stepside; why?

[JointTech]

i quick googled it didnt find much. I was just thinking why were they ever made? There must have been some work use for it other than style.
Personally I'm not a fan as it seems like you just took a bed and made it smaller for some reason.

But I just started getting more curious. What's it for?

[Sillyoldman]

Evolution.

[chevy_man5]

I agree with Sillyoldman. If you look all the way back at covered wagons, they were the same setup. The box was in-between the wheels. Wide beds evolved in the 50's (I think).

[JimKshortstep4x4]

The Forest Service used them and so did the military. Not sure which came first, the design or the market.

Jim

[SS Tim]

Pick up beds were an evolution as previously mentioned. If you look at the intended users it makes sense. Smooth sides and a rectangular shape were easy to load, calculate load weight, easy to access and empty. The steps were a natural extension of the running boards and useful. Later as the trucks became more widely used, people began looking for creature comforts and styling. Dodge grafted on car quarter panels and GM put huge fiberglass fenders on the looked like a smooth side. Non-commercial users liked and demanded more, so the add on fixes became integral components and the fleetside style bed we know became a regular production vehicle. The wood floor carried on as did stepside style because there was still a market for them. Be it government or industrial "low bidder" or the rancher/ ag user that still demanded a grain tight bed to keep loose loads and wood floors for livestock. Soon most of the non-commercial trucks were fleetsides, then the mid '70s 4x4 and truck craze happened. Now people wanting something different decided that the stepside offered a different look and better access to their coolers. Again soon the look went away and due to low productin numbers then they were gone from production. But every once in a while someone in marketing tries to do it again like the mid '90s beds which were now narrow widebeds with fenders stuck on the outside to provide steps and a marketing edge.

[jocko]

concur - evolution. old trucks mimicked old cars - picture a 37 chevy's fenders, for example... they were separate from the main body. Truck beds evolved the same way, just a little more slowly and the fleetside was born in the form of the 55 cameo. BUT, I'd assume for nostalgia reasons and marketing, the stepside was retained as an option because back in the day - many may have preferred the more "traditional" look of steppers. Also consider the actual function of the "step" was to allow loading/unloading from the side (not that you couldn't do it with a fleetside...) and working parties were perhaps larger back then (think, farm) and maybe it would allow for multiple folks to load simultaneously (left/right/rear).

Ok, enough bloviating. I'm just guessin here....

[Critter]

All truck beds started out that way back in the 20s or whenever trucks started to evolve from cars. It was a way to match the front fenders which were similar in appearance, aka narrow hood and fenders sticking out over the tires. Eventually trucks started to have wider hoods that covered the wheel area (started somewhere in the 50s) but it took a while for the wide bed to catch up in the design world. Not to mention the fleetside bed offered more bed area to work out of, the main function of a truck back then. The 60-66 chevys and the 67-72 chevys were the transision models in my opinion. In other words, pre 1960 the vast majority of chevy trucks were stepside, then after 1972 the vast majority of the 73+ were fleetside. So our beloved 67-72s are a pretty even mixture. I don't dislike the stepsides (I have owned 2 in my life) but I agree that I prefer the fleetside as well.

Edit - Jocko, HA! we were basically typing the same thing at the same time.

[Shyguy]

Trucks were designed to be a useful tool. The stepside allowed for easy access to the inside of the bed and also made it easy to unload everything that was in the bed.

Many trucks were used by farmers to carry livestock. Fender tubs inside the bed could cause an animal to trip and break a leg.

Just some things I have learned.

Many others may have other ideas.

[sir_talk_alot]

Aww crap, here comes a war!!!

[MusicMan70]

Jocko wrote

Ok, enough bloviating. I'm just guessin here....

bloviate-

To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner.

A key attribute to those that sell. To pretend to understand technical subject matter and sell it to others even dumber then oneself.

or...

"Dang, just came from the track with my new truck and custom 327, but overreved it and bloviate!"

[JointTech]

good thread. thanks for the info.

[SS Tim]

Originally Posted by MusicMan70

Jocko wrote


bloviate-

To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner.

A key attribute to those that sell. To pretend to understand technical subject matter and sell it to others even dumber then oneself.

or...

"Dang, just came from the track with my new truck and custom 327, but overreved it and bloviate!"

Ok... so where does that leave me ?? Had to work really hard to cut my word count in half! LOL :-)

[jocko]

Originally Posted by MusicMan70

Jocko wrote


bloviate-

To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner.

