives it easy, deep-chested torque and a soft V8 rumble that suits the vehicle; a 400 or 440 turns it into something genuinely quick in a straight line and comically thirsty. The TorqueFlite is the best thing in the drivetrain, shifting cleanly and holding gears sensibly under load, and it makes the truck relaxing on a long road in a way the four-speed manual does not. With the steel top removed the whole vehicle changes: there is no structure at all behind the seats, the noise is enormous, and everything you do feels slightly more consequential. It is not refined and it was never meant to be.

Design

This is a pickup with a shorter middle, and Dodge did not pretend otherwise. The 1972-onward D-series cab, grille and front sheet metal carry over unchanged, so the Ramcharger reads as familiar from the front and unfamiliar from the side, where the doors sit unusually far back and the body ends abruptly. The removable steel roof is the design feature, complete with a flip-up rear tailgate window, and the earliest execution is the most interesting: with the door pillars built into the roof, a 1974 truck loses its entire upper structure in one piece. Detailing is minimal and mostly stripes, which was the Dodge truck idiom of the period. What the shape has going for it is honesty and proportion: a long bonnet, a short cabin, square shoulders and almost no decoration. No individual designer is documented for it, which is unsurprising for a derivative of a pickup programme, and the vehicle's visual identity belongs to the D-series it came from.

Motorsport pedigree

Dodge never built a competition Ramcharger, and the reason is a budget rather than an oversight. Chrysler came to this market last and with the least money, and its answer to the off-road image war of the 1970s was showroom theatre rather than desert racing: the Li'l Red Express of 1978 and 1979, the Warlock from 1976, and the Macho Power Wagon, all of them marketed as lifestyle pickups and all of them sold on stripes, stacks and wheels rather than results. It worked commercially and it left the Ramcharger with nothing on its record. The contrast is stark within its own class. Ford's Bill Stroppe Broncos won the Baja 1000 outright in 1969, 1971 and 1972, and an International Super Scout II took production four-wheel-drive honours in 1977, while no comparable Dodge result exists. What the Ramcharger did get was a hard-use reputation earned by owners, on ranches and job sites and in the sort of amateur desert running that nobody keeps records of.

In culture

The Ramcharger is the forgotten one, and it has been forgotten in an interesting way. It never had a film role, never appeared on a poster and was never a lifestyle object in period, because Dodge spent its image budget on pickups instead. What it has is a small, unusually loyal following built around exactly the things that make it obscure: it was the last of the four to arrive, the smallest seller, and the only one you could order with a 440. Its oddest cultural artefact is the Plymouth Trail Duster, sold from 1974 to 1981 and the only sport utility vehicle that marque ever made, which now reads as a footnote to the death of Plymouth itself. The name has proved more durable than the truck. Ram has put Ramcharger back into service on a modern vehicle, which means a badge last seen on a two-door with a bolt-on roof is once again in a showroom, and that has done more for the original's visibility than anything in the last forty years.

Rivals

Cars from other manufacturers that competed for the same buyers when new.

Owning One

Why collectors want it

The Ramcharger is the last one anybody thinks of, which is exactly the argument for it. It arrived last, it sold in the smallest numbers of the four American full-size 4x4 wagons, and it is still the cheapest way into an unmodified example of the type. What it offers that the others do not is engine choice: a 440 in a short-wheelbase four-wheel-drive wagon is a genuinely absurd thing that Chrysler was happy to sell, and the 360 and 400 sit above anything Ford would put in a Bronco. The removable steel roof is the second argument, and it is a hard deadline. Dodge welded the roof down for 1981, so every first-generation truck is a convertible and no later one is. Within the run the very early 1974 cars are the ones that matter, because the half-door arrangement lasted only until June of that year and survivors are counted in dozens rather than thousands. Add the Plymouth Trail Duster, the only sport utility Plymouth ever sold, and there is more here than the price suggests.

Which one to look for

The half-door 1974 trucks come first. Built only until the 10 June 1974 build date, they have door pillars attached to the removable roof, and taking the top off genuinely opens the vehicle up in a way no later Ramcharger does. They are the collector's target. Next is engine choice, which is where this truck separates itself from its rivals: the 360 is the sensible V8 and the one most were built with, the 400 is stronger, and the 440 is the reason people who already own a Blazer look at a Ramcharger. The 225 Slant Six exists, is indestructible, and is best regarded as a curiosity in something this size. Avoid confusion over drivetrain: a rear-drive Ramcharger from 1975 onward is a legitimate vehicle but not the one anybody wants. And know the Plymouth. The Trail Duster, sold from 1974 to 1981, is the same truck with different badges and the only sport utility vehicle Plymouth ever offered, which makes a good one an interesting alternative rather than a lesser choice.

440 V8

The largest engine offered in any American full-size two-door 4x4 wagon of the period, against a 400 maximum in the Blazer, 345 in the Scout II and 302 in the Bronco.

Half-Door · 1974

The earliest cars, whose door pillars are attached to the removable roof, so lifting the top off leaves half doors and no upper structure at all. The collector's target inside the generation.

Removable Steel Roof · 1974-1980

The optional full steel top with a flip-up rear tailgate window. Buyers could also take a dealer-installed fabric top or no roof at all. Welded shut for the 1981 second generation.

Two-Wheel Drive · 1975-1980

The rear-drive Ramcharger, added for 1975. The same body without the transfer case, and worth identifying rather than seeking out.

What owning one is like

Owning one is straightforward mechanically and demanding on parts-hunting. The Slant Six and the TorqueFlite are among the most durable things Chrysler ever built, the V8s are conventional, and a well-kept truck will run for years without asking for anything unusual. Rust is the real subject: cab corners, rear quarters and arches, floors, tailgate and every seam the removable roof sits on, plus the front fender bottoms where mud collects behind the liners. The roof seals leak on most surviving trucks and finding replacements takes patience. Steering boxes wear and front-end bushings on a hard-worked 4x4 will all be tired at once. The real difference from a Blazer is availability: Dodge trucks of this era were not reproduced as comprehensively as GM's, so panels and trim take longer to find and complete vehicles are worth chasing over cheap projects. None of it is difficult work, and there is a friendly community that has already solved most of it.

Upkeep & parts

Budget for searching rather than for spending. Service and driveline parts are easy, because the Ramcharger shares almost everything mechanical with the D and W-series pickups and Chrysler sold those in volume: brakes, suspension, cooling, ignition and TorqueFlite components are all shelf items. Reproduction sheet metal exists but is thinner on the ground than the equivalent GM or Ford parts, and Ramcharger-specific pieces are the pinch point, particularly the removable roof, its seals and hardware, the rear side glass and the tailgate mechanism. The Plymouth Trail Duster shares nearly all of it, so widen the search to include Plymouth parts and listings. The Ramcharger, Trailduster and Power Wagon section of dodgeforum.com is the practical hub for owner knowledge and the fastest place to find someone who has done the job before. Body-off restoration costs the same here as anywhere else, which is worth thinking about given where the values sit.