As I revealed in previous installments of Cornbinders Of A Lifetime, by the time I got both my Cab Top and Travel Top Scouts back on the road after their naps, I had a serious case of IH addiction. So like so many others before me, I was ready to move on to the “harder stuff”.
One characteristic of a true IH addict is the regular cruising of IH forums, eBay and Craigslist, in search of the next fix. On one of the forums I found a Travelall for sale. It had not sold on eBay, and since then the price had dropped steadily . Finally one of the respected members of the forum posted, “Check out this Travelall–I’ve seen it in person. Someone get it.”
That was enough for me to call the seller. His numerous ads had stated that it had a rebuilt engine and transmission, and that it was a 2WD half-ton unit, but didn’t specify which model. One of my biggest questions was if it was a 1010 model. In Binder speak, that translates to a 2WD half-ton with the torsion bar IFS and disc brakes. Among Binderphiles, such torsion bar IFS rigs are considered the Cadillacs of Internationals due to their smooth ride and car- like handling. I wanted a cruiser, and it had to be a 1010.
Ever since introducing IFS in 1961, IH had touted the 1000 series’ soft, cushy, car-like ride and handling–not a huge surprise, considering the front suspension was originally designed for a car. On the heels of the introduction of Mopar’s famous torsion bar front suspension, chassis component supplier TRW surmised that torsion bar suspensions would be the next big thing. They wanted a piece of the pie, so they decided to design one on spec and see if they could find a buyer. The general consensus is that their target customer was Ford, since their 1961 design used the Ford wheel-bolt pattern, but the suspension eventually found a home at International. Eventually it even found a home in a car the Moh’s Ostentatienne Opera Sedan used a 1967 Travelall 1000 chassis.
Once the seller had confirmed the IFS, I made arrangements to go to Portland one Friday evening. In the time he’d owned it he hadn’t driven it much, and it was proving to be more than he could handle. For one thing, it was eating starters; a chain that specialized in starters and alternators had already replaced three within a short time. At the time they installed the third, he was told that they would not warranty another one. The front tires were showing wear that indicated something loose in the front end, something he’d mentioned before. What made him the proudest, though, was that he had installed a new Edelbrock carb in place of the previous Holley, which he claimed was so gunked up that he tossed it.
The truck was nicely equipped, with custom interior and exterior packages, bucket seats and console, A/C, automatic transmission, auxiliary transmission cooler, power steering and brakes and factory-installed class III hitch and trailer-tow wiring. One unusual thing is the business-in-front, party-in-back Mullet- style floor covering. Carpeting is part of the custom interior package, but a rubber floor mat had been specified for the front-seat area. The asking price of $750 was quite reasonable for a rig with only about 10,000 miles on a rebuilt drive train, so I made the deal. The seller included a box of parts containing A/C equipment not re-installed when the engine was rebuilt, along with all the receipts.
Bucket seats with locking console/arm rest, but “not to be used for passengers”.
Not being as adventurous as I once was, we decided to spend the night in Portland and drive home in daylight. It barely restarted when I set out for the gas station for a fill-up. I also found that the transmission up-shifted way too late, and it didn’t have the power I expected. The front end definitely wobbled some, so I kept to the slow lane. The wife and kids followed me, but not too closely behind.
Once home, my first order of business was finding out what was wrong with the front suspension. The receipts showed that everything in the front end had been replaced except the center link. That part is obsolete, but through research I knew I could find one at Rare Parts, a maker of obsolete suspension and steering components. Meanwhile, I started attacking some of the other issues. When I got underneath, I discovered why starters wouldn’t last: Somewhere along the line the exhaust shield had been removed. A replacement heat shield and starter from my parts stash resolved the problem.
Next up: Diagnosing the transmission. International had switched to the Chrysler 727 in 1972, which controls shift points via a throttle-valve linkage instead of a vacuum modulator and kick-down linkage. Unfortunately, when people see a rod connecting the carb to the trans they assume it’s a kick-down linkage and adjust it accordingly. Complicating things further was that the Edelbrock carb, based on the old Carter AFB, is wider than the Holley. That meant the linkage was rubbing on the carb and thus not aligned properly. The fact that the Edelbrock uses a slightly smaller primary and slightly larger secondary bore than the Holley also meant that the secondaries could open only partially before hitting the intake.
