Colonial Yellow is a big, bold color for this big, bold truck. At over 20 feet in length, check your garage space before grabbing this big beauty. This 1984 Chevrolet K30 Crew Cab 4×4 can be found listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Tonasket, Washington, and they’re asking $20,000. Here is the original listing, and thanks to… hey wait, I sent in this tip!
This truck is said to be a former Wenatchee Road Department truck, in Wenatchee, Washington, between Spokane and Seattle. I can’t think of a cooler Chevrolet crew cab 4×4 that I’ve seen in quite a while. I’m a big fan of yellow vehicles, and this one doesn’t disappoint. I can’t help but think the left rear door is a hair darker than the driver’s door, though, but maybe it’s just a shadow. Actually, they say it’s wearing all-new paint.
We don’t get to see inside the full-sized bed, unfortunately, and there are no underside photos. Normally I wouldn’t even think about underside photos on a vehicle from that area, but the seller says they just had new floor pans installed, so that’s a little scary. Yeah, that left rear door is a little darker, so I’m not sure why it doesn’t quite match with all-new paint. They say there is “no rust,” so hopefully all is well other than the replaced floor pans. It also has a new tailgate. It sounds like this truck has been basically restored. Hagerty is at $21,100 for a #3 good-condition example, for a general reference.
While you’re checking out the great 4-speed floor shift lever, you can also check out this 1984 Chevrolet pickup brochure. GM has excellent information booklets out there, such as this one showing some specs and technical info on the C/K trucks. The base interior looks great, but both “seat covers” have been replaced, and the seller mentions they just had a new dash installed. So much for my idea that Northwest vehicles don’t rust or get sunburnt. Maybe the seat covers and dash were replaced for another reason; we don’t know. The Bonus Cab pickup had four doors but no rear seat; this one has a rear seat as it’s a Crew Cab.
The engine is Chevy’s 454-cu.in. OHV V8, which was rated at 230 horsepower and 360 lb-ft of torque. The seller says it’s a “low mileage banks 454.” Backed by the “standard” 4-speed manual and NP 205 transfer case, power is sent to all four wheels as needed. The seller says this truck also has new tires and new front and rear bumpers. They don’t say how it runs, but apparently it’s always been serviced. This one is a head-scratcher. What are your thoughts on this K30 Crew Cab?
If this came from the factory with a 454 4 speed then this is pretty rare indeed. Most big blocks you saw had a THM 400 behind it. In fact, a 4 speed in any crew cab ’84 would be a rare sight. It’s interesting you could get a 292 straight six still in a one ton. You can see a slight glimpse of the floor on that interior passenger side photo at the base of the seat. If everything was done professionally its probably ok. I like the yellow too Scotty. And the bodywork looks good too, rockers, fenders etc. Great find SG!!! Great write up too Scotty!!!
Had a concrete contractor with one of these, 292 w/4sp.
Great comment Dave. Wenatchee gets a good amount of snow at the nearby ski hill in the Cascade mountains. Wonder if this truck saw duty in snow country. This one is truly a Heavy Chevy. Tough truck. 👍 Very cool find.
Chevy and GMC trucks of this era didn’t do well in Alaska. By the time 10 years have past, the fender wells, lower door panels, and yes even the bed and floor pans would be to the point that you could easily stick a screwdriver through the metal, and in some instances even a well gloved finger. Tetanus shot required. Even Fords didn’t do too well up here either, so I guess it was about the norm for the country.Don’t even ask about Dodge. They would have been recycled by then. Nice looking truck though. If it is as sound as it looks, someone will get lots of enjoyment out of it, three point turns and all.
I think this is the only truck that requires a 3 point turn to go around a curve in the road. That’s a LOT of yellow.
Yes, it’s a good thing that it is “center line yellow” for those 3 point turns on the highway!(lol) I had one of these in 2wd, 400 hydro and in brindle s_ _t brown. I got it really cheap since the engine was toast. A buddy had just scored a Caddy with a 500 and a 400 hydro. ( it was a Frankenstein car, kind of like Johnny Cash’s “one piece at a time car”. It was a great running Sedan DeVille that was so ugly his wife wouldn’t let him park it in the driveway. (IIRC pink hood 1 green and 1 blue front fender on a silver car. So I said I could use the engine. We can park it at my house until the engine and transmission is out and I will haul it off to the scrap yard. It sat at my house exactly 1 day before my wife (now ex) yelled hurry up and get the engine out so you can get it out of here!. The install was a,piece of cake. I swapped the engine frame brackets left to right. (Had to drill one hole on the left side and the engine and transmission just bolted in. Even some of the exhaust parts mated up. The torque on the Caddy engine was amazing! (Not sure the engine had the stock camshaft as there was evidence of prior work done on the engine and it had a Holly spread bore carburetor instead of a Quadrajet. It pulled my little 5thwheel like there was no tomorrow. And the fuel economy wasn’t terrible. (12-14 mpg) But trying to find a parking spot for that locomotive was tough. Someone made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. So it went to a different owner and never saw it again.
These ain’t really that hard to wheel around. To your point it is why you see mostly 6′ boxes today. The 454, 4-speed would be a great drive. Equipped like a truck up north would have been in ’84. That’s a comfy looking seat for a Kustom Day-lu.
