As we move away from the pandemic, many of the things I have always wanted seem to fall into my lap. During the pandemic, my parents bought a travel trailer and learned that RV values had skyrocketed. I test-drove a Toyota-based Dolphin camper, but the price was just too crazy. I considered, at one point, buying a Holiday Rambler Imperial simply because of its massive size, but I had no idea where I would park it. As spring 2025 hit, so too did used RVs hit the local lemon lot. One such RV, a Ford E-350-based Class B, caught my eye.
The seller, an old man, had used it primarily as a mobile workshop for his knife sharpening business, and so it had not seen much use as an RV. As a result, it was missing certain fixtures, such as the fold-out couch and the mattress pad for the overhead bed. This mattered very little to me, as all it really needed to do was carry my wife and my children to campsites while possessing a toilet. My wife loved it, in no small part because it was pink, and we bought it for not much money. Some testing in my driveway revealed the heater does not work right, and the water heater would not ignite. I resolved to fix the water heater, but I could care less about the heater.
Mechanically, the RV is in good shape. It drives almost like a new car. The steering is precise and has no play. The engine, a 460 Ford V8, runs smoothly and pulls far better than it has any right to, and the transmission shifts so smoothly that you would not notice. It also has a functioning aftermarket overdrive, although that turns an RV making maybe 12 MPG into an RV making perhaps 14 MPG. I learned at some point that the RV had been built by Intervec, and it was a Falcon model. I have never been able to find a reliable source discussing Intervec, and so all I know is that they existed and built my RV. Whoever they were, they did a good job.
I am not what you could call an outdoorsman. I like to go hiking, occasionally. I like to shoot things and I hate paying range fees, so I often go into the middle of nowhere to go shooting. But that is the extent to my love of the outdoors. I cannot fish. I went hunting once and did not even see an animal, much less the elk I was permitted to shoot. All of this is to say I am very much the target audience for an RV, and so I am inclined to heap praise on something so cheap and so basically competent, and you should take my assessment with a grain of salt. The Falcon is old, but it is comfortable, and there was some consideration given to quality when building it. Beneath its visibly cheap facade of fake wood-grain paneling and particle board construction lie good bones. The cabinetry was screwed in well, and the appliances plumbed in correctly. While some of the appliances had failed after a few decades, the infrastructure supporting them was just fine.
It is also functional despite its relatively small size. It will sleep three comfortably, and will fit my young family of five with a little coordination. It was not meant to dry camp. A fresh water tank will provide enough water to run the toilet and brush your teeth for a night, and to wash your hands as needed. However, this assumes that you are being judicious with your resources. Resource management is difficult when you’re trying to manage four other people, especially when they ignore everything you tell them about managing resources. Running out of water can be a serious problem when you’re in the middle of nowhere. While my family can appreciate this, they cannot seem to grasp the idea that water has to go somewhere, and in the RV, that somewhere is going to be the gray water tank. The gray water tank can handle one short shower before it fills completely, and short showers are difficult for my family to manage. We lasted exactly one dry camping trip before we decided to simply pay to stay at an RV park, where I can at least leave the gray water tank hooked into the sewer, and can connect to city water. To that end, the Falcon has essentially become a cheap hotel room that I own. On an average weekend, I save about $200 over a hotel staying at an RV park, and the RV park is better to my mind.
The hotels I stay at generally are chosen with frugality in mind. I reserve only that which I need, and nothing more. I do not spring for amenities because I view the hotel as a place to sleep and to wind down for the night. It needs only be marginally comfortable and safe. In Red River, which (as you have probably noticed by now) is my preferred destination, the cheapest hotel room fitting a family of five is about $160 to $190 a night. An RV park is $55. For that, you get a riverside view, WiFi, and full hookups. While you are certainly giving up space, there aren’t many hotels where you can wake up and watch the river from your bed. And it is your bed, instead of a hotel bed. While it may not be the cleanest, at least you know who has been sleeping in it.
We have not gotten as much use out of the Falcon as we’d like. Part of that is having a blended family. It’s difficult to plan trips when you have custody plans to comply with. It’s also difficult to accommodate my own schedule, as now that I own my own business, I find myself overwhelmed with work. Our most recent vacation plans were interrupted when an emergency hearing was ordered to occur the same day we had intended to leave, necessitating a change of plans that would see my wife driving the RV for the first time, and me meeting her at the RV park later that night. But the few times we have managed to make the trip, it has been worth it.
