This isn’t the one I found for sale, as it had a bland re-paint. I found this glorious example on Hemmings. It’s a 1974 and a Sno Fiter rather than a Sno Commander. Not sure if the stripes are reflective, but I hope they are.
Randomly, something popped up on a website today for sale that I’ve never heard of. Even more randomly, it was a plow truck. A factory one right from the dealer, old, with the right amount of barnacles on the somewhat sketchy re-paint. A plow truck that I definitely wasn’t searching for, on a snow day, for sale somewhere that there was no snow, on a day when I had nothing else really planned to talk about. Was it actually random, or was it something bigger? Was it prophesized or foretold? Was it a spiritual thing, was it aliens? is the government getting into my head? Whatever it was, it worked and speaking of things that work, that 1981 Dodge Sno Commander was a cool piece to work with.
Never in my life have I heard of the Sno Commander. Not once have I seen one of the decal packages pop up in any pictures, and they look cool, so I would have taken notice. The Chrysler Sno Runner was that little snowmobile mini bike, and the Commander name was used on some of their engines back in the day, so it’s a logical mash-up for a plow truck, but still, never seen one. From what I can tell, the Sno Commander started when the Ram began in 1981. The package was available before that but known as the Sno Fiter on the earlier D-series trucks. The first thing that grabbed my attention was the “Sno Commander” lettering on the bedside. The one I saw for sale had been re-painted, but most had a wild, seventies-style stripe from front-to-back with the name in the stripe. In typical working-class, minimalist fashion, the only other appearance option was a set of cab lights (and a seven-and-a-half foot wide, yellow Meyer plow blade, of course). Inside, it’s your typical Dodge truck for the times, with two control levers poking out of the dash by the drivers’ right knee. They were used to operate the hydraulics of the plow. Cooler than manual valve controls is the fact that the hydraulic pump was engine-driven, meaning no electrical problems to chase down, aside from maybe the plow lights. Sure, there’s plenty of room for oil leaks to develop, but I’d rather change an obviously worn hose than prod around with a test light for hours. They all came with heavy-duty springs and shocks, beefy Dana front and rear differentials with Anti-Spin, V8, heavy-duty radiator, and upgraded battery. They came with the Meyer plow and all hookups as well, but I believe those parts were dealer-installed upon delivery. I don’t know how I stumbled onto this, today of all days, but the further down the rabbit hole I go, the more wild old plow packages I find. I’d rather find warmer weather and rain about now, though.
Have a question or comment for Kelly? Post it at lmtimes.ca/kirk
