page 1, Introduction & 1947
taken from the Light Commercial Vehicle Association (LCVA) - Jan/Feb 1984

When I was a kid growing up in a small southern Minnesota town of 1,200 people, my best friend’s father owned the local lumber company.  Our small town had one auto-truck dealer, a Chevrolet and Buick operation.  Small town business-etiquette in those days dictated that a local businessman should buy from other local businesses, so my friend’s father always had a fleet of Chevrolet trucks including pickups.  We spent many a happy hour and mile in 1947-1954 series Chevy pickups.  A Chevy pickup was our usual form of transportation before we could afford our first cars.  We even managed to get the pickup before we had our driver’s licenses at 15.  We would double date in a pickup - talk about being friendly, but it was fun!  We were a little wild in those days and would drive to neighboring towns in the Chevy to try to buy beer, attract the local females, and promote whatever other action we could find.  There was only one problem, we were a traveling billboard as the truck’s door read “Hess Lumber Co. Pine Island, Minn. Phone 567”!  Good thing we never got into any real serious trouble.  Researching and writing this Chevy story has brought back many fond memories for me.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

I often wondered why Chevrolet, and the other truck manufacturers, developed a new truck-line after WWII, before developing a new line of autos.  According to Chevrolet, it was because the Government allowed them to build civilian trucks on the same production line as the military trucks before the war ended to avert a serious truck shortage when the war was finally over.  Hence, when the War ended, Chevrolet continued to produce trucks without having to convert their production lines back to truck production from a defense item.

The big news about the new, 1947, Chevrolet Advance-Design trucks was obviously its all new styling Chevrolet believed that the appearance of their trucks was becoming to be a more and more important consideration to truck owners, especially to fleet operators.  Chevrolet believed that truck customers wanted a good looking truck for its advertising value and to contribute to their business prestige.  But at the same time, the truck must be practical.  Owners wanted good appearance with no sacrifice in utility or cost of operation.

Going back in Chevrolet truck history a little further, we find that Chevrolet’s first trucks in 1918 had the same front appearance as the cars of the period because all the trucks at that time were light duty vehicles.  Through the years, truck lines were expanded to include many different types and sizes so that passenger car styling began to look incongruous on them.  In 1934 Chevrolet began the practice of designing a totally different concept especially for trucks.

In those days, the range of truck sizes and gross vehicle weights were narrow enough so that one truck design looked good for the whole truck lineup.  As the truck line expanded it became too difficult, in Chevrolet’s opinion, for one design to be correct for both light and heavy duty models.  For 1947 Chevrolet cast all compromise aside and divided its truck lines into two groups - the Thriftmaster and Loadmaster groups, and gave each group its individual set of front appearance parts.  The same cab was used for both groups.  The differences in styling occurred from the cowl forward.  The two groups were styled alike to maintain a decided family-resemblance but were scaled to different proportions as seen in the chart on the right.

Chevrolet called this new styling to fit light and heavy duty trucks “Load-Proportioned” styling.  Let’s look at the various elements included in the “Load-Proportioned” styling, to see how they differ and improve on the 1946 style.

Home

I would like to thank Lisa Nardini for transcribing the text from an almost unreadable copy of the LCVA articles.

COMPARATIVE
DIMENSIONS

WIDTH
ACROSS TRUCK

• radiator grill
• headlamps center
• fenders
• cab base

HEIGHT
ABOVE FRAME

• radiator grille top
• headlamp centers
• hood (at front)
• hood (at rear)
• fender tops
• cab top

LENGTH TO
COWL FACE

• from grill nose
• from fender face

36"
60"
72"
99"

23"
34 3/8"
29 1/2"
30 3/4"
17 1/2"
52 1/2"

49 1/2"
45"