The Other Twentieth UltraVan

Lake Cahuilla CA, April 1976

Today's UltraVan is an anomaly that doesn't fit the sequence. It is either an extra coach, unmentioned in any of Dave Peterson's notes, or one of several Oakland-built UltraVans whose identification shifted over the years.

Victor "Jack" and Ethel Darwin of Carlsbad CA were members of the UVMCC from 1972 to 1986, registered as owners of a coach that they identified as UltraVan #209. Ethel rejoined the Club from 1989 to 1993, registering as former owner of #209. During the interim, Jack had passed away (1988) and the coach had been sold. Ethel herself passed away in 1993. Dean Coshow of Valley Center CA is listed in the Registry as the last known owner of the coach, but he never joined the Club and appears to have also passed away in 1993.

Hemet CA, January 1974

Pictures of Darwin's #209 survive in the Ryerson slide collection, showing the coach at the January 1974 rally in Hemet CA and the April 1976 rally at Lake Cahuilla CA. Rally reports also state that the Darwins attended the first ever UVMCC national rally at Henderson AR in October 1973.

The pictures reveal a 2nd generation coach incorporating Econoline headlights with separate turn signals, galley configured with the stove on the left, and taillights in the raised position. By 1974 it featured a unique two tone paint job (cream over chocolate) and bumpers fabricated from welded irrigation pipe. By 1976 a Coleman rooftop air conditioner and an awning rail had been installed. Walt Davison visited the Darwins during his wanderings, and later stated that their coach had the "leading arm" rear suspension (Walt passed away in 2016).

Lake Cahuilla CA, April 1976

The 2nd generation bodystyle and leading arm suspension indicate that Darwin's UltraVan #209 must have been built in Oakland in 1965, but it is definitely not the same coach as Myron Hurd's UltraVan #20 (serial #209); and it also could not be a mis-identified #201, #202, #203, #205, #206, #208, or #211. Records of both #204 and #207 cease at roughly the same time frame as Darwin's #209 appears, and records of #210 are even more sparse - but until one of these coaches reappears it remains impossible to state conclusively how the puzzle fits together.

Lake Cahuilla CA, April 1976

The Twentieth UltraVan

Fetter paint scheme

Although the official registration papers show serial #209, the twentieth UltraVan has always been identified publicly as #20. The coach has been heavily modified over the years, but still retains the hallmarks of an early 2nd generation coach (with the stove on the right and raised taillights).

#20 was built in 1965 for Myron & Lorena Hurd of Bell Gardens CA, who were Club members from 1968-1978. Sonny (V.H.) and Becky Harben of Princeton Fl were the second owners, registering #20 with the Club from 1979 to 1982. They enjoyed several trips in the 15 yr old coach, but parking it in an avocado grove did no favors to the original double-stripe paint scheme, so when they finally sold it on it was in rough shape.

The third owners of #20 were Pat (John) and Margie Fitzgerald of Englewood FL, who joined the Club in January 1983. With help from his brother Chance, Pat restored and modified the coach extensively.

Fitzgerald paint scheme

They replaced the rear window and trunk with a full-length windowless hatch, rebuilt the entry door with an extra large window (and late-model piano-style hinge), constructed a custom screen door, installed a pair of fresh air vents up front, added rain deflectors over the front and rear windows, replaced the driver's side mirror with a 1973-79 Ford pickup mirror, and gave the coach a racy new two-tone paint scheme - cream overall with a chocolate brown window band and tricolor (red-orange-yellow) beltline stripes.

In 1986 Pat and Margie acquired UltraVan #448, and sold #20 to Roy & Geraldine Neal of Ballston Spa NY. The Neals maintained their Club membership from 1986 until 2006, but they sold the coach in 2004 to Chuck Fetter of Galway NY. With a twenty year old paint job on a forty year old coach, and significant body damage in the right rear corner to repair, Chuck set his sights on a complete rebuild.

Chuck completely gutted the coach, stripped the old paint, repaired the crushed rear corner, had the the engine and transmission rebuilt, constructed a new fuel tank, replaced the water & waste tanks with large plastic tanks (adding aluminum bracing to support the floors), and added an outdoor shower.

Modified left rear suspension

He relocated the windshield wipers, converted to disk brakes in front, added a trailer hitch in the rear, and modified the leading-arm rear suspension by reversing it and adding side braces (while retaining the lower strut rods and fixed-length driveshafts).

A completely scratch-built interior for #20 was created, with all new wiring, insulation, plumbing, cabinets, flooring, and upholstery. Chuck retained the original loose bench seats but omitted the refrigerator and furnace - choosing instead to use a picnic cooler and a space heater.

