VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Commercial Vehicles 1961 Traville Motorhome

(Posting the following info for a newbie to our discussion board who is having problems with his computer.)

I bought a 1961 Chevrolet Traville Motor Home a couple of years ago and have not had a chance to do anything with it yet. It's a Class A motorhome with an all-steel body, wraparound windshield, and bullet front in one piece of stamped steel. It runs on gas or propane with a switchover knob on the dash. It has a really neat driver seat (no passenger seat) that moves up and down like it's floating. It's got a four speed Hydramatic that shifts very abruptly. I tried to fix that but some of the rods were bent and I tried to straighten them out and it's a little better but still "herky jerky" as a local guy described it.

I have never seen one like it anywhere. Its built, I am told, on a one ton chassis. It does not have dual wheels but I bought a full set from a guy east of San Francisco and eventually want to put them on although it will take some body cutting for the rears. The axles will take them but the rear wheel wells are made for single wheels.

I know nothing about the transmission other than it has long rods that do the shifting as I mentioned above. I also have a spare one that came with it in a big storage case as well as a spare crank that looks brand new and a bunch of other parts. Some torque converter things I think, a few other things like camshaft and rocker arms, and so on.

The straight six 261engine was totally rebuilt in 1981, 15,000 miles ago. I bought it from the girlfriend of the old guy that owned it but died and left it to her. He had lived in it in a storage lot belonging to the guy who rebuilt the engine.Glendale Engine Rebuilders, or something like that.

I'm actually afraid to take it on the road because I know absolutely nothing about it. Particularly the trans. I've driven nothing but VWs for years and am pretty clueless about other engines, etc.

I think it may have some kind of power assist on the steering but it must be kaput because it steers "like a truck." A big truck!

I'd appreciate hearing from any one who would like to offer advice, or share stories, or tell me anything about this vehicle or how to find out things about it. I really like it because it's so different. I'd send a picture but I don't know how to do it on the computer. (I'm 68 years old and computer-stupid.)

Richard Karl
Long Beach CA
R.Karl@verizon.net
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Please reply directly to Richard (not me)... Thanks!

Bill, I think this one would fair better in the commercial section, I am going to move it. I think there would be more 261 cui experts in that forum
John

Thanks... I didn't know how to classify this "traville" thing-a-ma-jig.... I thought that it might be some sort of El Camino half breed.

Well... the Traville was an early GM/Chevy "factory" conversion of the Dubl-duti or Step-Van delivery model.
It was a camper or early motor-home advertised by Chevrolet and sold thru Chevy dealers.

Now I know what the look like thanks for the photo link. There are a few of them kicking around here on Long Island, and the seem to be used for roadside hotdog wagons, I must pay some closer attention my next trip out to Montauk.
John

I see the vehicle in the photo has a 194 engine? Well the 261 you have is a really good truck engine, high torque and not a gas guzzler either, probably do ok for you, all the internals and externals except for pistons rods, and cam probably interchange with a 235 truck engine ( solid lifters). The 261 block is different, it is a siamese block, that means the cylinders are cast without any seperation allowed for a water jacket, thus giving a 261 C.I. displacement capability without any increase in the outside dimentions of the block.

Hi guys! I hope this gets to all of you who posted replies to my entry about my 61 Chevy Traville.

Boy am I tickled! I am so happy to learn those things about it and to see the picture of what they looked like back then!

Mine has chrome grill and bumpers but no extra lites on the front.

I'm really glad to hear about the engine from (damn! forgot the name and can't get the window back until I finish this) you know who I mean.

All of you guys are all good and I am really looking forward to the times ahead when I learn how to do this and can communicate with you easier.

