This is a boaterhome; half boat, half van, and all absolutely insane.
The ‘80s were filled with lots of weird things. Parachute pants? Suit jackets with shoulder pads? Runaway inflation? All these things can be traced back to the ‘80s.
The ‘80s were also filled with a lot of crazy vehicle ideas. One of them came from Ford and was called the Boaterhome. It’s basically a Ford Econoline van that’s been chopped in half and turned into a mobile towing platform for a boat that fits neatly inside the hollowed-out shell of the van.
Just 21 of these vehicles were made, likely owing to how they were very expensive and also how nobody was buying them.
Thanks to Barcroft Cars, we get to see a first-hand look at John’s Boaterhome that he uses as a sort of land-based party cruise in Las Vegas. Although it doesn’t spend all that much time in the water these days, John says the Boaterhome is actually a family heirloom. His father got it when he was just 10 years old and the strange boat/van hybrid has been in the family ever since.
There’s actually a third vehicle attached to the Boaterhome, and that’s an RV. Everything inside the boat portion of the car is basically the same as you’d find in a recreational vehicle, with the only exception being you have to climb over the bow to get back into the van’s cabin.
Placing the boat in the water is simple: just back onto the ramp so that the rear wheels are completely submerged, and then release the boat to slide down into the water. Retrieving the boat is the same process in reverse, but with the added step of attaching the tow line to the boat’s bow.
John even purchased a second Boaterhome for just $11,000 that he plans to renovate into something even more amazing than his current mobile party boat. No word on how much that will cost, but it certainly seems like John is making this weird boat/van hybrid thing work out for him.