Upholstery in shades of brown nicely complements the new cherry paneling, and miniblinds and vinyl flooring are used instead of curtains and carpeting. The floorplan is conventional, but the full-width aluminum dashboard is completely unique, featuring a custom instrument panel with all new gauges and a "Marvin the Martian" ray gun shifter.

Chuck painted the coach a striking metallic silver overall and installed new windshields, new driving mirrors on both sides, and a roof air conditioner. He added identification lights (the triple light clusters above the windshield and above the hatch), a porch light, and underbody lights; and modified the "wedding cake" taillights to use 1959 Buick "stinger" lenses.

To complete the new look, he added reproduction "ULTRAVAN - OAKLAND, CALIF" emblems, whitewall tires, baby-moon hubcaps, and personalized "FRM MARS" license plates.

Chuck joined the Club for 2005-2006, completed the restoration in late 2011, and proceeded to enjoy many regional car shows and tailgate parties with the coach. But all good things come to an end and in early 2019 he sold the coach to Corvair guru Jeff Stonesifer of Gettysburg PA (proprietor of the famous Corvair Ranch).

Jeff had a mission in mind for his new acquisition, so he performed a complete mechanical inspection, repaired the traces of nearly ten years of wear, fabricated a custom towbar, and installed 1980 Z-28 Camaro wheels.

By August 8th the coach was ready for the Military Vehicle Preservation Association (MPVA) Convention, afterward joining the Lincoln Highway Association (LHA) Centennial Tour commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the First Transcontinental Motor Convoy.

Jeff and his daughter Abigail followed the Centennial Tour west from York PA to Carson City NV, turning back just in time to return to Kearney NV for the 2019 UltraWeek rally. They had some overheating concerns with the 140 hp Corvair engine in NV, and judged it wiser to complete the trip east under tow behind a rented U-Haul box van.

Photos from the 2018 UltraWeek rally in Kearney NE can be seen here:
https://ultravan.org/2019-national-rally-gallery

Dedicated albums of Jeff and Abigail's transcontinental journey can be seen here:

https://www.instagram.com/ultralincolnhighway
And here:
https://www.facebook.com/ultralincolnhighway

Many photos of the LHA 2019 Military Convoy Centennial Tour can be seen here:

https://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/tour/2019/overview

The Nineteenth UltraVan

The nineteenth UltraVan was the longest UltraVan ever, at 27 feet. It was specially built in 1965, purportedly for a man that had a wife and a girlfriend that all wanted to travel together. Their plan doesn't seem to have worked out very well though, because the coach was offered for resale the following summer, with an asking price of $9,950.

Other than the stretch, #208 appears to have all the hallmarks of a typical 2nd generation coach - vertical front corner panels, narrow front windows, squared off rear windows, ethafoam bumpers, wedding cake taillights (in the raised position), and double stripe paint scheme. The entry door is equipped with a small square window, which became standard equipment from here until sometime in 1967. It also had 13 inch wheels and turbine wheelcovers - just like all other 1961-65 coaches (although swing-arm suspensions used 4 bolt wheels and leading arm suspensions used 5 bolt wheels).

The extra five feet of length appears to be added entirely between the wheels, with the entry door, galley window, and picture window moved about a foot to the rear of the usual location. The exterior venting and access panels show that the stove is on the right, the on-demand water heater is in the usual location immediately ahead of the bedroom window, and the furnace is in an intermediate position. No photos survive to help us visualize the undoubtedly unique interior layout.

The original owner was Eleanor Younger of Oakland CA, followed by Vernon & Ilabelle Sandel of Glendale CA. The Sandels were a family of five that wanted a coach to use for traveling in Mexico. They were founding members of the UVMCC in 1967, identifying their coach as #108 until 1970, and as #208 thereafter. They dropped out of the Club in 1973 when Vernon passed away. No later owners are known to the Club.

In 1967-68, Sandel's van had a motorscooter on a rack below the windshield, a TV antenna dome on the roof, and a spare tire mounted on the roof above the rear window. By 1971 an extra pair of turn signals had been added to the front, and the motor scooter rack removed, but the spare tire was still on the rear roof. Later the spare was moved to the front of the coach.

Surviving photos show the stretch coach outside the factory in Oakland CA (1965), at the Knotts Berry Farm rally in Buena Park CA (1967), at the Santa Cruz county fairgrounds rally in Watsonville CA (1968), at a service visit to the factory in Hutchinson KS (1968), at the Lion Country Safari rally in Irvine CA (1971), and at an RV park near the Salton Sea in CA (2007).