This is a shot I’ve been hoping to take for a long time. How many times have we seen (or shown) little old single cab pickups next to a great big giant high-riding MegaCab 4×4? How about the reverse? Well, the old Dodge isn’t exactly 4×4 or jacked up, and only has a short bed, but double cab pickups of this vintage were never common then, much less so now. And in front of it is an increasingly rare sight too, an almost new single cab short bed pickup. Two pickup rarities, in a role reversal.
Here’s the frontal view. Who would have thought that seeing a short-short new pickup would become semi-noteworthy? They’ve been pretty uncommon since quite a while now. There was a bit of a revival with the step-side type shorties in the 70s, as a fad. And I wonder if these short bed trucks are still popular on the Navajo Reservation? When we drove through there back in the eighties, short Chevy pickups seemed to be the overwhelming vehicle of choice, often with four abreast on the bench seat. Probably not anymore.
Based on the grille, this is either a ’70 or ’71, which was the last year of this generation. Now some of you may dispute my claim that this was the first regular production double cab from the Big Three (in 1962), since one can find double cab Fords and Chevies from this era too, but they were not really “regular production” items. As best as I know, the Ford and Chevies were built either off the regular line, or even by an outside firm. The Dodge was built right along with the regular cab, and was shown in the brochures and ads. Surprisingly, I can’t find a single Dodge pickup brochure of this vintage on line. Uh oh; you’ll just have to take my word on it, despite my slipping memory.
This one has turned into an OG. My A100 van was always an ODGE.
In 1963 or 1964, some neighbors down the block bought one of these, but it was 4×4 with the full size bed, and a giant slide-in cab-over camper, very much like this one. They took off for the whole summer, to tour the West. I was jealous as hell, not to be seeing the world from that penthouse. Another Not-Niedermeyermobile.
Back then, that double cab Dodge looked enormous, and it was the only pickup anywhere in our neighborhood; in today’s world, this truck doesn’t look the slightest bit big. The world really must be getting smaller.
More details on this generation Dodge truck here:
Truckstop Classic: 1967 Dodge D-200 Camper Special – We’re Number Three, So We Try Harder, Dude!
I’ve always liked the 1970 and 71 Dodge pickup truck. I find it more attractive than anything made today.
I liked my modified one quite a bit too.
I drove a 60s Dodge double cab with 6 cyl. once a week on my summer job in 74. That was without a doubt the slowest vehicle I’ve ever driven. Driving something like that through a hilly area (in this case NW New Jersey), one learns to time lights so as not to have to come to a stop and keep the momentum going.
International pickups of this era had production crew cabs too. I think that started sometime during the 60s. Volkswagen had a crew cab too, but it was in another class.
International offered a 3dr crew cab called the Travelette in the 50’s on the A series trucks introduced in 57. Went along with and shared the rear door with the 3dr Travelall. One of the reasons they may have went with 3drs is the gas tank of all things. The fuel fill in the regular pickups was on the driver’s side rear cab corner. They apparently used the same tank as the Travelall and Travelette had their fuel fill in the middle where the 4th door would have gone.
Note the ~5′ bed common on the modern “1/2 ton” crew cab.
The C series introduced in 1961 had 4 doors on the Travelette and Travelall.
Interesting to see one of these trucks still on the road and an earlier model was used in the movie “National Lampoon’s Christmas vacations” http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_28854-Dodge-D-200-1963.html
And there some other variants who was made in Argentina who was not sold here. http://www.cocheargentino.com.ar/d/dodge_pick_up.htm
International had a four door truck that was kinda common if I remember.
Sometimes when the roots show, the results are more memorable. I’ve always liked that doublemint version of the side windows on those 4-door Dodges. Looks a bit like the wiper sweep on a fifties car. The lack of a specialized stamping, in this case, gives a bit of cache for the owner, as he knew he had a relatively rare vehicle, one that the manufacturer didn’t imagine producing enough examples to amortize the cost of another die.
Yep, I was going to point that out. But you beat me to it. Gives the truck “check out what I welded together in the garage over the weekend” look to it. But it has character, no committee angsted over focus group styling studies to build that bad boy. More like guy in charge of trucks decided to fill the 4 door pickup niche, ran down to the tool & die boys and said “how quickly and cheaply can you build me one of these?”
IIRC, crew cabs had been produced for ’61 by an outside firm, then Dodge took over in ’62…maybe they just “borrowed” the el-cheapo-looking design from whoever had done the originals.