Thankfully, many people have installed an Edelbrock on their IH, so the info on how to make things work right was just a couple of clicks away. The other issue was that IH used a one-size-fits-all throttle linkage for both two- and four-barrel applications, and the improperly adjusted primary bores also weren’t opening fully. Once all that had been squared away, it had tire-smoking power and proper shifting. Problems two and three had been solved.
I set out to get the A/C working again; while re-installing the parts, I found the threads on the condenser buggered up. A new condenser was going to be a little harder to find, but I knew of a website, car-part.com, with listings from wrecking yards across the U.S. I found a condenser at a yard in a small town in Montana, only about an hour off I-90– a road we’d be traveling soon on the way to visit my wife’s relatives in North Dakota. On the return trip we made a little detour to the wrecking yard, where a lot of IHs were scattered about. I climbed through a number of them and scored a lot of hard-to-find parts, including one of two NOS grilles dropped there by the local IH dealer when he closed up shop.
After we got home I installed the condenser and a new drier, and then charged it up. Now I had nice, ice-cold A/C, which was most welcome when temps started climbing. Unfortunately those warmer temps did not agree with the “Edelboil” carb. If it was over 75 degrees outside, idling at a light for more than a few seconds caused it to load up and, occasionally, die completely. On shut-down you could even hear the fuel boiling in the carb. I’d bought this thing for a summer cruiser, and this just wouldn’t do.
Fuel Injected V392
I’d been collecting the parts required for an EFI conversion on my Cab Top, but now I decided the Travelall had the greater need. I chose to use Megasquirt to control a GM TBI unit, welded in a O2 sensor bung, mounted the fuel pump, and then ran the wiring. On a shelf at the shop I found a TBI unit with the elusive larger “cop car” injectors, and I rebuilt it. I knew the hardest part involved tuning the warm-up enrichment tables, so on a slow day at the shop I got it all warmed up, swapped the fuel lines and installed the TBI.
When I went to crank it up it barely ran. A look at the injectors revealed that one of them wasn’t working. I tried swapping the injector wires, but it still wouldn’t squirt any fuel. The engine had already started cooling down, so I went back to the core shelf and found a unit with the standard 350 injectors and swapped them in. Now it fired up easily, and with the Megasquirt’s auto-tune function turned on it quickly found a good idle. I hopped on the freeway and headed home. It didn’t take long until the auto-tune stopped making corrections. Once I got it all dialed in, the fuel injection did cure the warm weather driveablity issues and raised my mpg from 9-10 to 11-12 in normal driving.
I just couldn’t resist adding a Fuel Injection badge from an 80’s Cadillac
With that all squared away, it was time for a little personalizing. First up was giving it a rake. As with Mopar’s torsion-bar cars, it has an adjustable rear anchor. After a couple of minutes with a socket wrench, I had the rake I desired. On eBay I found Per-Lux fog lights, the same kind IH sold in their Neccessories catalog when the wagon was new, and I installed them in the provided front bumper mounts for an even lower look. Some Lucas Tri-bar style headlight “covers” over Hella E-code headlights added a little custom touch while providing higher-quality halogen lighting. From Craigslist came Scout II chrome rallye wheels that were drilled and tapped to take Ford truck center caps. Big (275/60-15) and little (235/70-15) tires completed the look I was going for.
This is the one IH that all the family loves to cruise in. It actually gets more compliments and admiring looks than either of my Scouts. My favorite incident happened one day as I was cruising down the freeway in the slow lane. A new Shelby Mustang came up alongside me; the young lady driving it slowed way down, gave my IH a once-over, and then gave me a thumbs up before she sped off. Also, a surprising number of people, usually female, tell me that their grandfather, uncle or dad had one “just like it.” Unfortunately, the past few summers have been busy, so it hasn’t been on the road for awhile. That explains its sad state in the pictures. In truth, my favorite summer cruiser is now my Marauder, but never fear–the Travelall will ride again!
“She’s a (rolling) brick….house,
She’s mighty mighty, she’s lettin’ it all hang out!”
Ah, another great wrenching story. Back in the mid-80s, I worked with a guy who had the same generation Travelall, I don’t recall the exact year, but it was two-tone white-and-red, and looked pretty sharp. A couple of us got a ride home from him one night, and he proudly displayed the cruise control for us. He appeared to have the IH bug pretty bad; he talked to the Travelall as he drove, calling it “Binder.” Before we were even allowed inside, he introduced us to Binder, and gave us a short lecture on how to behave.
