Yes, there was a difference between a pickup and a truck with an express bed. It’s pretty irrelevant in the bigger scheme of things, but then we’re all about the irrelevant little anachronisms of automotive history, right? Finding this ’56 F-350 express in Port Orford gives us the perfect opening to delve into this somewhat obscure automotive semantical differentiation.
If one delves into the early days of truck and pickups, there’s a very definite differentiation between the two. Pickups initially were aftermarket or homemade short beds attached to the rear of 2-passenger roadster bodies. Why put that otherwise useless sloping rear deck to good use?
Ford saw the growing popularity of them and started offering a factory pickup on the Model T in late 1925. The key distinguishing elements were the passenger car (roadster) body and a short bed on the standard length wheelbase. It was clearly more of a modified passenger car than a true truck, or in other words, a utility/ute. The modern pickup evolved from that formula.
The express was a significantly older truck style, actually going back to the very earliest days of motorized trucks, as it was really just a motorized version of the very common horse-drawn express wagon, a light, multi-purpose wagon with usually one horsepower.
It could readily be converted to passenger hauling by adding a few seats.
As can also be seen on this lovely restored 1914 Model T Express. Note that the body does not share anything with the passenger car versions; it was built by a body maker and mounted on the bare chassis from the cowl back.
Here’s another by The Mifflinburg Body Company. You get the picture; a genuine light truck.
These two distinct lines of vehicles, one passenger-car based, the other truck-based, began to merge in the mid-30s, as Ford and the other major makers began to use a distinct truck cab for both light duty pickups as well as their larger trucks. This happened in 1935 at Ford.
This is really the beginning of the pickup’s elevation to being a ‘truck”, rather than a utility passenger car.
Despite sharing the same cab, there were still differences, as these 1941 Fords show. The 1/2 ton pickup on top has faired in headlights and fenders similar to the passenger cars, while the 1-ton express below has free-standing headlights and the cab sits a bit taller on top of the frame.
During these years, the 1/2 ton 6.5′ bed pickup was commonly referred to as “The Farm pickup”, thanks to its ability to do basic light hauling and provide transportation. Kids rode in the back, if there wasn’t a sedan on hand too.
The 3/4 and 1 ton trucks with these types of beds continued to be referred to as Express body trucks. More commonly they were used in various commercial settings as well as for heavier duty farm use.
As best as I can tell, the 9′ Express bed appears for apparently the first time in 1954, in F-350 1 ton format. These now had a longer 130″ wheelbase, shared with the platform stakes. Why?
To compete more effectively against Chevrolet, which has been offering a 9′ bed 1 ton pickup since the mid-late ’30s.
Chevrolet was by far the #1 selling light truck back ten, and its 3800 series 1 ton pickup filled a niche that Ford decided it needed to compete in too.
So that’s the history, which apparently makes this ’56 Ford F-350 9′ express only the third year of its availability.
This particular truck has a bit of history too, and the graphic on the door might lead you to make a guess.
It’s not exactly the same, but it does evoke the zigzag or lightning bolt on the Grateful Dead logo. It turns out this truck was originally from Stinson Beach, and its owner was involved with the Dead in the early years. I was hoping to get more details from the current owner, but I haven’t run into him yet. But who knows…did it have some role in their seminal song “Truckin'”?
The seats have been recovered, but otherwise it looks quite original. The shifter is connected to a HD 4-speed with a very low 1st gear.
Under the hood is the 223 CID ohv inline six, rated at 133 hp. The only engine option was the 272 CID Y-block V8 rated at 167 hp. This six was new in 1952, and was a well-regarded engine. The new “Big Six” 240 and 300 replaced it in 1965.
It’s a bit surprising that Ford invested in new tooling for a wrap-around windshield for 1956, as these trucks would be replaced by the new 1957s, which had all-new cabs and beds, although still riding on essentially the same chassis as this generation.
This grizzled old vet does have a few wrinkles in its skin.
A bit more serious is rust damage just above the windshield. I suspect it may be from condensation forming on ceiling of the cab and then running downhill and getting trapped there. But I could be wrong. Sitting near the ocean increases the risk. Is this lead sheeting?
Tires are 215/75R17.5. Good to know they’re still available in that size.
It’s big enough to haul a horse, a couple of heifers, a half dozen pigs or a small flock of sheep.
Having done this history of the 9′ express, the obvious question is: When was this last made? According to Ford’s brochures, it was 1972. This is a 4×4 fire truck from that year. And why did it end that year?
Presumably sales were shrinking away to minute numbers, and in 1973, Ford somewhat superseded it with their F-350 Super Camper Special. Yes, the bed was only 8′ long, but used the extended 140″ wheelbase as had been used with the 9′ Flareside bed. Now the market for large slide-in campers had become significant, and the Super Camper Special catered to that. Who still wanted a 9′ Flareside bed? Its days were over.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1973 Ford F-350 Super Camper Special – Ford Goes Camping In A Superlative Way
Curbside Classic: 1930 Ford Model A Pickup – The Modern Pickup is Born?
Hmmmm….explains a 9 ft bed in my FC 170 and a 9 ft bed on the M715…..maybe
Learned a new one today – didn’t know these were called express beds. Thanks.
