The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Dealer installed

I read a lot about "dealer installed options" back when I started the vehicles came thru stripped any option was installed by the dealer,such as heaters,radios,clocks,continetal kits,ect.

They would even take options from one vehicle and install it on another. They did whatever it took to make the sale.

First, 1953 panel is correct.

The official names of GM items installed on new vehicles delivered by GM to the dealer were:

Standard Equipment - the base equipment as described in Truck Data Books (at least into the early 60s)

Optional Equipment - factory Regular Production Options (RPO) - this were add-on or optional equipment ordered by the dealer and installed at the factory.

Accessory Equipment - GM Truck Accessories were ordered by the dealer or by the owner - these accessories were installed by the dealer, by the owner, or by anyone.

Special Orders (from the factory) - usually these were paint options for colors/combinations not listed as RPOs

Special Equipment and/or Vocational Equipment (sometimes described in the Truck Data Book and listed in the Silver Book for that year) - special bodies and special equipment, such as dump bed, ambulance, school buses, specially-equipped step-vans, "woody" bodies, etc. - the dealer would take the order and the factory and special-equipment company coordinated the transportation/delivery.

In 1953 and 1954, Chevrolet stated that "Approximately 65% of all Chevrolet trucks sold require some alteration or the addition of some item of vocational equipment to meet the user's requirements."

And, the dealer might install any GM or other after-market parts/accessories that suited the dealer's and/or the owner's fancy.

Im going back to the 50s and there were no acc. in or on them. If you wanted a heater we went to the parts room and got one and installed it.By 1957 this was a thing of the past,but regarding these old trucks of the 30s and 40s anything on them would have been dealer installed I would think.

What about the optional 4 speed in a half ton? Was that done by the dealer?

as Tim points out, there's a difference in Regular Production Options, normally installed during "production", and Dealer Installed Options, which may have been either retrofitted RPO's or Accessories

and there's 2 categories to consider here, vehicles that were sent to the dealers "on spec" and vehicles that were ordered by the dealers, either cuz they knew what would sell in their market or cuz an individual customer ordered it - those 2 categories would have been different in different areas of the country, remember there were a dozen "factories" producing trucks for different areas .... not many trucks produced in Los Angeles or Oakland for dealers in SoCal or AZ would have had factory installed heaters, many produced in Flint likely would have had the standard heaters, with some percentage sent to dealers that sold more "upscaled" vehicles having the deluxe heater, and of course some "base models" with no heater

Bill

Here is a web site showing some options back in the late 40s and early 50s for the Chevy trucks.

http://53truck.ez15loan.com/howto/accessories01.htm

As posted by Red, heaters were accessories until sometime in the late 50s. There was no standard heater installed in trucks up through at least 1956. However, the heater was an accessory at least through 1956 (a dealer or owner installed accessory). I do not have 57-59 documents.

But, in the 1960 Truck Data Book, a heater was listed as a factory installed option: RPO-116 Recirculating heater; or, RPO-101 De Luxe heater (and, of course a heater could be installed in a standard heater-less 1960 truck - installed by the dealer or by the owner).

Original/reproduction GM accessory lists are available from at least 1947 onwards. And, the Truck Data Books list and described the options that could be ordered from the factory.

Many factory (factory-installed) options are listed as being available on Chevrolet trucks in 1941 (and in 1946), but not listed in 1939 (at that time, it looks like you bought a truck and that was it).

Of course, dealer-installed and owner-installed accessories (made by GM and by other companies) could be obtained in any year (to add "value" and features for the customer, and to add $$$ for the dealer).

Bill,

Those 1955 heaters are "Accessories" listed under the overall title "Options" (at your "Optional Accessories" link).

It looks like the RPO numbers (part number suffix) you are showing are for Canadian numbers/options/codes? USA Option numbers do not use the part numbers (from the parts catalog). The USA accessories are listed as part numbers.

Thanks for the information about 1957 heaters. That "dealer installed style" is not a USA truck Advance-Design heater. Might be a 47-55 Canadian Chevrolet truck and/or a GMC style heater.

USA Chevrolet Truck info is given below:

Option numbers (not part numbers) are shown in USA Truck Data Books in 1946 but not in 1941. Those option numbers were listed as "OPTIONAL EQUIPMENT" in the 1946, 1947, and 1949 TDBs and are listed as "REGULAR PRODUCTION OPTIONS" in 1951-1956.

"dealer installed style" . . . not listed in factory literature [holdover from AD years? . .
I have not seen that style of heater on any USA Advance-Design truck (47-55) - Sorry.

The closest appearance would be the Recirculating Heater in Advance-Design USA trucks (here is an illustration - the common recirculating heater is at the bottom).

Your links to RPO987641 and RPO987641 are not necessarily a confirmation that GM used the part number with the RPO designation, unless those installation instruction came from an Accessory Installation Manual. My guess is that whoever made those two web pages placed scans of the installation instructions with a top-of-page "label" that was typed into the web page, above the illustration/image. The RPO987641 and RPO987641 designations are not part of the scanned illustration/instructions. I'd be interested in seeing the complete entry in the installation instructions. Yes, I have seen the Index to that Installation Manual, but it is not a scan of the index.

I am not arguing with you, and, I am not interested in arguing with you. I am only interested in seeing complete original documentation.

Thanks,

Tim, if you need primary documentation I'll defer to the vendors, sorry for the distraction

Bill

Good discussion.. To answer 53 panel the drive line was established at the factory.Just a sideline,I had a cousin that bought a 59 Chev car that had a recirculating heater in it????

Well, Bill. Thank you. That establishes what was printed in 1957. And, it clarifies that the part number that is shown at the top of this page came from the manual and was combined with this image. Thank you for confirming this.


And, that almost answers your question: "question: when did the term "RPO" start? the RPO numbers are actually the part numbers of the item". The item being an accessory (in this case).

In 1957, your documentation shows that the acronym "RPO" was used with accessories, and the actual part number of the accessory was used as the suffix.

That was not the case for Chevrolet truck accessories through at least 1954. The acronym "RPO" was not used for accessories; however, the part number was used to ID/order the accessories. I do not have an Accessory Installation Manual after 1954, so I do not know when the terminology RPO+part-number started to be used. Here is how the part numbers are listed for accessories in 1955/55-1st. And, here is an example of an instruction-page.

Do you have an accessories price list for 1957? Here is how accessory part numbers are listed in the 1954 price list.


Through at least 1956 and in 1960 (the years for which I have USA Truck Data books), RPO was used for Regular Production Options (factory installed options) and the number was the RPO number, not the part number.


Back to the heaters, the accessory Chevrolet Truck heaters for the two years after the Advance-Design years, were distinctly different from the heaters sold by GM for Advance-Design trucks. Here is a scan for 1955 and 1956 truck heaters (sorry, but I do not have the part numbers). A link to illustrations of 1954 heaters is in a post above. The 1947 USA Truck Data Book has another style of heater that was not available in later A-D years, but it does not look like the heater you link-to above. Here is the accessory heater page from the 1954 General Motors of Canada Chevrolet Truck Sales Data Book. The heater on the top looks a lot like the heater you show.

Oops, sorry about my delay in responding. Bill's posts/links are gone. Too bad, because I think the common accessory heater that Bill asked about is a Canadian GM heater, but there is now nothing to compare to?

added later:
I found Bill's earlier posts in my cache - here is the heater in question. It does not look exactly like the one in the Canadian GM data book but the emblem is somewhat similar.