The civilian Power Wagon continued the lineage of limited production Dodge 4WD trucks from the 1930s, that proved basic four wheel drive design concepts, primarily for the military. Mechanically derived from Dodge's 1942–1945 3/4-ton WC series military trucks, the Power Wagon was introduced in 1946 as the first civilian production 4x4 truck. During its development phase, it was initially named the WDX General Purpose Truck, a name still used on some of the preliminary materials handed out by Dodge, before sales began in March 1946. The 'W' was a continuation of the 1941–1947 model year series, followed by a 'D' instead of a 'C', because the civilian truck was a 1-ton rating instead of the Army's -ton, and the 'X' was added to indicate four-wheel drive, as opposed to all previous civilian two-wheel driven models. Some believe the truck was renamed "Power Wagon" after a contemporaneous trucking magazine with that title.