race track water truck

[Kodiak Island Modeler]

This is a 1849 Dodge water truck that I built for a dirt race track. Most tracks run on limited budgets, but this truck is as a former fire truck that has been offered a second life on a better funded dirt track.

[kylexgore]

you mean a 1949 dodge water. nice build.

Edited June 4, 2010 by kylexgore

[Mark R]

Nice old DODGE...

[Guest old man]

SUPER NICE JOB !

[Ben]

That's cool! Is that a resin cab?

[fordmoparman01]

That's a cool idea

[Kodiak Island Modeler]

That's cool! Is that a resin cab?

Yes it is a resin cab, but I'm not sure of who makes it. I heard that it was made by a company called Frontier, but I've never checked it out. I purchased it on ebay, and it shows up quite often.

[mackinac359]

Isn't that just neat !

Tim

[Kostas Parchas]

Sweet!

Kostas.

[Kodiak Island Modeler]

How about one more picture of this little Dodge?

This one was taken outside.

[cam]

Neat little truck.

[Jim B]

Doug, that sepia picture looks real. I thought it was you inspiration photo for a sec.

Now, what would be the purpose of one of these trucks? Why would you want to race in the mud? I think you would have less traction that way.

[Kodiak Island Modeler]

Jim, you just made my day. Racing water trucks is a race I want to see. LOL Seriously, the midwest has a lot of oval dirt tracks. I grew up in Oskaloosa Iowa, and my family was involved racing. Our town had a half mile dirt track, as did a town that was south of Ottumwa, called Eldon. I raced stock cars at both of these tracks, back in the seventies. Knoxville was 25 miles to the west of Oskaloosa, and it's half mile track is famous for sprint car racing.

Before races could be run, the tracks had to have water sprayed on them, and then vehicles would drive around on them for awhile to pack them down. This then is the purpose for the water truck. Many were decommissioned fire trucks and some were strange homemade rigs. The reason that I mentioned the different towns, is that funding to the track would determine the quality of the rig. In the 60s and 70s, Oskaloosa and Knoxville were said to be the best dirt tracks in the state of Iowa, some said they were the best in the world. I don't know about that because I didn't get to race on all of the world's tracks, but I do know that they were good, and their communities took pride in them. Image was important, right down to the water truck, and they were kept in nice condition. Eldon was a small town, and it's more modestly funded track's rig fit more of what one would expect to see a water truck look like. Most tracks were low funded operations, many simply cut into an unused pasture by a farmer, and their water trucks were vehicles that were on their last legs.

The rig that I have pictured represents a fire truck that after being replaced by a newer, and hopefully, much larger unit, would have been passed down to the community's race track.