There’s no denying the coolness of International Scouts. These tough as nails machines were made for decades and while they morphed and changed over the years, they were all rooted in simplicity, mechanical toughness, and rugged styling that people enjoyed. 1980 was the swan song for the Scout and tis 1980 model is even better than the standard issue Scouts in the fact that it is a Scout Traveler. 18 additional inches of wheelbase, the full roof with a hatch like rear window, plaid interior, and in the case of this particular truck Nissan SD-33T diesel power. The word power may be a misnomer there but we don’t know any other way to describe it.
This restored truck is probably one of the nicest Traveler examples you will find for sale out there in the world. The Traveler was made from 1976 through 1980 and as we described above it is mechanically identical to other scouts aside from the longer frame. This Rallye edition had the cool paint job you see, the spiffy interior, the spoked wheels and frankly we’re not sure what else.
International was one of the first manufacturers to go for diesel engines to help with the fuel economy of their trucks. Starting out with non-turbocharged Nissans, by 1980 the engines were boosted. Don’t get too excited about that fact, though. Even with the turbo you are looking at a 673lb engine that displaces 198ci and makes 101hp and 175 lb-ft of torque. Interestingly, 1980 was the most popular model year for Scouts with diesel engines as 5,389 of them were shipped so equipped.
Even though the engine is not an impressive power maker, we’d be hard pressed to swap it out of this thing. The whole rig is just so nice it would seem a shame to pull it apart. We’re betting most of you disagree.
Check out this cool 1980 International Scout Traveler below and then hit the link –
I pulled up next to a similar unit at a red light one time with tags reading “1IH 2NV.” My L31 equipped ’97 C2500 commercial allowed me to get a good look at the front end as well!
WANT! I WANT IT! WANT IT! WANT IT!
umm… if that Scout spends one more minute in Michigan it will be nothing more than a pile of Fe2 O3.
I love it when people still have no clue what’s an auction. Price starts @ $16.5K but at NO RESERVE! yea!
Thirteen letter manure spreader!
Original engine?
We had lots of these in Canada at the time, but I had no idea what was under the hood. I would not butcher this, just too nice for any swaps or misguided custom work.
Cool old ‘binder, but that interior knocked me right off my chair! Who thought that would look good?