Conventional front-engine pickup truck design is, once you distill it down, pretty basic. A low, enclosed box in the front for the engine, a taller, enclosed box with windows, ideally, behind that for people to sit in and charge their phones, and then a long open box at the rear for all the stuff you want to haul. That’s pretty much how all of them work. But there’s two major variations of how that big box on the rear is built, and I have to admit, I’m not sure I really understand the point of one of these types.
You know the two types of beds I’m talking about? I’m sure you do, but just in case you’ve recently taken a blow to the temple with a 2×4, I’m delighted to cover them again. The two types are the now far-more common type of truck bed, with flat sides and wheel wells integrated into the bed, and the “stepside” type. where the bed is a rectangular box set between external fenders.
That style with separate fenders used to be the default style of pickup truck until the late 1950s, as a result of how most automotive body design and construction was handled. You can see this back to some of the earliest mass-produced pickup trucks, like the Ford TT:
See how the bed is just a rectangular box shoved in between the fenders? That was just the most straightforward way to adapt the Model T body to incorporate a load bed, and continued to be the most straightforward way as long as cars were designed with separate fenders.
Eventually, carmakers learned that you could have a notably wider load area and simplify the construction of the bed by integrating the fenders into the bed itself, making a truck bed with flat sides. The first production car to do this was Crosley, in the 1940s:
Crosley, of course, was a pretty niche maker, as their trucks were quite tiny, so I suppose we can also give credit to Chevrolet for popularizing the flat-sided truck on a more mainstream level with their Cameo Carrier:
The Cameo Carrier was interesting; this was a pretty novel departure from conventional pickup truck design, and Chevy leveraged their experience with fiberglass bodies from the Corvette to make these new, sleek, slab-sided trucks.
Ford noticed the success of Chevy’s flat-sided trucks, and introduced their all-steel Styleside trucks in 1957:
These trucks offered more room in the bed in front of and behind the wheel wells that intruded into the bed, and the wheel wells themselves could have 2x4s placed across them to allow for a wide area to slide sheets of plywood or other big, flat cargo.
In almost every way, this new way of building truck beds seemed better than the old external-fender way. And yet, somehow, carmakers still offered the older style, calling that flareside or stepside or fenderside or something like that.
Now, there may be some good reasons to offer this more archaic style, even when it really didn’t mesh with the look of more modern trucks: that step just forward of the fender could be pretty useful, and I suppose some people may just prefer the look. The taillights, which were generally not integrated into the bodywork in these sorts of designs, were also cheaper to replace.
But you still had a narrower bed, sometimes significantly. Ford was the last company to offer a bulging-fender stepside truck design, finally ending them after 2009.
So, I guess all of this is to ask, “what do we think about stepside trucks?” I love the way they look on old 1950s-era and earlier pickups, but I think as time goes on, they tend to look more and more forced. The step on the side is helpful, but is it worth the reduction of cargo room in the bed? Those areas fore and aft of the wheel wells can hold a lot of stuff.
So is it style? Is there something crucial I’m missing here? How did these last so long after they were so effectively replaced?
Let’s take a poll and discuss in the comments. I’m genuinely curious!
Okay. So for the record, I actually loathe the look of stepsides but considering im 4 martinis in at a family gathering, the third poll option was the most honest.
I had a Ford Lightning with a stepside. I didn’t mind it. I’m not sure what the Dodge SRT owners thought? They always had a better view of it than I did. That’s the most redneck thing I can say.
Saw a Ford just like that with a Steb Side bed just today.
Since many Commenters here like to say “people don’t use their truck” you would think step side would prove useful for the rare times a fictional truck owner actually uses their bed.
“Steb Side”…guessing you went with option three?
No, step sides hinder bed space. If you need access to the bed, stand on the bumper or tire.
I don’t think they work on modern design pickups, but I’m all about a Lil red express truck. Stepsides are not as practical, but with the right styling I like them.
Stepside is the Tevye of beds. It’s all about tradition. They look really good on regular cabs and extended cabs. The last modern one that looked fantastic to me was the 88 Silverado.
These were the sporty ones, destined for camping, fishing, and boating. The stepside works fine for those roles.
“If I were a step-side…”
😉 Yep. 🙂
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. It can add 50 years to an antiquated design.
That’s why the 86 Dodge Charger still sells in the used market.
