Perusing the Cohort these past few days, I couldn’t help but notice that two of the Bog Three extended body gen1 vans were represented. And tonight, the third one joined the party, this Chevy 108 van shot by Curtis Perry.. So let’s take a look at what America’s perpetual need for growth resulted in.
As you all know, in 1961 the first domestic compact vans arrived to do battle with the VW Transporter/bus. That was the Ford Econoline and Chevy Corvan/Greenbrier, both of which were only a bit bigger than than the VW. The Chevy van succeeded the Corvan, still in short format, and the Dodge A100 joined the party.
But after Ford extended the rear end of the Econoline in 1964, Chevy and Dodge fired back with something even better: an extended body with an actual extended wheelbase!
The 1967 A108 now had a 108″ wheelbase, and it quickly became popular for various camper conversions. This one was shot by William Rubano.
Although the new LA 318 was optional, this one is obviously slant six powered. The big advantage of these van was that they were their own garages, when it came to working on the engines. I put that to good use in my own A100.
The A108 had better weight distribution as well as a better ride than its short wheelbase brother.
The revised Chevy Van with an available long version (108″ wb) also arrived in 1967. And it too now offered V8 power, everything from the 283 to even a 350 in its last year (1970). And Chevy offered something else starting in 1968: a column-shifted four speed. Now that’s a new one to me, and I can’t help but wonder why, and how many were sold. But there it is, right in the brochure.
We’ve covered these vans before, but I always manage to learn something new. A column-shifted four-speed in the Chevy vans? With a 350? That should scoot, once the rear wheels hook up.
The only vehicle I ever drove with a column shifted 4 speed was a early 1960s? Alfa sedan. It was a parts chaser at a foreign car garage. As I recall it had a very small tach. It would lean but stick in the corners.
I would have purchased it except for my lack of funds and OneA draft status.
For many years a neighbour had this style of Chevy Van with a column shift 4 speed. His was a six though. It was far from new when he owned it and he had lots of trouble with shift linkage, so it may not have been original, but his was a Saginaw unit.
I’ve never seen a V-8 of any type in one of these that I can recall, I’ll bet that 350 version was a handful.
You’re probably right in it being a Saginaw and not a T-10. I read that somewhere, but that doesn’t make it true. I’ve changed the text.
It’s fun to see how the Big Three really started to sell ‘lifestyles’ in their marketing in the 60s. Extended vans like these being genuine new choices for families that would have defaulted to standard full sized wagons in the past.
I love the comparison – I don’t recall seeing that many of the long ones out and about. Looking at these three together, the Dodge seems to be so crudely styled compared to the others, which tried to soften their lines a bit.
And was there ever a single Dodge A series van painted some other color? It seems like every one of these I have ever seen was this light green.
Mine was bright orange!
It had an oddball drive train: slant six mated to the big torqueflight and short wheel base.
Loved that van.
My grandmother and her husband had a camper conversion A100. White and dull grey beige body.
Same as the attached photo, but short wheelbase and without the popup roof.
Dad’s was a Sportsman A-108 (LWB) in that same two tone. Mine was a white A-100 cargo. Both had the LA V-8 and 727 Torqueflite.
Mine started out as pale blue and white, slant 6/Torqueflite, but I “upgraded” it to Petty Blue/Classic Corvette White, and 340 c.i./Torqueflite! 🙂
Ford offered a column shifted 4 spd option in the 63 and 64 Econolines. It was the same light duty British sourced Dagenham unit also used Falcon,Fairlane and early Mustangs.(144 & 170 six engine only). I have seen one in the car collection of my brothers well heeled employer. My brother lathe turned new bushings to rebuild the rare steering column.
The Dagenham was also available with the 200 six.
It really should’ve been included in the early Futura package, with a floor shift to avoid that car’s buckets and console looking as strangely pointless as they did because of the column shift.
I find it interesting that decades later, Ford and Chevy still took the same approach to extending their vans. Both the G-Vans and the Express had extended wheelbases, arguably a better solution than Ford’s. The E-Series used the lop-off the back and tack-on a section method until the bitter end.
I’ve driven a few four-on-the-tree cars in my life. Aside from Peugeot, no one – not even Mercedes – ever got the linkage right. They’d always lock up if the driver tried speed-shifting from second to third, through the gate change, and one had to pop the hood and fiddle around at the base of the steering column to free up the works. Real fun on a rainy day!
I had a Citroen DS20 with five on the tree. Never missed a shift, and never had to adjust it – but the engine layout meant that the linkage was actually much simpler than a floor shift.