I’ve seen a fair # of these on eBay but I’m not seeing them with a 3rd row seat. Were they available with a 3rd row seat?
Yes a 3rd row forward facing seat was available but they aren’t all that common.
i owned a international 1010 345 2weel drive was great camping vechile rear had 3rd row seating
I. Love. Travelalls. Growing up in Fort Wayne, these things were fairly common. Before 1973, a Suburban only got you 3 doors, so if you wanted a big family vehicle but were not inclined to go with a van, this was the truck for you.
When I met my best friend Dan, his dad (my eventual car-mentor Howard) owned a 1971 version. His other car was a black 72 Newport coupe. I could live with that fleet today.
The T-All was very nicely equipped, and Dan’s mom drove it most of the time. They replaced it with a 73 Dodge Royal Sportsman Maxi-Van before I got a drivers license, so I never got the chance to drive one of these. It must have been a 1010, because I don’t remember the ride being unusually harsh. It only seated 6, so the family of 5 plus 1 tagalong filled it up, and the van suited them better.
Unfortunately, these did not survive northern Indiana salt all that well. The last one I saw out in the wild was in the late 80s or early 90s – a college-age girl was driving it. I have seen one or two on ebay that have tempted me. But your postings have reminded me that these are quite dangerous and addictive.
The Megasquirt conversion looks interesting. Any chance of a story on how you did it?
Eventually I will get around to a how to EFI your Curbside Classic.
I love it thankfully not many of these made it here or survive of those that did coz at $10 per gall one of these is outside my running costs budget would I like one? damn right I would.
Good call on the MS swap. Really, anything is better than that Show Car carb though.
That’s a sweet rig for sure. I want to build a similar cruiser out of a 2wd FSJ if I ever come across one. Binders and SJs make pretty nice looking Hot Rods.
Do you plan on fixing the front fender?
Yes eventually, but for now since it didn’t crack the paint I’d rather leave it alone until the time comes when I can fix it and paint it along with the rest of the truck, in the original Yuma Yellow.
My memories of these include the bizarre flank fuel tanks some had with the gas cap and tube mounted just behind the front wheelwell. Was the location a factory item or aftermarket?
That is a factory location, if you look closely you’ll see a filler in the passenger side front fender. The tank though takes up the same space as in a pickup with the back of the cab filler. On the Travelall that is the aux tank, the main is in the driver’s side rear quarter. On regular cab pickups the aux tank fills from the front fender on the driver’s side. With the Travelette, IH’s name for their crew cab the main tank is the same as the Travelall’s aux tank and its aux tank is the same as the regular cabs zux tank. It is incredible just how many tanks IH had for the full size trucks.
Interesting story; didn’t know about the torsion-bar suspension. Since I’m not much of a mechanic let me change the subject: I’d argue that the 1969 redesign of the Travelall was one of IH’s biggest deadly sins.
Why? Because IH failed to anticipate the suburbanization of the truck market. Unlike Chevy, Dodge and Ford, International’s full-sized truck and Travelall didn’t receive the modern design features of its competitors, e.g., by 1973 the International was the only big truck that didn’t offer curved side glass.
To make matters worse, the styling was pretty subpar. Behold the brick-like front end and the weird zag to the side crease. By 1973 it looked hopelessly obsolete compared to the competition. And once Chevy added a fourth door to the Suburban, the Travelall arguably lost its biggest competitive advantage.
Ford offers an interesting counterpoint. Its new-for-1967 truck body had flat side glass but the basic design was convertible to curved glass — which Ford switched to in 1973. It was an effective yet relatively inexpensive response to Chevy’s complete redesign of its pickups and Suburban in 1973.
As far as styling goes I’d say IH’s 1969 truck lead the pack, I see a lot of it’s influence in the 1973 GM design. I actually really like the flat glass since it does not have the solar gain of curved glass and those windows being more upright helps in that matter too.
I always liked the look of the final Travelalls and pickups from IH. I understand the thing about flat glass, but I am not sure it mattered so much with this demographic. I think that the biggest problem with the final Travelall was the lack of easily accessible dealers. And once Chevy/GMC offered a 4 door Suburban, the market through the rest of the 1970s was just not big enough. The Suburban did not really come into its own until the 1980s, when you could no longer get a big car for pulling travel trailers. I really don’t remember many Suburbans driving around in the 70s, and it was maybe 1979 or 80 by the time I actually rode in one that was decently equipped (ie – not for commercial service). Full sized vans ruled in the 70s, but had become out of style by the 80s.
