These old Econolines are rare enough but this “Travel Wagon” version seems even more so. It was parked on the very end of a grocery store parking lot in Spartanburg SC and was displaying an antique car tag. I wasn’t sure if it was for sale or if it belonged to a worker at the grocery store.
As we were leaving, I saw a gentleman who looked like a college professor with an impressive gray beard and a buggy with two cases of Icehouse. I told my wife that I bet that was the owner. Sure enough, he pushed the buggy all the way across the lot to the van. I don’t know if he parked at the end of the lot to avoid parking lot damage or car nuts, like myself, from checking it out or striking up conversations. I can understand this as my ’65 Belvedere gets a lot of attention but I’m not an overly social person.
Anyway, the van looked to be original. There is a severe case of rust on the driver’s side but definitely worth fixing.
Maybe some of you can shed some light on the details of this Travel Wagon model and year made. I don’t know if it was an option from Ford or fitted from a second company. I’m assuming that the roof pops up like a VW Westfalia. Either way it makes for nice eye candy.
(It only took a quick Google search to find this 1964 ad for the Travel Wagon. Just like the Econoline was a response to the rapidly growing popularity of the VW bus and Transporter, so this conversion was an American take on the Westfalia camper conversion of the VW bus. It appears that its aluminum roof bends up, and the little windowed side-walls then fold up into place. Sweet; no canvas. PN)
And this image was posted in the comments by Sally Sublette; it shows how thoroughly these Travel Wagons were thought out. Sleeps Six! Three levels of beds! Try to imagine sleeping through that.
Wow, they still make Icehouse?
Except for having the driver == crumple zone, I love it.
This would fit well into my travel fantasies from when I was 7 or 8, only a little behind a Ford PU with a camper (I always wanted to travel looking out the front window from the bed over the cab).
So nice. A co-worker has the Dodge A-100 equivalent to this, though I have no idea what type of pop top it has.
That’s what makes this thing all the more rare. Throughout the “human crumple zone” van era Dodge dominated the market for RV conversions among the Big 3 (the VW Westfalias were in a class by themselves) even though Ford was far and away the sales leader for vans overall. This is the first time I’d heard of any formal RV conversion for a first-gen Ford (or GM for that matter) van. There were all sorts of them for A-series Dodges from a number of manufacturers.
What was it about the Dodges that made them more popular as RVs? Was it the availability of a V8 from almost the beginning? Or perhaps Ma Mopar had simply better foreseen the RV boom of the late ’60s. Their dominance of the motorhome chassis business certainly didn’t hurt.
I don’t quite agree. I’ve actually shot another Econoline with a different camping conversion. In the years before the Dodge came along (1960-1965) there were a number of conversions being offered on Econolines and Corvair vans. I’ve run across a number of ads for them.
But the Dodge did seem to attract an outsized share once it appeared. It was probably because Dodge chassis had already become the de-facto standard for motorhomes, and Chrysler was likely aggressively soliciting the business, having gotten their feet wet in the RV market. Dodge came to dominate the RV market, as a result of that. They really wanted it.
At least until the late 80’s, I think. You would probably know more about campervan trends than I.
Is there really a reason why Dodge so quickly fell by the wayside to Ford in the 90’s, besides the newly updated ’92 Econolines? Or (better yet) has an article been written covering this?
I’ve seen lots of early Econolines with a pop top conversion or high roof of one type or another. The second generation Econoline dominated the pop top and high roof market in my area, or at least a lot more of them survived. In fact I saw one with BC plates on it yesterday.
Great find!! “Falcon Van”. Crazy about these and the pickup version. I guess someone besides me likes to watch people come out of restaurants, stores, ect. and try to guess what car they belong to.
Cool van I like the poptop very innovative, Being Falcon based this would be more highway friendly than the VW vans of that era.
Having once driven my 1961 Econoline with the 144 six across country, I wouldn’t say it was highway friendly. Especially in the flyover central states where you were constantly tacking against the wind.
I later drove a ’59 VW transporter from coast to coast. Power-wise it really didn’t seem that different, except to limit top speed. And it did track better.
I will say that I loved the ‘movie theater’ windshield on the Econoline. This helped to compensate for its driving deficiencies.
Great find. A Westfalia is downright commonplace compared to how few of these must still be around. And it’s an auto as well, no funky tree shifter. Looks to be an well preserved example, hope the cancer gets cut and it will be restored back to its former glory. The sheetmetal pop up is really a clever idea. The camper conversion should put a little badly needed extra weight over the drive wheels.
I can normally find an excuse for what I want. Not this time. I am past camping or long road trips it appears. So with no excuse, I just want it. Make mine six with MT please.
Great find, I work in Spartanburg, I’ll have to keep an eye out for this one. Ingles on the Eastside? There’s another old guy who’s running around in a dark blue early 70’s Plymouth Duster that I’ve been trying catch for a while. I just know he’s owned that car from day one.
