Seven-Up had a big ad campaign for years touting its status as “The Uncola” and it worked. At least for a while, even though sales never got close to Coke’s sales. I think this 1971 International Travelall 1010 is the UnSUV. The seller has this beauty listed here on eBay in Lexington, Kentucky and bidders aren’t sitting on their hands, the current bid price is $15,000, cash only. Period.
This is a friendly SUV before they were widely known as SUVs. It doesn’t have a lame, angry, frowning, gaping electric-razor-grille and angry eyes (headlights) meant to intimidate other drivers into letting you drive in the left lane at 0.01 mph over the speed limit while texting and sipping your latte. Not that I’m bitter about that or anything. This Travelall has a friendly face, not a fake angry face. What has happened to humans that they need angry vehicles?! That’s the dumbest trend in automotive history, in my opinion. Back to this friendly I-H.
The International Travelall was made for a little over two decades, from 1953 to 1975, and this last, fourth-generation Travelall is what I remember as a kid. They’re big, and square, and retro-cool now. Maybe they were cool back then but I don’t remember that. The ’69 through ’75 Travelall is when International really started to take passenger comfort seriously.
You can see how nice this one looks but it appears to have had some paint and woodgrain trim work done on both sides. I’m guessing that the rear section may be the original paint and woodgrain? There’s no mention of it in the seller’s listing other than to say that the paint is fair to good. Bidders sure aren’t being scared off by it.
The interior looks great and other than some usual fading and minor wear, I don’t see any flaws inside really at all. The back seat area looks perfect as does the huge cargo area behind the rear seats. This Travelall has rear-wheel drive, so no 4WD here.
The engine is International’s 345 cubic-inch V8 which would have had around 200 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque. They say that the AC has been converted and it runs and drives great and can be driven home, but only if you pick it up in person and pay cash, that’s literally the only option here. Are there any Travelall fans or owners out there?
These were a good truck overall. Built right to the end in 1975 and nothing really bad to anticipate. Some parts getting challenging to find in the front end with ball joints being the most difficult. I’m looking for some possible crossovers to see if there is a reasonable substitute. They ride very well, due to the torsion bar front suspension. I might add that they seem to stay in alignment fairly well too. I’m not at all fussy about people converting the A-C over to 134. The system was designed for R-12 and there is a decent substitute that works a lot better than 134. And you can still use A-C oil and not try to flush it all out and try to convert it to glycol. Whoever gets this should be happy with it. The aftermarket is paying attention to these trucks and it is getting easier to keep them on the road. Looks like someone stuck a 350 Holley 2bbl (maybe a 500) on the intake. That’s a good move because the carburetor that it replaced needed to be REPLACED, from the factory. Overall, I like this truck and it would do well at my place.
I think this is the cleanest Travelall I have ever seen. Most of the ones I saw were badly rusted and used up. Owners of these vehicles were fiercely loyal to the brand and went to great lengths to keep them on the road. My foreman at my first job had one and I know he had done extensive body repairs at least 2 times. He loved his rig. Whenever I see one it reminds me of the movie Dirty Old Men where Walter Matthau drove his rusty old Travelall with a dead fish in the back. Great movie to watch over the holidays.
I learned several new swear words from the old man, thanks, in part, to this type of truck. Since we had campers as a kid, the old man had a plethora of vehicles to pull them. A veritable gold mine for a kid learning about cars. He had several station wagons, one worse than the last, then he went with a GMC Suburban, with a V6, not enough power, then a 1970 Travelall, like this,only gold. In all fairness, it was the worst, but only because of the old mans lack of maintenance, not the truck itself. The biggest problem, was it’s atrocious appetite for gas. We liked it, because we got to stop so many times, but getting ready to go again, we all held our breath as it finally cleared out enough to fire as the battery faded and the smell of gas. He hated that truck( hence the swear words) and didn’t have it long. He switched to Chevy Suburbans that took his abuse much better. Great find, I can’t imagine any spare parts ANYWHERE in the world today. Maybe in Ohio,,,
We also had a 1970 in Gold growing up. The gas mileage was not as big an issue since we had the dual tasks. Our issue was my parent would load up the Airstream with about 10,000 extra pounds of stuff and then the Travel All would line lock on the road. Spent many hours on the shoulder waiting for that to clear. Still have found memories of us kids running around and exploring waiting for the truck to get going.
Howard-try Kanter out of Virginia. They have parts for about any vehicle you can think of. That is a nice looking International. It has been driven in bad weather or salty roads–my guessing. Someone took care of this truck.Nick looking truck.
When I see an IH of this era, I think…. they had the formula—trucks and SUV’s— unfortunately, they didn’t (or couldn’t) carry forward with it. It wasn’t that many years until trucks and SUV’s really took off (even by the 80’s nicely-equipped and trimmed pickups were making inroads, and I consider the 1991 Explorer a seminal vehicle for SUV’s becoming dominant).
Looks like a nice Travelall.
Good write-up Scotty, yes there are many angry-eyed vehicles today.
