[A/S] IH Travelall tow vehicle

[Oliver Marks <OMARKS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Jerry and the list,

I'm on the Airstream list and I'm also an International Harvester nut 
so I was pretty surprised when I saw your post!

I have a 345 '73 Scout II which I towed a small Colemen caravan with 
this summer. It was a horrible experience, mainly because my Scout is 
built for off road use with big tyres and a four inch lift. (I'm not 
really a redneck: I'm an English guy who's into 60's & 70's Americana 
and Jaguar cars!).
Won't be using it to tow again!

For that reason I've been shopping for a Travelall to tow my 26' 
overlander, and have seen several so far. Here's some advice I got 
from an IH friend regarding Travelalls:

>>>>>

"    The Airstream 26 foot would probably be to much for the Travelall and
here is why.  I have a friend who frequents the Binder Bulletin whom you may
know, his name is Allan Ericson of Prescott Valley, AZ.  Last October or
early November, about a week after I visited him, he almost was killed in
his 1966 Travelall pulling a 25 or 26 foot travel trailer.  The reason?  The
trailer started fish tailing on him and when he tried to brake, it made it
worse and the trailer ended up flipping the Travelall several times and
rolling down a steep embankment.  There might still be a story on it in the
archives at the BB site.

Anyway, he walked away after the rescue team spent a few hours with the
"jaws of life" to extract him out of the Travelall.  He realized the
problem, the travel trailer was longer and heavier than the Travelall, thus
it ends up controlling the situation rather than the Travelall.  His
solution?  Go and find a Travelette with an 8 foot bed.  That gives him a
142" wheelbase over the 119" of the Travelall, thus the Travelette can
maintain control over the trailer instead of the other way around.  "

>>>>

(A Travelette is an extended wheelbase Travelall a bit like one of 
the modern four door and pickup style Dodges et al).

Now I'm totally into IH, so I immediately started planning a low 
profile tired Travelall with stiffened suspension, adjustable dampers 
and modern disk brakes, (stopping in IH vehicles can be 'exciting' at 
teh best of times without disks...) but be warned that even with 
these refinements an IH vehicle will still be a little nerve racking 
for you unless you're pretty familiar with their idiosyncrasies 
compared to a modern tow vehicle.

I will definitely visit Olema this week (I live in San Francisco) and 
look forward to discussing Airstreams and towing with anyone who will 
listen! I'll come in my Scout so you can see and hear a strong 345 IH 
motor...

If you're not 100% about buying the Travelall I'd *really* like to 
take a look at it if it was built to tow a 26 footer - it might be 
the perfect project base vehicle for what I'm looking to build.

Oliver Marks