Category: Inspiration

I’m feeling better and better about my life choices today. Up on Marketplace, there are two Travelalls for sale on the East Coast. The first one is this crusty green ’63 in a state of disassembly:

The good: it’s a barn door 4×4 Wyoming truck. The rear windows are present(?) The bad: the entire front clip has been removed, and the V8 engine is sitting in pieces in the cargo area, as are the seats. It’s missing a bunch of unobtanium trim. And there’s no title. The price: $4900.

The second truck is this dark green ’62 which we’re told runs. The good: It’s got new brakes, fuel pump, exhaust, and alternator. The 4×4 gear is said to work. The rear windows are present(?) The bad: It’s a rusty 3-speed column shift, 6 cylinder engine, with 2-piece widowmaker wheels. And there’s no title. The price: $6000.

Consulting my spreadsheet, I’m still a long ways away from investing that much money in the red bus, all in.

I really dig this. I think they got a lot of things right here. Among others:

• 200M range, with an optional range-extending ICE engine—this is the way
• Split rear tailgate with a swing-away tire carrier
• 4 doors but a silhouette pointing directly back at Scout II design cues (called the Traveler)
• A 4 door pickup version, called the Terra
• Optional bench seat!!
• Buttons for the controls, not touchscreens
• Multiple roof options (but no removable top)
• Solid rear axle
• Body on frame construction
• Projected price point: $50-60K

It’s still pricey for our budget, but I would really love to move to an electric vehicle in something like this.

Scout Motors is unveiling their new vision of the brand this evening at 5PM EST; it should be interesting to see what they’ve come up with. One journalist I respect has been able to peek behind the curtain a little bit, and says he’s very excited about it. I’m not currently in the market for a new vehicle, but we’ll see how this goes.

I’ve been keeping tabs on the Anything Scout racing team as they were competing in the Norra 1000 in Baja this past week, in a truck I saw last year at Nationals: an otherwise unassuming Terra with a 4-cylinder engine they found on Marketplace a couple of years ago. Another guy I follow, Dan from the Binder Boneyard, was running with them as part of their pit crew. They were 30 miles from the finish when somehow they rolled the truck down a ravine 20+ times. They’re both fine; the truck did its job and kept them safe. Sad to see the remains of El Tractor in a picture (they had to helicopter it out) but it went down fighting, and they’ve already said they’ll return.

This video walks through the addition of an electric steering box from a Prius into an antique truck; this process is much like the one Brian did on Slowflake a couple of years ago. As I’ve gotten deep into the weeds in power steering woes on the Red Bus, and realizing how difficult it might be to find a PS setup on a truck with an I-beam front suspension, this direction might be the way to go.

I would imagine they had to weld some serious support into this thing to get it to stop from flexing like tissue paper with all those people inside. Still, it looks like a hell of a lot of fun to drive!

I spied this red ’65 Travelall on eBay a few weeks ago and it came back up in my feed yesterday, having been sold for $5880 in Marfa, Texas. Old trucks are typically much cheaper in the southwestern states due to the climate being much friendlier, so the (low?) price isn’t that much of a surprise. The outside of the truck is in relatively decent shape, but clearly has some visible battle scars; the rear tailgate, for example, looks lousy, and the front clip has lost paint in exactly the same places mine has.

The most interesting thing about this truck is that it was built and delivered to a dealer in Tuxedo, Maryland, which is right outside of Capitol Heights to the east of D.C. From the build sheet it sounds like a nice upgrade from mine: the same 304/T-18 driveline (2WD) but power brakes with front discs, extra sun visor and both armrests, as well as front bucket seats. OH, THE LUXURY. Most interestingly, this says it was originally Vegas Blue Metallic, so it’s been resprayed at some point. I’d bet a look under the hood would reveal the original paint. There was only one shot of the interior, which was sporting some seriously bizarre aftermarket bucket seats.

There’s a lot here I like—Western mirrors look really good (I’m waiting to mount mine until the springtime, when I can pull the cover off). More and more I like the look of white wheels and roof on a red truck. I think I’m being convinced to change my paint scheme around a little bit. It’s interesting to see the same kind of aftermarket roof-mounted reverse light mine had; I guess this was a thing after a certain point.