When Did They Start Building 4 Door Trucks

found this out in a field while hunting down another project , does anyone know when they started makin 4 door trucks , or what year this might be ?
am going back tomorrow night to ask the owner what`s the story ...

 

Wow, that would be awesome on a late model dually chassis.

 

The early 4-door trucks were sent out to special companies that converted the trucks into 4-door's. Then in the late sixties the manufacturers started doing it. Just like most of the early 4 wheel drives.

 

As far as the make of that truck I would guess Diamond T but I am really not sure at all

Looks mid 30's. Not a Ford or a Dodge.

 

I wonder what the hell the rig did?

 

10 years ago I could have bought a factory 66 chevy,4 door,1/2 ton,a/c,short wide bed,283 with a glide. Like a dumbass I passed. It had hand controls on it.He had polio when he was younger. The man bought it brand new from chevrolet. It was ordered. It was the light brown color. TP

 

snag that cab.

 

Well drilling, water, natural gas.......

 

Along with these uses, another two sources of "custom" bodied trucks were the railroads & utilities. Railroad shops were accustomed to building special rail cars, & modifying trucks was almost a lark for them. Utilities frequently built, or had built, large cabs too.... for some reason Pennsylvania utilities did this a lot.

 

It's an early pulling unit from the oil field. I have actually dressed tools on one when I was a kid in the sixties. It was out dated then. They used it to pull the pipe out of the casing in oil wells. Some were even rigged up to drill a well in a odd way. It's been 40+ years since I have seen one. They called them "cable tool rigs"TP

 

that looks like some heavy metal

 

I don't give a shit what it is. you gotta buy it or you will be jonesin for it for years to come. And those fenders are fat, beyond expresion of the word sexy.

 

Stretched later model dually chassis and that would make a cool car hauler, and you allready have the stretched cab.

 

I have a 90`s dodge 1 ton dually w/ a cummins and auto ,have been trying to find a home for the frame and running gear .................. are you guys thinkin winter project like I am ????

 

mtlcutter , you are soooooooooo frickin right about the fenders and even my girlfriend was hot over this truck !

 

I think that one is just a water rig, although it could have been used for shallow oil wells too. Given where it was found, not a lot of oil in Colorado. Saw a lot of similar outfits when I was a kid in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.

 

I know that Dodge built some Custom Powerwagons for the Military and oil fields in the 1940s that were 4 door that made it into civilian hands. Otherwise in 1957 the International Travelette was a 6 person 3 door truck. In 1961 They offered the 4th door option. Dodge also had a 4 door that was sold in the early 1960s to the forest department and some military hands that made it into regular hands and are easy enough to find. Not to step on toes, but I think the first 4 door Chevy for private and not fleet use or custom made was in 1967. That is also the first year that the 4 door suburban was offered.

 

Companies like International and Bedford built 4 door 'crew cab' trucks like that for Aussie service companies, railroads, electricicty, gas etc. That way they could take a work gang out to the site from the depot without all the workers' cars cluttering up the landscape and work site. I remember seeing trucks like that as a kid, working along the sides of the Sydney railway lines in the 50's.

Cheers, Glen.

 

International started building the travelette in 1957. It was a real four door and they built them all the way up until the 70's. These trucks look great and they're not that pricey.

 

I've seen 61-66 Ford pickups in 4-door version. But the Diamond T could be bought with a 4-door cab back into the 30s - I saw one on eBay a couple months ago that was a COE 4dr, like a 37-38. A lot of those truck bodies were more like the coachbuilt cars for longer, so custom bodies were easier to come up with.

Railroads didn't necessarily build those custom trucks, but bought them from aftermarket builders. Superior built hearses, but they also built school bus bodies, for instance.

 

67-72 chebby burbs had three doors! and no crew cabs intill 73..Roach.

 

i have my ugly 65.. spent a wile looking for one, found it in Montana. its been sitting for about 6 years or so now, but I HAVE ONE NOW!! DONT PASS IT UP!!

 

Dodge built a factory 4door pickup in the early-mid 60s. Primarily used by utility companies (electric, gas, phone, water), the US Armed Services (Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Marines, Air Force), state highway departments, highway construction companies, various US and State Game and Wildlife and Forest services. Many were 4WD as well as 4door.

 

That's a post war K -11 or 12 Cornbinder drill rig, probably a RED 450 engine. The 'binder guys will know who built the body - it looks to be very well done.

 

That looks like a International Sleeper cab they started building them special order in 1941 for large companys. That looks to be a 1947-1949 KB-11 or larger. The Travelette came out in 1957 but it wasen't a 4 door crew cab it was a 3-door, they didn't become a full 4-door crewcab till 1961 when IH interduced the C series.

 

Didn't the Air Force have double cabs in the fifties? For some reason I can picture them in that hazy blue color rolling out to a B-52 after the scramble alarm has been rung.

 

That is too cool. BUY IT.

 

That old cab would be a great start!!!
Seems like I remember seeing a old Ford COE from the late 40's that was a four door...

Mine's not real old, but ex-Travis AFB
The joke on the ramp was "What's blue and sleeps six"?

 

i have seen a 55 chevy pu 3dr... (crewcab) that was a previous forest service pickup complete with napco... that was the earliest i have seen. i had a couple of 65 ford pickups and of course there are quite a few dodge ones from the 60's as well as the 3 dr chevy burbs... which were initially intended to be 4drs...

but as was aforementioned i understand they were mostly "turned into those" by after market companies (such as stage coach)that took them straight from the factory and then turned them out as service vehicles.

yellow stone as well as glacier has some of the extended work trucks which have been thoroughly converted from the early 30's

 

'47-'48 International KB series with a custom stretched cab. Not factory for sure!
Dodge and International both offered four door pick ups by the early 60's (International with the 1961 Travelette).