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Why not much love for Power Wagon?

Hooligan

Xtreme wheeler of the web
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
341
Messages
877
Loc
Sacramento
Why not much love for Power Wagon. I’m looking to get back into a wheeler, love playing in the snow and Rubicon would be on the menu.

Looking for for a four door, V-8, run a 35-37” tire. Seems the Power Wagon is already set up with lockers and would be a good start. Either that or a 2005-ish F250. For the price though Wagon has winch and lockers.

May check out a 2006 with 166k miles, listed for $14k. Anything to worry about with the Hemi?


Not many YouTube videos out there of people using them. Lots of Dodge sponsored videos on new Wagons.
 
No diesel and high buy in when they're new is likely why they don't get much love. They're also big, the folks that spent money on them new aren't likely to be out smacking trees and rocks with em.

Biggest Hemi worry is cam/lifter failure, unfortunately you won't know if that's going on or not until it happens.
 
Cam and tappets and cracked exhaust manifolds are about the only issues the Hemis have these days, though the tappet issues are pretty rare.

As far as the Power Wagon goes, generally they are overpriced new, much like the Rubicons, though they still sell for whatever reason. Jeep owners, eh? To me the PW is a useless vehicle. It has a lot of capability, but it's so expensive few people want to use them to their full potential. I have a friend who has had two, he used the winch a couple times, played with the lockers a few times and the rest of the time it was just a normal truck. Currently you can only get one with all the blacked out grille and I hate that nonsense. Why the hell everyone wants their $60k-$70k truck to look like a fleet work truck I will never understand.
 
A friend has one. I like it other that the misserable no bottom end torque and shit brick shifter.

That being said.... when i met the guy it was getting a new motor @ 50k
 
Yeah, new buy price is way out there, which limits used market availability. I don’t see many on the street. Compared to a normal 3/4, tow capacity is low which also limits the buyer pool.

For my use, it checks a few boxes I’m not a hardcore user and this will be a toy that rock damage won’t matter.
 
I have one and would totally buy another. 2016, 50k miles, I've put about 12k on it since I got it. ARE CXHD topper and 37" mud tires and some sliders. It is a swiss army knife of a truck. I have the bed built out for camping and take it way off into the Ozarks fairly often. It easily pulls my 24' boat or Suzuki on a 20' trailer. It's size is obviously a limitation in the woods in this part of the country but it's a trade off.

5026DE76-E531-4580-8170-FF2A0DD5990E.jpeg
 
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The older Dodge with 4.56s and g56 were cool. The 545rfe sucked ass. The new ones are meh.

If the sway bar disco is anything like the Jeep (it does from looks) it's a pile of shit.

Resale value aside, you could build one cheaper.
 
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I have some sellers remorse over upgrading earlier this year. Tradesman with the PW setup is fairly reasonable. 16 that I had for 5 years, full Thuren catalog thrown at it. Squeezed it in some spots following Tacoma’s.

BB26D5A7-3860-4222-8BE2-ACB83EA676D3.jpeg
 
Not much love here, but in the overlanding world they get a fair bit. I mean its just like a bigger jeep. If you have a family you can now take them with you, not to mention do some house projects and tow a few things.

https://powerwagonsinmoab.com/

Kevin
 
Hooligan said:
Why not much love for Power Wagon. I’m looking to get back into a wheeler, love playing in the snow and Rubicon would be on the menu.

Looking for for a four door, V-8, run a 35-37” tire. Seems the Power Wagon is already set up with lockers and would be a good start. Either that or a 2005-ish F250. For the price though Wagon has winch and lockers.

May check out a 2006 with 166k miles, listed for $14k. Anything to worry about with the Hemi?


Not many YouTube videos out there of people using them. Lots of Dodge sponsored videos on new Wagons.
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It is big enough that serious body damage would be guaranteed on the Rubicon and heavy enough to not be great in the snow. But don’t worry, they will run forever with an occasional misfire when the cams go bad shortly after the warranty ends. :laughing:
 
Wouldn’t be worried on the body damage, it’s not going to used for shows. Would eventually take off the bed and shorten the WB.

With 166k miles, it’s well past warranty, if motor has survived this long will it go another 20-30? That’s going to be a few years of use for me.
 
