History of Rv'ing

[GeneF]

This link was posted by Trailblazer on the RVItch forum.

Ya gotta see it.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=8784818


Kind of like the tv spot they did on the Tennessee Rally in 02.

[ScouterMom]

has anyone ever looked at the plans you can find on E-bay and elsewhere to build your own?  there were 'camping trailers' with the first cars at the turn of the century.  Some really neat designs and ideas that could be used today.

Heck, the first 'campers' were more like pop-ups than like hardside campers - what about the Connestoga Wagons that rolled across the west?

Laura

[beacher]

That video was interesting.  It appears that 250,000 people were "fulltiming" in their rolling home trailers, rather than merely recreating.  The other 750,000 folks mentioned were actually living IN their cars or using tents, I presume.

This caught my attention:

"The automatic charging notch on the light switch helps to make sure that the battery is kept fully charged, even though the car is driven only a few miles a day"...

How did that work?  Did you manually have to set the generator, setting the light switch to the notch, in order to charge the battery?  Did the engine automatically start and idle to charge the battery?  Was that an optional feature?

[AustinBoston]

Heck, the first 'campers' were more like pop-ups than like hardside campers - what about the Connestoga Wagons that rolled across the west?

Those wagons were usually quite full - imagine packing ALL the supplies you would need for three months or more - and nobody slept in them.

OTOH, they didn't have any problems with trailer sway.  :p

Austin

[SpeakEasy]

OTOH, they didn't have any problems with trailer sway.  :p

Austin

Oh???

I bet someone who travelled in one would beg to differ with you!

-Speak

[AustinBoston]

Oh???

I bet someone who travelled in one would beg to differ with you!

-Speak

It was wagon sway not trailer sway...

Austin (running from room)

[ScouterMom]

I'm sure most of those 'fulltimers' in the video were not doing it because it was fun - it was practical.  Many were poor, and that was the only housing they could afford.  Or they were migratory workers, or traveling to make a living. That movie was when? 1935 or so? after the great depression and before WW II, anyway. a really tough economy.


My parents met and married while in the Navy in WWII, and after they both got out, they lived in a tiny airstream in a crowded trailer park on the campus of Toledo University. My dad finished his Engineering degree on VA benefits, and that was 'married' campus housing. that Airstream trailer was actually much smaller in living space than the PUP I have now!  There were LOADS of young couples & families living like that right after the war.  They used a community bathroom and shower house - like in a campground today, only larger. they had a small stove, oven and icebox - but ate most of their meals on campus or at Dad's parent's house.  Their trailer was never 'moved' -at least, they never hooked it up and moved it.  They didn't have a car!  I'm not sure if they owned the camper or rented it while finishing school.

they had a little 'yard', with a parking space and some grass, room for some outdoor chairs and a picnic table provided by the trailer park.  they actually also had a small stray dog they adopted - some kind of terrier they named 'Zip' for his habit of zooming around in fast circles!  They lived in that trailer for a little more than a year, and my older sister was born just a month before they moved out and bought a little bungalow.

It was definately NOT the way most full time RVer's live today!

Laura

[GeneF]

I'm sure most of those 'fulltimers' in the video were not doing it because it was fun - it was practical.  Many were poor, and that was the only housing they could afford.  Or they were migratory workers, or traveling to make a living. That movie was when? 1935 or so? after the great depression and before WW II, anyway. a really tough economy.


My parents met and married while in the Navy in WWII, and after they both got out, they lived in a tiny airstream in a crowded trailer park on the campus of Toledo University. My dad finished his Engineering degree on VA benefits, and that was 'married' campus housing. that Airstream trailer was actually much smaller in living space than the PUP I have now!  There were LOADS of young couples & families living like that right after the war.  They used a community bathroom and shower house - like in a campground today, only larger. they had a small stove, oven and icebox - but ate most of their meals on campus or at Dad's parent's house.  Their trailer was never 'moved' -at least, they never hooked it up and moved it.  They didn't have a car!  I'm not sure if they owned the camper or rented it while finishing school.

they had a little 'yard', with a parking space and some grass, room for some outdoor chairs and a picnic table provided by the trailer park.  they actually also had a small stray dog they adopted - some kind of terrier they named 'Zip' for his habit of zooming around in fast circles!  They lived in that trailer for a little more than a year, and my older sister was born just a month before they moved out and bought a little bungalow.

It was definately NOT the way most full time RVer's live today!

Laura

Thanks for a very enlightening post.  I enjoyed reading it.

I had read previously that trailer living was done  more after the war until the economy got going and the tract houses became affordable.  The ranch houses and small capes.

[AustinBoston]

I'm sure most of those 'fulltimers' in the video were not doing it because it was fun - it was practical.  Many were poor, and that was the only housing they could afford.  Or they were migratory workers, or traveling to make a living. That movie was when? 1935 or so? after the great depression and before WW II, anyway. a really tough economy.

I think it would be interesting to know when the film was made.  I had assumed the first time I watched it, it was late 40's, but after your post, I'm nearly certain it is pre-war.

I was unable to find a copyright date.

None of the vehicles look like they were later than late 1920's, and some were clearly much earlier.  Nothing from post '45.

I think it would be interesting to know what vintage that film was.

BTW, PJay's folks lived in a small camper after she was first born.  It was so cold that first winter that there would be ice (not frost - the trailer leaked and ice would freeze) on the wall next to her crib.  PJay has no memory of it, but I have heard her mother say on more than one occasion "I thought that baby would freeze to death."

Austin

[GeneF]

I think it would be interesting to know when the film was made.  I had assumed the first time I watched it, it was late 40's, but after your post, I'm nearly certain it is pre-war.

I was unable to find a copyright date.

None of the vehicles look like they were later than late 1920's, and some were clearly much earlier.  Nothing from post '45.

Austin

Austin

Looks like around 1935

The following paragraph was below the sereen as an intro to the video:


Description:  Here Today and Gone Tomorrow. That's the Motto of Millions Who Follow the Sun With a Home on Wheels. Only these RVers were doing in back in 1935 when a site in a Florida trailer resort cost one dollar a week with an extra twenty-five cents for electricity! Visit Trailerite.com and celebrate the History of RVing.

[AustinBoston]

Austin

Looks like around 1935

The following paragraph was below the sereen as an intro to the video:


Description:  Here Today and Gone Tomorrow. That's the Motto of Millions Who Follow the Sun With a Home on Wheels. Only these RVers were doing in back in 1935 when a site in a Florida trailer resort cost one dollar a week with an extra twenty-five cents for electricity! Visit Trailerite.com and celebrate the History of RVing.

Thanks.  Readabus nothingus strikes again.

BTW, while a dollar a week sounds like a bargain, I think it would equate to $250-$500 a week ($35-70 a night) today.  Not a bargain, especially for the quality of the "campgrounds" they show.

Austin

[ScouterMom]

this thread has got me curious about camper history - take a look at this link....

http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition/exhibition_12_3.html

apparently being a 'trailerite' wasn't always fun and games.

I have an old camping cookbook that shows photos from camping, both tent and camper, from the early days of cars.  apparently as soon as anyone thought of driving a vehicle, they also thought of hauling a house on wheels behind it.  

Laura