Four-door pickups seem to be one of the only vehicle types where most people aren’t saying “Two too many doors” for some odd reason. I don’t get it, cars with four doors are bad but pickups with four doors are good. The seller has this four-door 1962 International C110 Travelette pickup listed here on eBay in New London, Wisconsin and the current bid price is $5,250. Thanks to Rocco B. for sending in this tip!
The Travelette was made for several years and was reported to be, by some sources at least, the first four-door pickup. Actually, when it was introduced in 1957 it had three doors with two on the passenger side and one on the driver’s side. I wasn’t around in 1957 but I wonder if people shouted from the rooftops, “ONE TOO MANY DOORS!”? Probably not. This one is 2WD but they also made 4×4 versions.
Travelettes were made from 1957 until 1975 when International got out of the pickup market, leaving just the Scout II until 1980 when they exited the small truck market completely. The company that evolved out of International Harvester, Navistar, came out with a line of gigantic four-door “pickups” in the mid-2000s: the XT (Extreme Truck) Series. The first was the 4×4 CXT (Commercial Extreme Truck) then came the 2WD RXT (Recreational Extreme Truck) and finally the MXT (Military or Most Extreme Truck). They’re the ones to have if you need to have the biggest and best. What the heck, why not just collect all of them! In case you were wondering, yes, they’re big.
Back to this good-looking but more sane version of International’s four-door pickup. This truck appears to be for sale by a company that donates the money to a children’s home so that’s a great reason to buy this one – as if most of us wouldn’t want this truck anyway. The interior has seating for six people at least. If they’re all wearing seatbelts maybe that’s the limit but my dad’s former 1970 Olds 98 would hold far more than just six teenagers. The back seat area looks great and this whole truck looks good, even the box. The underside has a heavy coating of surface rust and there appears to be a bit of rust here and there on the body, but it was supposedly an Arizona truck previously so that had to have helped.
The engine is even clean but sadly, their inspection sheet shows that it’s seized up. It should be International’s 304 V8, I believe, but one of you will know for sure. Bidders clearly think that they can get it going again or will repower it with something else. Given how good the rest of the truck looks, I don’t doubt that this one will be on the road again. Any thoughts on this Travelette?
What’s with the heater hose criss crossing over the engine. That really detracts from general appearance under the hood. Nice truck though. The seats were not at all comfortable in these rigs. 4 door pickups weren’t very popular back then like they are now days. They were generally used as crew trucks to deliver workers to job sites. Municipalities used them quite often.
God bless America
Looks like some half-axxed way of plumbing in an auxiliary heater for the back seat.
That truck is just plain cool in my book. Be an around town and tow the bikes to the dirt one for me. Would try and get the original going but if not I am an inline 6 lover so might find one of them.
Totally agree about the number of door. Most cars look fine and are more usable with four. Two door wagons are plain silly, i do like the looks of the nomad, P1800es, and the one volvo 120 wagon converted to a two door. That was wonderful.
Like the 2-door sedan, 2-door wagons were popular for parents of small children in the days before childproof rear door locks.
I remember when I joined the Navy in the mid 70’s I saw a lot of 3 / 4 door old pick up trucks on base. Most were like this but a few old Power Wagons also.. We used then to get back and forth from the barracks to the hanger in places like 29 Palms, Even had a few in Rota Spain. Nothing about them was fancy they were WORK TRUCKS And Most Got The HELL Beat Out Of Them
Well, I’ll tell you one thing, this truck couldn’t be from the Badger in this condition. Even if it was used by some municipal dept. in AZ, they still led a rough life. It’s pretty amazing to me, how attitudes change. When this came out in the 60’s, and others had them too, it was the last thing we thought of, that THIS, would become the vehicle of choice in the future? There’s a major D’Oh on IH’s part if I ever saw one. We’ve been over and over what a blunder it was for IH to drop their light truck line in favor of the heavy duty sector, which was going great guns at the time. Too bad the bigshots hadn’t considered a company called “Volvo”, that decimated their class 8 line.