I wanted to tell you what I did three years ago, the last thing before going into a sort of hibernation of physical activity. The guy who owned it had a 15 gal gas tank in the left rear corner. In order to make it fit he had smashed the tank down about an inch and a half. The filler neck went out through the back and was absolutely horizontal. He had a few weird looking things he somehow used to put gas in without having it pour right out. I nearly ran out of gas bring it home the day I bought it becasue I couldnt get gas into it. So I scoured the junk yards and found a wrecked Chevy SUV with the gas filler and such in perfect condition and had them torch it out leaving about six inches of sheet metal around the neck. Then I bought a 35 gal gas tank new from a local place and fit it up between the frame rails just behind the axle. And I cut a hole in the left side of the Traville's body up as high as I could get it and made a tool to deflect the sheet metal around the hole inwards by just the thickness of the sheet metal around the filler pipe. I then used stainless screws to screw the filler sheet metal on to the deflected part and then soldered the metal and removed the screws and soldered them and the joints full. You can't see where I added the filler and door. My first time (and last) with car sheet metal. It took me two months to do it all, working every day! I filled the tank with gas and have only driven it about 20 miles since then. Like I said, I'm a little afraid of this big beast, havng had nothing but VW's since my first one in 1956. I've had about six or seven and still have my original '66 bus.

Antyway thanks to all you guys for your friendly comments. I'm really looking forward to making friends with you all soon.

Richard Karl "Traville Guy" R.Karl@verizon.net

Traville Guy, what a great find! Good luck with your project and hope you get lots of enjoyment from it. I got my 1948 2 ton for the same reason, something different from the norm. Keep us updated and ask questions when you need to.

Lil Johhny, thanks for the pic. Now we know what it looks like.

Travile Guy are you a member of the National Club? I hope so, if not you should join the party and bring the Travilall to a meet, I wonder how the hotel would feel about a camper in the parking lot? :eek: Any way welcome aboard
John 348

Glad to see you made it

Wow... this is really cool. I almost didn't post it, but figured that a Chevy guy wouldn't ever try to bluff another Chevy guy!!

And thanks a million for the photo Lil' Johnny. They really brings it home! Got to admit I've never seen one of these in real life. Now this is vintage chev collecting at it's best... and... it's rare.
:p <--Green with envy.

6/21/02

Hey Bill Barker, Lil ' Johnny, John 348/340 H.P., Big Green 48, Mr. Mack,

Guys I can't tell ya what a boost you've all given me with your comments. Like I said in my first posting I bought the Traville four years ago and haven't taken it anywhere yet. This has been a rocky time in my life and although I started off with a bang by fixing the gas tank, lately I feel like I'm in quicksand. When I first saw the Traville I had been looking for a motor home for over a year because I felt I was going to lose a place to live and figured it would be my home for a while. But I found a house for rent that had a portico to protect it from the rain and I've been fortunate to be able to stay here all this time. But medical problems have slowed me down and after the gas tank, things have kind of ground to a halt. My brother-in-law, a retired aerospace engineer, has hinted from time to time that he didn't think too much of it, even though he was very helpful in helping me go see it and following me home after I bought it. So in the past couple of years this doubt has been creeping in - should like keep this thing or should I get rid of it and get something more conventional? It does need some work and I wasn't looking forward to it, largely because I was beginning to wonder if I was wasting my time on this strange vehicle. But my fascination with it overpowered my doubts and so here we are. I've had a couple of long term projects that have kept me busy for about a year-and-a-half now and I'm just about finished with them both. And for the first time in three years I can't wait to get working on the Traville!

The enthusiasm you guys have shown and the interest and support that I feel from your posts has really recharged my batteries and I'm really excited about getting going on it. And like I said , I had doubts. Some of the doubts centered around my uncertainty about the vehicle. I was thinking " are they gonna let me in to any of those campgrounds where they frown at you if you have anything less than a Fleetwood motorhome or some other kind of fancy big rig? " Now I don't worry about that anymore. One of the first things I'm going to do is get a historic vehicle plate or at least a historical vehicle plate frame and a little plaque of some kind that tells people what it is.

I was really in the pits emotionally until I contacted you guys and now I see some bright light ahead for the first time in a long time. I really do thank you.

