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Brown Workhorse: 1969 International Harvester TravelAll

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I love International TravelAlls. There, I’ve said it. I’m biased. This well-worn but still kicking early 1969 example is located in Hudson, Florida and is for sale here on eBay. The buy-it-now is a tempting $2,750, and bidding is starting even lower than that.

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Let’s deal with the bad right off the bat. The tailgate is really rusty, as is the front transmission tunnel on both the passenger and driver’s sides (there’s really very little metal left on the passenger side especially. However, the doors, sills and rest of the floor boards are said to be good, and actually look the part in the pictures.

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There’s a piece of trim missing off the driver’s side front fender, and the odometer shows 14,930 miles, which may well be 214,000 and is assuredly at least 114,000. However, it doesn’t look like it’s been in any accidents, and the all-important rear side curved glass is intact. This is the generation of TravelAll I like the best, too; it doesn’t have the awkward-looking quad headlamps of the earlier ones, but isn’t a rectangular box with rounded corners like the later ones. This generation was produced from 1961 until early 1969, so this must be one of the very last ones.

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Needless to say, the interior needs a lot of help, and the holes in the transmission tunnel are visible in both of these shots. However, you’ll also notice the under dash air conditioning, which I’m sure doesn’t work but at least is complete for refurbishment. I really wonder what caused such severe localized rust?

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Under the hood we find the workhorse International V-8, which came in three sizes: 266, 304 and 345 cubic inches. I’m not sure how to tell which one is in this vehicle. Overall, I find this find very enticing, and if I were in a different position vehicle-wise I’d be pursuing it. The seller tells us it’s not running now but wouldn’t take much to get that way; at this price, I’d haul it home, flush the fluids, pull the plugs and lube the cylinders, turn it over a few times and try to start it off a bottle. How about you? Is there room in your garage for a brown workhorse?

Comments

  1. Avatar Rob

    What an odd design…. looks like it was made of plastic and put in the oven to melt… 😕

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  2. Avatar Jim

    Ugly, ugly, ugly. For the same $$$ I’d rather buy a 1996 Tahoe.

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  3. Avatar Stang1968

    I’v always felt International trucks were under appreciated. This generation had attractive lines, at least initially. This may be a 1969 but the styling screams 1961.
    Nice rig but I imagine the floors would be hard to source and would need to be fabricated.

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  4. Avatar Rick

    I hope that the wine opener sitting on the transmission hump goes with. Gonna need it because I’d load that rig up with a bunch of my friends (once I got it roadworthy of course) anyhow we’d be riding around opening bottles of wine and enjoying the view from those large windows!

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    • Avatar Cassidy

      Excellent plan Rick, we don’t have enough drunk drivers on the roads yet! I’m so glad you’ll wait until its roadworthy! We wouldn’t want one of your drunk buddies falling through the floor! How utterly irresponsible of a comment, even if said in jest. I’m willing to bet more than half the readers of this blog have been touched by the injury or loss of a loved one due to alcohol abuse. I’m sure they didn’t need you re-opening their wounds!

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      • Avatar Rob

        Cassidy! shut up… 😆

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      • Avatar MountainMan

        really? one of these easily offended, you cant sasy something I dont like types huh? geez

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      • Avatar Tundra/BMW Guy

        Cassidy, you obviously have been touched by some sort of alcohol related incident and for that I am truly sorry!! With that being said, I am sure Rick was just commenting in jest!! Also, if you read his comment it says nothing about the driver partaking in the alcoholic part of the scenic drive. If they have a DD, entirely possible in today’s very heightened environment when it comes to driving impaired, then they are being responsible. I hope whatever it is you experienced, will settle in time, in order to allow you to not get upset with others over comments made in “passing”.

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  5. Avatar Dan Farrell

    I have owned two Travelall’s and the first was great with a 304 V8 and a granny 4 speed. we got 19 MPG on a trip to Tahoe, tough as nails very reliable. The only problem with Travelalls is that they used multiple sources for things like distributors, carburators, not to mention that your 2 wheel drive Travelall might have a coil spring front end, solid axle with leaf springs or torsion bar suspension. It was never boring working on my Travelall.

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  6. Avatar Howard A Member

    These, I feel, were the last of the “good” Internationals, before the square 1000 series replaced them, and ultimately, help end International’s light truck market. This one is pretty toast, and not sure there’s a big market for a restoration. Nice one’s do come up from time to time, mostly municipal auctions. One site says, the 266 was made until 1968, so I’d bet this is a 304. ( they also made a 392, but was mostly for heavy duty application) Some like this motor, I had bad luck with every IH I drove that had this V-8. The AMC 6 cylinder was offered then and that would be my choice.

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    • Avatar geomechs Member

      Hi Howard. I don’t think the 392 was available in this body style. I’m unsure if any V8 other than the 304 was available. Like you I think this was the last of the ‘good’ ones. Come later ’69 and Binder took the crates that they shipped these trucks in, put wheels on them and tried to sell them. Someone in the styling department was drinking his bath water…

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  7. Avatar John M

    This Travelall has the 304 engine. It’s the same engine that’s in my 1968 1200C pickup. It looks like it’ll be a nice truck once the rust is repaired. WIth automatic, power steering and brakes, and AC, it was top of the line when it came from the factory.

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  8. Avatar Ronniecarlo

    DITTO!!! Rob

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  9. Avatar Mark S

    Ano thanks, just as ugly as an AMC Matador. Or a Rambler American.

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  10. Avatar piper62j

    These were work horses in the day.. one great thing was the engines were very close to bullet proof.. my dad had one and unless you saw the fan blade spinning, you couldn’t tell it was running..

    The bad: Body rot to the 10’s… Sad

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  11. Avatar Jeff DeWitt

    Neat old truck, I’ve absolutely no use for one of these but I’ve always liked them.

    That floor rust might not be that big a deal. My Studebaker pickup had worse rust in the floor than that appears to be (patched with a hunk of a “No Parking” sign and about a case of silicone sealer!). I cut away everything that wasn’t rusted, looked at the big hole in the floor and realized I was in WAY over my head.

    But, I looked at the hole and thought, well, I don’t know how to fix this whole thing but if I weld a piece of metal here that would be a start. I kept on doing that and a couple of hours later had the floor fixed.

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  12. Avatar alfred

    this beautiful truck is only an hour away from me,i also don’t have the room for it.also my wife would hate it.just venting.lol

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  13. Avatar Stiffler4444

    The wine opener should be included so that you can drink away your sorrows while attempting to remedy all that rust.

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  14. Avatar DW

    It must come with aging, but I find the lines on this beast to be quite attractive, especially the hood and the wraparound rear window. I think it has potential to be a great work/cruising truck with a little elbow grease and I’d probably throw some bigger (but not too big) chrome rims and tires on it to ‘pimp it out’ just a little.

    I’m sure my wife would gag and order me back into the shop to do penance, but I don’t consult her when buying ‘work’ vehicles :)

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  15. Avatar Tom Hall

    A survivor. Up here in the rust belt, a ’69 International anything looked this by 1972…maybe even 71.

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