Which reminds me of the Russian Uaz 469. I love Russian technology on the cheap, almost French in its ingenuity. But it’s clever thinking, thinking ahead. Doors in two parts, same door lower, same door upper, but mirrored on the rear door. Just placed inside out. Lovely!
Checker did too, with the standard wheelbase sedans, the wagons, and the Aerobuses.
…”almost French in its ingenuity”…
Citroën HY pickup truck with a double cab. Lots of photos here, after scrolling down a bit:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36583&page=23
It’s too bad such vehicles weren’t allowed here in the USA. Such rugged vehicles would work quite well in some unforgiving environments.
These are wonderful trucks , I remember them well , many were literally Crew rigs and so had zero options and Slant 6 engines .
A buddy of mine had a ’63 that was powder blue with the Slant 6 and four speed box , it wound up in some Movie about alien abductions , a few years later the cab mounts rusted away so it was cut up to make a nice Heavy Duty trailer .
This series of Dodge Trucks always had cab mount rust out problems from new as they were recessed into the floor where dirt , sand , salt , water , anything automatically collected , more’s the pity .
My Brother still has a 1977 3/4 ton Dodge crewcab we picked up from a CalTrans auction decades ago , he wants to put a Diesel engine in it although the 360 gasser CalTrans thoughtfully rebuilt just before salvaging it , still runs perfectly .
Those VW double cabs were also line built in Hanover , from 1961 onwards they like all VW Bus series , were One Ton rated .
Nice to see this Survivor still out and about .
-Nate
That movie was Fire in the Sky.
Thanx Roger ! .
The bed still lives on hauling Motocyles and scrap metal , I wasn’t happy when Jason told me he was cutting it up but the cab had detached from the frame , making it truly junk .
-Nate
My town has 2 power wagon brush fire trucks of this era
The regular cab, short bed (Or “short-wide” as it’s known here in OK at least; which I assume the term is a remnant of distinguishing them from step-sides) body-style, is pretty much THE go to set up for a lot of young men’s first vehicle.
You can see why when you drive past the HS parking lot and see dozens of “short wide’s” customized in dozens of different ways. Lowest possible weight, V8, cheap to buy, and cheap to customize? They’re modern day hot rods, plus they can still help their dad do actual work with them.
Pretty much all the HS pickups I’ve seen here in MN are extended cabs, except for the buddy of mine who occasionally drove his late father’s ’63 GMC Fenderside shortbed on nice days. And that had the GMC 305 V6.
I’m assuming in MN a lot of them are 4wd? As soon as they start getting into “muddin'” or “rolling coal” style trucks, the majority are 4×4 crew cabs, but the hot rodded short wides are mostly 2wd reg cab GM trucks from the 90’s and 00’s.
This is completely speculation, but I would wager a bet short bed, reg cab 4×4 is probably one of the rarest configurations in full sized trucks.
Yeah, in MN 4×4 has been a prerequisite for pickups regardless of whether it’ll ever be used. None of them are what I would call “coal rollers,” but more than a few have been modified for mudding.
And a RCSB 4×4 would be slightly more common config around here than a RCSB 4×2, but either one is rare bordering on nonexistent.
And honestly, I can’t think of a reason most guys here in the wide-open spaces of the Midwest would have a RCSB, 4×4 or otherwise.
Yesterday I saw a quite late model Tundra short-bed single cab, presumably 4wd (or a PreRunner style 4WD lookalike) with TRD Off Road stickers. It looked factory but it’s certainly the only one I’ve ever seen like that. Last year at a campground I saw a late model short bed single cab 4WD F150. Those are a bit more common, but usually just white work trucks. This one was a cheerful red – as was the Tundra.
I was watching Dallas Car Sharks and the mother used short wide to describe a chevy fleet side, can’t say I’ve heard the term before that.
Yep. What’s weirder is I’ve never heard anyone use the term for a Ford or Dodge either. I don’t know if it’s just because the older GM trucks seem to comprise at least 75% of all 70’s-90’s trucks on the road here, or what.
It depends. I drove a 1995 F150 Flareside in High School.
It was a regular cab stepside, with the 300 I6. It certainly wasn’t a hod rod!
I bought it because the price was right. I think this is the case with most High Schoolers, so what they get is based on the region.
Out here in Wyoming, most of the trucks at high schools are regular cabs. A lot of farmers bought them, and passed them down.
Extended cabs are nicer, but are just now getting to the point where a High Schooler could afford one.
I like the looks of the International crew cab windows better. The Dodge looks strange . The problem was , Dodge didn’t have a Travelall like vehicle like International did to borrow doors and windows off of. Dodge had that Power Wagon from the 50s but it was discontinued for the 60s. So they had to piece a rear side door window from the front, without a vent window. Too me , that looks strange.