Had a twin to this one for a few years, but in white. Bought it from the original owner who used it as one would expect: as a family truckster to haul the kids on vacation camping trips. It was in great shape. I sold it to a friend and it was last seen pulling a vintage airstream in FL.
Parts aren’t too hard to get if you know where to look… except for the early models with the Lockheed drum brakes up front. Those are unobtainium, though you can get the original shoes relined, and I’ve heard of a few folks making later shoes fit with strategic use of an angle grinder.
The odd thing about my truck is that it had three rows of seats. Not itself odd, but the middle row was full width, so you had to crawl over the middle seat to get to the rear seat. I suppose that was designed with little kids in mind.
Do you think maybe .The people putting the seats in. Might have gotten confused and put it in the wrong area ? Could have. I,d took them out and put a bed in it. Tinted the windows and added a couple of knight lights. Put in a cooler and go looking for some fun.
Scotty,
I agree with your comment about the better looking older rigs.
Almost all of the newer ones look like “Angry Birds”.How can anyone
call these newer ones “Beautiful”?
My high school girlfriend’s parents had one of these. It was a barge, but let’s just say as seventeen year olds we put good use to those big bench seats. Fond memories!
Beautiful looking Travelall. I remember these from my childhood. Although no one in my family had one, I had a neighbour who owned one. Given its condition and rarity, I’d pay close to the $15,000 asking price.
I bought a ’72 Travelall 392 in about 1975. The pre-purchase test-drive was a total shock. Here I was expecting the ride and noise level of a ‘50s-60s era pick-up, and this thing was smooth as glass. The ride was enormously comfortable, the noise level was nil, fit and finish were exceptional, seats were great, no rattles. Of course vision was exceptional. There simply was nothing not to love about the big old beast. One didn’t expect much in the way of gas mileage. No matter how you drove it; stop-start city congestion, 70 mph open interstates, it got 13 mpg. I could set the cruise control for 55 (that was the national speed limit back then). Still – 13 mpg. Mine had two gas tanks – one 20-gallon one and a 15 gallon one. Together, they gave me a theoretical range of about 450 miles. ‘ Think I usually went 350+ miles before my bladder maxed out.
I do remember I-H often switched suppliers mid-production-year, so when you ordered parts (which wasn’t very often!) you had to order by the build-sheet or the VIN number.
Wonderful memories!
Had a ‘72, in same gas-chamber green. A sturdy old beast. Alternator wire shorted out and burnt out all wiring. Got a new harness for $75. Went in easy.
FRIGATE! Who’s rig are we going to take? The frigate of course! Yep, my buddy’s dad had one of these and we took the thing everywhere. I could never get over how huge and odd this thing was but it served us well when we went camping with the scout troop. One thing I just assumed that is was four-wheel drive and when I found out it wasn’t it was like what, are you kidding me!? Good memories!
Being a car guy and NEVER an SUV fan, I like this.The design is perfectly balanced, no excesses of any kind, straight lines, strictly form follows function. A great vehicle for a camping type family. It also appears to be ¨friendly¨ in a very positive way, indeed, no belligerence – what a welcome change. Were I a camper type, this would fit the bill, together with a nice, not over the top travel trailer – nice set up.
Cornbinder. This was the Official Truck of Manitoba Interlake Region Farmers. And Manitoba Hutterite Colonies used them to take their harem to WOOLCO and Sears in Winnipeg.
Out west we used to see the odd Travelall on the colonies but most of them drove full-sized vans, usually diesel powered. The light farm trucks were always long wheelbase crewcabs. They quickly got the title: “Hutterite Wagons” whether Hutterites drive them or not. On any given Thursday in Great Falls you’d see five or six vans from various colonies all wash up at the Holiday Village Shopping Mall. Security was always heightened because those hoots would steal your eyeballs and come back for the holes…
Someof these had 4X4 right ? Which ones? Was it worhy? Included with automatic, or standard ? inquiring minds….
In 84 I bought a 70 travelall for $500 in Jax that had been sitting in A field at Skinners dairy for 10 years drained the tank and put in fresh gas and it started right up and I drove it home 30 miles it had 345 auto power steering and brakes I needed a temp vehicle while my 70 el Camino SS had the engine rebuilt ram it for a month and the only issue was the fuel pump diaphragm went bad from sitting so long but the local IH truck dealer had one in stock. That thing was huge and when you put the back seat down it could swallow about ten sheets of Sheetrock I sold it a month later to a subcontractor that worked for me for $750 great vehicle drove better than the Elco on the highway
We had one, same color, trim. A beast that hauled our dogs and it did all things right. Sam color z4 and pulled a CJ 5 with ir regularly. It was good at dodging horses at night on the Indian reservation( northern Arizona ), we had no kidsatthetime, so the back seats folded made a great place for dogs and camping. Traded it for a AMC Sportabout for fuel mileage, didn’t feel as safe going down the road. Always drained the front tank first, if not, would siphon the rear and overrun.
I was riding in one of these with a friend parts started falling of as we were going down the road Junk
Auction update: this Travelall sold for $15,000!