Swb

[omodified]

Why do people say “short wide box” when the acronym SWB actually stands for short wheel base? Am I missing something?

[mongocanfly]

Just another way of saying short fleetside I'm guessing..just means it's not a stepside..
It is odd how different parts of the US have different terminology to describe something..not just swb..

[Dead Parrot]

I have also heard the term Narrow Bed for Stepside and Wide Bed for Fleetside with Short or Long added depending.

[Sheepdip]

Originally Posted by Dead Parrot

I have also heard the term Narrow Bed for Stepside and Wide Bed for Fleetside with Short or Long added depending.

GMC's were actually called Widesides and Fendersides by GM
Chevrolets were called Fleetsides and Stepsides by GM

[burnin oil]

SWB is a pretty standard acronym for a short bed truck. Same as LWB is a long bed. Generally the people who say short wide bed as SWB are not into the lingo of the industry. Depending who you are talking to you may be considered ignorant for using SWB for a wide bed. Then again alot of people around here call granny low transmissions bull dogs or bull dog gears. Its all in who you are talking to.

[FleetsidePaul]

SWB? I always just called them expensive.

[burnin oil]

And I always called them not what I am looking for. I like the looks but all my trucks are used, no matter how nice they are. Its amazing how useful that extra 2 feet is.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by burnin oil

And I always called them not what I am looking for. I like the looks but all my trucks are used, no matter how nice they are. Its amazing how useful that extra 2 feet is.

Length matters


I insisted on getting a long bed pickup because I want to put a topper* on it and set up a double bed platform and still have room at the back for a footwell, and maybe a cooler and a porta-potty. Then if I live long enough for the pickup to get old, I can take off the camper and use it for firewood and stuff like that.

* I didn't realize that there are only something like three outfits in the whole country that make pickup shells/toppers, and that there is a 6++ week wait (as of tomorrow!)


I did have a SWB stepside pickup once and it was handy as heck for what I used it for, which was mostly hauling my gas, oil, chainsaws, and related tools into the woods

[burnin oil]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

I did have a SWB stepside pickup once and it was handy as heck for what I used it for, which was mostly hauling my gas, oil, chainsaws, and related tools into the woods

And to think I usually take my 11 foot flat deck for that since you can load 2 chords on it. I do use the jeep with a 5x8 trailer in the yard from time to time. I really like the looks of a short step on the 50s trucks but its just not practical for me. Trucks are all long bed 4x4s. I am thinking of a 9 foot stepside on my 57 one ton when it gets rebuild.

By the way. I lost site of the thread on your new truck when it got moved. I hope it is working out other than the topper delay.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by burnin oil

And to think I usually take my 11 foot flat deck for that since you can load 2 chords on it. I do use the jeep with a 5x8 trailer in the yard from time to time. I really like the looks of a short step on the 50s trucks but its just not practical for me. Trucks are all long bed 4x4s. I am thinking of a 9 foot stepside on my 57 one ton when it gets rebuild.

By the way. I lost site of the thread on your new truck when it got moved. I hope it is working out other than the topper delay.

I didn't haul any wood with that little pickup other than maybe a few armloads in the fall for the stove in the logging camp trailer. When I hauled wood, it was four or five cords in 16 to 25 foot lengths on the C/50 with the log trailer. I would bring in a few loads like that to wherever we were going to be wintering and roll them off on the ground. Then the last load, after we were all done delivering logs for sale, would stay on the truck where I shut it off. It was a lot easier to get that last load cut up sometime after the snow fell when it was sitting up four feet in the air. One winter, I literally had to dig down about four feet to get to the bottom of one of my piles on the ground!

The C/10 SWB stepside was far handier than using the K/10 with the camper shell or the C/50 log truck to just go to the woods from camp to cut or yard/skid. Damn sorry I ever sold it because it would have been great for the girls to learn to drive on. These days I have the 89 K1500 xcab LWB to carry saw/fuel and haul wood for the house. I bought a semi-load of logs last fall so I wouldn't have to scrounge dead trees all the time (sorta funny, since I used to sell logs for firewood 35 years ago). My firewood haul is now about a quarter mile most of the time.