I think that International’s biggest marketing failure was not making these into luxury vehicles. The Grand Wagoneer was ancient, but by the end, you got beautiful interiors that made the thing seem worth the outrageous amount of money they were charging for an early 1960s utility vehicle. Travelalls were expensive, so loading them up with thick carpet, leather, a nicer dash and power options might have made it stand out a bit from the Suburban. Both the Travelall and the Scout that I spent time around in the 70s screamed “I am a truck” at you from the inside, albeit a decently trimmed one.
AMC did a much better job of appealing to the suburbanization of the truck market than IH on a number of fronts. As you mention, they did luxury better in the Wagoneer. They also launched the more sporty Cherokee, which turned out to be a much bigger seller than the Wagoneer ever was. In addition, AMC had far more dealers in urban areas than IH, which tended to cater to rural farmers.
I’d still argue that as the 1970s progressed that styling mattered more and more in trucks. The Travelall’s look may have been fine for IH’s core demographic, but it proved too small to support the continuance of IH’s big-truck platform by the mid-70s.
There is no doubt that styling of trucks started to matter more and more but it was IH that set the lead that GM followed though they dressed it up with curved side windows.
Remember the Cherokee was introduced to replaced the failure that was the Commando which was a response to the popularity of the Scout and Bronco.
Wow!!! I love it… wish I didn’t have to get ready for work so I could sit here and write a 5,000 word essay on how into this truck I am.
Good story Eric. As a recovering cornbinder addict I appreciate all you go through to keep the habit alive.
Eric, this is my favorite one so far! Hope you get it shined up and take it for a ride come spring. Definitely a keeper.
Looking forward to next week’s Cornbinder.
Growing up driving the 1959 forerunner to the Loadstar, I have always loved IHC trucks. (Repeat after me: Green Tractors, Red Trucks.) I think you have to understand the demise of the Travelall in the larger context of the gradual demise of IHC, which really began in the late 50’s with the failed launch of the 560 tractor line (big new 6-cylinder engine; 1939 4-cylinder final drive-oops!). From there you had the rapid technological changes in the agriculture industry in the ’60’s, succession of CEO’s, unwieldy, multiple product lines (ag, industrial, light truck, heavy truck, appliance, etc.), tight profit margins, aging factories, increasing government regulation of vehicles and factory conditions in the 70’s, and then the historically poor labor relations that lead to a financially crippling strike at the end of the ’70’s. IH let go of their light truck line, and eventually about everything else, to focus on what they thought they could make money on, which was heavy trucks. Leaving “orphan” Cornbinders, Red lettered and numbered Farmalls, Yellow Cub Cadets, and their followers all over the land.
The Loadstar was making good money for IH, they couldn’t keep up with the demand which is one of the reasons the Full-size trucks went away, they were built alongside the Loadstars in the same factory (and were competing for the most popular engine the 392) so the full size trucks were sacrificed, despite the fact that they had just spend a fair amount of money to design all new frames in 1974 in part to accept the all new MV series of gas engines and it’s twin the 6.9 diesel. Had they had the 6.9 available for the start of the 1974 model year they might have scored a big win.
Nice job on the 1010. Your to be commended on your wrenching/troubleshooting skills. The 1010 looks wicked especially with the rake and rally wheel combo. Once again from one car guy to another great job.
Thanks, I had aluminum slots on it for awhile, which I normally like, but I think the Rallye wheels suit it better.
I owned one and I have loved it from the very beginning. I learned how to drive it and had so many great years and now I have been on the hunt to get another one as I miss this awesome Travelall so much. I want all my Grandkids to know just how awesome these really are in even todays generatation
on.peolpe who own these are so blessed to have them today. And if anyone out there has any photo books,models,macanic books,magizines,calenders,posters showing the 1972 on this model any thing I would be so very honored to have and buy them with any help from who ever would be honored to help me.Thank you so much !!!!!! Email me glgracenhoofs@yahoo.com
I have a 72 1010 that needs a new engine/ transmission, does anyone know where i can find one?