The urge to hit the road is increasing in direct proportion to the days getting noticeably shorter, and it appears I’m not the only one. We’ll be off as soon as I finish my current project, but in the meantime we can use our imagination. Like imagining all the places this rather unique VW pickup/Caddy-based camper has taken its owners in the 418k miles it’s racked up. OK, that’s not on the original engine, but still an impressive amount of traveling. And with that diesel, the scenery didn’t exactly go by any too quickly. But they’ve saved a lot on fuel bills over all that distance, like about $91k, compared to our Dodge Chinook.
That assumes 35 mpg for the VW, and 11 mpg for our Dodge. Good thing we’re not quite as ambitious in our travels. Our ’77 still has only 125k miles on it.
We’re long overdue for a proper VW pickup/Caddy CC, but this isn’t it, just yet. Instead, we’ll marvel at this rather tidy little camper conversion. It’s the only one like this I remember ever seeing, and obviously a professional one.
Ironically, I shot this on one of the coldest winter days we’ve had here in years, and I got that mileage from the owner, who was just leaving in another car. He also told me it’s on the third engine, not surprisingly. That’s hardly unreasonable, given the mileage and weight the little mill is hauling. But what I really forgot was to find out where the door to the rear compartment is. It seems odd that it isn’t in the rear. It would take some doing to cut it into the other side, but that’s what I’m left to assume, since I didn’t have the presence of mind to walk around to see for myself.
Wrap it Ill take it, at a guess its a crawl thru from the front at our prices diesel is definitely the way to go never seen one of these I guess its a US only idea strange though considering all the years I spent in the land of utes
Those are per litre prices 11mpg youd need to be wealthy
Is that a XR6 or an XR8? I’d like one regardless.
Au Falcon definitely and thats the correct front clip for the XR cant read the badge myself heaps about here and those old ones are pretty cheap.Hot Rod Holdens and Falcons are popular in New Zealand I must shoot some more and put em on the cohort page.My brother in law works for the largest Ford dealership in the south pacific he gets to play in these lucky bastard he is but they only hand out Mondeos as company cars.
The VW truck is, to me, the little one that got away.
When it came out, I was too broke to buy it. Then…I was afraid of VWs and their habits…my concern from my Super Beetle and my mother’s Westmoreland Rabbit. I had just landed a good job; finished the probationary period in October 1984. I decided on a Rampage, and, guess what? The Rampage had been discontinued with the 1984 model year.
In those pre-Internet days, car-shopping out of your area was an impractical proposition at best. The Dodge dealers didn’t want to bother looking for an oddball vehicle for a kid with iffy credit, and have to arrange a long-distance swap. Not when the time could be spent selling Ks; and getting sales training for the coming Magic Wagon.
By the time I gave up, the Jeep CJ8, which was my fallback choice, had been sold, too. Nothing in the pipeline. A co-worker, a mature lesbian, had a lightly-used VW truck…she wanted to sell fast, to get money for an F-250. I passed, trusting her less than her castoff trucklet; and went with the cheapest car I could get. An Escort Pony.
With hindsight, I may have avoided some heartache. My understanding is that cab room in the truck was very limited…which might explain why this owner might have taken out the back bulkhead in favor of a walk-through setup.
But still and all…front wheel drive; diesel economy; a by-gawd TRUCK that I can play hard in…it was an appeal back then and still is.
My question is can this thing possibly be big enough sleep in or are the owners rather small in stature.
The pickup bed looks about 2m long Ford did a version of their Escort van in Aussie like this it wouldnt be any bigger, maybe you fold the seats forward.Paul got up close he should know.
The beds are longer than you think on the pickup.
I’d be afraid to drive this car. That diesel only made 50-something horsepower, and they didn’t usually have power steering. Even bone stock and empty the 4-speed was screaming at highway speeds. I bet this truck won’t do 75.
OTOH, slow down to a 2 lane pace on a lazy weekend, get some sandwich fixings and load up the dogs, head for that nice little campground…
Actually looks pretty roomy compared to some campers…
We see a few Bedford Rascal based “Bambi” campers around here, now those are really small – I managed to find a picture of one on the back of a car transporter to give some sense of scale. You can still sleep two in there pretty comfortably I gather.
I think I’d prefer that Caddy myself though, less danger of tipping over in high winds. 😀
HA Bedfords were camper converted too used to be one here in Napier rare as but its gone now
It almost looks like there is a window or door behind the passenger side. If you were to look at that front angle shot.
I remember the VW pickups being a long-box, too-short-cab configuration too. If they’d used the doors from a 2-door car and made the cab that much longer, I’m thinking they’d have been more successful. Successful enough, I don’t know, as that wasn’t the only reason or even the main reason Datsun and Toyota pickups took over that part of the market.
Quite an extensive conversion, notice the side body line finishes about 18″ from the end which shows how much it has been lengthened by. Likely the most economical touring you would find I’d think, the only downside would be covering long distances to new places.
I followed a Caddy badged VW van yesterday totally different to this but the name has lived on.
I owned “Veggie-Bago” as we calledit from 2002-2015. purchased from the original owners in Florida. Converted it to run on used cooking oil. swapped out engines with an old jetta turbo diesel 1.6 L. great touring machine!