When I was younger, I decided the ultimate vehicle was a 4×4 turbo-diesel camper van. The desire to be as free and self-sufficient as possible, and able to go wherever the spirit called was powerful. I fulfilled that partly with my ’68 Dodge A100 back in the 70s, as well as our ’77 Dodge Chinook in more recent years. So whenever I see vans like this, especially with a license plate from across the country, I stop and give a moment’s reflection accompanied with an inevitable tinge of jealously.
My apologies for the sun rays that spoiled the picture, but we can make out a rather burly version of Ford’s evergreen Econoline. I’m not sure it’s possible to divine its year of manufacture; my Econoline Rosetta Stone for interpreting the subtle changes to its grille has gone AWOL. But my best shot is that it’s one of the first few years of this generation, which started in 1975. I’ll call it a ’76, because I would have really wanted one then. A survivalist survivor. And adorned with a deer skull, no less.
The plates are from Vermont; a place that is sometimes associated with Oregon. I think the two states have the highest percentage of Subarus; or at least did so back in the 70s, when Subarus were almost unknown elsewhere.
I initially had “Econoline” in the title, but it really is a Club Wagon, with its windows all-round, as well as the badge on the rear identifying it as such. Love those air horns; just the right touch. And to let folks know you’re coming to a blind curve on a one-lane back-country road.
What I wouldn’t have given for this in 1976, as a recent arrival to California; just the ticket to explore its infinite natural wonders. Well, that an an infinite-limit credit card; these big Fords do get thirsty.
Sweet! Always loved these 4WD conversion vans. They actually got mildly popular around here, in Oregon, in the mid ’70’s or so. I think most of them are still around here.
quote “I think most of them are still around here.”
Who can afford to drive them any further?
quote “these big Fords do get thirsty.”
Understatement of the year-What would this thing get off-road, 5-6 MPG or so? Just wondering.
“Understatement of the year-What would this thing get off-road, 5-6 MPG or so? Just wondering.”
On a good day……………… 🙂
Nice looking Club Wagon and due to the lack of rust I doubt it is a Green Mountain State native, I do not even see an inspection sticker on the top center windshield. Vermont sure is a lovely place and out of the 500,000 or so Vermonters I have yet to meet a rude one. Driving there can be a bit tricky due to the topography, types of roads, and Moose; taking your time is the way to go. I too would love to travel more and be free as a bird, but life has a way of tying you down even if it is for the best. Am tempted to mount a skull on my vehicle, but that works better for some than others.
Life-long Vermonter here. The part about the roads only applies if you like dirt roads. Me? Don’t care for them, especially during mud season. Moose? Never seen one. Did kill two deers with my Ranger though. Deer 0 Ranger 2.
That is just wild! I can’t believe it. Here I am in Vermont and I’ve never seen this van, yet Paul sees it parked on a street in Oregon! It’s just not fair. If they ever come home, and I see this van, I’ll try to talk to the owner so I can get the story behind it. But before I do that, I’ll read the stickers in the rear windows so I can get an idea of who it is I’m about to talk to (and if I dare to). I can remember seeing only a couple of these 4×4 conversions, and that was a long time ago. This Ford is a world away from the ’65 Deluxe Club Wagon that Dad bought back in ’67. It’s 240 six took it a lot farther on a tank of gas than this one’s 400 or 460(?) ever will. But, what a ride!
Every once in a while I see a Quigley 4×4 conversion and it makes me smile every time.
They are still making them, but I wonder for how much longer. I think the traditional van is in its last days, slowly but surely being replaced by the likes of the Sprinter, Transit and ProMaster.
It will be a long time before the traditional van is not seen anymore. GM is still making theirs and they tend to stay around for a long long time since they are mainly used as tools or RVs. Many people take care of their tools because it is their source of income. RVs often hand around for a long time because they don’t get that many miles per year.
Those Chevy Express “dachshund” vans are often used as airport-hotel shuttles too, at least in western Canada in the last few years. I wonder how they hold up under those conditions? The last one I rode in was a few years ago at Calgary airport, and remember being impressed by the throaty sound. and how easily it whisked a load of us to speed. A far cry from the early 80’s 305 & 350 smogger Chevyvans that I used to drive in various part-time jobs in the 80s.