I don’t know, they certainly can’t jump a ditch
TBH: I am surprised that Hollywood never used these to make a “Dukes of Hazzard” or “Knight Rider” type of show.
I like the little steps they’ve added to the HD trucks, as the beds on the modern bro dozers are so ridiculously high these days.
I like the “void” behind the wheel wells in the flat side beds, because it works great for the swing out tool boxes.
Ahead of the wheel well is a different story. I tend to throw a tarp in the bed and load it up with leaves, or fill it up with branches and pull the whole pile out as a unit (put a couple of bigger branches down in an X first and throw the rest on top – to unload, grab the two big pieces and it will usually all come out at once). In both cases, the wheel well makes it harder to pull out the load.
I’d love to see that volume replaced with storage bin, with lockable doors on the outside of the bed. Sort of a variation on the RamBox, but easier to access because it’s lower than that design’s flip-top door.
Cosmetically I like the step sides, but given modern highway speeds and aerodynamic considerations, I’m guessing they’re destined to the history books.
Step sides look cool on ’50s twucks. They look bloody stupid on anything made in the ’80s or later.
Don’t you mean “Bwoody”?
They are the mullet of the pickup truck world. Business in the front, a style party in the back. No other reason than some think they look cool.
Hmm… Like most BMW, Jeep, & Bro-truck drivers think their ride makes them look cool?
BMW has historically made some of the best driving cars on the planet. That people buy them sometimes for the wrong reasons does not negate that. Similar for Jeeps and their off-road ability. Bro-dozers? Well, I guess there just needs to be a universal symbol that the owner has a micropenis, because they certainly serve no other useful purpose.
Ram/Chevy/Ford have historically made some of the best performing, most capable trucks on the planet. That people buy them sometimes for the wrong reasons does not negate that.
They haven’t made very many factory bro-dozers. It takes a special application of stupidity to ruin a perfectly good truck.
No they do not give you a lot more space to put things, unless it is a bunch of smaller things. Either way the “biggest box” that fits is ~4′ wide. The big advantage to the step side besides the steps is that it is much easier to empty the box of bulk goods like gravel, dirt, bark or pellets.
Ford didn’t put the divots for 2x’s to haul a second tier until much much later than 1957. I’m pretty sure the Ranger was the first since it was less than 48″ between the wheel wells and is met for 2×6’s
Which is exactly why slabsides are better. The vast majority of loads are not single large rectangular boxes, they are collections of things – whether those things are pieces of gravel, a wide toolbox and mixed plumbing supplies or lumber, or a bunch of lawnmowers, weed whackers, and blowers. My early life experience in moving untold tons of peat moss bales, garden statues, soil and stone bags, patio blocks, garden plants and shrubs, bags of stone and soil, kitchen cabinets, fencing — in an IH and two F-150s — tells me that half of those loads would have required two trips in a stepside.
I can think of at least one place they are still better – or at least less wasted space – Slide in camper. practically all slide in campers have to, you know, slide in between the wheel wells, leaving these weird no-mans-land spaces and a goofy looking gap at the back. Stepside, it would slide in and fit snugly and aesthetically.
The two slide-in campers I am familar with had openings from the camper to utilize those spaces.
I always figured they were a holdover from the old design style, and that for a long time there were some people who preferred that look, even if it came at the expense of practicality. I like them for sport trucks, especially pre 90’s.
Why not have both? The exterior body work extends far lower than the bottom of the bed so you could both maximize cargo space, and have a step.
Isn’t the real difference between the types about just having a rectangle bed or one with the wheel arches in the way? I think like with trailers, always having the wheels besides the bed(narrower floor) or below the bed(high floor). To keep the bed rectangle for loading and unloading. Obviously having a larger truck bed with wheel arches in it, is less a problem for non commercial use. Where you mostly carry smaller items. Or use the space for a small toolbox or similar.
The Tundra stepside is among the worst vehicle designs in history. I don’t think we lambast Toyota enough for it, tbh.
I had to look this thing up. Sweet Christmas, that thing is ugly.
Wow. Those taillights…
Great. Now I cannot unsee it.
LOL at the Tundra Stepside!
It’s looks like they were going for PT Cruiser in the rear.
I hate seeing those Tundras, they burn the eyes. They also did some Tacomas like that 25 years ago, not as bad, but… the bed still has massive wheel wells intruding, so pointless.
Those step sides are awful. The step is still an insert ahead of the wheel! Foul looking truck.
