1973FordCamper Special

Anyone have a Ford Camper Special?

There is one on Ebay Close to me, thinking about going to look at it. 390/C6/4.10 Rear. What does everyone think about the price? Seems a little steep to me.
Ebay Truck
 
Joel, The F-350, Super Camper Special Was Truly a great Truck. They were designed for the 12 ft COE Campers. When equipped with the 12.50 x 16.5 rear tires. My old 74 W/ a 460 V8, C-6 auto, and 4:10 rear gears was a powerhouse. It out shined every other truck around when pulling a 20 ft Gooseneck loaded with cows. Mine was the 10,000 GVW package. There was just little to no squat to its rear springs. Fuel mileage is relevant to What it is! I wouldn't expect over 12 mpg But a truck to do a specific purpose then OK. Mine was 5.5 mpg, up hill, down hill, all around the town, but with a trailer on You would chicken before it ran out of throttle!
I check Ebay most every Fri night over the yrs I have seen some nicer ones, XLTs not the Customs for not so much more $$$.
It is straight enough and pretty nice shape. Price is pretty good. Would like to see the inside! Definitely worth a Look-See! Hope this helps.
Later,
John A.
PS. Still regret selling mine!
 
It is what it is and if its what you want then it may be worth the price.

Only thing I will add is it looks like the AC has 134a fittings, 134 does not retro fit well on that system at all... If you want good cold AC and do not have a boat load of R12 its going to cost a bunch to convert it over to a system that works well with 134a.

Unless its been shelter the floors are rusted out its the nature of the beast...
Fuel mileage I wounder what great fuel mileage is,, to me it would be 10/11/12 hauling that camper,,, 12 empty.... In its day it was probably the best Ford offered until the 460 came along,,, one with a 460 you could hook that one to it and drag it around all day long it would not know it was behind ya....

I have a 77 F350 4 speed 3.73/3.75 gears I just built a 390 and dropped it in it... I have not checked the mileage yet it does pull well at light throttle so the mileage should be in the 11/12 range I hope.... If I were look'n and wanted a truck like that I would think 25 to $3500 to be in the ball park...
It is what it is if he can get his price good for him... I don't doubt he has spent 1700 on it and it probably needs another 1700 spent on it are more... I brought mine in 1979 paid $6300.00 for it and did not know if are how I would ever pay for it...
 
Does anyone know if the cab to axle length on the Camper Special is the same as on a F-150 or F-250 'regular' long bed truck? The Specials always looked like the axle and fender wells were set more to the rear than standard long box. That would of course make the bed itself different also.

Thanks. Garry
 
The camper specials are longer. you can tell because they have the spare tire holder in front of the rear wheel at the bottom of the box.
 
Garry, the F-100, F-150, F-250, F-350 Long bed pickups were 133 inch wheel base,
The F-350 Super Camper Special was built on the 140 inch wheel base frame. The bed was still overall 8ft long, The inter fender wells were move back 8 inches in manufacture. To put it in simplest terms.
The reason for the longer frame was for a 2 fold advantage,...
#1... when carrying a 12ft COE Camper more wt was moved forward of the rear axle for better wt distribution. Better handling too
#2... the Spare Tire was moved into the hollow of the bed just forward of the rear axle, the RH front 1/4 panel of the Bed was removable to access it!
Hope this helps.
Later,
John A.
 
They often had a compartment on the lower side of the box too. Maybe this was for the spare tire or was on the opposite side of the spare tire.
 
Its all in what you want. The truck has very little collector value and the newer (1987+) can haul more, haul it better and with better mileage. While it only shows 47K miles you have to remember in 1973 a car was worn out at 100K - that's if the mileage is correct.

I personally wouldn't consider giving anywhere near the asking price. From the pictures you can tell the paint is in pretty rough condition and the rest of the pickup is by no means "slick". If it where a garage kept pickup with no rust the price wouldn't be all that bad.
 
Stick, That little compartment You mentioned was a tool box of a sort it was an option the regular Long beds, Not the F-350 S.C.S.s I have not seen a LH mounted little compartment from the factory. not to say that may have be a very unused option in the line up. That option was available back into the 64 to 66 body style series.
There are major difference in the 140 inch wb box and the Std 133 inch bw box. The inside and outside demention are the same, But it is the under side where things are different, they are not the same at all.
Later,
John A.
 
I have been told by engine re-builders 70's 390's are the least desirable. The blocks are thinner so you are limited to .030 over when you rebuild it... I just ran into that on a 73 390 it was 30 over and I was warred not to bore it again. I found a 68 390 and went from their... 390's are hard to find...
 

That era of Ford trucks were prone to rusting out very early in their lives. Inspect the rear fenders with a fine tooth comb, especially in the area of the wheels, and also thoroughly inspect the lower, rear cab corners. I'm sure you will find the cab corners to be either gone, soon will be, or have already been repaired. The front cab mounts also had a bad habit of just sort of turning into rust dust, which puts a lot of pressure on the steering column and will shear off the shift linkage.

Other than the rust issue, it should make you one heck of a good 'ol workhorse. That 390 just plain isn't scared of any load.
 
Not sure about the old cars being worn out at 100K ? Because back then it was standard practice for the odometers to be rolled back.So it was really hard to know the TRUE miles on something. Even new ones that were demos were rolled back.
 
(quoted from post at 08:04:59 04/22/13) Not sure about the old cars being worn out at 100K ? Because back then it was standard practice for the odometers to be rolled back.So it was really hard to know the TRUE miles on something. Even new ones that were demos were rolled back.

My thoughts on any vehicle as old as a 1973 is that the odometer is irrelavent. I would be much more concerned of the over-all, general condition and appearance than I am of how many miles the odometer is showing. Engines and transmissions can be rebuilt or replaced and then you're good to go for another 100,000 miles. If the body is totally rusted away, you may as well let the scrapper have it.
 
I'd be more comfortable if the price were about $1000 lower - but if everything you don't see is in great condition, and you really want it - then... probably the high side of fair.

Nice thing about the 73's is that (if I'm not mistaken) that's they took the gas tank out of the cab.

I don't know if it's truly any safer - but I was never a big fan of sitting in a truck, basically being strapped to a gas tank.
 
Seems high. Plan on getting 8-10MPG too with that old gal. I had a buddy that just sold his restored high boy. It was nice. I looked at it and his 360 only got 6 MPG. It would have eaten me out of house and home. He was asking $8,000 originally and finally sold it for $3500.
 
Why do you think the odometer only went to 99,999? Once it hit that point nobody really cared about the mileage. Some would go way beyond that - but most would not - many had a hard time just making it to 100,000K miles.

Carbed engines that turned much higher RPMs at highway speed wore them out very fast - especially in the early 1970s.
 
John A explaned it best.It was a one in a kind truck,payload cap.would match any 450-550-4500-5500 of today.Price is little high,most 2500 to 4000 for the 9900-10000 GVW ones.I have had 4 since 1973(2 new-2 used and still have a 79 with under 90000 mi.)Other then front sheet medal and cab,they share nothing with any 150-350s of same years.If Ford would offer a new version today,I and some others would buy one in a heartbeat.And if they offered a ext.cab model,a whole lot of people would buy.
 
All FE blocks are thin, not just 390"s. Some of the most desirable 390 blocks are from the 70"s, 105 blocks being the strongest.
Survival Motorsports in Detroit sells a stroker kit that takes any 360/390 block to 445.
 

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