Student rides: Josh Pridmore’s 1994 Chevy Silverado Stepside
Cars and trucks often become cherished members of the family; they’re passed down generation to generation for everyone in the family to enjoy and remember simpler times. Pridmore’s family is no exception as he still drives around in his grandfather’s 1994 Chevy Silverado Stepside.
On Mother’s Day in 1994, Pridmore’s grandfather walked into the Chevy dealership and purchased the all black four wheel drive Silverado. The truck is fairly unique being a 4×4 stepside as most ordered and on the road were the basic two wheel drive variant, and the fact that it only has 61,000 original miles on it.
Stepping into it is always a throwback to 1990’s style from the funky yet comfortable bucket seats to the laughably small back seat and the window louvers that make the whole truck dark. The truck even clung onto its new car smell, so everytime you step in you get a nice whiff of 1994 new car.
Josh’s grandfather gave him the truck the day of his 16th birthday last year. Since then he has done quite a few minor modifications to it including a new cat back exhaust system, new beefy tires, a custom roll over bar made specifically for stepside pickup trucks and quite a few light bars to tie it all together.
Now, I should elaborate on what a “stepside” pickup truck is: a stepside truck is when instead of having a conventional square bed, it instead has little steps near the front and rear of the truck bed. Stepsides are great because they are extremely easy to load things in and out of the bed without having to put the tailgate down, hence the name “stepside”.
The truck isn’t the Duramax that Josh Pridmore always wanted; however, it will never be sold to make room for one because the truck itself and memories created within it are irreplaceable.
“I used to sit in it when I was a little kid and imagine driving it. Now I’m living my toddler selves dream,” Pridmore said. “The truck is priceless to me so with that said, I could never sell it.”
Despite not being a diesel truck it still is equipped with a healthy 5.7 liter Chevy V8 which produces around 200 horsepower and about 300 foot pounds of torque. The V8 combined with its four wheel drive system makes it unstoppable in the snow and mud and an ideal truck for year round driving. His grandfather drove it every winter for twenty two years without a hiccup, which proves its capability and reliability. As with any old vehicle, it has its fair share of faults from it stalling out when turning and backing into a space, and the plastic trim that has broken over time throughout the interior.
Despite those small issues the truck is definitely a future classic due to its appealing classic boxy design and the fact that it has no rust at all. Never in my life have I seen a truck that even comes close to the immaculate condition that Josh’s Chevy is in. Somehow Chicago’s brutal winters spared this truck from becoming another rusted out casualty. The clean body and the low milage ties the whole deal together making this truck extremely unique as when they were new people used them as they were designed to be used for which was work.
Anything from construction, landscaping, or plowing killed off a good portion of these trucks and the few that remain today in good condition will one day become collectable to those who who grew up with them. This truck however, will forever be in Josh’s possession where it will always be maintained, stored far away from the corrosive winter roads and loved.
Noah Krauter is a junior at York this year. He is super interested in fast cars and reading quality books. He spends most of his time trying to fix his...