Interesting! I knew that express meant a car-based pickup or ute, but didn’t know that the term later morphed into a long and narrow bed.
Great photos of a nice-looking express example. And excellent breakdown of the differentiation with pickups. I love the look of this example. Very commercial-appearing, as well.
May not be obvious for those doing general automotive research on the web, but CC really is an online single source encyclopedia, as a huge resource of more obscure, and less obscure automotive-related info. If you have to a dig a bit more. Compared to say, Wikipedia. Tremendous amount of valuable data here.
Wow! I’m here mostly to learn, and you came through yet again, Paul….if this information/distinction was ever in front of me before, it passed by without notice.
Fun to see your still-working truck there in Port Orford, with a reminder of how many horsepower used to be “enough to get the job done.”
Pretty neat to see this old workhorse still going .
-Nate
I wonder if the difference between “pickup” and “express” was muddier and more manufacturer-specific in the 40’s and 50’s.
I would argue that “express” had become a more generic term for trucks – it was certainly part of the name of many early commercial trucking lines. Studebaker’s “Coupe Express” would not have been the same kind of vehicle that Ford’s express was. Also, a look at some Chevrolet brochures of the era shows that they used the term “Pick-Up” even in the heavy duty 3800 series, a convention that seemed to go back several years. For 1948, the term “express” was only used for an open-sided panel truck or for a stake bed (flatbed) truck with a gate on the back. Dodge, however, used “Pick-Up body” (in the lighter B series) and “Express body” (C and D series) in 1948, in which the Express body was both longer and wider by five inches.
It was certainly a great name to affix to a longer heavy duty pickup to differentiate it from Ford’s lighter duty versions. And I love that this old one is still on the road.
Yes, “express” was of course a very commonly used term with wide applications, including trucks. This post is about a specific Ford version that used “express” for its longer body style, and how that came to be. It’s not meant to be an industry-wide survey of the term’s application.
Just a note: an eight-foot long PU body will carry a 4’x8′ sheet of plywood, very common in US construction, flat on the floor.
American type pickups mostly landed here as cab n chassis wellsides were rare, they just got wooden flat decks and were put to work no frills. Then in the 3early 50s supply stopped and Austins, Bedfords and Fords out of the UK took over. same style flatbed trucks or utility bodies for various purposes installed by the customer
When did the 8′ bed become common? I recall seeing long step side beds on GM pickups until the the early 70s but I think the last few years were 8′ and not 9′.
Now people seem to think 5′ is generous, judging by the popularity of crew cab 1/2 tons
Probably in the ’30s, when 3/4 ton versions started appearing. They bridged the gap between the short 1/2 ton and the 1 ton flatbeds and such.
GM offered all three lengths going way back, but the 9′ was always quite rare, as it was on the 1 ton chassis. And yes, they dropped the 9′ bed just like Ford did, although I’m not sure of the exact year.
Love the look of that old workhorse. In red it gives off a fire truck kind of vibe. Much more practical than the old firetruck that featured a while back. I had seen this “step side” long bed in a book about Ford trucks. They are rarely seen in the wild. During the ’70’s the Ford F100 pick up was a popular truck to be fixed up by hot rodders. Even today, long bed pick ups don’t get the love or modifications that the shorties do. Personally I love long bed trucks, I hate having every load stick out of the back of the bed.
It’s nice to see a ’56 Ford truck that hasn’t been turned into a custom job.
Great looking truck! And thanks for the history of pickups versus express trucks. Personally, I had no idea that utes came first. It makes me think differently about El Caminos and Rancheros.
It’d be really cool to know the actual Grateful Dead provenance for that truck. The Stinson Beach connection makes sense, assuming it was there in the 1970s when Jerry lived there. On the other hand, Truckin’ the song I believe actually has more to do with a story about a run-in the band had with New Orleans police in early 1970 ( https://wrnr.com/music-notes2/488817 ), and of course Robert Crumb’s famous “Keep on Truckin'” image from a couple of years earlier. Crumb himself actually took the phrase from a Blind Boy Fuller song – Truckin’ My Blues Away – from 1936. Crumb used “truckin'” to mean moving, waking, trudging along (which is the sense that Robert Hunter et. al used it in the Dead song). Fuller’s use was pure and wonderful hokum ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokum ). Take a listen, and you can kind of figure out what “truckin'” was standing in for in Fuller’s song. 🙂
I’m looking at the picture of the two=1941s you have there for comparison. The angles are slightly different, but I look at the spare tire and the fenders and it seems there is no difference in bed length.
So far as I’ve read and heard, the last of the GM 9′ long beds was the ’67-’72 Longhorn, made for hauling a slide in truck camper. The square body era ’73-’87 GM pickups had an 8′ bed on the stepside, but they are not too common. I do know where one is, a C20 with a big block; poor truck has been quietly rusting away in a covered storage spot in a SW Houston suburb. The staff at the storage place told me they were told this truck had been featured in “Urban Cowboy” and therefore was worth a LOT of $$$. I don’t recall seeing it in that movie, but someone believes the story because they’ve spent thousands of dollars over the years, paying for it to be stored there.