11/20/2025
The Cowboys Ride Away
In the late 1980s and early ’90s, the Ram Tough era was living its last, glorious chapters—and at the center of it all were three names that still echo in the desert: Rod Hall, Chad Hall, and Jim Fricker. 🏁🌵
By then, Dodge’s factory off-road program with Hall and Fricker had already become the stuff of legend. Rod and Jim had turned the boxy Dodge 4x4 into a winning machine, stacking up an unprecedented streak of 35+ straight SCORE/HDRA class wins in Class 4 during the early ’80s—still one of the most insane records in off-road history. 
As the miles and the years piled up, Chad Hall stepped in, carrying the Hall name into a new generation of Dodge race trucks. The team kept hammering SCORE and HDRA events, pushing those long-bed Dodges harder and farther while most of the competition moved to other brands or tube-chassis race trucks. Even as the sport evolved, the Hall/Fricker Dodge pickups stayed instantly recognizable: tall stance, big lights, leaf springs working overtime, and that raw, mechanical truck feel that fans still obsess over today. 
The “last years” of the Dodge partnership weren’t a quiet fade-out—they were a victory lap. Rod Hall was already a Baja 1000 legend with over 160 major wins and 25 Baja 1000 class victories, and he was still racking up results in the Ram while the next chapter (Hummer, Dakar, etc.) waited in the wings. 
Eventually, the factory Dodge era came to a close as programs shifted and the Halls moved on to new platforms. But if you were trackside or standing in the desert back then, you remember the sound of that Dodge V8 bouncing off the revs, the yellow/white/red trucks charging through the dust, and Rod, Chad, and Jim grinding out miles long after sunset. That partnership didn’t just race trucks—it defined what a factory-backed off-road truck looked like.
🔥 If you remember seeing those Dodge trucks run—or dream about finding an old Hall/Fricker Ram in a barn somewhere—drop a comment, share a photo, or tag someone who was there.
Ram Tough. Hall strong. 🐏
Once Dodge and the Halls hit the desert, the game was never the same. 💪🏜️
