“So you think you’re a Romeo…playing a part in a picture show…” goes the lyrics of the old Supertramp song circa 1979, “Take the long way home…” That would be easy to do with a truck like this, and you’ll always be popular with those friends and neighbors of yours who always need to head up to the big-box home improvement center to pick up some extra long lumber for that big project. This is a 1947 Chevy truck with a nine footbed. Yep, that’s right, it’s a foot longer than a “long bed” truck. The factory specs list the inside of the bed length as 100-1/4 inches. It’s way cool and unusual, and the corner windows make it even cooler. A quick Internet search reveals that these extra-long bed trucks aren’t too incredibly rare, but if they were offered with a one-ton chassis like this one appears to have been, certainly lots of them would have been converted to stake bed trucks, box trucks, boom trucks, wreckers, utility beds and other types of heavy-duty work vehicles. As such, the survival rate on them might not be real high, particularly those that still have their original factory-installed beds still attached. In keeping with that hard-working theme, it also looks like lots of these early extra-long trucks were GMCs rather than Chevy like this one.
This truck is offered for sale here on craigslist and is located in Koshkonong, Missouri. The asking price is $2,500. The seller says it has an engine, but the transmission is gone. He has plenty of other trucks and parts, “and anything you would need to build it any way you could imagine.” Which would be helpful. What would also be helpful before that time, would be a few more photos. These are the only two the seller has provided. That leaves us free to extrapolate all we want to about it. At great length. Bad pun definitely intended. It looks like it was white when it was new, and for at least several years thereafter. That’s about all I have on it right now. I’m proud that I made it through an entire post about this vintage truck without once using the “P” word… Doh!
So what would be best for this once-moving unit? An all-original restoration? A resto-mod? Get it roadworthy for the long way home and go? Do you feel it should be part of the scenery? You could listen to Supertramp while you worked on it. If you’re old enough to remember it, love it or hate it, is the song stuck in your head yet? It’s not like I tried to put it there just to aggravate you. Well, yeah, it kind of is. Share your thoughts on the truck, feel the love, or vent your hatred, below.
Born and raised in MO and have never heard of that town. Then again, never heard of that option either…
Oh a Longbed as those are rare!
Several years ago I had collected a few GM trucks. One was a daily driver, a 1950 Chevy 1 ton with the 9′ coffin box. It ran great but top speed was 45-50. There was a farm auction about 80 miles away in Canistota, SD. I couldn’t go but left a bid with the auctioneer. I won the bid at $190! It was an odd sight my 1950 towing a 1949 1 ton identical truck. The other trucks I had were a 1946 half ton ($600), a 1947 2 ton ($150), a really cool 1951 GMC 1.5 ton w/beautiful chrome grille and corner windows ($50 from my neighbor) and a 1953 GMC 1.5 ton for $50. Most were sold to a guy from Omaha. My memory fails me as to where the others went.
One other, a buddy was storing his 1944 Chevy Wayne body school bus in my back 40. At 25 feet long it would have made a unique ride. We replaced the 6 cylinder with a 1970 Impala 350 w/400 trans and put two new tires on the front (7.50-20). And, there it sat for 30+ years. Watching a You Tube video of a guy in MN with his 1937 Chevy bus, I commented mentioning our bus. Long story short, he bought ours, minus the 400 trans. The buyer builds rat rods for a living and said our bus will be getting a big diesel ‘smoker’. I don’t care to see all that black smoke but, whatever. I have pics somewhere….
9 foot beds are rare regardless of the manufacturer. They were relegated to mostly commercial/farm use for payload reasons. They were rode hard and hung up wet, hence the rarity of survivors. Restore this one ! As you all know, I’m a Ford guy but..
this is one Chevrolet that should not go un-noticed. It is a commercial time capsule that deserves it’s due. It worked for a living.
I’ve got a 37 Dodge longbed that I’m in process of restomod project as its going on a new late model frame..
A nine footer, that’s nothin, how about a 12 footer;
That’s what I would call a 45 minute truck.
That one has all the turning radius of a small ocean liner. But I’m in!
iv’e got an 87 long bed, shorts are ok but i like the ride better in a long bed. it has an 8 ft bed that never has to be made…..humm i think that was a country song….
Supertramp was huge, let’s go a bit farther with that song, ( next verse):
” ‘Cause you’re the joke of the neighborhood, why should you care if you’re feeling good” and yes, you’ll HAVE to take the long way with a top speed of 53 mph. Got a little surface rust, but that should buff right out,,,,as much as it kills me to say, put this on a modern chassis and drive it, the short way home.
When I was growing up on a farm in Iowa in the 1960’s and 1970’s we had 2 Chevrolet long boxes – a 1947 and a 1951. Both were super tough workhorses – geared way down, it was amazing what they would haul or pull. Top end was about 55 to 60 mph, and that was practically throwing the cylinders through the hood. We could haul 150 bushel of corn on them, while towing a wagon with 250 bushel of corn. Or we towed fertilizer carts with them. Or 40 head of hogs. Or some calves. Or a load of gravel. Or seed corn. Or sacks of feed. And on and on. One time a Dodge car got stuck in a ditch. A neighbor hitched to the Dodge car with his Chevrolet pickup and also slid into the muddy ditch and got stuck. I came by in our 1951 Chevrolet long bed with a load of hog feed on, backed up and hitched to the neighbor’s Chevrolet pickup (which was still chained to the Dodge car), put ‘er in “granny”, and pulled both vehicles out of the ditch at the same time, with no help from the other two vehicles, as nobody was driving the other vehicles at the time, and their engines were shut off. That was one strong, tough truck.