The engine should be fine. The issue with cams and tappets these days is production. We can't get them when we need them and end up replacing entire engines when all they really need is a cam and tappets. I would think the lockers will give out before the engine will, depending on maintenance, abuse, history, luck, how much the gods hate you, etc.
 
I know of at least three in my neighborhood. Of those, two don’t have the winch cable installed. :homer: Neighbor across the street had the one with the winch cable installed. Visited with him about it one day. Turns out it’s a lease, and he got it to drive on the beach.

I would guess that most are like Raptors around here. They rarely go off-road, and most are owned by the 60+ crowd.
 
Funny you say that, a few weeks ago a local one was for sale winch was missing entirely.
 
Personally, I would rather get a 6.2/4.30 e locker F250, add a lunchbox to the front with 1550 shafts, carli suspension and rock out....add bumper/winch of choice....Plus it can prolly be built cheaper.
 
pennsylvaniaboy said:
Personally, I would rather get a 6.2/4.30 e locker F250, add a lunchbox to the front with 1550 shafts, carli suspension and rock out....add bumper/winch of choice....Plus it can prolly be built cheaper.
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Been looking at F250 also, unfortunately a lot of folks have filled the tires with gold and upped the price. A lot of clapped out junk in this $15k price range...”in great shape, just needs new motor, and lien title needs to be filed and several thousand in back taxes, but other than that a good price”.

Missed out on a V10 250 with 140k miles for $7k.
 
If they actually advertised them, there would be more of them out there on the used market. Most people have never heard of them, yet every other Jeep on the road full of car seats is a Rubicon. Seems like Ram marketing dept has failed.

We have 2 of them at work. They are good trucks, but they should go back to 4.56 gears since they have 6 and 8 speed autos with multiple o/d ratios in the past few years.
travis..
 
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Supposed to be able to get many of the Wagon options on the Tradesman model for a cheaper price.
 
Hooligan said:
Supposed to be able to get many of the Wagon options on the Tradesman model for a cheaper price.
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You can build a tradesman power wagon. Not sure if they’re easy to find on the lot or not. Seems like most on the lots are fully optioned trucks.
 
Yeah, that one is just a ST 2500 with shitty aftermarket graphics. The factory graphics are available, but that is some bootleg shit.


And yes, the Power Wagon package is available on some Tradesman models, but you do miss out on some of the higher end options that way. Depends on if you want features or price. Both have shitty black trim though.
 
Yeah, not a power wagon. There would be a locker knob below the little cubby above your right leg, and pow-wags are 6.4L ccsb’s. The two that we have at work are tradesman power wagons in white, graphics delete. They did come with the ugly ass tailgate graphic which we promptly removed.
Travis..
 
I just had this discussion over some beers with a couple friends. as mentioned before in this thread, a 2011+ gas superduty with the factory rear locker is probably a better choice to start with. there is much more aftermarket support for those axles and they can be found decently priced because there is so many of them being used as fleet vehicles. slap on some Carli suspension goods, 37s and and whatever front locker you want.
One of the guys I know has a 2016 power wagon he uses for his landscaping business and it seems to do well for what he needs, it really plows the shit out of some snow lol. hes got about 130k trouble free miles on it now and hes had 35s on it since new.
 
Aggie06 said:
You can build a tradesman power wagon. Not sure if they’re easy to find on the lot or not. Seems like most on the lots are fully optioned trucks.
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I've been on the Ram site and tried....doesn't seem like the options are available. If I were to get a PW, a reg cab would be my choice.
 
D-Rat said:
I've been on the Ram site and tried....doesn't seem like the options are available. If I were to get a PW, a reg cab would be my choice.
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Current gen is CCSB only. If you start with a Tradesman 4x4 CCSB, the Power Wagon package should be one of the options.

A Reg Cab Long Bed G56 manual from 06 or so would be such a nice find for getting used.
 
RPS1030 said:
Current gen is CCSB only. If you start with a Tradesman 4x4 CCSB, the Power Wagon package should be one of the options.

A Reg Cab Long Bed G56 manual from 06 or so would be such a nice find for getting used.
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Ah....Yeah I wouldn't want the cc for a wheeler....too bad you can't get it with a reg cab.
 
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