The Chevrolet Step-Van was a multi-stop delivery truck built by General Motors from 1940 until 1998, sold alongside the badge-engineered GMC Value-Van. Its long life made it one of the most familiar sights on American delivery routes.
Chevrolet Step-Van at a glance
| Production | 1940–1998 |
|---|---|
| Class | Multi-stop delivery truck |
| GMC version | Value-Van |
| First model | Dubl-Duti, 1940 |
| Chassis | 115-inch Chevrolet pickup chassis |
| Body | Divco Twin |
| Engine 1940 | 216.5 cu in Thriftmaster six |
| Carburettor | single-barrel updraft Carter |
| Latest models | P30 step vans of the 1990s |
History of the Chevrolet Step-Van
The first generation of General Motors’ multi-stop delivery van was the Dubl-Duti, introduced in 1940. It was built on the 115-inch chassis of the Chevrolet pickup truck, with a body supplied by Divco Twin. The van used the same 216.5 cu in Thriftmaster six as the pickups and Chevrolet passenger cars, but with a single-barrel updraft Carter carburettor instead of the downdraft Rochester unit used elsewhere in the truck range.
From those beginnings the Step-Van grew into a whole family of forward-control delivery trucks, sold as Chevrolet Step-Van and as GMC Value-Van. The layout was designed for delivery work: the driver stood or sat well forward, the body was a tall box, and the rear doors opened to the cargo area. Over the decades the range moved to larger bodies and more powerful engines, and by the 1990s the vans were known by the P-series chassis code, such as the P30.
Production ran for fifty-eight years, ending in 1998. By then the market for purpose-built multi-stop vans had been eaten into by cutaway chassis from ordinary full-size vans built by second-stage manufacturers, and the Step-Van’s own role in the Chevrolet range was inherited by the cutaway versions of the Express. The surviving Step-Vans are now collected as examples of a working vehicle that has almost disappeared from American streets.
Design and features
- Purpose-built for deliveries: a forward-control layout with a tall box body.
- Pickup roots: the first Dubl-Duti sat on a standard Chevrolet pickup chassis.
- GMC twin: the same truck was sold as the GMC Value-Van.
- Long production: fifty-eight years of continuous manufacture.
Chevrolet Step-Van versions
- Dubl-Duti (1940): the first generation with a Divco Twin body.
- Step-Van: the later forward-control delivery vans.
- GMC Value-Van: the GMC version of the same truck.
- P-series vans: the 1990s models such as the P30.
The Step-Van was the delivery-truck relative of the Chevrolet Express and the C/K pickups whose chassis it used. More trucks are in the Chevrolet collection.
Video: 1997 Chevrolet P30 step van
Video by Auto Ad Builder on YouTube.
Sources
- Chevrolet Step-Van, English Wikipedia: origins, Dubl-Duti, production years
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