I used to like crew cab pickup trucks. But these days, they seem to be the only body options available for pickup trucks. Crew cabs are fine if you have a family of 4 to 6 people and you need a ute to carry paint and building materiel to a site. But what if you only need a two door pickup truck and a longer bed to carry a slide-on camper? Then what?
Regular cabs are certainly still available…the only issue is that not many dealers will stock them, since they’re not exactly hot sellers. If you want a new one, you pretty much have to order it from the factory. Which, IMO, is not a bad thing anyway. Were I to buy a brand-new vehicle, I might as well have it exactly as I want it.
I hope a Sweptline Dodge doesn’t come up for sale this week, because I’ve been digging the heck out of these trucks lately, and that’s when impulse purchases tend to happen.
I’m probably going to write up some junkyard versions of these pretty soon…good timing! 🙂
Buying a single cab is the only way to get a new GM pickup with crank windows. I have ridden in a 2006 and 2008 F-150 where one had powered windows and one did not. In the truck without powered windows the suicide doors had fixed glass. Do not know how GM used to do it. Anyone else notice the lower half of the GMC’s bumper is missing?
The Dodge is lovely looking, but is it a 150, 250, or 350? The Dodge has shiny new license plates so I wonder if it was recently resurrected. Is that Orange Moss on the Dodge’s tailgate?
How about a D-200? From the wheels, it’s almost certainly a 3/4 ton version.
Digging deep into the 2015 F-150 specs reveals that a barebones XL still comes standard with crank windows up front and fixed SuperCab or crank SuperCrew windows. I would’ve assumed that if you get a bigger-than-regular cab XL you automatically get power windows all around.
We just took delivery of a handful of 2015 F-150s at work. The crew cabs have the optional power windows; like you, I would have thought power windows would have been as much a part of the vehicle as the paint.
I imagine Ford is acutely aware of the stinginess of some fleet and commercial buyers and is not going to take the chance that one of them might say, “No way am I signing off on some luxury truck for these crews.”
I had a job in the 1970s filling up/checking oil and washing crew rigs (crummies) at the large tree farm my dad worked for. Those loggers and road maintenance crew drove those trucks HARD! It was cool getting to drive a bunch of different rigs though.
there are still a lot of regular cab trucks in Canada, lots of crew cabs too, but regular cabs sell even outside of commercial fleets. I have a 2009 silverado regular cab 2wd longbow in the LT trim package. it has the 5.3 v8, power windows, locks etc and a cd mp3 stereo but is otherwise a nice basic truck to do truck things with.
We use to buy the lightest duty truck and then put the largest camper on it. Now it seems we buy the heavy duty truck and hardly load it up.
Some literal role reversal here too. I remember, at least in the ’80s, never seeing a full size crew cab truck doing mall duty. Their sheer inconvenient length meant they were used mostly by… crews. Big families who needed to haul used Suburbans. But regular cab trucks were becoming popular daily drivers, especially of course the minitruck scene.
That brings up memories for me, these D-Series Dodges were a part of the Israeli street scene in the 60s-80s – they were assembled by Automotive Industries Ltd in Nazareth of all places…
A buddy had a ’65 Chevy short wide bed truck in high school in Oklahoma. 6 cyl/3 tree. It was fun to drive. I’d love to have one now. I see two different new Chevy SBRC pickups around here on Bainbridge Island. One is red with a red canopy. That’s a sharp truck.
Chevy/GMC regular cabs have always looked best IMO, mostly because they never lengthened the cab so that the RCLB and EC/CC models were all on the same wheelbase. Saves money on production costs, yes, but ends up making the cab look disproportionately large.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these before. I’m sure I would have done a double take on that 4 door treatment. I kinda like it…. That is some de-luxe camper there!
Here ya go.
Okay, so we know the original model has to be a 200 if the 160″ WB is 300-only. Geez, that thing’s pretty long, and that was before Dodge went to a longer WB long bed in ’66. Now a SuperCab 8′ bed F-150 has a longer WB than that one-ton.
Check out the ’63 full truck line brochure:
http://www.oldcarbrochures.org/NA/ChryslerTrucksVans/1963_Trucks_and_Vans/1963_Dodge_Truck_Brochure
Awesome website! I love Old Car Brochure Project.
Did some checking – Ford’s first factory crew-cabs launched in mid ’65, and GM didn’t catalog a factory crew-cab until ’73. Ford had the same filler-type B-pillar as the Dodge Sweptlines, and kept that until the seventh-gen F-Series rolled out in 1980. Dodge went to a straight b-pillar design – which International had from the beginning – with the ’72 models.