My mom also much preferred staying in our travel trailer rather than a motel. Her oft-repeated line was: “At least you’re sleeping in your own dirt.”
Nice rig! I’ve always liked these tall-roof long-body van conversions done back then. I would have readily bought one back in the day when we bought our Dodge Chinook, which is really quite similar except that it had a somewhat wider fiberglass body behind the cab.
I loved our Chinook, which was old and cheap when I bought it back in 2002. The furnace had become a non-functional mouse hotel so I ripped it out. Same with the non-functional water heater. We never used the shower; 2-3 days without are fine and then we’d find a state park with a shower or a truck stop. That’s still the routine in our Promaster van, although it has a portable shower for when we really need it.
Dry camping (or boondocking) is always our preference, but yes, with a family of 5 who want to take showers or flush a toilet, that isn’t going to work so well. They’d have to change their habits. We can make our 30 gallon water tank last 5-6 days. Our “composting” toilet uses no water either.
BTW, if your gray water tank fills up too quickly, it’s ok to discharge it in lots of places, like a ditch along a forest road or whatever. Older campers had no gray water tanks at all, the drain pipes just ran down to the ground. And that’s still legal.
If your furnace is really dead, you could just bring along an electric space heater when it gets cold since you’re plugged in at an RV site anyway.
We’re the same way about preferring to sleep in our van over a hotel bed. We went to visit some friends who built a beautiful big new house on Orcas Island, with a very nice guest bedroom. We told them we preferred to sleep in the van in the driveway. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your experiences with a vintage van RV! I always look at marketplace listings for these & plan wonderful trips around them. The problem is the ones I see, in the condition I’d like, are pricey enough that the math works in a hotel’s favor. Given my talent for buying high & selling low, combined with the deferred maintenance that I’ve had to do on every used vehicle I’ve bought, I could stay in some decent hotels for as often as I’d get to go. Glad you’re enjoying this with your family!
The solution is simple. Leave the family at home 🙂
Just back from a short camping trip and this does seem a good way to go after a night in a tent. There are some beauty new rigs out there on Transits and Sprinters but the prices are out of my range. I have a small trailer but that’s a pain in the butt sometimes.
Part of my hesitation is that we did a spur of the moment detour across Southern Alberta using gravel and oil and gas lease roads yesterday. Turns out a van might have done it, especially a well made new one. Hard to picture an old one making it one piece.
Almost CC Effect this morning.
Great old vehicle! I love the idea of an RV that would enable me to visit far away mountainbike trails, stay overnight and ride some more. Yours is great – it absolutely seems to suit your needs for a relatively small investment.
It would also have to be somewhat off road capable, so a fairly short wheelbase and good ground clearance + A/T tires would be required. 2wd would do so long as the drivetrain weight is over the drive wheels.
A late VW T2 or early T3 Westfalia then…
Nice ;
You lucked out on the purchase, not hard to do if one is willing to replace the crumbling sleeping pads, curtains and so on .
The 460C.I.D. engine gives me pause, I’m sure it’s plenty powerful but DANG ! the fuel bills will pass the purchase price in a year .
My Sweet has made several mentions of wanting a camper .
-Nate
See above!
I think, and I may be imagining this, I hear a penguin screaming every time I start it. It is not a fuel-efficient engine.
Neat van/RV! It’s impressive they fit a toilet and shower in there! When I was a kid, my parents owned a series of VW Westfalia campers. Definitely no bathroom in there, so yours is a palace by comparison.
On a strictly balance sheet basis, it may not pay for itself vs. a motel, still I agree with you that the better experience of being at least fairly close to nature and having your own space is worth it.
These old Ford vans were really good, too.
I found a lightly used Falcon in Cincinnati over a year ago and found a lot of what you say true. The Ford van is rust free – not bad for a 91. The fuel system is quirky with two tanks, three fuel pumps, but plenty of power for a 351V8. Surprisingly, everything works inside, but the generator keeps cutting out. We took it right on a trip from Pittsburgh to Dallas with only one breakdown for a failing alternator. We’re forcing ourselves to break away from the hum drum and heading out again (after fine tuning the fuel system) with a dash cam and $4.47 gallon gasoline, to Las Vegas on a whirlwind trip to see grandkids – via Rt 50. Any InterVec owners or fans wanting to keep in touch I’ll check replies from time to time.