Birth of the toy hauler

[jesseannie]

A long long time ago over 40 years now, I owned snow mobiles, we would travel most weekends with our friends and kids and have a great time.
I also had an acquaintance who owned a RV dealership.
I went to him and floated the idea of buying a beater 24 ft travel trailer and gutting it then figure out how to open up the back to bring in a couple machines and live in the front part.
He told there was no way that would work and basically said it was a stupid idea. Huh!
Now everytime I go to a recreation area and see these toy haulers I realize that I was just underfunded and not brave enough to make something like that happen.
I know I probably wasn't the first to think about it, but there was nothing out there like that in mid 70's.

Jesseannie

[drhutch]

Somewhere around 20 years ago or so I would hunt Elk with my brother when he would come to Colorado. He had his cattle hauler set up so we had an LQ in the front of the trailer after taking the horses out. Tarps hung to keep out the weather and a goose blind heater and camp stoves. Lived like kings in that. On a group camp trip 2 years ago at a nearby lake one of the group had a 3 horse slant with LQ. The quarters in that were nicer than any of our campers / 5ers / trailers. Times have changed a bit. Of course my brothers trailer probably cost him around $6K this trailer was no doubt over $50K.

[wopachop]

dedmiston wrote:
Riding near Ridgecrest/Inyokern this weekend (near the two shooting ranges) we started seeing a lot of horse poop on the trails, and then we saw a HUGE camp of horse trailers.

I told my wife & friends that I'd never seen so many LEQs before, as if I've known forever what that means. :B

That's funny!

[dsrace]

trail-explorer wrote:

dsrace wrote:
i know alpha was the first but i will always consider ww to be the first.

But the second isn't the first.

correct

🙂

[dedmiston]

Riding near Ridgecrest/Inyokern this weekend (near the two shooting ranges) we started seeing a lot of horse poop on the trails, and then we saw a HUGE camp of horse trailers.

I told my wife & friends that I'd never seen so many LEQs before, as if I've known forever what that means. :B

[trail-explorer]

dsrace wrote:
i know alpha was the first but i will always consider ww to be the first.

But the second isn't the first.

[Y-Guy]

dsrace wrote:
i know alpha was the first but i will always consider ww to be the first. the new ww coming out of the rv factory is no ww toyhauler! they are a high end camper like all the other built in indiana.

I agree, WW was Mark Warmoth. The RV Factory acquired the name, nothing more. I'd tried to follow his lawsuits to get them to stop using the name, but never found out the final results since Omega RV went out of business and Mark passed.

[dsrace]

i know alpha was the first but i will always consider ww to be the first. the new ww coming out of the rv factory is no ww toyhauler! they are a high end camper like all the other built in indiana.

[deltabravo]

dudeonit wrote:
Actually Mark worked for Alpha Leisure who already was building Toyhaulers prior to opening up WW.

Alpha Leisure Toyhouse was the very first toy hauler I saw. I remember when I saw it - a dual sport motorcycle event in Oregon, July of 1995.

Later on I heard about Weekend Warrior. After the same dual sport event, in 1996, I went to a dealer in the Portland, OR area (Big Boys Toys) and looked at a few WW models. I couldn't believe how cheap looking they were at the time.

In 2003 I bought a Desert Fox 21SW. I kept it through 2009 when I decided to downsize to a truck camper and cargo trailer. I was getting tired of having to unload the motorcycle and leave it outside all the time when camped.

[nayther]

dedmiston wrote:
Thanks Jim.

if you didn't I woulda

[dedmiston]

Thanks Jim.

[JIMNLIN]

LEQ or LQ is a common name for a horse trailer with "living quarters".

[dedmiston]

JIMNLIN wrote:
Some of the first trailers I saw that were used to carry wheeled/motorized "toys" was in the late '50s using rear loading stock trailers.
Then in the early '60s we started seeing LEQs that many folks carried some type of wheeled off road vehicles loaded in the rear or side. Stock trailer were load ready with strong main frames made to carry heavy weights unlike a TT.
One of my neighbors today uses a LEQ loaded with horses and his/her Harleys when going to NM/CO.

Its interesting how all our mass produced RVs evolved from the early days when it was just small 16'-18' camp trailers.

OK. Help a brother out. What's an LEQ?

I just googled it and I assume you aren't talking about Long Essay Questions on the SAT exam.

[JIMNLIN]

Some of the first trailers I saw that were used to carry wheeled/motorized "toys" was in the late '50s using rear loading stock trailers.
Then in the early '60s we started seeing LEQs that many folks carried some type of wheeled off road vehicles loaded in the rear or side. Stock trailer were load ready with strong main frames made to carry heavy weights unlike a TT.
One of my neighbors today uses a LEQ loaded with horses and his/her Harleys when going to NM/CO.

Its interesting how all our mass produced RVs evolved from the early days when it was just small 16'-18' camp trailers.

[Nv_Guy]

Yep, I see the Alpha toyhouse as the first, but WW sure built off that. Then everyone jumped into the market. The toyhauler was a very regional thing. I met some folks from MI at an ATV jamboree in the early 90's & they had never seen one.
I was in the biz, so I saw WW rise and fall. For the most part they did build a darn good coach.