This Vintage Ford F-350 Camper Shows The Weird Past Of The Pickup Truck-Based Motorhome

The Class C motorhome is a great middle ground between a gigantic Class A motorhome and the smaller Class B camper van. Buying a Class C gets you lots of space, and usually the underpinnings of a reliable commercial van or heavy-duty pickup truck. This 1969 Champion 230 shows what a large Ford F-350 truck-based motorhome looked like before today’s Class C motorhomes. That’s cool, but what’s even better is that this example has been restored, so it’s a time capsule into RVing in the late 1960s.

According to the RV/MH Hall of Fame Museum, bizarre RVs like this one represent an evolution in RV history. Back in the 1960s, pickup truck slide-in camper designs began to grow larger, which presented a problem. The trucks that they were designed to ride in were only so big, but the RV manufacturers wanted to make what were essentially truck-based palaces.

What you’re seeing here isn’t the most outrageous idea for building an RV. The Stites Camper Company of Denver, Colorado, also built its F-Series-based motorhomes like this Champion:

Of course, there’s also the Great Dale House Car and the famous Oldsmobile Toronado Airstream. However, Great Dale House Cars look similar to the Stites and Champion designs due to the fact that the Great Dale motorhomes were constructed out of wrecked cars. It wasn’t necessarily because of the size of the desired motorhome.

RV manufacturers solved this problem by permanently integrating the camper body into the chassis of the truck, creating the ancestor to the campers that we call Class C motorhomes today. Many of the early Class Cs, which were also based on van platforms, look similar to today’s Class Cs, where you get the cab of a truck or van, and everything behind the B-pillar is living space.

However, what if you were an RV company in the 1960s and you wanted to build a really long truck-based motorhome? You could stretch out the chassis of your donor truck or van. Or, you could do what Champion Home Builders did with this 1969 Ford F-350-based Champion 230, and just delete the cab from the truck to add more living space.

From A Familiar Place

Champion Home Builders, Inc. shows up somewhat frequently in the Autopian Vintage RV Cinematic Universe, and that’s because the company often put out some truly wild designs, from all-aluminum 4×4 motorhomes to large bus-type motorhomes that weren’t terrible to drive. The company even made motorhomes that had better accessibility for people with limited mobility.

To Champion’s credit, it saw the pain points of RV ownership and then tried to solve them. Typical motorhomes were made with wood framing, and Champion knew such construction was terrible for longevity, so its RVs had steel superstructures instead. Champion also saw how the typical motorhome had the aerodynamics of a brick and sought to make campers that were smooth and flashy. The Champion we’re examining today is neither of those, but its forward-canted windshield is certainly an attention getter.

Champion is still around today, but sadly, it has long since departed the motorhome business. Instead, if you find yourself with a Champion build nowadays, it’s because you just bought a mobile, manufactured, or modular home. Champion was founded in 1953, and as its name suggests, mobile homes were its primary business. In the early 1970s, the company decided to use its experience in building mobile homes to construct travel trailers and motorhomes like it had built mobile homes. My retrospective continues:

The company further expanded its line of campers in the 1980s and they were joined by commercial buses. Champion Home Builders eventually splintered the commercial bus line and the RV line into Champion Motor Coach, which continued to build buses and campers until the mid-1990s. By that point, Champion stopped building RVs and in 1998, Thor Industries acquired the bus division. Thor renamed the bus division to Champion Bus, and today, Champion Bus is a part of Forest River. Though, it was reported that the Champion Bus plant shuttered in 2021.

In some cases, Champion’s designs were easily decades ahead of their time. Unfortunately, being innovative didn’t seem to bring Champion fortunes or high sales numbers in the RV space. Champion pulled out of the RV space and doesn’t even mention it on its website today.

This 1969 Champion Motorhome

This Champion 230 comes from 1969, which puts it into a fascinating period in Champion’s history. As noted above, Champion began an experiment in the 1970s where it built ultra-durable RVs like it built its mobile homes. But what I didn’t make clear in my explanation above is that Champion did sell RVs in the 1950s and the 1960s as well. The coaches weren’t advertised as having durable metal skeletons for enhanced durability back then, but the company introduced other innovations, including a fiberglass trailer in the 1950s. Here’s an advertisement I found for a Champion model from the 1950s:

Champion’s older truck camper and motorhome designs didn’t feature the smooth bodies or more aero-friendly designs of Champion’s motorhomes of the 1970s and beyond. Sadly, I’ve found no further information from Champion about this particular coach.

