For many generations, pickup trucks have handled the workload. Whether it’s on the family farm pulling a trailer filled with hay or at the construction site, these trucks get the job done. Every once in a while, automakers get a wild idea and build special edition pickup trucks that tickle the imagination and bring these vehicles away from their humble roots. Some of these special models make it to production while others are simply concepts.

Let’s have some fun and explore some of these special trucks.

The Dodge Dude was a special edition pickup truck with a western theme

The late 1960s featured many western-themed TV shows, and Dodge decided to use this popularity. The D Series truck line from that time was built to be tough and rugged, much like the characters in the shows.

The Dude brought some special features to the regular D Series truck, including:

• A tachometer
• Upgraded interior
• Powerful 383 V8 engine producing 300 horsepower

The Dodge Dude stood out with its large black “C” stripe on the side of the truck, giving this truck a hint of muscle car inspiration.

Do you remember the Jeep Gladiator Honcho?

The latest Jeep truck, the Gladiator, didn’t come with a unique name. This name, used in the 1970s, gave Jeep something unique to offer. The Jeep Gladiator Honcho was a special edition pickup truck offering a departure from the gas-guzzling V8 engines of the time. The Honcho was a special version of the Gladiator, giving owners:

• Unique interior elements
• Special wheels
• Off-road tires
• A winch
• Two engine options, including a 401 AMC V8

While the Honcho was a pretty cool truck, Jeep only produced 1,500 of them during seven years. Today, the remaining models are collector trucks with steep prices.

Chevy went extreme with a special edition pickup truck

The Chevrolet 454 SS sounds like a muscle car, but it was a pickup truck. More than twenty years of low-performance numbers and strict regulations frustrated the Chevy team enough to put their largest engine in their smallest truck and offer it to the public. In the early 1990s, that meant taking the smallest Chevy 1500 with a short bed and stuffing the 454 V8 engine under the hood.

The result was a truck with 385 lb-ft of torque that made it rocket off the line. The horsepower for the Chevrolet 454 SS was only 255, but with the high torque numbers, this was a sprint machine.

The Lincoln Blackwood was a unique offering

Unfortunately, not all special edition pickup truck models make it in the market. The Lincoln Blackwood came out in the early 2000s to piggyback on the success of the Navigator SUV. The idea of a luxury pickup truck was interesting, and Lincoln used the popular Ford F-150 platform, but this truck didn’t catch on.

The problem for the Lincoln Blackwood was in the bed. The customized bed offered a swinging door tailgate and a power hardcover. This cargo area was also much smaller than other trucks. This made the Blackwood good as a family hauler but not a useful truck.

The GMC Beau James turned a few heads

The love affair of pickups was never greater than in the 1970s. Because of this feeling, Motor Junkie shows us how GMC turned an ordinary truck into something special. The GMC Beau James took a regular model and created a special edition pickup truck with some Cadillac luxury stylings added to it.

Some of these items included:

• Two-tone paint job
• Wire wheel covers
• Classy whitewall tires

Nothing about how the truck performed changed, but drivers of the GMC Beau James turned a few heads on the road.

Next, check out how the Toyota Tacoma menu is getting larger, or See five of the rarest and coolest pickup trucks in the video below:

This post was updated on 8/19/2022.