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GM Oddities 88 K30 Standard Cab old style?

MTBLAZER89

MTBLAZER89

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BSing about Chevy trucks at work the other day and a guy mentions a truck he used to own. He is fairly knowledgeable 73-87 guy. He told me he owned an 88 Single cab K30 dually in the 73-87 body style.

I questioned the year and body style and he said he knows the change over was 88 except Crew Cabs, K5's and Burbs, but the title and door plate both said 88.

From what I know single cab Duallys were fairly rare to begin with and then to be an 88 year in the old style :dunno: I searched around a little, but couldn't find much.

What say the masses?

Anybody else own/see an odd ball GM that isn't what it should be?
 
Don't forget the Cab and Chassis K30's remained the old square body style through '91. You see a lot of 88-91 square body tow trucks around here...

Rene
 
The k30's didnt' change over til a little later than the 1/2 tons. Just like in 1999-2000. Its not the cab style or the single/drw, its the 1 ton part that makes the difference. They made the 80's body style K30 til 91 IICR, cause you could get one with a 4l80e the last year, and 91 was the only year of the 4l80e in the burb.
 
image378250.img


For sale too!
http://www.classyauto.com/v/used/Chevrolet+Pickup/K30+Scottsdale+4x4,+Dual+Wheels/80974
 
That red one looks identical to my '87. Same color, same Scottsdale, same everything but red interior and an automatic instead of standard.

Wonder if I could fetch close to that asking price when I get done with it.......
 
dhcomp said:
The k30's didnt' change over til a little later than the 1/2 tons. Just like in 1999-2000. Its not the cab style or the single/drw, its the 1 ton part that makes the difference. They made the 80's body style K30 til 91 IICR, cause you could get one with a 4l80e the last year, and 91 was the only year of the 4l80e in the burb.
Click to expand...

I don't know, because in '88 you could get a nbs K3500 pickup. Could you still get the obs K30's in pickup form after '87? Or just cab and chassis?
 
My old 89 was a K3500 IFS crap.

They sold both style trucks, depending what you wanted. You could get an OOBS crew, but not the newer style. Same with an ext. cab.
 
dhcomp said:
The k30's didnt' change over til a little later than the 1/2 tons. Just like in 1999-2000. Its not the cab style or the single/drw, its the 1 ton part that makes the difference. They made the 80's body style K30 til 91 IICR, cause you could get one with a 4l80e the last year, and 91 was the only year of the 4l80e in the burb.
Click to expand...


It's not a 1 ton thing, the '88 new body style K3500 breaks this rule - it is a body thing. Yes, square bodies were available thru '91 but only under certain conditions (as stated); K5, Sub, 4 door and cab & chassis.

My money is that any '88+ square body, 2 door truck is a cab & chassis. Of course, the only way to prove this would be standing next to the truck to check the frame shape and/or wheelbase.
 
GM is notorious for using up old parts (at least that's how I think about it)... my K3500 and my sister's C2500 are both perfect examples...
They are both 2000's but are the same as the 88'-98's...

As was mentioned earlier they tend to start changing the 1/2 tons first and slowly but surely they make their way to the 3/4 and 1 ton trucks which apparently can take up to a year or two.
 
Like avery stated, my 2000 c2500 crew cab short bed is a obs body. just a carry over that only a few models didnt change at the same time. ive heard different reasons.
 
There was a member in Hawaii on ORC/Chevy years ago with a '88 old body style pickup. Single cab long bed. Swore up and down it was original.

I have a feeling GM kept it around just long enough to use up left over parts and satisfy the few orders they were getting for the old body.
 
There is a fella locally has has an 88 Reg cab longbox 3/4 ton 2wd pickup of the old bodystyle. I didn't believe him till I saw it for myself. Sure enough, the VIN was 88 on both the dash and the frame, and it was most definitely a factory longbox truck.
 
88/91 r/v

In 1988 to 1991 you could get the older GM truck It was called R for 2WD and V for 4WD. It came in both regular and crew cabs. The main reason this was done is that the frame on the new 88 version tapered to the rear and most if not all after market bodys such a dumps and wreckers would not fit. Also a lot of people still wanted the solid front axle on the 4x4's. GM came out with a straight frame rail version in 1992 and so was the end of the R/V.
 
Each time they've transitioned to a new body style, they'll continue to sell old body styles until they're out. For some reason they won't simply label them the previous year, so each time they've changed over there are a few trucks (such as in 88) that are OOBS, while the majority are OBS. Same happened when they switched to NBS, and NNBS (I think that's what they're calling the really new ones...)
 
Russell said:
There is a fella locally has has an 88 Reg cab longbox 3/4 ton 2wd pickup of the old bodystyle. I didn't believe him till I saw it for myself. Sure enough, the VIN was 88 on both the dash and the frame, and it was most definitely a factory longbox truck.
Click to expand...


Its not that I dont believe you... But I wont believe it until I see one for myself! I can confidently say that I've never seen an 88-91 old body style, regular cab, long bed, SRW.

I've seen many of the same truck, but no bed- they were cab and chassis. For some reason (they are they toughest trucks ever!) the railroads seemed to buy these trucks for various uses. I have some old pics, but its gonna take me forever to find them.

sorry to hi-jack... but I attached a pic of a typical "railroad truck".

Its too bad the military stopped buying CUCVs after 86 or 87. :( I wish they made them until 91. My ultimate dream, is they would have continued to build the square bodies until today, for military or industrial use.

mnchirailertruck1[1].jpg
 
It would be a V30, not a K30, they stopped using C/K in 1986, all 1987+ of the older body style are R/V. They did that to seperate the two body styles when ordering parts, etc.

My guess is that it was a cab and chassis, but that one listed doesn't look to be a cab and chassis. Odd really.

I know they made K3500 and C3500's in 1988, which would be the newer body style. It might be a special order type of deal which was still available in '88, but I have never seen one. I know you could order some odd combinations. A lot of 1/2 ton with 4.3 V6's got TH400's.

I have seen 1989 V2500 3+3 pickups (I think 1989 was the year they changed the designation from V10, V20, V30 to V1500, V2500, and V3500, correct me if I am wrong), but I believe that was the last year for the three quarter ton crew cab.

Martin
 
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