I meant that I don’t believe GM will continue on with theirs much longer, and you will no longer be able to buy a new traditional van and Quigley may not have as good of platforms to work with for 4×4 conversions.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The new ones are a lot more space efficient. And these old ones have a horrible safety record. So bad, in fact, that some insurers won’t cover a 15 passenger version used as a transport.
@Phil L: I remember chauffeuring most of the extended family once in a rented 15-pass. van. Brand-new or not, it felt very squirrely on the highway, and I was relieved to turn it in at the gathering’s end. I can see why insurers might balk–interesting info!
It will be interesting to see what GM does. I have a feeling that their market share will possibly go up as some of the Ford loyal may be a bit leery of the Transit.
I expect that the safety record of the new crop of 15 passenger vans being used by churches and schools will be at least as bad and for a couple of reasons I wouldn’t be surprised if it is worse.
The reality is that a big reason that they are prone to crash is the driver. Way too many of the drivers of the church and school owned vans have never driven one before. So they go charging into that corner that is marked say 45mph at 55mph because they can get away with it in their sedan.
The insurance company studies have also shown that a blow out is also a very common root cause of the roll over and off the road type of accidents. The church vans are especially susceptible because those vans often don’t rack up many miles. So they are running around on seriously ancient tires that are far more likely to blow out. They also found that it is very common for the tires to be seriously under inflated. If someone actually looks at the tires they go yup they got tread. If they do check the pressure they go yup 35psi just like my Camcord when in fact they need 80psi on the rear.
I fear that the new generation vans will actually make things worse. Yes they have stabilty control but the previous crop of vans has had it for many years.
There are 3 reasons I think the new vans will be worse.
#1 they are much more refined that the vans of yore. I expect that will lull the drivers into thinking that again they can get away with driving it like their sedan. So again they’ll be attempting to take that corner marked at 45 at 55 when they should really be doing 40.
#2 the new crop of vans have a higher center of gravity thanks to their tall roofs.
#3 many of the higher capacity versions have dual rear wheels. Now many people will think that this would help. However the way these new vans are set up they do not add to the track width like on a dually pickup. They other problem is back to the inflation thing. If they do think to try to check the pressure they will get to the rear and many won’t have the proper gauge to get a reading on either of the rear tires. Dual wheels can be quite dangerous to drive when one of them is flat or seriously under inflated and since there is that other one to share the load you can have one flat tire and it not be noticeable until you get up to speed. It also means that the one good one is much more likely to blow out.
Personally I don’t have a problem riding in a 15 pass van that is owned by a transportation company and is driven by a professional driver. I do it for work a few times per year. Get me into a school owned unit, maybe, a church owned unit, no way in hell.
Eric, IMO you are correct about these vehicles being very different from traditional cars. I’m going back a ways here, but back in the mid sixties, Dad’s ’65 Deluxe Club Wagon was a totally different animal to drive. You had to learn to drive these vehicles and respect their limitations. Dad purposely demonstrated that that bus swayed violently at 60 mph. It was totally tame at lower speeds and Dad loved it. He was, however, afraid to drive our neighbor’s Corvair Greenbrier due to it’s instability in the wind. I believe that driver’s today are careless behind the wheel and count on modern safety features way too much. In all honesty, the worst drivers I encounter are female tailgaters driving minivans, pickups and suvs while holding a cell phone in one hand. Put those types of drivers behind the wheel of a big van, and . . .
2014 was the final year for the Ford E-Series. Replaced by the Transit. Wow, I feel old, the last of these in ’14 was essentially a heavily facelifted and re-engineered Nantucket Project that debuted in 1975 when I was just finishing Grade 9.
To this. Is this the Panther of full-size vans, considering all the permutations, eventually evolved into something that shared little with it’s ancestors,
just like Grandpa’s axe.
Well by the end the only part on a 2012 Panther that was shared with a 1979 Panther were the u joints and lug nuts.
The van shared the radius arm brackets u joints and lug nuts, but it got most of its changes in one fell swoop.
Reminds me of the Hot Wheels Ford van I had as a kid, complete with “real riders” Goodyear tires and opening hood. Nice to see such a survivor on the road! Looks to be in good shape, and has that “ready for anything” vibe.
