page_title: Dodge T-, V-, W-Series
section_title: Purpose-built four-wheel drive
hierarchical_section_title: Dodge T-, V-, W-Series / Models used by the military / Purpose-built four-wheel drive
caption_attribution_description: 1940 Fargo truck. Taken at the Australian Army History Unit museum in Bandiana, Victoria. www.army.gov.au/awma_mus/
context_page_description: In 1939 Dodge presented a completely new designed line of pickups and trucks. Formally the T series for 1939, V series for 1940, and the W series from 1941 through 1947, the trucks became mostly known as the Dodge Job-Rated trucks.
  With streamlined, Art Deco styled front sheetmetal, and introducing the concept of "Job-Rated" truck configurations, Dodge tried to offer customers the truck that fit the job they were buying it for.
  As a result, the 1939 to 1947 Dodge pickup / truck range was offered in a bewilderingly large number of available variants and model codes.
  Six different payload classes, a wide range of bodies, and more than twenty different wheelbase-lengths were manufactured, and fitted with different sized versions of the Chrysler-sourced inline six-cylinder side-valve engines — from the half-ton TC pickup on a 116-inch wheelbase to three-ton tractor cabs. Nevertheless, mechanically, the trucks were all very similar, with solid axles front and rear and leaf springs at all four corners. With World War II taking up most of production capacity from 1942 to 1945, the 1939 styling continued largely unchanged through 1947, as engineering and production became the main focus.
context_section_description: After Dodge supplied the U.S. Army with its first four-wheel drive truck in 1934, more modern ​1 ¹⁄₂-tonners were developed, and 1,700 RF-40-X-4(USA) trucks were supplied in 1938, and 292 TF-40-X-4(USA) in 1939. In 1940, Dodge gained an Army contract to design and build ​¹⁄₂-ton 4×4 military trucks in several styles using many commercial truck parts. Based on the VC-Series, and internally called the T-202 series, the VC-1 through VC-6 came with essentially stock front-end sheetmetal. Similarly, their 116-inch wheelbase and 201-cubic-inch 79-horsepower six-cylinder engine shared much with Dodge's civilian ​¹⁄₂-ton VC. The following year, the T202 was replaced by the T-207 series trucks. Again rated as ​¹⁄₂-tonners, they featured a military-specific hood, grille, and fenders. These trucks were powered by the 218-cubic-inch six of 85 horsepower taken from Dodge's ​³⁄₄- and one-ton commercial models. Eventually, the military trucks were substantially redesigned, and uprated to ​³⁄₄-tons with a 230-cubic-inch engine with 92 Hp. Together with the 1941 ​¹⁄₂-tons, these were built from 1942 until the end of the war as the Dodge WC series military trucks. Some 30 were modified as armored trucks by the French in Syria prior to WWII and known as the Automitrailleuse Dodge 'Tanake.'  "These trucks served with Foreign Legion units before the war, and both Vichy and Free French units during WW2. After the war, the  trucks remaining in the country passed on to the Syrian government, and some were used during the 1948 war." The Tanake was fitted with a 37mm cannon M1916 and 2 or 3 FM 24/29 light machine guns and a crew of 5.
caption: 1940 Fargo-badged truck at the Australian Army History Unit museum.
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