Aliner copycats

gheicher wrote:

3oaks wrote:
Or they could have been similar to the Chalet A-frame TTs. :@

The Aliner was designed by Ralph Tait in the early 1970s. Living in Oregon he moved the family to PA to begin production of his idea. Chalet was a copy-cat unit built in Oregon and made some nice units before going out of business a few years ago. Ralph retired in 2007 and sold the business to the present owners, but Ralph still comes into the plant occasionally with a head full of ideas.

Interest in these units have increased of the last several years and both Forest River and Jayco jumped on the band-wagon. Similar campers, the Avans, are produced by a sister company in Australia.

Over the years I have had three Aliners and used them primarily as travel trailers rather than for "camping".

Avan, is not a Sister Company, but paid Aliner to produce the Campers. Avan makes it's own design folding campers as well.
AVAN's , Golf Caravan Division produces these

It makes an AVAN version of the Aliner,

Bolwell's RV Division produces the AIR which they are now selling in China. Like AVAN they have another folding Caravan design called the EDGE

Bolwell EDGE, like the AIR being made and sold in China

Yes, Chalet is back in business and doing well with new owners. So far, it's only available in the west. Most owners are happy with them.

We have an Aliner, which is the lightest of all the A-frame brands. It can be ordered with/without a cassette potty, soft-sided, or hard-sided dormers, depending on the model. It can also be equipped with a 5k a/c or a Cool Cat heat pump/a/c. We've not had a problem with our Cool Cat, but its locaton under the bed is a pita when trying to access the filter for cleaning.

We own a Jayco A-Frame, I've always like the "A-Frame" style. Long story short traded it in on a TT after owning it for 6 months.

Problem was the heat pump/AC unit made by Dometic. IMO its a bad design. The unit was located under the bed which led into the storage compartment. It never drained the condensation from the A/C properly and we got a lot of water in the storage compartment.

After 4 attempts to rectify the problem, including one total replacement of the unit the dealer gave us a total refund on it toward the purchase of a TT.

If anyone is looking at an A-Frame with these dometic heat pumps/AC units beware. If you research it on line you'll see I'm not the only one who has had issues with it.

I believe Jayco has dropped the A-Frame pop-up from its line.

actually in the early to mid 60's there was a trailer very similar to the A liner. A friend of the family had one, and we rented it several times for camping trips. Very similar design to current A liner's etc, but as you can imagine, non of the current convenience features. My folks were getting ready to buy one, but the mfg had a fire in the plant, and never re opened.

gheicher wrote:

3oaks wrote:
Or they could have been similar to the Chalet A-frame TTs. :@

The Aliner was designed by Ralph Tait in the early 1970s. Living in Oregon he moved the family to PA to begin production of his idea. Chalet was a copy-cat unit built in Oregon and made some nice units before going out of business a few years ago. Ralph retired in 2007 and sold the business to the present owners, but Ralph still comes into the plant occasionally with a head full of ideas.

Interest in these units have increased of the last several years and both Forest River and Jayco jumped on the band-wagon. Similar campers, the Avans, are produced by a sister company in Australia.

Over the years I have had three Aliners and used them primarily as travel trailers rather than for "camping".

Thank you for that interesting history. It's my understanding that interest in them is increasing because of vehicles with very limited towing capacity. Families with smaller cars, who don't want to spend money on a separate tow vehicle or mh, but want a better option with hard sides are investigating these foldables for their vacation trips. They want AC in summer and comfortable heat in winter too.

Any opinions - based on experience - as to which brand is best at it? To my knowledge, there's only one of the brands that offers a squarish "bump-out" on one side (usually over the kitchen end). We're a little curious about them, perhaps to use as a 2nd, smaller camper in state & national parks. I'd love another popup, but they're a pain in bear country.

Actually Chalet is back in business.

3oaks wrote:
Or they could have been similar to the Chalet A-frame TTs. :@

The Aliner was designed by Ralph Tait in the early 1970s. Living in Oregon he moved the family to PA to begin production of his idea. Chalet was a copy-cat unit built in Oregon and made some nice units before going out of business a few years ago. Ralph retired in 2007 and sold the business to the present owners, but Ralph still comes into the plant occasionally with a head full of ideas.

Interest in these units have increased of the last several years and both Forest River and Jayco jumped on the band-wagon. Similar campers, the Avans, are produced by a sister company in Australia.

Over the years I have had three Aliners and used them primarily as travel trailers rather than for "camping".

Or they could have been similar to the Chalet A-frame TTs. :@