Aside from folks like Paul’s neighbors, most crew-cab buyers back then were fleet or business buyers – utilities, oilfield firms, and the military. GM was never the player back then that Ford and especially Dodge were in those markets. With the antitrust cops on their backs back then, you can understand why they’d be content to leave that relatively small market to others.
And you’re right, I can’t think of the last time I saw a full size, single cab short bed on the streets.
I still contend that the crew cabs Ford started selling in 1965 weren’t true “regular production” units, but built off the line. That 1970-1971 Dodge crew cab ad Roger linked to in the comments here supports my contention. It says “and it provides it at an economical price, because Dodge Crew Cabs are factory production models, not semi-custom jobs.
Dodge was the only one of the big Three at the time that was building crew cabs on the regular line, and advertising them. The Ford Crew cabs of that vintage were extremely rare, and almost always seen on bigger utility trucks, like F350s and up.
One could get them as an F250, and I knew someone that had one, but it was literally just about the only one I’ve ever seen as an obvious civilian Ford Crew Cab of the 1965 – 1970s vintage. Dodges were relatively common.
The really odd thing is that Dodge continued to offer a production Crew Cab on the next generation D-Series, but pulled the plug on it midway through that generation, just about the time crew cabs really started to take off. You will not find a Crew Cab with the Cummins of the 1972 – 1993 generation. It ended just about the time the Cummins was first offered.
I really love old pickups, Ford, Chevy, Dodge, International, Studebaker, and a few others. But I just don’t care for crew cabs or stended cabs. I prefer standard cab short beds, but long beds are ok too. Someone wrote in a post about another old standard cab pickup that they were mostly used for utility purposes today, like govt. and construction companies. I see it as exactly opposite. To me the crew cab and stended cabs are the utility trucks. The only reason I can see for the existence of 4 door vehicles is for use as a taxicab, whether commercial or to haul a family around in. Yet 99% of the crew cab trucks I see are empty except for the driver. These behemoths can carry 6 people. They burn a ridiculous amount of gas. They are hard to park, they do not fit in a garage, and IMO anyway, they are just plain ugly.
99% (and yes, that’s an exaggeration) of full-size sedans in the 60s, 70s, etc. were empty except for the driver, and often burned just as much gas if not more than a modern pickup, and less efficiently too. “Hard to park” is relative, “do not fit in a garage” is dependent on garage size, and the last is subjective (but I wouldn’t fault anyone for holding an opinion).
Nice find. Repeat C-pillar makes the greenhouse look architectural, if that makes sense.
“This one has turned into an OG.”
And OG is an acronym for Original Gangster.
I remember seeing these rarely as a kid. That window treatment always stood out. Always accompanying a work crew of some kind.
I note how the publicity photo is taken from an angle where the mirror obscures the B pillar.
Knew a sailor who had the four door dodge and a home handyman who had the four door international. Between the two I don’t have a favorite but even with a six up front I don’t think either can pass a gas station. I was throwing my money at old VW beetles while they were throwing theirs at Exxon.
What I really want to know is whether there are any of those Del Ray high-top campers still extant. Looks like the bridge of a yacht up there.
Turns about as quick as one too…
Selling at a Chevy dealership (300+ vehicles retail & fleet; we’ve sold a few single cab short beds (shorts are 6-1/2 feet long, half ton only if single cab). 90% are white in base trim, 1WT (Ford equivalent is XL). The rest are a 2WT, a chromed base model. Since the ’14’s arrived in April 2013, I have never seen a single cab long bed (8 foot bed, half or three-quarter ton) in anything but white and 1WT trim. You cannot get a single cab in anything more than LT trim (Ford XLT), and I’ve yet to see one of those. Power windows are standard across the line-up, save for the single cab 1WT models. Single cabs are not available in upper level Chevy LTZ or Ford Lariat.
That is really sad. I may buy a new Chevy 1WT V6 late next year. I suspect it won’t be long until these are only available through fleet sales. Again, I just don’t get the 4 door thing, cars or trucks.
If you ever have kids (and the now-obligatory massive carseats that go with them), you will instantly ‘get’ the 4 door thing. It’s why I now own a F350 crew cab (which replaced my 1979 K20 regular cab long box). The back seat really comes in handy for hauling all of my tools when the 8′ box on the back is completely filled with you-name-it (eg children’s playset that was a Craigslist freebe).
