This marks the end of an era. There’s been a Toyota Chinook parked in front of this house in my neighborhood for as long as I can remember. It used to be an older one, a ’77. It got replaced by this later version a few years back. That turned out to be a bad move. Today as I biked by, I noticed a For Sale sign on it as well as the owner standing out front. I pulled over and asked him about it. It’s not exactly a happy story, but presumably it well end soon.
The camper body looks a bit unhappy sitting on its chassis; that’s because it’s an older body that was moved to this ’84 truck.
I was sure I had shot the older ’77 that used to sit there, and I may well have, but finding it the thousands of cars I’ve shot and not catalogued might make that a bit difficult. But here’s a fine example of one of the several others I’ve shot and posted, found just a block away. These Toyota Chinooks were built between 1973 and 1978, and were surprisingly popular, especially on the West Coast. They offered a fully equipped compact and fuel efficient camper for $7995, considerably cheaper than a VW Westfalia camper bus.
They still have a pretty strong following, and some have had a lot of money invested in substantial upgrades and restorations, like this one converted to four wheel drive. The very strong following that the older Toyota pickups have has of course had a big influence on that.
Remounting the camper body on a later chassis is not uncommon, although more commonly it’s done on a 4×4 pickup, like this 1984.
This is the only one I’ve seen mounted on a dually Toyota chassis. I don’t know the details of this truck, whether it came with rear duals originally or was modified, but certainly it doesn’t hurt to have extra capacity back there. In fact, the early Toyota Chinooks did have an issue with that, and the 9175 models had a stouter frame as well as a sturdier rear axle.
The owner, an older guy who shares my name, told me that this one has a rebuilt engine. And had a lot of other repairs. In fact, he admitted that this ’84 had been vastly more troublesome than the ’77 he had for many years and regrets having made the change. He was into it to the tune of $18k, purchase price and repairs. Ouch.
My beloved but departed ’77 Dodge Chinook cost ma all of $1200 to buy and put in maybe another $1500 or $2000 or so, over the 15 years we had it. One big difference is that I did a lot of my work; Paul, the Toyota Chinook owner is dependent on mechanics. And they’ve gotten quite expensive.
Paul opened up the back to show me the inside. Obviously these really need to have the top popped to get a sense of the space available. But they are cozy; something to slip, not walk into.
But all the basics are covered, with storage, a fridge, cooktop and sink, although a portapotty of some kind was extra.
Not sure how the bed was used during the day and night.
This interior is from that brown 4×4 shown further above. That truck sold for $51k on BAT back in 2020.
I asked Paul what he’s asking for. He said that based on some research, he’s starting with an asking price of $7,000. But he may have to come down some, he admitted. Hopefully no less than $5,000.
He also preferred the manual transmission on the older ’77 he had. This one is an automatic.
If anyone is interested, here’s his number. Might be a fun project. Everyone seemingly wants a camper, and this one has potential.
I’ll be sorry to see the last of its kind in my neighborhood go away, but all things must pass.
Here’s some more Toyota Chinook reading at CC:
CC Outtake: The Well-Insulated Toyota Chinook Camper by me
CC Outtake: Toyota Chinook – Agnes by me
CC Capsule: Toyota Chinook Pop-Up Camper – Suddenly It’s 1978 by me
Curbside Outtake: Toyota Chinook – The Sun Never Sets On These by me
Curbside Outtake: Toyota Chinook – With Upper Story Plumbing by me
Oof, that last photo really shows the overall discomfort of the vehicle. Those bits really don’t want to be together.
Hopefully Paul can get some of his money out of it, there’s no project like a bad project!
Oh man, I agree with Doug in that there’s something so uncomfortable about how the camper body fits onto that truck. If I were seeing it in person, I’d absolutely be crawling around that rear end trying to figure out just where things had gone wrong. I think you can even see from the interior shots how the whole body just isn’t hanging together properly.
If owner-Paul were able to address that, he might be able to get close to his $5000…but I’m afraid that unless he can fix that up, this is only something that will sell for less or worse yet to someone who pays the asking price and then winds up with much more than they can handle.
Someone in my area had a camper on a dually Toyota chassis, but it was bigger than this Chinook – more like this Dolphin I found a photo of online. I remember wondering at the time if I had ever seen a Toyota truck with dual rear tires before.
I agree with everyone – something is off about this combination. There is nothing worse than buyer’s remorse, especially when something over four figures is involved.
Take the camper off and turn it into a yardboy truck. One of my local landscapers was using an old 80s Toyota dually for that purpose, it had a custom made bed with a swing down ramp. Just like you see on much larger Izuzu cabover trucks.
A few months ago we had two immaculate Chinooks, one a 4wd Toyota and one a Dodge B Series, visit our neighborhood. That prompted me to do a little research into the brand history. They started in Southern California, had financial difficulties in the early 2000’s and were briefly reincarnated in Eugene, Oregon. The brand was bought by another RV company headquartered in Indiana (of course) and is now marketed as “The Sports Car of Motorhomes”. The Chinook name refers to the main species of west coast salmon, also known as the King Salmon; the Chinook salmon’s historical provenance is in the watersheds of the Santa Cruz Mountains behind my house. Below is a photo of my recent neighborhood visitors.
Interesting! I think I would rather have had a Westfalia, but can understand why someone seeking Toyota reliability would have bought a Chinook.
Even a rusty, non running VW is still worth aboyt $7k these days and in the covid times they were double that.
Thing is, this particular Chinook doesen’t look structurally sound, even after having put so much $$$ into it, so I doubt there would be many takers even at around $5k.
Whether it’s a Chinook, Dolphin, or any other camper body, I’ll always be fascinated by these Toyota minitruck campers.
I predict Pick-A-Part will be hauling this travesty away once he tires of the bottom feeders who come to look at it .
-Nate
I like the fiberglass Chinook campers better than the stick built ones as less leak prone. I just have my doubts about performance. Although parts are more challenging a grey import HiAce has more speed and more space. I’ve seen a bunch of them in and around Bend, although most are Toyota LiteAce or Mitsubishi Delica based because they have 4 wheel drive