I never knew these vans were available with a four-speed column shifted manual – quite a rare feature on an American vehicle, though much more common in Europe with Peugeot and other makes. I haven’t seen any of these vans on the road in years other than a bright green Econoline owned by the Steam Whistle Brewery here in Toronto. Loved the shots of the Chevy Van, by the way – time exposures are always cool.
I wonder why Ford and Dodge regressed in their 70’s and later extended body vans by not extending the wheelbase along with the bodies…
GM extended the body and wheelbase in the final years of their 1970-early 90’s van platform.
Was driving experience any better by having the rear axle moved further back…compared to adding extra body length without moving the axle.
Lots better for towing with the extended wheelbase and less sensitive to cross winds as a bonus. The trade off was a larger tuning radius.
These days many brands offer you a choice:
-short wheelbase, short rear overhang
-long wheelbase, short rear overhang
-long wheelbase, long rear overhang
Another lesson, thanx Paul .
-Nate
Had a column-shifted 5 speed on my ’74 Citroen DS Pallas. It was a Borg-Warner unit, and my right arm got quite a workout.
There’s a great scene in The Quiller Memorandum where George Segal is trying to ditch his handler in 60s Berlin, and the handler has a Mercedes (220 IIRC) cabriolet with a column shift, which he effortlessly slaps up and down as they move on and off the freeway.
Also, never knew Chevy made an extended WB version of their Gen 1 van. Learn something new everyday.
Interesting article on the LWB vans. I think the Dodge version looks better balanced of all the three.
On the Chevy Van, it was interesting to see the option of a column-mounted four-speed transmission. What kind was it?
Was it a close-ratio w/o OD, or a standard with OD or with granny-low?
From the Chevy van brochure link, I noted the following:
-Van uses I-beam front suspension with leaf instead of IFS with coil offered on CS/CE 10 & 20 pickups;
-Front suspension capacities are similar to the pickups, but rear suspension differs, i.e,
GS/GE 10 = 2400 lbs; CS/CE 10 pickups = 3500 lbs.
GS/GE 20 = 3600 lbs; CS/CE 20 pickup = 5200 lbs.
-Wheel/Tires: Model 10 vans used 14″; Model 20 vans used 15″. Pickup versions used 15″ and 16″ respectively for models 10 and 20.
Is the GS/GE 10 is a half-ton and GS/GE 20 is 3/4-ton capacity? The model designation suggests they are but the specs capacities suggests the 20 model is a 1/2 ton and model 10 is a light duty 1/2 ton.
“Tonnage” may have had a legal definition pre-WWII. By the time of these vans the term meant whatever the marketers said. This was even before emissions certification weight categories changed things.
1969 GVWR
GS/GE10 = 3900-5000lb CS/CE10 = 4400-5000lb
GS/GE20 = 5200-6200lb CS/CE20 = 6200-7500lb
When it came to wheels/tires it appears that the pickups were equipped with a substantial margin for overloading, while the vans were more like contemporary passenger cars, right at the limit. Wasn’t there an article here on CC a while back concerning the same issue with the new Nissan/Chevy small cargo vans?
The “1/2 ton” numbers are similar, “3/4 ton” not.
My 3 speed tree shifter on my ’70 C10 would sometimes jam and require an under hood free up once in a while. I drove a beat ’64 3 speed Chevy van a few times when I was 16 working for a pizza place, it once got stuck in second, the owner un jammed it by beating on the shifter handle for a couple of minutes (yelling at me the whole time) and it finally broke free. Never heard of a GM 4 speed column trans in a Chevy van, of course I heard it here first on CC. I eventually installed a used Saginaw 4 speed and Hurst floor shifter in the pickup, turns out the transmission needed rebuilding, was making a lot of noise, but once overhauled it worked well, even towing a 32ft and 29ft 5th wheel trailer from Washington to SoCal.
Made all the difference when towing, would have been a big help to these vans. Wonder why they weren’t more common, maybe the linkage was too troublesome, floor shifter probably not possible with the engine between the seats configuration. Would have really helped a lot, especially on 6 cyl versions.
Shift linkage on my ’71 C10 gave the same trouble.
Can’t speak to a four speed equipped model but back in 1974 I worked for an auto parts business that had a ’71 Chevy parts delivery van with a 350 – 4 Bbl. engine and a three speed column shifted transmission. Yes, scoot it did! Even fully loaded it would haul but empty it was a beast. I specifically recall shutting down a 350 C.I. engine equipped ’69 Pontiac Lemans, in a significant way, via a little stop light competition.
My father had a ’66 4 cylinder Chevyvan with that column shifted 4 speed, loved riding in it when I was a pup. Good times.
I never knew a column-shifted 4-speed manual transmission vehicle EXISTED until I had to drive my dad’s ’63 M-B 220 for a few months.
I’m even more surprised to find out there was a domestic vehicle with four-on-the-tree.