Just two years after Chevy abandoned the last big two-door wagon, they upped the ante by one door and built the only three-door wagon, from 1967 through 1972. I’d like to know just which GM bean counter was responsible for this decision? Hey, doors don’t grow on trees! At least they got one thing right: the only back door is on the curb side. I’m guessing they didn’t sell many of these in right-hand drive countries.
Admittedly, the additional third door was a welcome addition on the new 1967 Suburban, as it predecessor obviously lacked on.
As had all Chevy Suburbans going back to the very first one in 1935. That was just the formula, even though they were always designed to have three rows of seats. How did folks get into the back seats, especially the third one? That’s grandpa and grandma back there, with their dear little grandchild.
Getting to the rear-most seat required a maneuver Marines are taught in boot camp. More recently, it’s been taught in yoga classes. The right front seat flipped forward, and one crawled past it and beyond the reduced-width second seat to get to the back seat. People were just a lot more limber back then, even grandparents.
But as our diets got supersized, something had to change.
And change they did, starting in 1967, when the Suburban and Panel truck switched over to the 127″ long wheelbase from the shorter 115″ wb that they had previously used forever.
You learn something new everyday in this gig, hopefully, at least. I had always assumed that the Suburban and Panel shared the same basic body length with the long bed (8′) version of the pickups. Not so! Looks can be deceiving.
The Panel is described as being a 9′ panel. Really? It and the Suburban measured 215½” in overall length.
The 8′ bed pickup measures only 207¾” overall. I can chalk this up to today’s lesson in not assuming the obvious. This happens a lot, and that’s a good thing.
One of the advantages of moving to the longer chassis was that now a 3/4 ton C20 version was readily available. And now there was only one panel and Suburban body to build.
Chevy had made higher capacity 1 ton (C30 series) long-bed panel trucks, but they were an extra-long 10½ foot model.
These long-boy panels were sometimes converted into passenger-hauling jobs, like this one. Not sure how many seats are in there, but there’s a sliding glass window halfway back.
For folks wanting to tow a big(ger) trailer, the C20 Suburban was the ticket (this one is a C10).
And also new with this generation of Chevy trucks, the four wheel drive versions weren’t so tall anymore. This is a C20 4WD; the C10 version sat even a bit lower. It was the beginning of the era when 4WD became civilized and increasingly popular.
Unfortunately, some Hollywood vehicle casting gurus didn’t know about this, the result being this severely jacked up GMC Suburban in the Netflix series “Dark Wind”. Well, someone must have clued them in, as in series 2, it’s a lot closer to the ground.
Chevy offered a huge range of engines in these trucks, everything from the 250 six up through the big-block 396/402 V8s, although not in the first year or two. The new Turbo-Hydramatic was a welcome relief from the two-speed Powerglide.
And the longer body supposedly allowed true nine-passenger seating. But did it really? The middle seat is clearly narrower, to make room for passage to the third seat. Oh well, folks were skinnier back then. Anyway, this was the hauler of choice for really big families who still needed luggage room behind the third seat.
Or any other group needing to be hauled. These used to be fairly common in remote areas as school buses; even with a version with an aisle down the middle for the kiddies, and four rows of seats. Now it makes a convenient covered pickup truck. It had a yard of topsoil in it when I shot this, which is why it’s riding a bit low in the back.
I shot it again some years later, and this time it had its second seat installed. This truck gets worked hard, like my ’66 F100.
Related CC reading:
Vintage Photo: 1964 Chevrolet C30 “Super Suburban” – 10.5′ Long Body
Curbside Classic: 1966 Chevrolet Suburban – Finding The “Sport” In SUV
Curbside Classic Follow-Up: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban – The Other Neighborhood Landlord’s Old Truck
1987 Chevrolet Suburban 4×4 – America Falls In Love With the Big SUV – Me Too?
I am not sure when I first noticed that these had only 3 doors, but it was well after the last one was built. I don’t really recall seeing many of these when they were new, and the ones I did see tended to be commercial vehicles. The big family hauler market (for those who did not want a van) seemed to be owned by the International Travelall at the time. But then again, I grew up in Fort Wayne where there was a large International manufacturing presence.
GM went after the private/recreational user market with the 1973 trucks. GM tooled up to sell Suburbans, crew cabs, and dualies for trailering and campers. Previously GM bodged together single cab trucks with long beds and big single rear tires for RV users. As a racing fan, I noticed that suddenly the garages were flooded with GM dualies pulling fifth wheel trailers. There were a lot of rigs with bunks mounted in the back window.
In ’99 they built three door pickups.
Years and years ago I shared a house with couple of grad students in the college town where I lived. They were graduate students in pottery (those were the days…) and their vehicle was just like the Surburban featured here. Theirs was an industrial white (vs. the Forrest Service green here). It generally looked, inside, just like the one in your neighborhood; but that was fine because the truck mostly just hauled its two owners, their bloodhound, and usually a half ton or so of raw clay. I can still hear the sound that thing starting up on winter mornings. The lack of a functional muffler added to the charm.
It was a great truck.
I feel like the “square body” trucks were not all that well built. The previous 67-72 trucks were more spartan but the way the doors/tailgate close, the thickness of the sheetmetal, they just feel a lot more solid. And didnt seem to rust quite as quickly. At least thats my experience with several square bodies and my uncle’s restored 1972 4wd Chevy longbed