Here’s an interesting conversion project that the seller says runs and drives but is not yet ready for the road. It combines a 1949 GMC front end and truck chassis with a top-of-line Spartan camper trailer grafted on the back. We don’t know if this is a recent endeavor or one from a few years ago, but it uses a more modern drivetrain to provide propulsion. This most interesting camper convert is in Raleigh, North Carolina, and available here on Facebook Marketplace for $12,500. Thanks, Chuck Foster, for uncovering this unusual tip for us!
Spartan Aircraft Company started in business in 1928 building airplanes. Seeing a need for economical housing after World War II, they thought that trailer manufacturing would be an effective use for their expanded production facilities. Their goal was to build a modern travel trailer of high quality that relied on lightweight materials and a process that borrowed from their experience in monocoque airplane building techniques. The result was a “Cadillac” of trailers that were available in lengths of up to 35 feet and featuring the latest in furniture and window coverings. Spartan would remain in this business through 1960.
What Spartan didn’t make was a motorhome, a travel trailer that you could drive. So, someone here has taken a 1949 Spartan trailer, likely a Royal Mansion edition, and merged it with a GMC truck chassis from the same year. We aren’t given any details as to why, how, or when this was pulled off, so we must assume this is a one-off project. The seller says the unit will run and move on its own but is not roadworthy yet and doesn’t say what work remains to make that happen.
The motorhome is powered by a 350 cubic-inch V8 engine paired with a 4-speed automatic transmission. And the cab comes complete with a modern-looking dashboard, steering wheel, and seating, so its components could easily be a third the age of the truck and trailer that they have become a part of. We don’t know the condition of the trailer except that it’s full of stuff and needs to be restored. Is this a project you’d undertake, or would you go with something that was a motorhome to begin with?
IMHO, This needs to be surgically altered back to each respective beginning, restored then perhaps pull a classy trailer with the nice old (updated) truck.
As it stands it looks like a failed attempt to build a Burning Man Special, of which all are abominations to anything automotive but then that’s intrinsic to the whole premise of that gathering.
Looks to me like the workmanship is pretty good so far. I think it will make a good project and a good motorhome. Good power, no damage to the aluminum, and the chance to build an interior that you want. Got more than a little time with motorhomes, one we rebuilt and the other two we used up. I like it.
This is absolutely horrendous.
I would like to have the Divco clock.
I just see too many unfinished projects that people are trying to bail out of & get all their money back. Suck it up & take your lumps!
$12K for a shell full of . . . . . . . . junk and can’t even take it out on the road ?? I’ll pass
Park this next to that mutant Mopar mess from earlier..
Where do you even start? Trick question, you don’t. This has been up for 20 weeks. Seller can’t take a hint?
Again, one persons vision ,,,is usually just that, one persons, the builder. Dash and guts are clearly late model GM, so if it still retains a 1949 chassis, someone did a lot of work here, so far. The front wheels indicate it’s not on a modern chassis, because, why would they do that? That’s another thing, you got 1949 brakes stopping this thing? Like others say, one isn’t going to get what they have into it, much less an outlandish price for such a limited interest item. Got to be gotten cheap, so the next owner can undo what most of what this person did. I do think it’s a great start, however, better have deep pockets for this one.
rotflmmfao
Fortunately I have a wife! Otherwise? I would love to FIX this. Full suspension upgrade, Duramax/Allison. Airbags. Full’50’s/,’60’s Post Modern interior! ROADTRIP!!
Very cool. Lots of work done, lots more to do. I’ve seen variations on this theme completed. A former customer of mine married a ‘70s travel trailer to an early ‘60s Ford truck. Think conventional school bus configuration. He and his family lived in campgrounds for the summer, rented a house the rest of the year. His wasn’t as cool as this- but he completed it on a budget. Lots to be said for that.
Is that a miss print? The asking price is $12.50, right?
Sad there are so many narrow minded people on this site…
I see the original builders vision and this has the potential to be a very cool build.
Is it worth the asking price? Maybe not, but if the seller is willing, I’ll bet a reasonable deal could be struck.
Yes, narrow minded keyboard clowns who have never built anything in their lives…
I like it!, BUT, it would be way down on the projects list. So far down that it would not likely be completed in my lifetime. I agree with the DuraMax comment!
It doesn’t say anything about the drive train. I wonder if its worth as much as 5k then?
It’s one of a kind alright, but it’s not even the only Royal Mansion I’ve seen on a truck frame. The market for Spartans has exploded, so this shell might be worth $5k even with the chop job. Depending on what he put underneath, he might be looking at $12k in parts, but it would take a special person to have the shop, $50k, and 18 months of full time work that this project needs to be completed.
Unfortunately the true gem of the Spartan is the all birch interior, which has been gutted. At this point maybe someone will come along and at least make a unique food truck out of it.
Man says it’s got a 350 with a 4 speed automatic that runs. That sounds like saying something about the drive train to me.
And I read it twice… Not good.
Somebody should have cleaned it out before they took the interior pictures. That mess doesn’t help. That garish blue, is a yuck as well.
Ugly with a capitol ‘U’ !!!
Lets make it even uglier and paint the front cowl electric blue. I wouldn’t even store my thrash in that thing.
Vern! Now please tell us what you really think- ha,ha,ha
Yes Vern. Ugly but here comes the old cliché “Has potential “. For someone else!
great day it is a paint issue, then what ever happened to the people like our grandfathers and great grandfathers who usually took something and made something of it. yes the asking price is too high, but 350 and transmission is worth more than the $12.50 some have stated to be worth. just because it is not your cup of tea doesnt mean someone else wouldnt like to make something out of it. myself i would enjoy a project like this, unfortantly i do not have the time as i am currently remodeling a house, but am sure some would say what a waste of money. there are always haters. i dont let them get me down.
I wanna see how it’s tied to the truck frame.
Until the project was finished, a nice set of flames painted on the side vertically would ignite the sorry comments on here. Maybe on the back a Corvette emblem and on the side a short printed statement saying World Land Speed Record…long afternoon but we set it. The Dawn to Dusk Mile Run.
49 coe front sheet metal and Toronado 455 power might have worked better.
The huge problem here is the windshield. There is no pillar to speak of between the windshield and the driver’s window. Not rigid enough to keep the windshield sealed. The 350 engine is too small to power this rig.
Interesting. Not a fan of the dash from the 90’s. I would go old school for that. The rest I’d have to see. Would be a little safer on a newer chassis unless the supension and brakes are upgraded. I’d like to see the Spartan before it was taken apart.
Unless there were TWO of these made, this used to sit beside an old ESSO station on New Hampshire Avenue, at Cape May Road, in Silver Spring, MD, until the station was sold about 1995 and the GMC truck/Spartan trailer disappeared. That one was roached inside from sitting under pine trees for 30 years or more. The entire interior was rotten, but the basic alloy body was solid. The engine at the time was an old Chevy 6, probably a 216.
The original curved “windshields” in the Spartan trailers were plexiglass, and slightly smaller [at least on the version I remember]. This appears to have later larger windshields installed. They are a standard auto glass product that is cut/ground down to the needed size. You see them in plenty of big equipment cabs, buses, fire engines, etc.