A key attribute to those that sell. To pretend to understand technical subject matter and sell it to others even dumber then oneself.

or...

"Dang, just came from the track with my new truck and custom 327, but overreved it and bloviate!"

Ha! Someone's been watching O'reilly.... I have to admit, I clearly misunderstood the meaning of the word. I thought it just meant to "yammer on".....

[MusicMan70]

Tim and Jocko; I consider you to both be erudite....and I had to look that up! Haha

[SS Tim]

Originally Posted by MusicMan70

Tim and Jocko; I consider you to both be erudite....and I had to look that up! Haha

Henry,
Thank You! Its good to know that my efforts are appreciated. Sometime I don't say what people want to hear but I always try to give the most accurate documentable information I can.

Of course now this means just when I was no longer really missing spell check, I now need a thesaurus to keep up! :-)

[special-K]

It's kind of a silly question to ask why they made Stepsides. I guess it comes from a perspective of only focusing on 67-72 trucks and not the entire history of pickups. They never made a Stepside truck until '58. Before that they were just pickups. It was the introduction of Fleetsides that created a reason to identify the old style bed. Stepsides remained the basis of a pickup as it had been since day one with the Fleetside being an upgrade. There were people using pickups before '58 and they liked them just fine and didn't want to change. For hauling,unless you're hauling loose bulk,the wider bed doesn't add anything and presents a shifty load situation compared to the well defined dimension of a Stepside. It is the same size as the cargo floor. If more capacity was needed,in years prior,you got a flatbed or stake body. Fleetsides were created for style. Enough years have gone by to where more people look to trucks for style than utility and now ask why they made Stepsides.

[jchav62]

Originally Posted by special-K

It's kind of a silly question to ask why they made Stepsides. I guess it comes from a perspective of only focusing on 67-72 trucks and not the entire history of pickups. They never made a Stepside truck until '58. Before that they were just pickups. It was the introduction of Fleetsides that created a reason to identify the old style bed. Stepsides remained the basis of a pickup as it had been since day one with the Fleetside being an upgrade. There were people using pickups before '58 and they liked them just fine and didn't want to change. For hauling,unless you're hauling loose bulk,the wider bed doesn't add anything and presents a shifty load situation compared to the well defined dimension of a Stepside. It is the same size as the cargo floor. If more capacity was needed,in years prior,you got a flatbed or stake body. Fleetsides were created for style. Enough years have gone by to where more people look to trucks for style than utility and now ask why they made Stepsides.

Well said.

[Critter]

Originally Posted by jchav62

well said.

I agree!

[chopnchaneled]

Love it, VERY well said.

[E.Furgal]

I think the fleetside was twofold..
one like the cameo. was style as the 50's was all style
but also the marketeers one upmanship..
the fleetside offered more cubic inches/feet of cargo room..
sorry special K not everyone hauled goods the size of a stepside or beds with wheel wells outside the bed..
the first beds are that way because cars where that way.. that was the STYLE then. when cars lost that. the fleet side was more inline with the buyers wants.. and as a bonus more cargo room..
I like both.. but long beds look goofy with the stepside
better question is why the short bed lifed on in the 50-70's when trucks where still for the most part used as trucks..

[Critter]

Originally Posted by E.Furgal

better question is why the short bed lifed on in the 50-70's when trucks where still for the most part used as trucks..

Because old farmers don't like change! I can hear them now "The truck before was a stepside, and the one before that, and dads old 1938 truck before that was", etc, etc, etc. That's the way trucks had always been and that's what people were used to. Took decades for the next generation to warm up to it. I remember a few years ago when 2wd jeep wranglers started popping up. I still to this day think it's dumb to have an off road vehicle that is 2wd. Slowly but surely there is a growing market for it so that's what the OEMs are going to build. I also think it's dumb that you can no longer get a standard transmission in a GM truck of any kind! DUMB! But I digress...

[special-K]

Originally Posted by E.Furgal

...sorry special K not everyone hauled goods the size of a stepside or beds with wheel wells outside the bed...

Learn something new every day? For instance,I said that? ^

[dmw319]

I love my stepside. That's all I got to add

[six-T-seven]

Because stepside beds are more b!tchin' than fleeetside beds.

[newbraunie]

I have one of each, fleet & stepper both long and like both!