Gallery Page 397

Scott's 1977 Trailduster



Scott has an unusual 77 Plymouth Trailduster. Scott purchased his Trailduster nearly a year ago from the estate of the original owner, in Colorado Springs, CO. As luck would have it, the original owner had saved many of the original documents. This Trailduster was sold new at Perkins Motor Co in Colorado Springs, on Jan 21, 1977. It was delivered on February 4,1977. After the initial purchase in January, the owner had the dealer drive the truck up to Denver to have a custom Four Wheel Camper installed. He then took delivery of the truck on Feb 4th with the camper on it.

Four Wheel Camper was started in Denver, CO in 1972. Scott was able to reach out and chat with the son of the guy who started the company, and inquire about his particular setup. He informed Scott that they did not offer a dealer program, and each camper was custom built per individual owner's order. When he saw Scott's original documents, he informed Scott that while they built a great number of Bronco and Blazer campers, they did not do many Dodge or Plymouth units, and that the original owner of Scott's truck would have to had to go to them prior to purchasing the truck, to spec out the camper and have it built in time to have it installed once he purchased the new truck. Four Wheel Camper did not pre-build campers and have them in inventory ahead of time. He mentioned the fact that most campers sold went to owners who had already owned the vehicle for a period of time. Since the one on Scott's truck has been on there since the truck was delivered new, it may be a one of a kind.

Four Wheel Campers relocated to Woodland, CA in 1989, and is alive and well, building fantastic new state of the art lightweight pop up campers. After contacting the company last summer, and showing them his truck, they invited Scott to bring his Trailduster to the Overland Expo Mountain West,in Colorado last August, and exhibit it in their booth alongside their brand new offerings. The response from folks was overwhelming! Displaying the camper was so much fun, and definitely drew a tremendous number of people to the Four Wheel Camper booth. The Trailduster also attracted a lot of classic Dodge truck people, as well as classic vehicle people in general.

Since the truck had sat for 23 years prior to Scott's purchasing it, he spent a couple of months going through everything mechanically, and he replaced most rubber components, IE: coolant hoses, brake hoses, fuel lines, etc. Scott installed fresh Amsoil synthetic fluids in the engine, transmission, and transfer case. He replaced the leaf springs, and installed Bilstein shocks. Scott also decided to install reproduction Mopar cop car steel wheels (15 x 7), and added a set of mint condition original cop car dog dish hubcaps. Scott's truck runs on 31 inch BFG All Terrain tires.

Scott buffed the faded original paint (thankfully the truck sat inside all those years). The interior of the camper is in amazing condition. It's easy to tell that it was very well cared for, as was the truck itself. The Trailduster is otherwise all original, with 121,000 miles on it. It is powered by a 318, with an NP435 manual 4-speed. It runs and drives beautifully, the engine so quiet it's hard to hear it running. It sure does attract attention when Scott takes it out!















To learn more about Scott's 1977 Dodge you can email him at: mangotango154@gmail.com


Are you proud of your Dodge truck or car? Want to show it off? Please email me a pic along with a description of your vehicle and I will add it to the Gallery.


Joe Leonard 2025/01/09