Weirdly, Ford also made a vannish version of the Pinto called the Cruising Wagon (shown above) that was painted in the same style and marketed alongside the Cruising Van. Two different wheel styles were offered, and the slot-mag-style wheels were easily the more stylish of the two. On the inside, the Cruising Van was fully carpeted and had plush captain’s chairs that swiveled and had big armrests. The ’76 Cruising Van had a very cool striped paint package, porthole windows on the sides, and special wheels. And the Ford ads proclaimed it, “a giant step for vankind.” So just one year after the new van hit the road, Ford debuted a custom van package that was wilder than any that came before. Ford was the only member of the Big Three to launch an all-new van right at the peak of the vanning craze. The extended nose meant more room for larger engines and more space inside the cabin, too. It was larger and more capable in every way thanks to its body-on-frame construction-the only full-size van of the 1970s to use this type of chassis. In 1975, Ford launched a fully redesigned Econoline van. While most of the van trends of the 1970s have long disappeared (along with Pathfinder itself), four-wheel-drive vans have remained somewhat popular and are produced by a variety of manufacturers, including Mercedes-Benz. Ford versions were known as Quadravans, and the GM vans were K-Vans. But no matter which system was used, all Van Chargers had a low range, excellent ground clearance, and room for some fairly beefy off-road tires. These trucks used a beefy Dana 44 solid front axle with disc brakes suspended by coil springs, and four-wheel drive was accomplished with either a full-time transfer case or a part-time setup. One of the coolest was Pathfinder’s Dodge conversion-Van Charger. Pathfinder Equipment was located in San Gabriel, California, and turned pavement-pounding two-wheel-drive vans from General Motors, Ford, and Dodge into four-wheel-drive monsters. Four-wheel-drive van conversions combined two of the most popular truck trends of the 1970s (4x4s and vans) into one mega-cool machine.
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