CC reader Gene Herman ran into this rather convincing conversion of a Dodge Caravan into a mini-pickup. I’ve seen crude hack jobs of this sort of thing, but this one is very professional. If someone didn’t know better, they’d undoubtedly be convinced it came from the factory like this, as a follow-up to the Dodge Rampage.
And its maker has dubbed it ‘Fargo’, the name used for so many years by Chrysler for its trucks sold in Canada and some other countries. Given how popular and well-loved the Caravan is in Canada, I might have tried to pull the wool over some eyes and claim it’s a factory truck. I can see some Canucks going for this; they’re so much more practical and thrifty than their profligate south of the border neighbors.
Here it is with its tailgate down. Very nice work.
Quite the contrast to this “woodie’ Caravan pickup I shot in Eugene a while back. The back of the cab is wide open, and the rear “tailgate” is held up by two bungee cords.
My only criticism is that its a short wheelbase Caravan; if it had been the long one, it would have been able to swallow 4×8 sheets just as well as a full-size pickup. Now that’s something to contemplate.
Note: a rerun of an older post.
That is one good looking pickup!
I bet if Chrysler actually made those, they would have sold a ton of them. Thats some nice work there.
Superb concept, excellent workmanship!! I’m particularly impressed with the tailgate: OEM style hardware, fully functional, and especially clever the “wrap-around” above the tail light (perhaps not 100 percent practical in every situation, but a good solution to what posed a challenging problem.) I agree that this would nearly pass for a factory job. With the location of the rear axle as far back as it is, this would have been a good riding truck when loaded, unlike some of the new trucks that have a short bed, a long cab, and a more forward mounted rear axle. Assuming a load of uniform weight for the full length of the bed, many new factory trucks would actually unload the front axle, whereas this conversion would allow the front axle to carry a fairly substantial part of the load, which is a much better-driving, more stable condition. Chrysler should have marketed something close to identical to this; it strikes me as nearly perfect for a small truck (unlike the Rampage and its brethren.) Kudos to the builder! And near me in New England of all places — Brattleboro, Vermont by my reckoning.
I want one – with AWD please!
Yes!! Me, too! Even better! Combine a 5 speed with the AWD system they used in these, and you’d have the dream truck many of us have wished for. Even without AWD, this would have been able to run circles around a comparable little Toyota on Nissan 2WD truck of the same era. I had a Toyota 2WD long bed for a short while back then, and unloaded it could get stuck on a patch of wet grass! One of these would have done everything I ordinarily did with my truck routinely, and mercifully I always had a 4WD American gas-hog in reserve for really heavy loads or plowing snow (New England, remember.) Nevertheless, hooray for Front Wheel Drive!
Honda built it – it’s called the Ridgeline.
Not exactly, the Ridgeline is the same 4dr sedan with no trunk lid that everybody makes.
Ridgeline, Passport and Pilot were all a share from B- pillar forward back in 2017. Not sure they still are now, haven’t studied them.
Looks like a REALLY GOOD body man had a rolled Caravan and had been watching too many reruns of Red/Green
Wish you had a pic of the curbside, I’d like to see what they did with the sliding door.
Wow that is well done, I like it, I really like it. I wonder how cramped and upright the cab is? Still, excellent execution.
It would never sell in today’s world, at least in the US as it in no way resembles a semi.