---

Stepside/Fleetside vs. Flareside/Styleside

Probably one of the most-common mistakes made when talking about Ford pickup trucks relates to bed styles vernacular, so let's discuss this.

Up through 1956, all major American pickup manufacturers were producing one pickup bed style, which had the rear wheelwells outside the bed. There was no reason to call the bed (or cargo box) anything special...no specific tradenames...because they were all the same; there were no variations.

But starting in 1957, a new bed style was introduced by Ford and added to the existing line-up, a bed which had smooth bedsides and the rear wheelwells INSIDE the bed. Since they now that two different bed styles, a way of differentiating between them was needed, so their new smooth box style was dubbed 'Styleside', while their conventional cargo box with external rear fenders was named 'Flareside' and those two marketing terms were trademarked.

Chevrolet announced their new smooth-side 'Fleetside' bed on March 9, 1958, which was more than halfway through the '58 model year. Their new '59 pickup trucks were the first to use their new 'fleetside' and 'stepside' tradenames. Yes, that's right...Ford drivers were enjoying their flareside pickups for nearly two years before Chevrolet introduced their 'stepside' models.

The other auto manufacturers immediately followed Ford's lead with their own smooth-sided cargo boxes and as a result, each manufacturer had to have a way of differentiating between the two bed styles to their customers.  Each manufacturer came up with their own trademarked name for each bed style and this name applied to ONLY their products and used exclusively in ALL their own advertising. However, these trademarked names are NOT universal or interchangeable between manufacturers!

'STEPSIDE' is a Chevrolet-only tradename!
NEVER use 'stepside' to describe a Ford 'flareside'.

MANUFACTURER	REAR WHEELWELLS INSIDE THE BED	REAR WHEELWELLS OUTSIDE THE BED
Ford	Styleside® (1957)	Flareside® (1957)
Chevrolet	Fleetside® (1958)	Stepside® (1959)
GMC	Wideside® (1958)	Fenderside® (1958)
Dodge	Sweptline® (1959)	Utiline® (1959)

It's been claimed by a few in the discussion of Ford trucks that Ford didn't incorporate the 'flareside' name until the '90s. As you've learned already, that isn't accurate. However, what's probably confusing them is that in 1992 Ford released a special-edition sport F150 with 'Flareside' nameplates, celebrating it's unique style and bring the registered 'flareside' tradename out into the mainstream. So for some, this was the first time they'd been made consciously aware of it's use. But as you've learned, it had actually been used exclusively by Ford for the previous 35 years!          These 1992 Flareside dealer brochure images courtesy of http://www.lov2xlr8.no

 

 

 

GMC - Wideside® and Fenderside®   1958 GMC pickup ads First mention of tradename 'Wideside'.   1959 GMC pickup ads - no mention of tradenames  1961 GMC pickup dealer brochure 1971 GMC pickup dealer brochure 1971 GMC pickup dealer brochure 70's factory dealer brochure pages showing Wideside and Fenderside tradenames 1977 GMC pickup ads 1979 GMC pickup dealer brochure This page from the 1987 GMC trucks dealer's brochure shows a 'Wideside' crewcab dually So as you can see, GMC's truck division didn't use the 'stepside' tradename because it wasn't a GM tradename, it was a Chevrolet-only tradename, exactly like 'Silverado' or 'C-10' was.

 

As you can see, each manufacturer had their own unique tradename for their respective bed versions. Some might argue that the term 'stepside' has become a generic description to describe all pickup beds with external rear wheelwells.  Granted, usage of the 'stepside' term has become a very common mistake, and it's usually due to truck enthusiasts incorrectly thinking that Chevrolet's tradename is a generic term describing all conventional bed styles and then passing along this misinformation to a new generation. It's NOT an industry standard nor has it ever been a universal term! Ford has never EVER used the term 'stepside' in any of their advertising...and neither has GMC.

And neither should you! And here's why...

Tradenames are registered for a specific purpose: to prevent misidentification with other manufacturer's products, as well as to distinguish them apart from their competitor's products. While it's possible to put a 'Muncie' 4-speed transmission into a Ford product, you can't call it a 'Toploader', because it's not. While both are manual 4-speed car-type transmissions, Muncie is a Chevrolet transmission, a Toploader is a Ford transmission. The two legally-registered tradenames are unique identifiers of each respective product, registered by the manufacturer, and not interchangeable.