old camper at a site i drove by

jerseyjim wrote:
FireUP; Back then, autos could be had with BIG motors...and of course they (the cars were HUGE with "real" steel chassis.... compared to todays' almost fragile bathtub clones.

Check out that old movie: "The Long, Long Trailer" with Lucille Ball and Dezi Arnez. Same generation trailer, I think...all being pulled with a Mercury sedan (or was it a convertible?)

The Mercury in the movie was a 1953 Mercury Monterey convertible. A Lincoln Capri was used for mountain scenes as described below.

I remember that the trailer hitch mechanism had a tire on it as to take some of the weight off of the car.

From Wikipedia:
"The trailer used in the film is the 1953 36-foot Redman "New Moon" model, which sold for $5,345 (equal to $47,846 today) at the time. The new car used to tow the trailer is a 1953 Mercury Monterey convertible with a 125 HP flathead V8 engine.

Opening scenes were shot on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stage 12, the same location at which Arnaz played his first film scene in Bataan, eleven years before.[4]

The dangerous mountain highway featured is Whitney Portal Road, which leads up to Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. The hairpin turn offers scenic views of the Owens Valley. During the scenes of Nicky and Tacy pulling their trailer in the mountains, their 1953 Mercury Monterey convertible is replaced with a larger but similar appearing 1953 Lincoln Capri convertible. The distinct Lincoln grille is clearly evident in a shot as the car rounds a curve. The more powerful Lincoln (which is equipped with a 205 HP V8 engine) was needed to pull the heavy New Moon trailer up and over the steep grades of the Sierra Nevada where the scenes were filmed. Other scenes were shot on the Pines to Palms Scenic Byway (State Route 74) in Palm Desert, California.[5]"

MM.