Junkyard Find: 1975 Toyota Chinook
Junkyard RVs can be scary to shoot for this series, because they can contain all the gross and biohazardous stuff you find in discarded vehicles and they're essentially abandoned houses with all the nastiness you find in those. But a genuine, numbers-matching Toyota Chinook RV conversion is a junkyard rarity, so I took the chance and climbed aboard.
I found this camper at the same south-of-Denver yard that gave us the 1978 Toyota Dolphin Mini-Motorhome back in 2017. Don't get too excited if you're looking for Chinook and/or second-generation Toyota Hilux parts, though, because I shot these photos more than a year ago and this machine got fed to The Crusher soon after that.
Any dirty needles, hantavirus-laden dead rodents or leaky containers of chlorine triflouride in here? I hope not!
Among the paperbacks inside was this one, the presence of which reminded me that I should wear gloves and probably a gas mask when exploring junkyard RVs.
I think every thrift store in the country still has a half-dozen copies of "Flowers in the Attic."
There were some newspapers with 2004 dates inside.
Plus this 2004 calendar inside the glovebox lid, so I think this truck last moved under its own power around the middle of the 2000s.
It has a 1994 Missouri safety inspection sticker on the windshield.
I found some sales-training 35mm slides with 1972 dates inside. Will you be one of the 10 percent of salesmen who survives the year without savings or a working wife?
This man clearly knew how to make the rubes sign on the line which is dotted, 53 years ago.
All right, let's talk about the vehicle itself. Toyota and Chinook International made a deal to build "micro mini-motorhomes" based on the cab and chassis of the Hilux pickup. Production began in 1973.
Toyota was still using the Hilux name in North America at that time, but ditched it for the 1974 model year. After that, the U.S.-market Hilux was named the Toyota Truck.
The Hilux got bigger and sturdier for the 1975 model year, and the North American Truck got the soon-to-be-legendary 2.2-liter 20R engine at the same time.
This one was rated at 96 horsepower and 120 pound-feet. That doesn't seem like much to haul a camper, but it was a big improvement over the 2.0-liter 18R.
A three-speed automatic transmission was available, but this Truck has the base four-on-the-floor manual. There's an aftermarket or dealer-installed air conditioning unit under the dash.
It kept its original Fujitsu TEN single-speaker AM-only radio until the end.
Always good advice.
We can't know how many total miles it traveled, thanks to the five-digit odometer.
There's rust all over.
This would have been a tough restoration project.
The interior is well-smashed, too.
So behave yourself, sinner!
The last year for the Toyota Chinook was 1978, but I still see them driving around Colorado.
How do you know the Toyota Truck can really take it?
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
1975 Toyota Chinook micro mini-motorhome in Colorado wrecking yard.
[Images: The Author]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
More by Murilee Martin
Comments
Join the conversation
Flowers in the Attic, wow what a movie. This book series has over a dozen installments. I like to think they are based on my childhood.
Chinooks have a cult following, they may have been able to sell that to a fanatic but it looks pretty roached. Looks like it spent the last 20 years in a field