'78 PowerWagon
 

Hey guys. I'm new here, but I have been around the other Mopar/Jeep/Dodge boards for a while.

Ok, here is the skinny.

Been wanting to build a trail rig that I didn't have to worry about getting beat up. My current off road vehicle is my '94 Grand Cherokee
Don't snicker, I have outwheeled a lot of guys that thought a "SUV" on the trial was silly.
The problem is this is my daily driver and I am constantly worried about tearing it up.
My dad has an old '78 W150 PowerWagon. Nothing special. 318, 3spd manual. Pretty much a well worn farm truck.
Well, his last trailer towing outing he fried the clutch. He decided to sell it for $800 to get rid of it. He doesn't want to invest any $$$ in a vehicle that old.
Well, that got me to thinking. I called him and asked him if I could HAVE it to build a trail rig. He said sure, come and get it.
This truck is functional, but it isn't pretty. It has it's share of rust and dents from being surrounded by mad cows. It has low miles, because he was never driven that much. The 318 is stout, but it is a 2bbl. To build this into a trail rig, the first order of business is the worthless 3 spd tranny has to go! A real tranny would have to go in, like a NP435. Problem is I have heard these are expensive (because they are desirable) and I don't know what it would take to bolt up. The transfer case should be pretty stout, it is a NP203.
The next question is the axles. I have heard that the 1/2 ton axles were weak on Powerwagons. If you didn't have a W200, you had weak axles. Is this true? Don't know much about them.
My plan is a rig that runs at least 35" mudders with a rear locker, with a NP435. The superlow 1 gear should get me up and over most things, but I'm not interested in rock crawling or anything like that.

What do you guys think??