I’ve been seeing that Plymouth at the nearby Lowes in the evening. I think a teen owns. Other times it’s at the Broncos restaurant. I guess he needs two jobs to keep that Mopar on the road but it looks to be a nice one… real original.
Wow, have never heard of this version. Great find!
I can only surmise that the early, mid-engine Econoline camper fell victim to the same malady as the A-100, and that is it would get excruciatingly hot inside the van in the summer from the heat radiating off the engine cover.
It probably took all night for the interior of those mid-engine campers to finally cool down enough to be able to sleep (this was before A/C was commonplace), but by then, it would be time to be back on the road.
Having owned an A100 that I turned into a camper, I agree the heat was not welcome, but it didn’t take all night; a couple of hours was enough, unless it was super hot.
Having grown up in the day when these forward control Vans were new , and having logged thousands of miles in them as a young man I can tell you that they were not too bad when new but the goof balls who ‘ service ‘ them invariably ripped out the rubber engine compartment seals and insulation so they did bleed heat badly after a couple years .
Worse , none of them (Ford Doge nor Chevy / GMC) had decent ventilation .
-Nate
I had no idea that these existed. A fantastic find!
FWIW, here’s the flip side of the brochure Nagosnell posted. “Sleeps 2 adults and 4 children”–wow! (Tight fit.)
Sally, you are the goddess of obscure images. Are you just better ta Google images, or do you have some other trick up your sleeve? I’m continually impressed at the things you find and post.
And I’m going to add that image to the article, for posterity. Thanks!
Thanks very much, Paul. I’m an academic/researcher by trade, and so do lots of such poking around online (but remember the pre-Internet days). That Econoline brochure had shown up recently on eBay (always worth a look for things not at OldCarBrochures); the various newspaper scans online can be very useful, too. Oh, and there’s fultonhistory.com, a huge trove of historical NY State and NYC-area newspapers; crappy search engine, but many a treasure there (like news from New York car shows, etc.). I almost never start with Google Images for auto stuff, I guess…
I rather figured something along those lines. I just haven’t had the time to properly explore specific sites and archives. In my retirement, perhaps 🙂
Very cool find, I figured there had to be Econoline campers from this era, but never actually saw, or heard of, one. Perfect cheery color combo and it wears its mild layer of patina well, too – just needs that stretch of rust cleaned up. Was the interior as well preserved as the outside? I see a lamp that doesn’t appear to be original, but looks really cool in there nonetheless.
I really wish I’d gotten an old camper like this when I was younger and went on some crazy road trip with no destination in mind. Must be nice to sit at the table in back BSing with a friend or two while someone else drives, drinking cheap beer, smoking a joint and watching the world go by through all those windows at a steady 55MPH, cool breeze blowing through the cabin, good tunes at a moderate volume not conflicting with the conversation or the natural hum of the 144 six beneath. Pick two weeks or so to be on the road and just start driving wherever the hell the wind blows you, stopping for whatever seems promising, interesting or weird. Turn around when poverty looms.
Now I’m too old of a fart and too devoted to the banality of everyday life to undertake such a project, but it would’ve been cool!
Drzhivago138;
The reason Dodge fell by the wayside so quickly was the sale of both their motorhome and marine divisions in 1979. IIRC it was a condition of government loan guarantees.
These images have been on my phone for months. Different subject but the same composition.
This one too.
I know it’s an old thread but I actually fell in love with one of these vans in a Ford Dealership in Sparta NJ when I was 13. It was 1963 or 64. I never forgot it and have had van campers and motorhomes for most of my adult years as a result.
My family had a white 1964 Ford Econoline Travel Wagon from 1964 to 1970 when it was unceremoniously traded in for a Ford Cortina. We loved and hated this vehicle. It was wonderful for camping for our family of four. I’m amazed that we actually traveled and slept four in it. My parents slept in the double bed, my sister in the hammock in front with snap-on enclosure, and me in the cot in the dome until I got taller and slept in the middle cot. I can’t imagine sleeping five let alone six.
My parents were both teachers and we took many memorable extended summer vacation trips in it
As a vehicle it was horrible. At 100 horsepower it was gutless and got 8-10 MPG which was low even with pre-gas shortage prices. Even worse it boiled over all the time when going up grades. My Dad largely attributed this to the fact it was supposed to factory air-conditioning but when it arrived it did not. So dealer AC was installed with the condenser in front of the radiator. What made matters worst was that the engine access was in the cab. I have strong smell memories to this day of pulling over in the water stops on the road to Yosemite waiting for the engine to cool. Last week I found the original brochure from our Travel Wagon in my Dad’s possessions. I guess it always had a piece of his heart too.
As an adult I swore I’d never buy a van with cab engine access. I really wanted a Toyota van but they had cab engine access. Reluctantly I finally bought a 1988 and wouldn’t you know it Toyota moved to front access the next year. One big difference was the reliability of the Toyota van. I rarely had to access the engine, but that is another story.
Here’s a photo of two Travel Wagons. I’m Guessing the closer one was ours.