I remember when I was just a young boy and my parents bought a vehicle which still lives on today: a 1985 Dodge Ram B-250 Wagon (a full-size window van). Tough, strong, durable, and still gleaming, my family’s 1985 Dodge Ram B-250 Wagon is among those old trucks which will never die thanks to a strong, basic, and easy-to-repair mechanical and power train system (compared to today’s vehicles, which in part depend on computer systems and require skilled technicians to repair), overall bulk, and durable components.
A look at the Standard Catalog of American Light Duty Trucks, 3rd Edition, breaks down the factory options and specifications for the 1985 Dodge Ram B-250 Wagon: the B-250 vans had a 3.7 liter V-6, 5.2 liter V-8, or 5.9 liter V-8 engine; three-speed automatic transmission; and 109.6-inch or 127.6-inch wheelbase lengths (the 127.6 inch wheelbase also gave buyers an option for an extended passenger cabin, adding 26 inches in cabin length and increasing the seating up to 15 passengers). Basic features for the Dodge Ram B-250 Wagon include full-length black rubber flooring, chrome bumpers, single sliding or double swing-out side doors, electronic AM/FM radio, power steering, air-conditioner, heater, and defroster. Some very nice Dodge Ram B-250 Wagon options came under the Royal SE package, which includes chrome body side molding, front-door plaques bearing the image of a ram, windshield molding, cloth seating, interior wood tone appointments, and a cloth headliner. Some Prospector Dodge Ram Wagons included many of the Royal SE options including a larger, 35-gallon fuel tank; two-tone exterior paint, power doors and windows, and tilt-steering. Some Dodge Ram B-250 Wagons include towing packages. In 1985, 44,436 Ram Wagons were produced (all versions, wheelbases, and option packages of the Dodge Ram Wagons are included in this count). The average manufacturer’s retail price for a Dodge B-250 Ram Wagon with a 127.6-inch wheelbase (like my family’s van) was $10,641 in 1985.
My mother and father said that, for about the same price, they could have opted for the smaller and posher Dodge Caravan; in 1985, do not forget, minivans were still a new-fangled vehicle and, as they do today, provide the comforts, ease of driving, and appeal of sedans but also are something akin to the size and bulk of a full-size van. My parents have said they chose the full size van because it afforded much more room for my family and provided an easier-to-clean environment for my sister and I, both of us still being in car seats back in those days and, um, not quite as tidy as we are today(!) My parents lugged around two tricycles (later full-size bicycles), sports equipment, two car seats, and a number of other things in our Ram Wagon which would never have fit in a minivan. We took several long road trips, moved our belongings from and to a few residences with that van, and have carried around all types of heavy and large items in our Dodge van. The two benches our van has can be removed, leaving a cargo area large enough to carry around sofas, tables, and dozens of boxes.
Of course, as is the case with most vehicles, owning the 1985 dodge Ram B-250 Wagon has not all been peaches and cream. Our air conditioner broke three years in a row and has not been operating since the late 1980s, we have gone through at least two steering gear boxes, and only a few weeks into owning our then-new van with only a few dozen or so miles on it we had transmission troubles. Mind you, our van predates many consumer Lemon laws, and perhaps we would have had more recourse today with those protections, but the van did survive, and it continues to run well today. We have had some water incursion issues with the rear door jamb; my grandfather owned a Dodge van in the late 1970s, and my mother said he experienced leaks near the back door, too. It may be a Dodge issue, or it could just be our family has not had a good experience with those Dodge rear doors, but leaks via the rear door jamb may be a problem for owners of these classic Dodge Ram Wagons.
The paint job on our Dodge van has held up well over the years. Our van is colored pearl white, and here in the hot Florida sun, lighter paint jobs tend to fare better than darker colors, which absorb heat and therefore often age a little faster. The van has been washed and waxed regularly over the years. There has been a recurring issue with rust on some of the rainwater trough located at the junction where the side panels meet the roof panel. However, I have seen a lot of Dodge vans, even newer ones, suffer this same issue. In the past few years, we had to replace the black rubber flooring with indoor/outdoor carpeting because the floor tore very much like cellophane does—a small tear easily turns into a large rip. However, the overall condition of the van remains good. Any problems we have had with the van are due mainly to wear and tear over decades of heavy use, not inherent flaws, so it is safe to say that any owner of a Dodge van should be generally satisfied with the vehicle.
Of all the problems we have had locating parts for our Dodge van, perhaps the toughest part to find is the chrome body side molding! After our van suffered a minor collision a number of years ago, my father and I had to spend weeks at junk yards before we found proper replacements for the almost three-inch tall black and chrome body side molding that adorns the lower side of our van. As it turns out, our chrome package was ended during the late 1980s, and Dodge no longer manufactures the chrome molding. As many in the car and truck industry know, Dodge discontinued the B-series vans only a few years ago after producing the van (with almost no change in overall body style since the early 1970s) for decades. The Dodge Sprinter has since taken the spot of the B-Series vans in the Dodge line-up, making the Dodge B-series vans now essentially obsolete, if only recently so. Hundreds of thousands are still on the roads and, given the durability of these vans, there will certainly be many on the road decades from now.
Our van now has over 330,000 miles on it and continues to run well. It has needed a few moderate mechanical overhauls over the years, and I recently completed a partial exterior restoration, but our Dodge van still serves my family. I do find it hard to believe it is now officially a classic vehicle. I really wish that van could talk—it has seen our family through so much, has been running through three different decades, has seen four different presidents and six presidential terms, has been on the road since the Cold War, and dates back to a time when, for a while, regular unleaded gasoline could still be had for less than a dollar in some locations. Suffice it to say, our Dodge van certainly does not get the best gas mileage on the road today, and I say both facetiously and with a bit of Green guilt that it probably has done its fair share of chugging CO2 emissions into the atmosphere since 1985 (when we had a much larger arctic ice cap!), our family’s 1985 Dodge Ram B-250 Wagon is a wonderful vehicle that has certainly become a dear part of our family!
