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| 1973 IH Traveall 4x4 |
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| 1973 IH Traveall 4x2 |
In the Late 1960's and early 1970's International Harvester made a determined run at the Sport Utility market. They had for some years produced the Scout which had some comfort features not found in Jeeps of the time, and then came the Traveall. It had been around through the 1960's but sold as more of a 'panel' for telephone repairmen, than as a sport utility.
With the introduction of the new body style in 1968, IH produced a full line of Travelall's dressed up and aimed at the same market now dominated by the Chevy Tahoe/ GMC YUKON and Ford Expedition. These were 4 door units with a fold down rear seat and all the comforts then customary. They, like the TAHOE and YUKON were shorter than the Suburban, and did about everything except get good gas mileage. For a While it seems that they would be greatly successful, but then the gas lines of the early '70's appeared, and IH had some financial problems, and these products vanished.
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| 1973 IH 4x4 Rear View |
Timing, it seems, is everything. General Motors has waiting lines in the 1990's for their Tahoe/Yukon line, even though it is sized and even looks vaguely like the Traveall of the 1970's which IH had to drop.
The one shown here isn't mine, though I owned a couple of these during their time. These units were mechanically similar to the IH pickups, and could be acquired in both 2x4 and 4x4 versions in light half ton/heavy half ton and 3/4 ton models. The 1110 was a heavy half ton model. the bodies were the same on all 3 lines, but the frames and axles weren't. The light half ton was a 2x4 only and used a box frame and independent front suspension it was the 1010. The heavier models had channel frames, and used a solid front axle even on the 4x2 models.
The Brown one shown above belonged to our family for many years. My father bought it new and drove it for over 200,000 miles. The engines were just incredible. This particular one had problems for the first 100,000 miles. It would get tight when hot so if you killed it the starter wouldn't turn it over until it cooled off. Finally after about 100,000 miles is loosened up enough so this wasn't a problem any more. The sheet metal for the '73 model was really all the same as the earlier models except that the grill was different. In the late '60's IH really had their vehicles all the same. If they didn't sell one year, they just rebadged them and sold them as next year's model. Then about 1970, the Feds decided that the year of manufacture was more important than the year of sale to identify the 'model year', so rebadging wasn't allowed any more. The Traveall in the background of the photo is a 1970 1210 4x4.