As I was out running errands in my faux Touring Sedan yesterday afternoon, I happened upon this fleet survivor.
When I saw this late ’80s Chevy van pass me by, I immediately hopped out of the turn lane and gave chase (passed on the right indeed!). It looks remarkably clean and straight considering its age/purpose – and like every true CC, it’s still out there earning its keep.
The van belongs to Federated Cooperatives, an organization formed out of the merger of umpteen smaller farmer co-ops over the years, and a force to be reckoned with here in Minnesota. They operate a sizable fleet, and they’re no stranger to keeping the old stuff running. This van’s red color tells us it belongs to their propane division. With temperatures beginning to stay below freezing over the past week, I’d bet its driver is being kept busy (natural gas is unavailable outside city limits, so many folks around here heat with propane).
Federated mostly runs Chevy pickups for their light-duty needs nowadays. But there was a time when these vans – and the yellow/white GMCs of their competition – were iconic locally. Circa 1990, you couldn’t make it through a typical day without seeing at least one. But as the years wore on, most of these vans got retired. And it wasn’t just the gas delivery business. Just about every tradesman in the area had a G-Van in the nineties, and many companies picked their favorite factory paint color and made it synonymous with their brand.
It’s not easy to get good pictures of moving vehicles in traffic, especially when armed with only a cell phone. But I did manage to capture a peek of the front end. Sealed beams over parking lights… the typical fleet grille of the late ’80s. If I had to take a guess, I’d say 1988 or 89.
With Express and Savana vans having replaced most of the remaining G-series rigs over the past decade, and with so many plain-Jane fleet vehicles getting crushed without a thought to the future, vans like this one are quickly disappearing. But for those few that are still holding up their end, still doing the jobs they were chosen for two or even three decades ago – we salute you!
In another twenty years, children likely won’t believe me if I tell them such vehicles once roamed our highways by the score. And, much like today’s youngsters think every VW Transporter in the world was an art car and every Camaro had hood stripes and a hot V8, they might not even believe that such vans could be had without shag carpeting and porthole windows. Like so many things, it’s a good time to save one while you can.
As a crazy enthusiast of function-over-form and utility vehicles, it’s my second-favorite GM grille… after the mattress-sized Topkick of the same era: http://www.fleettruckparts.com/GMC-Chevy-Topkick-Kodiak-Quad-Headlight-Early-1980s-1989.jpg
This truck needs air and WHO ARE YOU TO DENY IT?
I still think it would make an excellent coffee table.
I drove a couple of these years ago in summer jobs. These became my first most hated vehicle back then. By the early 80s, I had driven quite a few miles in all three vans – Ford, Chevy and Dodge, both in cargo and passenger form. The Dodges and Fords worked for me – I preferred Mopars then, but they had their weaknesses. The Fords felt more refined, if not quite as taut.
The Chevys were just miserable. The door slammed with a loud “Bang!”. Then do it again because the first time you didn’t have enough momentum to overcome the sagging hinges. Every vibration, bump and road imperfection made it into the structure. The engine seemed bolted directly to the frame, with no isolation in the mounts at all. The things rattled, and shook like jello.
Sorry guys, as much as I kind of like the nostalgia factor here (and it does seem in good condition), I will leave these to someone else.
You’re right, many of these didn’t offer the most comfortable ride… some less so than others. Never noticed the vibrations in any of mine to be too awful, but maybe it’s just because I didn’t hear it over all the road noise 🙂
I must admit a bit of nostalgic bias towards these rigs (can you tell?). Personally, I still miss driving with my left foot up on the wheelwell, wing windows and floor vents open – an experience I’d guess is unique to these rigs.
But I don’t miss ripping off door panels for the seemingly endless cycle of maintenance on the window mechanisms. I never had hinge problems, but damned if a driver’s side window crank would work for more than six months without attention. Broken-off plastic upper console mounts (for the upper two of the six screws involved in removing the doghouse) were also a scurge. And removing fenders may as well have required divine intervention.
Call me crazy – but even when given the choice between driving a G-van and an equivalent pickup of the day, I usually picked the van. Same went for the short time when it was between a ’94 G20 or ’01 B200 (which I’d only pick for long trips – not for comfort, but because the 318 got better mileage than the 350).
But then, I do recall my first time in one, a 3/4 ton, at the ripe young age of nine. I thought it rode like a buckboard – and I was torn over whether or not that was a good thing.
Nice capture Keith.
I don’t know if they use road salt in Minnesota, if so, I am quite impressed to see this one still on the road. Unless this one was bought more recently in another salt-free state perhaps. The wheels and hub caps look original too. I too, really liked this particular newer grille design. These were ubiquitous in the early 90s, especially in white it seemed.
One of the many things I like about these vans is that the grille is identical to the ones that came on the full-size pickups. The G-van & C/K trucks literally shared the same grille since 1978. Pretty cool.
