b'distancefromHurleytoYorktown Heights, and being one who likes to drivehisvehicles,andknowingthe camper was going to see more use, Peter rebuilt the carburetor, cleaned out the fuel system, redid the brakes, anddidalltheusualtune-upand maintenance work one would expect to ensure that an older truck like this canbedrivenjustaboutanywhere with serious peace-of-mind.Another ofhismainreasonsforbuyingthe vanhappenstobehisdaughter, eight-year-oldMadisyn,wholoves camping as well, so he wanted some-thing nice so they could have some quality father/daughter time together enjoying the great outdoors, while at the same time, he could enjoy having somethingdifferentandstealatten-tionawayfromfarmoreexpensive machines, both on the car show fields andpluggedintoutilitiesatany campground;andthevanhas accomplished both of those goals! Allow us to take a really good waskeptgaragedwhennotoutoncommon for this to be a mere coinci- lookatexactlywhatyoureseeing the road or parked in a campgrounddence, and to cap it all off, Joes ahere.This one started life as they all somewhere.Joe had bought it only aJohnDeeretractorfanatic,soheddid,asastandardB200panelvan couple of years prior, and while hedput a John Deere decal on the vansbuiltattheWindsor,Ontarioplant intended to use it for nearby campingnose since it went with the colors andwith a 360 two-barrel mill hooked to a trips and some jaunts to farther awayhe could also take it to tractor func- TorqueFlite.It was then shipped to car shows, hed been too busy to dotions and let his allegiance be known. Elkhart,whereCoachmendidthe much of anything with it, and ratherNotcoincidentally,Peterslatesoncamperconversion,andinthelate than see it just continue to take upwas also heavy into old John Deeres,seventies, the company was really at neededspaceinhisgarage,hedso seeing that decal on the nose toldthe zenith of its popularity, turning out decided to sell it for little more thanhim right away he was supposed tothousands of these trucks every year hed paid for it.Once these two guysbuy this thing, and he latched onto itbased on every van chassis imagina-gottoknoweachother,theyknewas quickly as he could and spared itble, and building larger RVs as well, thiswasadonedeal,whiletheydfromhavingtogocross-countrytobasedonheaviertruckchassis. never met, they struck up an instantCalifornia.Moreoftenthannot,theseconver-friendship, they had way too much inThe van was driven the shortsions were sold by dealerships that 72MOPAR COLLECTORS GUIDE'