One of the best ideas in camping in a long time is the pop-top van camper. You have the utility and driving ease of a regular-sized van, one that will fit through your regular garage door opening, and then when the weekend rolls around, you can load it up with gear and humans and hit the road. The seller has this 1976 Ford E-150 Van with a Turtle-Top conversion listed here on craigslist in Haugan, Montana, and they’re asking $8,000 or best offer. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Tony P. for the Turtle-Top tip!

The van itself looks great in the photos, although not to go on and on about photos on craigslist ads, but these are all verticals, so they’re a little pixelated when stretched to fit the format here. The third-generation Ford E-Series vans were made from 1975 through 1991 and came in a 124″ and 138″ wheelbase. The E-150 is a heavy half-ton, and they also offered an E-100, E-250 3/4-ton, and an E-350 1-ton version. You can see some missing teeth in the grille in the photo above.

We made our own camping vans by adding batt insulation and paneling, and then we built two long boxes over the wheel wells. One was big and long enough to sleep on, and the one on the passenger side would be just big enough to cover the wheel well. Then, they would be covered with thick padding and shag carpet. It was “good enough”, which was our motto as good Minnesota Scandinavians. You could cook outside on a little propane stove, and we didn’t need a sink or a refrigerator. Good enough. No wonder I’m so depressed all the time.

This seat fabric would have zapped me out of my depression because it’s much better than good enough! Ford’s newly designed third-generation E-Series vans were nice in that the doghouse engine cover was much less intrusive than in most other vans due to the van having a longer snout, which also made it easier to check fluids, change the battery, and things like that under the hood.

Speaking of under the hood, the seller included an engine photo! This is Ford’s 351-cu.in. OHV V8, which had around 145 horsepower by this era, and it’s backed by the optional Cruise-O-Matic transmission sending power to the rear wheels.

The cool pop-top camper portion is by Turtle-Top out of Goshen, Indiana. They made van camper conversions beginning in 1962, and the company is still in business. In this era, there were reportedly three different versions: one was a basic sleeper-type pop-top van only, then there was one with camping goodies but no stove or ice box, and this appears to be the high-zoot model that’s loaded.

I can’t imagine needing more camper than this, especially with the pop-top adding two or three feet of headroom. Turtle-Top conversions are known for being high-quality and long-lasting, and this looks like a really nice example. This van has new tires, new brakes, new rotors, new wheel bearings, new hoses, and more. Have any of you owned a pop-top van camper?