When did TT's become "Campers"

toedtoes wrote:
I agree with the regional explanation.

In the west, we had:

Campers - trucks campers like the 6 pak
Shells - those were the short covers over the truck bed (no inside guts)
Trailers - tow behinds
Motorhomes - self propelled.

A trailer was never called a camper unless someone from another region was talking.

We wore tennies not sneakers too.

Same, except 'shells' were 'canopies'.

I belong to Loners on Wheels, a single's camping group with a huge variety of vehicles. Whether it is a $500 tent trailer or a $500,000 motorhome, we call them all "Rigs". As in, "I am going back to my rig to get ready for the dance". It is all about having fun, not how how much our rigs cost.

I don't know when you started camping. But I was camping when I was 12, 52 years ago and yes anything you could stay in at a campground was a camper here in Florida.

I agree with the regional explanation.

In the west, we had:

Campers - trucks campers like the 6 pak
Shells - those were the short covers over the truck bed (no inside guts)
Trailers - tow behinds
Motorhomes - self propelled.

A trailer was never called a camper unless someone from another region was talking.

We wore tennies not sneakers too.

I suspect there is (or was) regional variation in the usage. Growing up (70s and 80s) a "camper" was any mobile unit used for camping - a generic term. An RV was a large truck-based (e.g. bus-style, or large class C) camper. A trailer was a tow-behind camper. Fifth wheels either didn't exist or were so rare that they didn't come up on my radar. The sort that slide into the bed of a pickup were "truck campers" and still are.

Depends who I am talking to.

Mostly...I just say trailer.

I would modify that if I still had my work trailer....which I also called trailer.

At this point of the season....I just call it that piece of sh*t clogging up my driveway.

One more adventure planned for next week and then the "trailer" goes into storage.

LVJJJ wrote:
Having been on the planet over 7 decades, I must be falling behind. When I started RV'ing in the '80's, a "Camper" was a unit that slid into the bed of a pickup, a unit that was bumper hitch towed behind a vehicle was a "travel trailer", a unit that hitched to the middle of a pickup bed was a "fiver." So, I guess now everything you can camp in is a "camper?"

Just wondering.

Since the 70s, I always heard travel trailers and pop ups called campers. Never, ever heard anyone refer to them as travel trailers. They were campers.

Truck bed campers were never really popular but those were called truck campers or camper tops. Also, my family had truck campers made with truck caps, and finished the truck bed's floor and walls in carpet and made furniture and sleeping beds for those. My uncle was a handy carpenter and carpet layer, so he converted many Vans and Truck beds with Caps, into campers.

TV news anchors need to learn correct terminology. They almost always refer to a motor home as a mobile home, and older mobile homes are called trailer homes on the news. SMH

When I lived in Rhode Island I used to eat Grinder sandwiches, but now that I've been in Delaware I now eat Hoagies and Subs???

I just purchased a new Pioneer travel trailer and if I want to call it my camper I will. I'm paying for aren't I. I also call it my house, home away from home, or my cabin.

Then again when I lived in RI I would take my girlfriend out to the bay to watch submarine races.

LVJJJ wrote:

gmw photos wrote:

LVJJJ wrote:
I never figured I was camping unless I was in a tent and cooked my vittles over an open fire.....

snip....

Oh now you went and did it. Are vittles a specific kind of food, or is it a generic term for all things we consume in the name of eating ?

Can you have vittles at home ?

Or can you only have vittles while camping, and being a camper person ? Or is that an RV'ing person ?

....I'm confused now....

Vittles is the food cowboys ate in the old west on cattle drives

Unless they're tender - in that case they're for the cat.