Around here, these are still very common; probably more so than the newer generation. Despite any shortcomings, they do seem to be rather long-lived.
That looks like highway 95 in Cambridge. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that van before. It looks good, considering it has probably had a hard life.
Good post, I never really noticed how few of these I see anymore. They really did used to be everywhere. I never drove one but in the 90’s these were just as common on the road as the K-car around here.
Not really a classic in my book. There are still plenty of work vans out and about because they still make and sell them. Their basic form has not changed and probably never will.
Nice find and nice color. Most of these work vans (including mine) were frost white. The front suspension setup appears identical to that of the pickup: I would not be surprised if the control arms, tie rods, & other suspension components shared the same part numbers.
As rattly and tinny as these things are, the drivetrains were robust enough to keep them on the road a long time. TBI-equipped units will run 300K if given semi-adequate maintenance. Some had the TH350; some had the 700R4; and quite a few actually still had the TH400.
A handful had stick-shifts. I own a 3-on-tree model, but the shifter moved to the floor in ’82 and I’ve seen two of those in my life: one at the Birmingham, AL Pull-a-Part, and the other at a city auction a few years ago: I stopped bidding at $800 but wish I had kept on…. I’ve never seen a 4-speed or 454 van but some of those were evidently built…according to some of the owner’s manuals I’ve collected over the years.
Another former white G-van owner here… my last one was a ’94 in Polar White, not surprisingly nicknamed the Polar Bear. Its TBI 350 was just plain bulletproof, always did its thing, never complained. That van also had the honor of being the only 4L60E-equipped vehicle I’ve ever owned which never gave me tranny problems or concerns of any kind. Started with 102K, sold at 130K. Best $400 work van/tow rig I could have asked for! (It ran for several years alongside the C1500 I featured last week… the “original two” of my fleet.)
As for different drivetrain options, I’ve seen a few. There’ve been a handful of 3-in-the-tree vans in the yards over the years, but very few. Most that I see were autos. Never seen one with a floor shifter, but heard stories – always wondered what that would look like.
The vast majority seemed to have 350s. Some got 305s or the 4.3 V6 (owned one of each, both of which were on their last leg when bought, and both of which were replaced by garden variety 350s). I know the straight six was available, and perhaps common in the ’70s, but I hardly ever see them.
6.5 diesels were available later on; perhaps a half dozen of those have crossed my path, never owned one. Only ever seen ONE that shipped with a 6.2… it was an early ’80s, name-brand conversion, red with silver accents. Any hopes of its salvation had ended as soon as they forked it through the windshield. I understand that motor went into a plow truck shortly after.
I’ve seen maybe two or three with small block 400s. I’ve also seen about the same number with 454s, all of which were early ’90s vintage. Nearly bought one – a G30 LWB – but somebody returned with cash before I could. 454s were much more common in the cutaways (cube vans, motorhomes, etc). There were even the G30HD variants late in the run, and I can’t recall ever seeing one of those that didn’t have a big block.
Wildest one I’ve ever seen? An older gentleman who sold me some Poncho parts years back showed me his van, a G10 into which he’d swapped a 455. 🙂
Another nice write up, Keith.
My Dad had a ’73 G10 short wheelbase van; he rolled up 225K before moving on. It was pretty reliable though he did have the timing gear give up at 165K. After getting it towed home he replaced the gear and chain and added another 60K. After my Dad sold it, I saw it around town for a few years, someone added a plastic visor and wheel well flares, but never painted them to match. The last time I saw the van, it had some body damage and one of the flares was shattered. It was obviously about done and close to 30 years old.
Yeah, those doors seemed to have a very crude feel, a ’95 at work felt the same way.
I don’t care how much longer my Dad has the Astro, these vans will always remind me of him. It served him well for work and at home, and countless fishing trips for 24 years. It was his first van.
My Dad has always had a van as well as a few cars at any given time. He drove an ’83 G20 van (purchased new) until 1998. He had raced Formula Ford from 1983 until 1989 (the van towed his trailer 200 miles each weekend) and ran his own business (An auto repair shop) from 89 until I was born in 1995. He sold the G20 because there was no backseat for me and rust had taken over after 15 years in Chicago. It had right around 300k miles on it and he sold it for $1075. He replaced it with an 88 Ford Club Wagon that was much less reliable than the Chevy, but somehow still made it to 275k miles and was donated to charity for the tax write off. The ford was replaced by a 95 GMC Vandura purchased from the Milwaukee police dept. with 85k miles. The GMC was just as reliable as the G20 but rusted out (as in unsafe to drive) by 100k. My dad’s current van is a 96 Ford Club wagon that he bought in 2010. I recently asked my Dad if he had a favorite car in his past (he has owned around 30 cars in his life so far) , and he quickly said “the 83 Chevy van”.