In a small Midwestern town, this Travelall stood out as visitor from a faraway land: Montana license plate, big-rig mudflaps and a rifle rack in the rear window suggest a life a bit more rugged than what typical modern SUVs experience. In many ways, this truck reminds me of one of the first Internationals I remember seeing. When I was a kid, my father had a new coworker join his office – this man moved to Philadelphia from Colorado, and brought his International Scout, replete with “Colorado” big rig mudflaps. To young me, no vehicle better symbolized the rugged, tough West. And after admiring this Travelall, I still consider that to be true.
Ironically, International Harvester conveyed a different message in Travelall marketing materials. These vehicles are more often shown on vacation or in the suburbs than off-roading or working on a ranch. This held true for Chevy Suburbans and Jeep Wagoneers as well, though from my perspective International had more of a husky reputation than Chevy or Jeep, which makes the dichotomy more dramatic.
This particular Travelall is from the model’s penultimate year of 1974, and is a “100” (½-ton) series. While it may look like the Grenoble Green is accented by white in a two-tone paint scheme, the white is actually a vinyl applique. International’s “Custom Exterior Trim” package offered buyers a choice of woodgrain or white vinyl on the side panels – and that accounts for cracking visible in the photo.
It’s hard to look at a Travelall and not marvel at how contemporary the overall concept appears. Fifty years ago, who would have guessed that large, versatile vehicles straddling the car/truck boundary would become a dominant market force?
This vehicle must have led an interesting life. And judging by its intact condition, plus the fact that it’s parked next to an International pickup, it has likely found a good home. Happy trails to this tough Travelall!
Photographed in Lansing, Iowa in June 2023.
Outstanding find. I loved these, then and now. The attractive Rallye package vinyl graphics, from the Scout II, might have done a better job of visually breaking up that large expanse of white vinyl on the bodysides.
Proof, a vehicle doesn’t need fantastic attention-grabbing styling, to have positive iconic looks.
Having worked as an illustrator in the past, you’d think I’d promote illustration. But, I believe a strong outdoors photograph (or collage of images) for the ’74 Travelall brochure cover, would have been a stronger marketing direction. The illustration has a dated ’60s feel, for 1974.
Nice contrast to the Range Rover this morning.
As to its advertised positioning, it already had the tough “cowboy” market more or less sewn up; they were trying to make this burly truck more appealing to a gentler crowd. It would be a bit hard to imagine one being bought in my former neck of the woods in the Towson, MD area. Not genteel enough.
But that would all change, eventually. Now it’s a sea of CUVs.
Same here, Paul, from growing up in the suburban northeast. The only light-duty International trucks I recall seeing in my youth were half-cab Scout pickups with snow plows on the front. They were small enough for residential plowing and (slightly) more civilized than a half-cab CJ.
I love these.
Maybe because they were among the first, I never questioned that they were in fact both “sport” and “utility” vehicles. An owner of one of these seemed to be serious about recreating AND working, as the vehicle looked capable of supporting both. Most (like your example) appear to bear the scars of actually doing what the thing was designed to do. To this day, whenever I have the rare encounter with one I think that something like a dented up front end and a rust spot or two (I think these came from the factory with rust…) is just fine. It adds character to a vehicle that is already lacking nothing in the character department.
And I even like the ones with Di-Noc.
The roof clearance lights, and large mud flaps, really add to the cheesy ’70s JC Whitney feel. Makes it even more of a throwback capture. As if you took these pics in the summer of 1978. Just needs an Airstream trailer.
Remember, seeing so many ’70s era SUVs and full-sized station wagons, with those anti-static belts. Trailing from their rear bumpers. As you’d hear the strips dragging on the pavement, as vehicles drove by. Memories, specific to that era.
Canyonero!
I know several people who had the Scout, but I never heard of the Travelall. All I see is a Jeep Wagoneer lookalike, ant least anything behind the nose. Though it’s hard to say who came first with what body style features, it looks like the two were pretty much neck and neck for a long time.
Our family traveled from California to Texas and back in the summer when us kids were small in one of these. I believe it was 2wd.
I don’t quite remember whether it had air-conditioning or not, but in the furthest back seat it definitely did not! Seemed just as comfy as any of the big wagons we had rode in. Probably being loaded down with a kids and camping gear and luggage helped.