Bill, thanks for posting it and thanks for your trust of Chevy guys. My first car was a 37 Chevy that I painted metallic jade green and called it Green Dragon. My second car was a '49 Chevy four-door slant back and I called it Bee Gee . That was long before the Bee Gees. I can't remember the model. That slanting back caused a really spectacular effect once when I was on the Air Base and backed out of a parking lot into the roadway. The bumper scraped down on the road as I backed into it and just then a military utility vehicle ran into my right rear fender and its right wheels went up and left their marks along the base of the rear window and then back down the other side and that vehicle never turned over! Anyway how you knew I was a Chevy guy I'll never know but you must have some kind of 6th sense.

Lil Johnny, you must be a walking encyclopedia. Rather, a driving encyclopedia. Thanks so much for the picture and for all your great advice and insight. I can't describe how I felt when I got that picture. I gave myself a high five when I saw it. I've already ordered the book you recommended from Borders Books. I did get a '61 Motor's Manual with the Traville but I can't tell yet what parts of the book match my vehicle. Looks like I got a lot of interesting reading ahead of me. I think the propane conversion is for the engine. I've heard that it's an updraft carburetor. It points downward. And the whole thing looks like it was all built that way. You really may have saved the day with your comments about the rear axle. But let me point out that nothing needs to be changed on the axle in order to mount the duallys except removing or the inserting some kind of spacer thing. I don't remember exactly what that was, I've had all of the the wheels and stuff in storage since I bought them. The reason I wanted to put them on there was three things. First was that the rear end is really heavy. The guy that owned it kept very good records. I've got a couple of weight receipts and one of them says that the gross weight is 8,980 lbs. the rear weight is 5,200 lbs. and the front weight is 3780. The rear springs are flat and one of them's got two broken leaves. So that's why when I bought the wheels I also bought some springs from the guy. Another reason is that there is absolutely no place on the vehicle or inside it for a spare tire. So I thought that if I put the duallys on I always have a spare. My plan was to put the highest rated tires all the way around.

Right now I have a sort of of Rube Goldberg kind of bracket attached to the hatch that covers the motor and I've got a spare tire there. If I don't change the wheels then I'll build a better bracket. Where can I find out if if changing the wheels will have the effect you mention? I don't know, does Chevrolet keep stuff like that? And the last reason is that I bought a 16 ft. Scamp travel trailer that I plan to drag behind it .

John 348/340 H.P., Nope I'm not a member. But I e-mailed to the site and asked how I joined. I will definitely join and where are these meets held? How could any hotel feel badly about such a peculiar vehicle? By the way, it's only 19 ft long. And I'm glad to be aboard thank you for welcoming me .

Big green 48, you seem to be another of the people with a sixth sense, knowing even before I said so that I was drawn to it because it was so different. And as you can see I'm following your advice and keeping you updated and asking questions. I kind of have the feeling that maybe I'm a little too long winded

And Mr. Mack, that sure was good news about the high torque and reasonable gas consumption, coming as it did just the day the TV has been telling me every hour on the hour practically that our California gas prices are gonna be going up again this summer! I'm going to be looking in my book for anything I can that's interchangeable with the 235 truck engine. I have never heard of a Siamese block and now I got one!

Here's a few more details: the bathroom has a shower in it. It's about 2-1/2 ft. square and when you shower you use the whole thing. It's got a four burner gas stove and oven and a Dometic fridge that runs on 12 V and propane. The propane tank is about 35 gal.. There's an on-demand water heater and it's really strange looking. The only place I've ever seen one like it was in a movie I rented about life among the aborigines in Australia and they had one on the wall in their house. Same exact thing but about twice the size. Here's a neat feature - it's got five big solar panels covering the entire roof that keeps two huge six volt deep cycle batteries charged up and have been doing it for four years now.

Question - is it possible that this has some kind of power brake or power steering on it? I don't have a clue what to look for. There are a few gadgets that may be one of those things but I really can't tell.

So to all you guys once again, thanks a bunch and I'm really looking forward to this summer with my little gem, and and chatting with you guys.

Rich, the Traville Guy