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Don - I knew you would be a fountain of knowledge.
Back in the fifties was when my girlfriends and I used to ride out late at  
night and pull up the surveyors' stakes to keep 'them' from building on 'our' 
 
riding territory. It was mostly John Carradine's land - Bat Cave was up there 
-  and Top Hat was at stud. It was kind of regionally famous. 
In our midnight raids, we fell in with some Basque sheepherders, and -  
although there was an insurmountable language barrier - we were in awe of 
their  
'rigs' - and the food!
Thank you for all the information -
Sandy
Mid-Mojave
 
 
In a message dated 10/5/2008 4:48:45 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
don.bowen AT earthlink.net writes:

The idea  of a truck based camper comes from the earliest days of  the
automobile.  Several people built various homes on the backs of  early cars
and trucks from the Ford Model TT to a large FWD.  By the  thirties there
were several factories producing campers from the simplest  to very fancy
rigs.  The well known Airstream started with a design in  the very early
thirties.  

Magazines like Popular Mechanics  published many articles on building your
own travel trailer or  Teardrop.  Most were light for use behind the autos of
the day and  used materials and methods suitable for the home shops of the
time with few  power tools.  The eventual owner of Airstream, Walley Bayum
published  at least one how to article on building a travel trailer.

By the  fifties with the power of the automobile increasing and the leveling
of the  American incomes many families could afford to purchase  Recreational
Vehicles and take weekend and two week vacations.

I  live in a travel trailer, currently parked in the beautiful Missouri
Ozarks  on Genes Heartwood Homestead.  This afternoon I leave to go visit  my
son in North Carolina for a month.  Then in November me and my RV  will be
back here for a brief visit then on to Southern  California.

> I have gone to the trouble now of finding out whether  or not a draft horse
> could pull a small RV - sans engine, in these  days of looking forward to
> no oil - and I am told that yes, it could  be done.

Long before the automobile we had all sorts of horse drawn  living
arrangements.  Medieval paintings show wagons fitted out as  quarters for
tournaments.  By the late 1700s the huge incomes from  colonies allowed
England to start on a massive road improvement giving rise  to the Gypsy
Ledger Wagons and fancy Vardos.  These were very heavy  and were used to how
off the owner's best team of horse.

In this  country the vast western distances gave rise to the Sheep Camp.   The
Sheep Camp was often little more that an old farm wagon fitted with a  canvas
top, a bed, and a stove.  They were usually very light to be  pulled by a
single horse.  By the fifties most had disappeared and the  Basque
Sheepherders moved into pickup campers.  The Mojave Desert used  to be home
to many flocks of sheep tended by Basque  Sheepherders.

The huge western grain fields gave rise to the cook  shack.  A simple wagon
fitted with a cook stove, water barrel, pots  and pans, dishes, etc.  The
sides flopped down for serving tables and  to allow air flow.  The cook shack
traveled with the harvest  crews.  My wife's grandmother was a cook on a
Washington Palouse  Country harvest crew.

> Am I crazy?

No.

I would  suggest you not use an automobile based camper as they are heavy.
Build  something like a Sheep Camp or a Teardrop Trailer.  I have a  whole
file of plans from the thirties to fifties on building camping  trailers and
pickup mounted campers.

Don Bowen   KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html

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