Otherwise it was a very reliable vehicle and perfect for that trip. It was sold shortly after we returned however, to be replaced (if I get the sequence correct) by a 1974 Volvo 145 wagon.
The “74 Travelall” had “dated, 60’s, feel to it.
was the volvo a step up or a step down we had a 68 travelall for a couple years not alot of problems ran a school bus run 150 miles a day eventualy got wells wayne 1 ton school bus i had three I/h p/u
IH: The Pete Best of SUVs.
One of the best features of these, especially with 2wd and even more so the earlier ones from the ’60s with wraparound side windows, was their “see-through” nature. Non- or minimally-tinted glass and no headrests in any seating postion (indeed, IH’s bench seats had significantly lower backrests than a contemporary Chevy Suburban or for that matter Ford, Dodge or Jeep pickup) meant the driver of a normal sedan behind it could look straight through the back window and windshield to see what was happening in traffic ahead of it.
My best friend’s family had a 71. They were a suburban family who bought it as a big station wagon for their family of five. I loved it, and I still have a thing for these. I suspect that they were a more common Suburban-style vehicle in Fort Wayne where International had a significant corporate footprint.
Thinking about it, my mother occasionally hired a guy who did odd jobs. He had a baby blue & white one that was full of tools and equipment in the back. Unfortunately, they all got pretty rusty as they aged.
I always felt that if International had been able to weather the 1974-75 recession, these would have sold pretty well in 1976-78 along with lots of other big cars. But then it would have been toast after the summer of 1979 when gas went sky high.
I suspect you’re right about the choice of an International for suburban family duty was probably more common there than in many other places. Like Paul mentioned, on the east cost, these weren’t considered genteel enough, even for middle-class families. I can recall in 1980 when my dad took the family to look at new Jeeps. Mom was less than thrilled – however it was a short-lived experiment because the Jeep broke down on the test drive
I find International’s light duty truck line of 1974-75 particularly interesting, as International was in the midst of making some major changes when they dropped the line (except for the Scout) in mid-1975. One of the problems International was facing was the lack of a large displacement V-8 to compete with the Ford 460/GM 454/Dodge 440 big blocks. International’s 392 V-8, though rugged and reliable, eked out a paltry 172 H.P. and 288 lbs./ft. of torque. These numbers were a lot closer to a GM 350 than any of the big V-8’s, and the 392 had quite the reputation for poor fuel economy. International realized the 392’s shortcomings and had a much more modern large displacement V-8 engine family under development, the MV series. The MV’s were to be available in 404 and 446 displacements and promised higher outputs with improved fuel economy over the 392. Fitting these new V-8’s into the International light duty line necessitated a redesign of the front frame and suspension which appeared on the 1975 models. The engine was located further rearward, front frames rails were widened and the upper control arm mounted torsion bars were replaced with coil springs. The new suspension design bore a passing resemblance to that of the contemporary Dodge 4X2 light trucks and even shared a few parts with them like ball joints. The MV engines were scheduled to debut in the redesigned International light duty line in 1976 but this sadly never happened. International toyed with the idea of selling rebadged Dodge light trucks after dropping their own but that came to naught as well, possibly due to a lack of interest from IH dealers. Interestingly, Dodge considered offering the MV engines in their light trucks in 1979 after the 400 and 440 went out of production, but the idea was dropped with the second energy crisis and Chrysler’s deepening financial problems. Nonethless a very small number of Dodge motorhome chassis were built with the MV 446 sometime in 1980. International offered the MV engines in the Cargostar, S-Series, and some of the last Loadstars before converting the MV machining line to produce the 6.9L V-8 diesel for Ford. And that was that…
Great history Bob! Thanks.
My first IH sighting was the 1930’s tractor that came with grandpa’s orchard he bought in ’57. But the first street cornbinder sighting was when my best friend’s parents bought a new Travelall in ’63, also green and white.
Not a fan of that genre, too big, heavy, thirsty, slow, poor handing, consumptive etc. But for some reason I’d love one of those old Internationals!
I mean they were trucks with seats, no frills about them. Need to tow something, just put it in granny low and not much is going to stop you. Except maybe gas stations and the relative lack of power which was made up for by a relatively short engine lifespan.