I like the new pickup fine, other than still getting used to the huge hood. It's the only vehicle I've ever driven including big trucks that I don't feel like I know exactly where it is. We got some cab steps and floor mats for it. We're getting desperate for the topper since we need to go to CO to clean out my mom's house. The thread is over in the 2007++ forum.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by omodified

Why do people say “short wide box” when the acronym SWB actually stands for short wheel base? Am I missing something?

It shows they don't know any better, that's all. I will say "short wide bed" when talking but the acronym means "short wheelbase". Pickups used to be just pickups until the Fleetside Chevy/Wideside GMC came along. Then the good old pickup bed needed a name, so came Stepside and Fenderside. From that day on, unless using the brand names, we started calling the new style wide bed (or box). I've never heard anyone who knows anything about trucks say narrow bed. Even Fords and Dodges get called Stepsides. Chevy always came up with the best names. Ford had a better idea and Chevy had the best.

[Andy4639]

Simply put they don't know what they are talking about.
SWB are LWB.

Like humans there only two kinds no matter what anyone says are does.

[special-K]

The thing that bugs me is when someone says their truck is a regular cab, when talking pre-'73s. It's just a cab, that's all, simply a cab.

[slomotion]

"Short wide pickup" is a truck???? Jeepers, I thought they were talking about the gal at the tavern.........

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by slomotion

"Short wide pickup" is a truck???? Jeepers, I thought they were talking about the gal at the tavern.........

thats funny slowmotion ,,I thought for a moment you said Jeepers Creepers .. an old saying in the 40ies I think ..

[special-K]

Originally Posted by slomotion

"Short wide pickup" is a truck???? Jeepers, I thought they were talking about the gal at the tavern.........

"You want to catch some air, Louis did you say it was?"

"It's Louass. Yes, that's low ass and don't you laugh, get it?"

[slomotion]

Originally Posted by GOPAPA

thats funny slowmotion ,,I thought for a moment you said Jeepers Creepers .. an old saying in the 40ies I think ..

Yessir, it was. Actually, part of a song..."...jeepers, creepers, where'd you get those peepers?" singing about some gals beautiful eyes.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by special-K

The thing that bugs me is when someone says their truck is a regular cab, when talking pre-'73s. It's just a cab, that's all, simply a cab.

Well, these days … a "regular cab" would probably be considered a full four door crew cab

They're now calling 6.5' beds "standard" beds.

Will "single cab" do?

[special-K]

It's just a truck and it's just a cab. It's all there was, unless you consider the Ford and Dodge crew cabs that were a rare exception. The GM 3+3 came out and we called them crew cabs to identify the difference. that worked fine for 20 years or more. But as the market changed the terminology got twisted up by the new market.

The term "regular" is a relevant one, that's true. And what is regular today is not what was once regular... back when pickups were made for people who needed them. That's my point. People who say regular cab on the older trucks are showing they have come into the world of trucks since the standards have changed. It's the same thing as people referring to "full-size" trucks. A C10 is a truck. It is the size of a truck, same as they were before "downsized" or "mid-sized" trucks came about. The new herd comes along and changes the terminology based on their limited experience.

I used to ask for a part for my '90 Blazer, then get asked "S10 or full-size?". I would answer "Blazer. Not the S10 version" or "Blazer. Not the downsized version". When you start swapping terminology around like that you lose knowing where things came from by the name.

[1976gmc20]

The "S-10 Blazer" was a sorry ass POS.

My friend in CO had a 79 Blazer with a 4 speed. It wasn't lifted but he did have some big wide tires on it. Where he couldn't go with it, you probably shouldn't be trying to go

Funny how back in the 1960s and 1970s some folks complained that factory 4wds (except Jeep) were too tall. Now everybody has to lift them or they ain't any good. My stock K/20 was extremely capable except it was so stiff that it could get stuck pretty easy. The frame had more flex than the suspension!

I am happy that my 2016 can actually turn. My 1989 is like turning around a twin screw.