Well, ( pulling suspenders) it sure looks like it could be a municipal rig, but the condition and general appearance don’t jive. I don’t know of too many yellow crew cab 4×4 pickups in the public sector, so that checks out, but usually these trucks are well used. It certainly was kept inside, and this owner spruced ‘er up a bit, Highway Depts. didn’t have chrome rear bumpers, redid the interior, but probably a well serviced truck to begin with. Trailer brake and wires hanging( for a radio?) say it’s the real deal. Again, it’s a beast to drive and may be a bit intimidating coming from that new Silverado,, :0
Actually, Forestry up here in Alaska used to have yellow vehicles of this vintage. Hopefully this one has power steering. the forestry ones didn’t… Armstrong!
Sold a lot of these back in the day. Mostly dualies and mostly ranchers and rodeo performers. The 454 was the best way to go although half of them were satisfied with a 6.2 diesel.
The diesel was fine; most of the owners knew what they were getting but there were some, mostly of the rodeo crowd that expected 18 mpg with an 8 foot slide-in camper, and 16 horse trailer complete with horses and tack. I countered those ridiculous tales the moment they were said. I remember telling a customer that those wouldn’t get 18mpg in free fall.
Anyways, there’s still lots of them around. When the wife and I head for the barrel racing events this fall we’ll see lots of Cowboy Cadillacs and Continentals…
This one is almost certainly destined to become a ginmorous pavement princess.
Maybe not. My neighbor just bought a big Ford four door with a dump body at the municipal auction. I’m sure he’s intending to work it. I haven’t talked to him since it arrived in the front yard but the cost of anything new that size is well over $100k. He probably paid under $20k for it. Appears to be about 15 years old, F550.
This model Chevy 30 of this era was popular in our municipality for crew cab operations. We had three in our Fire Department with dual wheels to handle the weight of gasoline powered fire pumps and water tanks, hose, SCBA and tools but no ladders. The standard beds were deleted. Cab and chassis. They had Reading Cabinet Bodies added. Two had 454s and the other had the 6.5 litre GM V8 diesel. All were automatics. They drove like a dream with all that weight. Stopping them required the driver/ operator to be on his A-Game, though.
This one could be utilized for most anything that needs a lot of gasoline… Or a pavement princess.
Correction. It was the 6.2 diesel. Not the 6.5 in that year.
Sounds okay Chevys usually rust before they die mechanically anyway and it’s got all the basic components that make a good truck great! I would buy it on the spot if I had the money! I sold my 85 ram 4-wheel truck years ago and regretted it ever since! Next time I know better to keep it when nothing really breaks on it! It’s built tough like a truck should be built!
Had a 89 4×4 crew cab dually with a big block. Jim Hughes from Hughes transmission worked the valve body over and gave me a torque converter and I did a lot of performance bolt ons, loved that truck and some dick stole it while I was in Phoenix.
Yeah, imagine this “Bad Boy” was thirsty when it came to mileage! Maybe 15 mpg on the highway, 7-8 mpg in town. Struggled to pass a gas station!
Usually something this heavy (whether it he Ford, GM, Dodge, etc.) Gas powered trucks. Highway and town fuel economy (lack there of) was not a huge difference. It’s like it takes x number of gallons to go x number of miles, period. Depending on load and hills. Anywhere between 6 and 14 mpg is about all you can expect. There are exceptions naturally. But once you get to this weight. Any hope of mileage above 14 mpg goes out the window. On a different note/truck. We had a customer with an F150 who was complaining about his fuel economy. You could tell that the truck was maintained and clean to the max. We had a general helper in our service department who was a very consistent driver for fuel economy test drives. (A couple of times we did nothing to the vehicle, just to test him. And he got exactly the same fuel economy each time!) Anyway we did all the proper/procedural testing and found nothing wrong. (This was about 1988 or ’89) The truck, a 5.0 AOD equipped 2 wd was getting about 15.5 mpg on our test loop. I called the Ford help line and talked to my favorite engineer and the first thing he asked was if it had a bug deflector. As they were seeing up to 3 mpg loss with one installed. I started laughing at him saying that sounded like a cop-out. He said test it! This truck had one of those “aero style” reflectors. So we removed it. It instantly got 2.3 more mpg! So when the customer came to pickup his pickup he inquired as to where his deflector was. I told him it was behind the seat. DON’T COMPLAIN ABOUT IT UNTIL YOU DO A MILEAGE CHECK! He did eventually did have a “clear bra” installed on the front end. But had to live with bugs on his windshield!
When we sold mostly gaspots there weren’t a lot of complaints about fuel economy. But when GM introduced a diesel, our service department became a battleground.
“I bought that truck for mileage!” That became the standard complaint. I checked them myself and documented everything. Despite the figures I showed them I was called a liar and a crook, and I should have my certification pulled.
I even took customers on a mileage run to which they denied my calculations.
They bought a diesel truck then went straight to K-Mart and bought a calculator, which they obviously didn’t have a clue how to use.
I had a guy come in with a 6.9 Ford, claiming only 4 mpg. I told him that he’s obviously got a major fuel leak because the injection pump, a positive displacement device, could NOT pump that amount of fuel. The absolutely WORST mileage you could get on a 6.9 3/4 ton with 4.10 gears was just over 10 mpg. And that’s if you have your foot on the lumber the whole time. I took the test spec’s for the injection pump and tried to explain it to them, but his mind was made up.
The worst one I had was a salesman who had an ’80 GMC with a 350 diesel. He calculated the mileage on every fillup and if it varied more than 2 mpg he was at the shop. The very definition of a floater that wouldn’t flush. He even missed an important sales meeting because his mileage–through the mountains yet–dropped 2 mpg.
The perfect tow vehicle for my speed yellow boxster but wait a minute , i love driving it so much it would be torture !
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