I knew that these Winnebagos were cheap, but I’d forgotten just how much so. This is a fully equipped motorhome, with water heater, shower, pressurized water system, furnace, stove with oven, 4 cu.ft. fridge, dual 70A batteries and 15 A converter.
Today?
Fully converted vans easily run $90k and many are now going for $125-$150k or more. This is the 2021 Winnebago Travato.
#vanlife was a lot cheaper back then.
Full Winnebago story here:
CC 1968 Winnebago F17 – The Model T of Motorhomes
Winnebago was a flimsily built Dodge for the price of a Cadillac… LOL!
Yeah but could you poop in the Caddy?
My cat does…
The Winnebago story has a personal connection for me- Back in the late sixties and early seventies, my Grandma Zoe sewed in the upholstery department at their Forest City plant.
That $6,700 per unit turned into paychecks for many families throughout Northern Iowa and Southern Minnesota, at least until the energy crisis shut off the tap.
The guy who came up with that big stripe that flows out of the huge W should have gotten a really big bonus. That graphic instantly IDd every Winnebago on the road for a long, long time.
When I was a kid every RV was a Winnebago. The RV in the picture was the definition of RV.
I’ve seen brand new Class C RVs advertised here for $50k, but I suspect those are end of year prices, not MSRP.
The closest I can find at the moment are about $60K, but I don’t know enough about them to be able to tell if they’re as complete as this Winnebago Brave was. I imagine after a summer of inflated gas prices there will be a buyers’ market for small motorhomes.
I agree. The Pandemic caused a big increase in purchases of these. With the Pandemic easing, many people finding out the RV life isn’t for them, and high gas prices, it will be the RV equivalent of the 2009 Buyers’ market for boats.
“W” logo vehicle in which I preferred to travel back then. It did cost a bit more than $6700 to buy one.
Between yesterday’s Dodge Trucks movie and today’s Winnebago ad, I figured this early-’70s Dodge/Winnebago dealer picture would keep the theme going:
Ahh, the memories. We had one just like this that my dad uses as a mobile office and airshow camping ring when he was selling ultra light aircraft in the early 80’s. It had the same orange seat cushions when he got it. My mom quickly sewed new covers in some sort of tweed material. The orange vinyl dash facing was covered over with brown vinyl paint. I remember standing in that little kitchen are making mac & cheese for lunch and sitting in front of him in the driver’s seat steering as we went down the highway. I learned how to center such a big vehicle on the road by putting myself just to the left of the dark strip in the center of the lane….and watch behind using the big mirrors. On one trip to the big airshow in Oshkosh, WI we had a small mishap on the highway. An older couple coming up from behind us in the left lane clipped the corner of the hollow rear bumper. I think the old guy had nodded off at the wheel. no one was hurt and no real damage…just one problem: the cap to empty the blackwater tank was housed in the bumper. we couldn’t hook up to empty the shitter in the approved manner. you could get the plug out you just couldn’t attach the suction hose. We ended up fertilizing the ditches on some poor rural Wisconsin road after the tank got full.
In my completely uninformed, totally unscientific opinion, RV prices are at a peak right now, propped up by The Virus. People don’t want to stay in motels to keep from being infected so they drag their hotel room around with them. This too shall pass.
I think the Winnie is tied with the Tesla truck for vehicle designs completed in 60 seconds or less. I’ll leave it at that.
They certainly didn’t waste any time making it more aerodynamic than a brick…
And I certainly wouldn’t want a motorhome powered by one of those gas hog 1970’s engines… they were even horrible in cars…
The list price of $6700 in 1972 is worth $42,157 today.
I’m sure you could have picked up one for half the $6700 in 1974 due to the Energy crisis for late ‘73.