The selling dealership of this Champion 230, D & L Auto Sales of Wayland, Michigan, claims that Champion built only four examples of this motorhome, and the other three that the dealership is aware of have rotted away beyond saving. This example is said to have been with the same owner for almost its entire life, and it was stored indoors in a barn. Allegedly, it had been parked for over 40 years, which could explain why it didn’t look all that bad when the dealership picked it up. Here’s a video of what it used to look like in October 2024:

The dealership then claims to have done a restoration on the rig, stating:

Mechanically this has had a full restoration done on it, under the hood and under the motor home. Fresh tune up including plugs, wires. cap, rotor, points and filters. New fuel pump, alternator, aluminum radiator with fans, belts, hoses, alternator. brake master cylinder, dual batteries, cables, wiring, starter, relay, trans cooler, all fluids, oil change, manifolds, exhaust, shocks, brakes and all new 16″ rims and tires. I am sure I am missing some things, but suffice to say it runs and drives great, and is ready to hit the road.

Now let’s talk about the Coach. The unit is surprisingly not real big at 23′ long and only about 9′ tall. While we did a lot of work and restoration on this unit we wanted to keep it as original as possible. The rear dinette that seats around 7 for dinner folds down into a large 7’3″ x 6’2″ wide size bed. The front has a bunk that pulls out to a 7’2″ x 4′ deep sleeping area. There is a good size kitchen with a 4 burner propane stove with oven, double sink, Vintage Green paper towel holder, propane refrigerator, overhead vent and light, and plenty of counter top space as well as cabinets and cubbies. (sorry no pull out pantry). There is a wet bath with an RV Toilet and shower. It has a freshwater tank with pump for the water system as well as shore water hookup.

New upgrades that were added include all new flooring throughout, updated the factory lights to LED’s and added new surface mounted adjustable LED lights as well. The ceiling has been stuccoed at some point, and was just freshly painted. There is also a new rooftop RV Vent fan with a cover to keep air moving no matter what the weather is. We also added a battery charger with a voltmeter that will charge the coach battery when plugged into shore power, and you can monitor the voltage. The alternator will charge both batteries when driving down the road, and there is a remote coach battery shut off for when the unit is not in use. There is also a new Blew Teeth radio with new speakers, and an old vintage CB radio to complete all of your entertainment needs.

The truck under the camper is a Ford F-350 one-ton DRW, and it’s equipped with a 360 cubic inch V8 and a C6 three-speed automatic transmission. This engine had 215 ponies in the stable when it was new, and they were complemented with 327 lb-ft of torque. However, this truck was built during the gross rating era, so far fewer horses are actually reaching the wheels.

That said, it’s not like you’d want to drive this fast. The dealership notes that while there are power brakes, you don’t get power steering. Also, it has air-conditioning, but that part is currently broken. Before we continue, you just have to check out the cockpit:

The dealership says that, in addition to the above, it buffed the motorhome’s aluminum trim and replaced a few hundred screws with new stainless steel replacements. Overall, it does look like the dealer did a solid job here. The motorhome isn’t perfect, and the dealer readily admits that, but it looks to be quite solid for something that’s 56 years old! Allegedly, the coach also has only 35,600 miles on its odometer, which is certainly possible if it sat for a whole 40 years.

D & L Auto Sales wants $19,950 for this coach, and barring the discovery of any huge red flags, I could see it selling for that price. The coach appears to be in decent condition, and it’s plenty weird on top of that. This isn’t exactly something that you’ll drive across the country in, but I could definitely see someone using this for local camping and for vintage RV shows. Yes, that’s a thing!

What I also like here is how this motorhome helps show the transition in RV design. Class Cs are everywhere now, and most of them follow the same formula. But back in the 1960s? Builders threw ideas at the wall, and as a result, you sometimes got weirdos like this. I’m happy that at least some folks are preserving history like this.