I would call this one a ’70 model based on the tailgate design. The ’71 models had an updated version with the ‘DODGE’ name on the lower right corner.
I used to see these reasonably often in my growing up years in Alaska. I think they served a market that needed a back seat, a pickup bed, and four wheel drive. There were not near as many options in that market then as there are today. We had one similar to this on the used car lot where I was employed one time. It was an interesting drive, but not really much different than any 3/4 truck of the day, just a tad longer.
The single cab, short bed body style is still somewhat popular today here in Central Texas. Nothing like the modern crew cab versions, but I still see many of them. As many others have commented, I do not see the attraction of the modern crew cabs. I would rather have a car, except there are few if any six passenger cars left. Or at least a SUV. Then you don’t have to worry about anyone stealing anything out of the bed. Plus, a 5.5 foot bed seems quite useless to me.
Another thing worth noting from the photos. That old 3/4 ton Dodge sits lower to the ground than that late model 1/2 ton GMC. That is another one of those modern things that I do not understand. If you need a lot of ground clearance that is fine, but most modern trucks never go off the paved road.
I know GM’s first ‘factory’ crew cab came out in ’73, I think Ford’s may have been ’67. I still see a few new/late model reg. cab short beds in Southern California, the majority being Chevy/GMC.
As for the aftermarket ’67-’72 GM crewcabs, it seems there were two ways those were done. Some I have seen had 3 door cabs, using the right rear side door off a Suburban (they only had 3 doors in those days). The 4 door cab versions simply used another set of cab doors, which resulted in a rather odd triangular ‘B’ pillar.
I know that in this generation international also offered a 6 door pickup of three different bed lengths. Also the custom four door Chevrolet pickup of this generation could be had with 3 gas tanks and a 6 foot 7.5 foot and 9 foot bed. Makes this Dodge look like finely sculpted German machinery. There’s a chevy dealer in Dallas that sells regular short wide 4×4 trucks by the actual truckload $19,995 otd
Whoa whoa whoa…a 6-door IH pickup? I’d like to see that.
For over a decade , Adlen Brothers Auto Salvage in Sun Valley , Ca. had a ’59 Ford F-100 ” Airporter ” ~ it had four regular pickup doors on each side with bench seats .
240 (?) i6 engine , no rust , almost no dents , I wanted to save it (they sold me plenty of other odd balls rigs back then) but where the heck to park it ? and what to do with it ? .
Gone now , prolly crushed for scrap in one of their periodic cleansings of old unwanted vehicles .
-Nate
No IH never offered a 6 door pickup from the factory. Stageways and some other mfgs used to to stretch Travelalls. I supposed they could have done some pickups back in the day too, but I’ve never seen one and I’ve seen a fair number of the stretched Travelalls. Their construction is very modular so they are easy to stretch, just keep popping in “B” pillars, back door sills and headers.
I thought so. I’ve seen a similar thing done with other brands. And then there was the (il)logical conclusion…
Using the same doors as the regular truck front and back certainly gives some distinctive window profiles, and a very fat pillar for the rear passengers to look at.
For what it is worth, you hardly ever see anything but a crew cab pick ups here (Austria). I hasten to add that pickups were and are not popular in the EU as in the US, and those who use them are far more in the OLD US mold, that is, tradesmen and similar, who find it useful to carry employees during the week and family during the W/E. To judge from what I remember from Israel, the same applies there. Big US pick ups are bought more for status and follow US trends due to fashion, not necessarily because crew cabs are needed (and they are few and far behind due to their huge purchase and keep-up costs).
C.C. Effect ! .
We pulled in to some bare bones Motel in Sutherlin Oregon last night and there in the back of the parking lot , sits a rust free , clean old 1979 (might be 1980) Dodge D100 short bed fleet side 4X4 , ex Cal Trans rig , now glossy black and sporting Colorado plates so whom ever owns it , knows it’s a special truck and uses it .
-Nate
The whole truck brochure for ’71 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.519862728026508.130769.118748348137950&type=3
I’ve always liked car and truck brochures of the 1970s and early 80s.
’69 D-200 with that slide-in camper is truly a “land yacht”. It looks like a houseboat.
I’ve owned two rigs like that late model Jimmy, a ’71 C-10 with the all coil suspension (long travel was great for dirt roads) and a ’93 with the same kind of fiberglass cap. GM short bed regular cab 2WD are truly great looking trucks. The proportions just look “right”. Both of mine were low trim “fleet” models. I did factory order the ’93 with a few luxuries, cloth seat, A/C, A/T, AM-FM-Cassette, posi, rear bumper and spare tire. Yes, those last two were not standard.