I see a surprising number of 4×4 Econoline vans when I travel to the beach. (Outer Banks of NC). I guess the 4 wheel drive is popular in that area as there are still many places where you can drive on the beach, and in fact there is an entire town (Carova) that is only accessible that way since no paved road goes there. Also, as I witnessed, you can fit a longboard fully inside one of the extended models!
There was a 80 Econoline wagon a few blocks from where I live and I seriously considered buying it. That one was RWD with a 6 cylinder and 4 on the floor transmission, A/C and cruise. And like an idiot I passed on it.
That was one sweet 35 year old van….and only $2500.
I’ve seen one of these in Bend Oregon around the mountain bike trailheads. It has Oregon plates and the opposite color scheme of mostly brown with light color stripes. I think it was around an 86 and diesel as well and I thought it would make a good bike support vehicle, although I would lean towards a little less camper gear so I could put the bikes inside like the Sportsmobile Brian Lopes Sprinter conversions which have VW Westfalia level amenities and a dedicated cargo space under the rear bed.
There are a number of later style(post 92) 4×4 Econolines in my area, both wagon and camper type so I guess they are popular in the PNW.
“When I was younger… The desire to be as free and self-sufficient as possible, and able to go wherever the spirit called was powerful.”
Yeah. I grew out of that phase rapidly, for as soon as I actually had money to do just that, plus the vehicle to do it in, my 1976 C-20 complete with rear cap, I got engaged!
My brief fling to be as free as possible ended after only a year or so!
Looking back, the most care-free years of my life were in California in the USAF! However, most of my money went to the care and feeding on my beloved 1964 Impala SS convertible!
After all these years, my engagement and subsequent marriage were the best things ever to happen to me, so no regrets.
Those modified van conversions, while very practical for traveling, always seem to be the slowest, most beat-up vehicles on the road. Around here, they’re redneck buses. I call them “stupid, ugly vans”. You can add any and all negative stereotype terms to describe them, because 90% of them are true.
I really need a different high top Econoline. In the fall a large branch fell on my current one fracturing the fiberglass top significantly, breaking the windshield, passenger side mirror and putting a big dent in the hood. I was already at the point of thinking about replacing it because it needs new tires, the radiator is getting iffy as is the battery. The problem is you just can’t find the high top vans for sale, particularly one like I have with the extended doors. I haven’t found a better vehicle for use in house remodeling. You can fit huge things inside easily but it is a lot easier to drive and park than a step van or a high cube van. It is also easier on fuel not that I’m that concerened with MPG since it doesn’t see much use.
I notice a lot of them running around from a company that specializes in wheel chair transportation. I guess I need to find their number and inquire how they dispose of their vehicles when they are done with them. The one problem is the one that passed me last night had a propane diamond on the back. I hadn’t noticed that on other ones, just give me good old fashioned gasoline power. I’d prefer another Nantucket with the 351 but am not opposed to the newer version with the 4.6 or 5.4.
Paul
I can confirm the high percentage of Subarus in Vermont…. There are three cars in my Vermont driveway. 100% Subaru.
Two Volvo Cross Countrys in my Vermont driveway. I love the way they perform. Haven’t owned a Subaru. One huge difference between the two is that if I didn’t have a reasonably priced independent Volvo mechanic working on my cars and had to rely on the dealer, they’d both be for sale.
There’s just something…wrong… about taking a rust-free-enough to be drivable ’70s anything from Vermont to Oregon. Oh well, they probably gave it a future beyond rusting out in a couple winters.
I’ve seen a blue 4×4 converted Econovan around Melbourne a few times, but only a handful of other full-size American vans. They weren’t sold here and you could get a similar size Bedford CF or Transit van so there wasn’t much point except a larger engine, and it would be cheaper to drop in a V8 than import a US van.
CF Bedford had a 283 Chev engine optional on the Jumbo model of van and pickup cab chassis. Best and easiest coversion for performance for the smaller 4cyl CF range is to simply bolt in a 3.3 Cresta motor and diff centre doubles the hp and raises the gearing using stock Vauxhall components.
?? Paul had a Diesel powered 4X4 A-100 ?? .
-Nate
In my dreams 🙂
Very interesting vehicle. I have seen 4×4 vans lifted a lot higher than that one. They should make very nice traveling machines, with one very big problem. They probably get less than 10 mpg highway, which means it would cost more in gas to drive one across the country than they are worth.