The point is in the name – there’s a step at the front of the bed so that someone outside the bed can stand on it to help load something in while someone else is shoving from the back.
That photo isn’t of a TT but is instead of a T Roadster Pickup. The TT is considerably larger:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49337723757_338f7d379c_c.jpg
I agree. That’s a T. A good friend of mine had one fairly recently – we did the Woodward Dream cruise in it a few years ago.
I love the look of step side trucks, up to the ‘90’s. That picture of that new-for-‘80 Ford F150 Stepside would be the ultimate for me.
Stepside trucks lost their relevance in the 80s as smooth sides became the default. You can see this in the evolving names like sport side or flair side as they became more for looks,than function.
The trend to ever taller pickup beds does create a need for a step so adding a fold out step under the bed or a recessed step like the second generation Subaru BRAT is a good idea
My 68 C10 Stepside longbed had a 4×8 box where a sheet could lay flat. However, that is not where the box is superior. Unloading mulch, gravel whatever loose material, no wheel wells to bang the shovel into, and much easier to dig out the last wheel barrow load, instead of digging out behind the wheel well. Plus step for easier side access.
Functionally, a superior design. That also happens to look better.
A friend of mine prefers a stepside bed for gravel for all the reasons you’ve mentioned plus, with something as dense as gravel, the pickup’s weight limit will be reached before its volume limit anyway. I have to agree.
Chevy was the last to offer a longbed Stepside in 1987, so you weren’t alone in that application. They also were the first to move away from endlessly reusing their last pre-fleetside rear fenders on their step bed, the ’67 and ’73 redesigns had new ones while Ford used the 1953 rear fenders up to 1979 and Dodge their 1954 ones until they dropped the style sometime in the early ’80s.
I was just thinking that longbed Stepsides were probably a better application for them, as it makes loading stuff up front easier without crawling into the bed, especially with the higher sides of modern trucks.
It’s why I prefer my ’68 International 1100C with its stepside long bed…
We should ask “what are all the names of these 2 styles?”
I have heard the following: Sport Side, Flair Side, Step Side, Slab Side, Aero Side, and Flat Side.
we always called them smooth side vs step side
fleetside
StyleSide
A lot of those are the trademarked brand names from different manufacturers, rather than generic terms
There’s a long history of trademarked brand names becoming generic names. Aspirin, dry ice, heroin, kerosene, laundromat, etc. Crescent wrench, Sawzall, Allen wrench, Stanley knife are still legally trademarks, but used generically by most people.
Never really thought about the distinction until a stepside truck was mentioned in “The Air Is Getting Slippery” by Primus, and I always mixed it up with “step van” anyway. Made good poetic meter though.
The rounded bodystyle ones looked great, but I want all the truck bed I can get and I’m not an avant-grunge lyricist.
I love Stepsides, as they offer a different take on how things can be, and I’m all for having lots of options when it comes to cars.
But I do agree that the last Stepsides looked really bad. That 2009 Ford? A joke, aesthetically.
…The Steps….
Pickups only get higher and higher, so high ford built a goddamn stepladder into their tailgate complete with a handhold so you can get into the bed.
Hell, even in the promotional pictures of the Maverick talking about the low bedsides allowing more people to access it they had a picture of a woman putting something in the back who had to stand on her tip toes to do so. Call me old fashioned but barely being able to do something isn’t a ringing endorsement of the ability to do something.
‘The Pickups are too damn high!’
Maybe Dropside beds are the way of the future…
Nope. Rope ladders.
You’re outside Walmart. Someone presses a key on their fob for the pickup truck near you, the Metal Gear Solid 2 theme music starts playing, and you watch them struggle to try to climb up into their truck over the next five minutes.
DeMuro was right. Dogs have trouble jumping into modern pickup trucks. Which is crazy, because dogs can normally jump into and onto everything.
This. Chevys have pocket steps moulded into the side and rear bumper. Not to mention you can’t plop a set of plans on the hood and read them anymore.
Frankly even those little steps are not enough, especially if you have to put heavy stuff over the bedsides.
You shouldn’t have to actively balance on a step to use it.
I remember wanting a (then new) 1997-ish Ford Ranger step side (yellow) when I was high school. I thought they looked great. But now, practically wins, so no step side for me.
I was just going to comment about “what no Ranger Splash!”.
Missed opportunity for sure in the article.