At first glance this looks like a tidy, well-kept 1964 International Travelall. Look a little closer, though, and you'll find that almost nothing beneath the vintage sheetmetal is from the 1960s. The body sits on a 1997 Chevrolet K2500 Suburban 4x4 chassis, motivation comes from a 6.5-liter turbo-diesel V8, and the cabin has been reworked to a standard that wouldn't look out of place on a show stand.
The result is a classic IH wagon you could realistically drive every day. The exterior keeps the upright, no-nonsense charm of the original Travelall, while the running gear, brakes, steering and climate control have all been dragged firmly into the modern era. It is, in effect, a preview of what International might have built if it had kept the nameplate alive for another few decades.
The Quick Version
This 1964 Travelall has been rebuilt from the ground up on a 1997 Chevrolet K2500 Suburban 4x4 platform and runs the GM 6.5-liter turbo-diesel V8. This is far more than a quick body-on-frame transplant, with fit and finish that the seller describes as concept-car quality throughout.
Inside, the truck has been treated to a genuinely upscale specification. Power steering and power brakes are joined by dual air conditioning, a heated front bench, heated second-row captain's chairs and an alarm system, turning what was once a utilitarian hauler into something considerably more comfortable to live with.
By keeping the period styling intact and modernizing everything underneath, the build amounts to a contemporary take on one of America's earliest full-size SUVs. Interestingly, it arrives just ahead of Scout Motors' upcoming Traveler SUV, a model whose very name is widely read as a tribute to the original Travelall.
The truck is now headed to auction with Mecum this June, where it's being presented as a rare chance to own a thoroughly modernized version of a pioneering American wagon.
A Brief History Of The International Travelall
International Harvester launched the Travelall in 1953, a steel-bodied wagon riding on the company's R-Series light-truck chassis. It wasn't the first wagon built on a truck platform, Chevrolet's Suburban had been around since 1935, but it landed at a moment when tough, multi-seat utility vehicles were still very much a niche. Most of Detroit was content to chase higher-volume products, and nobody yet suspected the SUV would one day rule the road.
The first Travelall was simple in concept: essentially a windowed R-110 panel truck given two or three rows of seats, a 115-inch wheelbase and a 220 cubic-inch Silver Diamond inline-six making 100 bhp. Cargo was reached through side-opening barn doors, with a wagon-style tailgate available as an option, and rear passengers climbed in by tipping the front seat forward. Across four generations and 22 years, the Travelall would help define the full-size SUV long before that term existed.
For 1956 the R-Series gave way to the S-Series, split into standard S-110 and heavy-duty S-120 versions. The S-120 could be ordered with factory four-wheel drive that year, making the Travelall one of the first full-size, truck-based passenger wagons to offer 4x4 from the factory rather than as an aftermarket conversion. Chevrolet's Suburban didn't get its own 4x4 option until 1957.
The second generation arrived in late 1957 with the A-Series trucks, sold under an Anniversary banner marking 50 years of IH truck production. The big news was a third passenger door on the curb side, which transformed rear-seat access for family use. A matching door on the driver's side wasn't possible at the time because the fuel filler lived there. The follow-on B-Series of 1959 brought a facelift along with the Travelall's first V8 options, power steering and power brakes, all key ingredients in winning over private buyers used to car-like manners.
April 1961 brought the third generation alongside the C-Series trucks, and with it the Travelall's most thorough mechanical reinvention to date. A new chassis adopted torsion-bar independent front suspension, dropped the body four inches and gave a far more car-like ride. The wheelbase stretched to 119 inches and, crucially, the Travelall gained a fourth passenger door, a full 12 years before the Suburban managed the same trick and two years ahead of the Jeep Wagoneer. Plenty of people credit the Wagoneer as the first SUV, but IH's engineers might reasonably disagree.
The C-Series also introduced the four-door Travelette, an evolution of IH's 1957 three-door crew cab and the first factory-built four-door crew-cab pickup in the US. The third generation carried on through C- and D-Series designations from 1961 to 1968, with yearly grille and headlight tweaks separating the model years. A rare D301 diesel was quietly available as a special order between 1963 and 1968.
The fourth and final generation appeared in early 1969 with restyled bodywork penned by IH styling director Ted Ornas, a cleaner and more angular look that echoed the smaller Scout and tied the brand's design language together. For the first time the Travelall was treated as a model line in its own right rather than just a wagon version of the pickup. The base engine was an AMC-sourced 232 cubic-inch six (dropped after 1971 due to weak sales), backed by IH's own 304, 345 and 392 cubic-inch V8s.
When IH ran short of its 392 V8 in 1973 and 1974, an AMC 401 cubic-inch unit was substituted and marketed as the V-400, and those examples are highly sought after today. Buyers could choose from 3-, 4- and 5-speed manuals or 3-speed automatics, including Borg-Warner units and, from 1972, the Chrysler TorqueFlite 727. In late 1971 the Travelall became one of the first American light trucks offered with anti-lock brakes, the rear-wheel-only Bendix Adaptive Braking System, though few buyers ticked that pricey box. A short-lived Wagonmaster variant for 1973 and 1974 chopped off the rear roof to create an integrated bed for fifth-wheel towing, but it sold poorly and was gone after 1974.
Throughout its life the Travelall played in a small but fast-growing field. Its main rival was the Chevrolet Suburban, which lacked four doors until 1973 and 4x4 until 1957, while the Jeep Wagoneer that arrived in 1963 was smaller and more car-like. The Travelall's real handicap was never the trucks themselves but the dealer network behind them, which was geared toward commercial and farm customers in rural areas rather than the growing suburbs where family-utility demand was strongest. Despite loyal, satisfied owners, IH's light-truck share had slipped to just 4.1% nationwide by 1969.
The end then came quickly. The 1973 Oil Crisis hammered sales of the thirsty Travelall, which managed only 10 to 12 mpg, and that same year GM finally gave the Suburban its fourth door and erased the IH wagon's key advantage. On May 5, 1975, International Harvester discontinued its entire Light Line, the Travelall, the pickups and the Travelette crew cabs included. Only the Scout II soldiered on, lasting until 1980 before IH left the consumer market for good.
A New Beginning
That looked like the final chapter, and for a few decades it was. But the International consumer-vehicle story wasn't quite finished. Scout Motors was established in 2022 by Volkswagen AG, which had picked up the Scout trademarks after acquiring International a year earlier. The reborn company plans two all-electric models beginning in 2027 with the Scout Terra, a full-size pickup, followed a year later by the Scout Traveler, a full-size SUV. That Traveler name is widely understood as a nod to the original Travelall, and it will wear the same four-door wagon body style.
The Custom Travelall Shown Here
In a sense, this truck beat Scout Motors to its own idea, delivering a modernized Travelall years before the reborn brand turns a wheel. Rather than electric power, which would no doubt rankle some purists, it relies on a stout 6.5-liter turbo-diesel V8 mounted in a 1997 Chevrolet K2500 Suburban 4x4 chassis. The amount of skilled engineering on display goes well beyond a simple body swap, and the seller pegs the overall fit and finish at concept-car level.
The Suburban underpinnings deliver a far more composed ride, and the interior has been redone to suit, with power steering, power brakes, dual air conditioning, a heated front bench, heated second-row captain's chairs, an alarm system and plenty more besides. The truck is crossing the block with Mecum in June, and you can find the listing if you'd like to dig into the details or register to bid.
