Jim Donnelly's Interview with The Car Doctor, January 21, 2012

Nowadays, Dodge doesn’t brand its line of trucks as Dodges anymore. They’re officially called Rams, with a beefy logo to match. And whether you agree with that break from 80-plus years of history or not, it’s got some clear historical precedent. The earliest Dodge trucks were called Dodges, either, but Grahams.

This 1927 Graham DC open-bodied half-ton truck epitomized the early Dodge truck. The Dodge brothers, John and Horace, backed into the manufacture of both complete cars and trucks. They had started out supplying engines, transmissions and axles to Ransom Eli Olds and then Henry Ford before building their own cars, beginning in 1914.

Shortly thereafter, the Graham brothers of Evansville, Indiana – Joseph, Ray and Robert – came up with an innovative idea to create cheap trucks in their hometown. They began marketing the Truck Builder, a conversion kit that would retrofit a Graham cab and cargo body to any used car after its bodywork was lopped off, usually aft of the cowling. Its success allowed Graham to being building its own trucks by 1920, usually with Continental power. These were the trucks that came to Dodge’s attention, just as both John and Horace Dodge died.

Under the presidency of Frederick Haynes, Dodge partnered Graham to create its “own” line of trucks, now using Dodge powertrains, but assembled at Graham’s plant. That gave Dodge a range of trucks heavier than its “commercial cars” that it had earlier lacked. In 1927, all Dodge trucks were badged and sold as Grahams.

The following year, however, Walter P. Chrysler bought Dodge for $170 million. The trucks were renamed as Dodges. The Graham brothers went on to buy Paige Detroit, producing the handsome Graham-Paige automobile in Dearborn through 1930, and then the Graham through 1941.