No computer programs, just me timing with my mouse click. I waited until ~ 5 seconds until auction close. What I did with this one was I put in $15,000 as my bid, even though the van was only at $8k.
Your bid action should be within the last 10-20 seconds of the auction, it’s commonly known as “sniper” bidding. eBay will jump over anyone who has a bid lower than your max, and you will become the high bidder.Īlso, NEVER bid on an item early on (especially non-reserve items). If you are determined to win an auction, put in the MAX amount you would be willing to buy the item for.Įxample: If the current auction bid price is $8,000, but you are willing to spend up to $15,000, then put in $15,000 as your bid. Any thoughts on what engine this might be and any thoughts on this Xplorer van? I like it, a lot.Īlso, quick tip for you and everyone else who participates in eBay auctions.ĮBay increments bids in 1, 10, 100 dollars (or so). I could be wrong and it would be far from the first time. It has to be a V8 of some sort, doesn’t it? The 225 was available in Dodge vans but with the added weight I would never guess that Xplorer would have used a slant-six in one of their rigs. There are no engine photos but the VIN decodes from two different sources as being a 225 slant-six. Still, it’s a luxury compared to staying in a tent and bathing in the river.
There is a full bathroom with a toilet, sink, and shower, but it’s a very small space. Also, having a low roofline helps with aerodynamics and MPG. You can see how they made six feet of headroom in a regular van, they recessed the floor in a few areas. Those aren’t original seats but they sure look comfortable and the rest of the interior looks great, a throwback to the early-1970s. Ray Frank, the gentleman who came up with the predecessor to Travco motorhomes in the late-1950s, went on to start Xplorer Motor Homes in 1967 in order to have a small motorhome that would fit in a normal garage. The Xplorer 224 is a Class B motorhome, which is based on a van platform as opposed to Class A which is a full-sized motorhome on a chassis with a custom body, or a Class C which is based on a van chassis with the van cab intact and a big chassis-mounted camper on the back.Ī few days ago we saw a Travco motorhome here on Barn Finds and they’re related to the Xplorer motorhomes. I drove full-sized Dodge vans for years and that’s always a concern for anyone outside of the desert southwest or pacific northwest. There appears to be some rust to deal with on this Xplorer which isn’t too surprising but it should be fairly simple to repair that and repaint the bottom portion. I’m on the fence on whether that’s a very, very cool and good thing or if that would be trouble in a line of vehicles heading up a mountain pass or in traffic.
This Xplorer was built on a one-ton Dodge van carcass and it goes one more than most in having a 4-speed manual transmission. Wow! That was a beauty and it was based on a Ford van rather than this Dodge-based Xplorer. This one is listed here on eBay in Joppa, Maryland and the current bid price is $7,100.Įsteemed car guy and Barn Finds writer, Todd Fitch, showed us an outstanding Ford-based Xplorer 224 van’per (van camper – just made that up as far as I know) here this past March.
Now, all I want or need for camping or traveling, in general, would be something like this 1972 Dodge Xplorer 224. We had a pickup camper but really could have used a bigger motorhome. A lot of us grew up motorized camping, as in something other than a tent.