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A few days ago, I was talking to a friend about the most interesting vehicles we’ve seen on the road, including custom semi trucks and custom RVs. My particular favorites don’t ever get drive time anymore, but there are still several vehicles that I enjoy seeing on the road and close up, if given the opportunity. Some of these I’m interested in for nostalgia’s sake, wondering if my grandfather or great-uncles drove something like them, and some of them are interesting to me as designs, their arcs and straight lines quite different from the modern vehicle’s architecture.
One type of vehicles that I look at on the road are the cabovers. COEs might not sound exciting to some, but they are an intriguing part of America’s history, present, and future, whether they’re hauling goods to various stores, animals, or, in the case of Larry Woods’ COE, the family on vacation. While at first the idea might seem a little strange, Woods’ unique vision materialized in a vehicle that is not only nostalgic, but luxurious even to today’s standards.
If you’ve got some time to spare, it’s worth scrolling through Hot Rod’s article showcasing Woods’ talents and uncovering the process of how this vehicle came to be. And if you don’t know who Larry Woods is, well, you’ve got a surprise in store – he’s known as “Mr. Hot Wheels”. He spent over forty years designing die-cast collectors’ items and toys, and then decided in 2009 that he was ready to work on his life-size dream design project: the custom Ford COE & RV travel trailer.
After some searching, a trailer that fit the bill was shipped from its home in Michigan to Woods’ workshop. A 1951 Spartan Royal Manor, the luxury travel trailer had to be almost completely re-done, though the end results were well worth all the work. The truck was a little easier to find and though it presented Woods with the design challenge of a lifetime, the truck and trailer were eventually completed and the Ford COE & Spartan trailer became a thing of beauty.
It’s easy to get lost in the big parts of renovating and re-designing – all the parts to order, the major overhauls, the end product. But it’s the little details that really make something like this unique. Those are the ones people remember, and the ones you’re glad you added when you’re enjoying your new-to-you vehicle. All the beautiful design elements of Woods’ vehicle, like using birch for the cabinets and hand-making them himself. It shows how much he loved this project and how much fun he had putting it together. That’s what makes a designer stand out – the care and time spent on bringing a polished, original design out of rough materials. You can’t really beat the satisfaction of completing a project like that.
Want to read how Woods found the COE and trailer? Interested in seeing photos of the completed project? You can find all that and more at the Hot Rod Network website, indexed in our Directory of Vehicles. For more cabovers, you can see some amazing ones here.
