E350 Hauler NMNA

pretty sweet looking rig!
 

https://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/cto/d/clearwater-1987-ford-350-cabriolet-van/7300878806.html
 

I've never seen or heard of that before!  Super Cool...but why do they call it a cabriolet?

In reply to jh36 :

Cabriolet is the name of the company that did the conversions.   Centurian and others, did, as well.

50-gallon tank? It's great that you'd only have to fill up every 150-miles or so. 

Unless cabriolet also did aftermarket convertible conversions, that is a poor name choice. 
but the 2 ton version is pretty sweet. 

In reply to jh36 :

Cabriolet was an American company, doing high end conversions on American vans and trucks. Some of us American folks have heard that Europeans used that term for convertibles, but I assume they either did not know that, of weren’t worried bout it. 

I have (although it’s Cotton’s now) one of theirs done on a Freightliner. They made more of the larger ones than vans, but they are not quite as rats as the seller is implying. 

In reply to jh36 :

I think Mustang is a horrible name, since it is a horseless carriage. 

Pretty cool, but that Iveco .......

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

Back in 1970, my dad bought a 3/4 ton pickup brand new.  Camper Special with 350, Quadrajet, turbo 400, 4.11 gearing, it was sweet.    Then he bought a 17' tri-hull Larson with an Mercruiser I/O, and a cab-over camper, and we used it for our yearly vacation to Bemidji, Minnesota.  (Technically, Cass Lake, but a minor quibble) 

Over 
Six 
Hundred
Miles

The 65 MpH top speed dragging all of that through the wind was bad enough, but the 3-5 MpG combined with the 21 gallon in-cab tank made the trip a long two day slog with many fuel stops and an overnight stop half way at Eau Claire Wisconsin.

The next year I helped him add a pair of 15(?) gallon saddle tanks.  The mileage didn't improve, but at least we didn't have to stop every 60 miles for fuel, knocking hours off our trip.

Someone I did some work for had one of these, he used the back as a sleeper.

I thought it was interesting, I'm not sure it's 5k interesting to see though

Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:

I thought it was interesting, I'm not sure it's 5k interesting to see though

I've been seeing prices creep up on Centurion conversions over the last few years, so I think there's a market for them.  This one also looks in better shape than a bunch of others I've seen for sale, so hopefully would need less work to be tripworthy.

I think I'd be neat to see one of these with the new Ford 7.3 in them.  Bet power and MPG would significantly improve.

In reply to eastsideTim :

I'd agree. His had a 460 and got horrible mpg all the time, I think he said 7 unloaded and 4 towing. Probably heavily geared I assume.

The only thing that's sort of cringeworthy is the addition of various big rig stuff like multiple airhorns and lights, it's kinda......a kid putting on dad's boots and pretending he's a logger/construction worker/cowboy etc

I wonder how well a deleted 6.7 would go in

A lot of the conversion trucks/vans came with the 460, and a gear venders od. behind the C6, in an attempt for better mileage. I’ve never driven anything with the gear vendors, so I don’t know if they had any success. I have seen a few well worn trucks that could be bought for less than the cost of a new of unit... but that was before the current premium prices!

I wonder how a truck of this vintage would do with a FItech unit on it or something like that? It's never going to get great mileage but would you be able to get up to 10-12 mpg unloaded? 
doing a whole engine upgrade is a serious project but a bolt on FI seems doable. 
My Suburban is a MAP OBD I type FI and it gets 15 mpg unloaded (not sure what it gets with a trailer) granted it's moving a lot less drive train. I have considered a FI upgrade to it. You can smell how inefficient the stock system is. 

New York Nick said:

I wonder how a truck of this vintage would do with a FItech unit on it or something like that? It's never going to get great mileage but would you be able to get up to 10-12 mpg unloaded? 
doing a whole engine upgrade is a serious project but a bolt on FI seems doable. 
My Suburban is a MAP OBD I type FI and it gets 15 mpg unloaded (not sure what it gets with a trailer) granted it's moving a lot less drive train. I have considered a FI upgrade to it. You can smell how inefficient the stock system is. 

I would think so. 

I'm not sure how much stock to put in the guys 7mpg unloaded claim, he was kind of an asshat