BTW, this truck was donated and is being offered by Rawhide Ranch, that was started( or at least heavily promoted) by the late (and great ) Bart Starr, to help underprivileged kids fit in to society and is an outstanding find.
Drop in a 302 and hit the road! If it’s anything like my Travelalls, they’re bulletproof!
It looks in decent condition, I would have guessed it was a 266 ci engine not a 304, I always that came out later?
In a way, it looks like an orphan truck. The cab is out of proportion to the front and bed. It probably isn’t. Transmission wasn’t noted in the dialogue. It appears to be a 3 spd, maybe a 4.Interesting that it has power steering, but not power brakes. That it is lacking some of the comforts like todays trucks, it is fine by me. Rebuild the engine or maybe upgrade to a Duramax. Does anyone know the gas consumption on these motors was?
wcshook, I used to get 12-14mpg in my first Scout, with a 304 and a 2-barrel carb. I know the drivetrain and aerodynamics (ha) are a factor there; the fact that this is a 2-wheel drive might help a little. Not too bad—I used to get about 14mpg in my fuel-injected ’89 Cherokee.
It’s up to $6,900 with two days to go. It’s one of the most cleanest Travelette’s I’ve ever seen. Might break 10k. You just don’t find them this nice. The 304 engines are plentiful so super easy to find a good runner.
First, let me say “Kudos to the State of Wisconsin for creating a comprehensive checklist for vehicles offered for sale!”
Now for some comments that don’t show up on the checklist:
1] Both rear shocks are “helper” types with coil springs. Both coils are hitting the inside edges of the frame rails. This has got to be making noise each time the coils skip past the frame metal.
2] The brake line running across the rear axle to the right rear cylinder has several crimps and dents in it, and needs to be replaced. It’s in danger of bursting because these crimps are now weak spots. In this vehicle, this is especially important because it’s not a dual braking circuit system.
3] An exhaust pipe clamp is being used as a support for the e-brake cables, and this should be changed to a better method of support.
4] It appears the heater temp regulator valve on the firewall is missing and the front firewall heater has been bypassed. And as Howard pointed out above, the truck appears to have an auxiliary heater for the rear seat passengers. It also looks like there is a silver cylinder below the steering column and the heater hose connects to it. I suspect this is a coolant sediment filter, and should be checked to make sure it’s not stopping up the flow of coolant. In rural locations dependent on well water containing high mineral content, cooling system filters were quite comment, as in this case.
If this was offered to me 25 years ago when I had my restoration shop, I’d be on this truck sooooo fast. As an east coast guy who has seen how badly these trucks rusted, this is truly a rust free body. It’s easy to fix all the mechanical items on these IH trucks, and the interior is nice enough I’d leave it as it is. The big plus is that body. I wouldn’t even paint it, and I think it makes a great “Survivor” truck. Once cleaned up and detailed, with the mechanicals sorted, I would be proud to exhibit this at car shows.
Since this truck was likely driven by people wearing big heavy-duty boots, I can accept that the wear on the brake pedal is representative of 44,000 miles, and is certainly not a 144,000 mile pedal [or for that matter, a 144,000 mile interior].
Auction update: this truck sold for $10,601.
Another case of “How the devil did I miss this?” I’d love to have a truck just like this. I’m going to guess that it’s got a 266 in that engine bay. A look at the number plate will give a better idea. A Warner T-98 is likely transferring the power. Travelettes are rapidly increasing in popularity. This selling for over $10K is not surprising at all.
Parts are fairly easy to come by but there are a few problems in the immediate future. It will have 12 inch brakes, components of which are easy to come by at present. The engine can be a little more tricky to get parts for, but talking to one of our suppliers the other day, they’re encountering problems finding bearings for SBCs if you can imagine that. It seems that all the bearing makers maximized profits by capitalizing on cheap labor off-shore so operations headed in that direction. Labor problems, pandemic(s) and some jackass state leader who decided that trucks built before 2011 are no longer allowed to enter the state have made a lot of parts unobtainium. Some companies are making an effort to come back here (where they should never have left in the first place) and start over but it’s going to take a while…