Just a few days ago, I was driving east on I-40 between Flagstaff and Winslow, at my usual cruising speed of 55 mph. I got passed by a ’69 Westy, school bus yellow with a white pop up, with a hippie looking guy driving it. New Mexico plates. I caught up to him at a gas station in Holbrook. We looked it over and talked for awhile. It was a really nice setup. He had a home in NM, but spent a lot of time on the road in it. He was a disabled veteran. He claimed he got about 25 mpg highway with it. It was all stock with the single Solex carb. I immediately developed a bad case of envy. What a way to live. And what a vehicle to do it in. I would much rather have one of those than pretty much any kind of van. American conversion vans are cheap with some miles on them. Not the case with the Westys. Decent ones go for some serious money.
Well of course it depends on which engine, trans and axle ratio are in it as well as how it is driven. I’ve had a few Nantuckets and 12-15 is the range for the ones with the 302 or 351 and the good old 3sp C6 transmission. Now a 460 powered unit with some steep rear gears would probably be dipping into the single digits at least on occasion.
@ JunkyardDog :
Ya maybe on the Westy ~ when I was young and limber yes but now having a real stove and bed plus toilet might make me happier .
FWIW , those tossers who drove the old VW Vans up in price , don’t actually _like_ them or anything ~ God forbid they’d ever _DRIVE_ it anywhere , oh GHOD NO ! .
Might get it dusty ya know =8-^ .
I know people who run the wheels off million dollar cars , why not ? if you like it enough to buy it , USE the damn thing .
Rant over for now .
-Nate
(& GET OFFA MY LAWN !)
I bought a Vanagon, I drive it pretty much any time I can, and I have gone to music festivals, gone on camping trips, and hauled various large loads of cargo with it. I love my slow old breadbox! Also can vouch for the instability at higher speed. The old girl was riding on underrated passenger car tires when I got her. Scared the bajeesus out of me on the freeway until I got them swapped out for some proper shoes and even then I would not dare to take a corner above 35. If I wanted a car for show only I would have bought a 2 seater coupe, not a giant van.
When I bought my ’72 Westy, it was riding on substandard passenger car tires which were so badly worn that steel belts were poking through where tread once was. Ever run your hand over one of these? Ouch! I immediately purchased a set of 8 ply tires. I read that this was one of the standards that VW required of their suppliers of tires for their Type 2 vehicles. I find these tires to be very stable.
I’ve read and believe claims by air cooled VW bus owners that they drive their’s at 60 mph all the time. JunkyardDog, I expected you to say that that vet had done some engine modifications, or even an engine swap. I’m totally surprised that his early bay window bus with the type 1 engine gets 25 mpg. My ’72 Westy with the first year 1.7L flat type four gets around 15 mpg. I’ve never driven it over 55 mph, but it’s a fun vehicle to drive and I love it. I’m currently rebuilding the engine due to a dropped valve seat. Keeping it a stock 1.7. A lot of guys put re engineered, much more durable (Jake Raby) heads on their type four engines, resulting in a substantial gain in power and better fuel economy as well. Back to my stock 1.7L. Specs from the factory at the introduction of this engine boasted 72hp with a top, and cruising, speed of 78 mph. My bus is slow, but a blast to own and drive. Thanks for sharing that story.
How we have Mercedes Sprinter, turbo diesel, and yes, factory 4×4.
http://daveknowscars.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Mercedes-Camper-1.jpg
GM offered their current vans with factory 4×4 for a couple of years. I guess there were very few takers and they discontinued them due to a lack of interest. Not sure if you could pair the Duramax with the 4×4 or not.
Personally I thought the 4×4 version would have sold a lot better but by the time they came out the use of vans as the basis of an RV had dropped of considerably. I do have a friend who has a newer converted Ford which he finished out the interior to suit his needs that he uses extensively.
You can still buy a e-350 cargo and 450 chassis cab, they are not going anywhere anytime soon
MPG is irrelevant to 4×4 van owners, if you can afford to buy one you can buy the gas, done up in conversion van style with a diesel engine you are looking at a $50,000 van
The Chevy 4×4 cargo van was only available in 1/2 ton and no diesel and 4.3 and 4.8 only
I suspect Chevy will see increased sales as it’s all about cost per mile and you can get a cargo 3/4 ton for 24, cant do that with these new vans yet