Any old time RVers around?

[jaycocreek]

Hello from Idaho.

I was wondering how many true old timers we have here..Back in the day before even the Camper special or any factory tow packages.We learned from experience about what would my truck take or how much we could safely pull...

Sometimes these weight threads boggle my mind assuming a few hundred pounds will turn into a disaster.

Times have really changed since then and for the good,in my opinion.As rver's we should be very happy we don't have to buy a new or used truck only to modify it to pull a RV.

Some of the half ton trucks of today are equal or better than the 3/4 ton trucks of the 60's and 70's and it goes up from there.....

All you RVers have a happy new year!

[Steamguy]

Camped with my folks until it was time for me to fly. Mom and Dad started out with an umbrella tent and a whole bunch of gear on a little home-made utility trailer, pulled by Dad's '50 Plymouth. Then he upgraded to a used '61 Chrysler ("never saw a busted axle on a Chrysler", according to the mechanic at the garage) and a 12' Aloha. That went until the mid-60's until we hit the big time with a 16' Kenskill.

I left home to get married, and we started out right as a couple: Camping! We had an old umbrella tent, carried in the back of my '66 F150, along with a whole bunch of hand-me-down tent stuff from my Dad. Including a Coleman stove which got thrown in the creek after it caught fire.

Later we went to an Apache tent trailer, and went nearly everywhere there was to go with that one. We were out camping the night the Hood Canal Bridge sank - "Oh, the weather won't be bad at the coast, says the weatherman"; but this region is one of the hardest for forecasting in the world...

Then my Dad got a mid-size Chinook after my Mom passed away, and let us use it. That was until it almost killed my brother, then it had a crack at me. Blown tires, both times. Tire store guy sold him these new tires that were "more than adequate for this rig".

Got a little-bitty camper for my little-bitty '75 import truck after that. Places we didn't go with the tent trailer, we went with that. 185,000 miles on the truck when I sold it.

Took up sailing, and spent many nights on the water. Then when we moved to a new house, it was the boat or the house. The house won. After we had both been promoted, it was again time to go camping. I found a little bitty (I think it was 16') Sidekick 5th wheel to tow behind my latest import truck. (I used to drive 100 miles+ per day.)

Sold the little fiver for a Winnebago 19' crackerbox that I got for a song, because it needed the engine rebuilt and just some minor refurbish work inside. Lots of miles on the old Winneo.

Sold the Winnebago for a 32' Pace Arrow. What a mistake. Where the Winneo was reliable, the Pace was a POS. Turned out to have body cancer, the wiring and appliance installs must have been done on Monday morning after the entire factory went on a bender weekend. But we needed something to live in while we built our new house; doing it mostly with our own hands. I've owned 35+ different cars and trucks, turned a wrench on all of them, and that stupid Pace was the ONLY thing that ever stranded me.

Dumped the Pace for a 19' Aljo, and traveled a lot with that one, eventually turning it in for a 23' Aljo, which got a lot of the same miles.

We traded the 23' Aljo for a 24' Prowler with a hand-cranked slideout, and that was the most problematic trailer I've ever seen. The unit had to be nearly dead level for the slide to work, we had water leaks, and my wife couldn't reach any of the outlets in the galley.

It sat until we got tired enough of paying for it and ordered an Arctic Fox. The Fox served us in a sterling manner for 14 years, and last year we traded in the Fox for another Northwood: a Snow River. So far, so good. Good quality unit.

[Passin_Thru]

Started in the 60s and have a Boles Aero still sitting in my yard. It is heavy!

[Doug33]

I camped in tents with my family since birth (1961). I also tent camped as a Boy Scout for many years. As a teen my parents bought a Nimrod PU that had nothing but beds (no sink, heater, water, etc).

When I got married, my in-laws had a TT so we stayed with them. When we had our first child, we tried to tent camp, but it became too difficult, so in 1991 we bought our first PU, which was a Coleman with a sink and stove. Over the next 10 years we upgraded twice to PUs with more options, such as a heater and shower.

In 2006 we bought our first TT, a 24' with no slides. Last summer we upgraded to a 28' TT with a slide out.

We've owned 5 different RVs over the last 22 years, after tent camping for decades. So I guess you could call us "old-timers".

[69_Avion]

Mac, welcome to the forum. It sounds that you started camping in a similar way that I did.

[MacMcCaskie]

I'll just have to add my story. My parents car-tent camped before I was born. The story is Mom wanted to camp and Dad didn't have to do anything - and the bargain was sealed. Their first trailer was a Porta-Camper in the early 60's (I remember they paid $300 for it, slept 5 with me on the floor and the rest on bunks, we got so we and could put it up in 15 minutes.) and we went all over the USA. Their 2nd camper was a 21 ft Airstream they kept until camping was no longer an option. I drove that Airstream for quite a few miles in my teens around Kansas, the north-central states and Canada. Plus I was a dedicated Boy Scouts camper with many very wet and memorable nights under my belt.

Now, here I am several decades later with a few ill conceived pups still attempting to wow my wife with the delights of camping. I hope the brand new TT will seal the deal for her.

Wish me luck.

[jaycocreek]

I can live without a house, but not a RV

My feelings exactly.

[Ray___June]

Started in tents when I was 8 or nine in the 50's. My wife and I borrowed her fathers Westfalia and went on our honeymoon in 1968. We fell in love with the lifestyle and bought our first class B in 1972. Since then we have had another class B and a class C. We are preparing our house to sell, and will buy a class A to retire in and full time. I can live without a house, but not a RV.

[tatest]

Towed with late1950s sedans. 80-100 HP flathead sixes and eights, then under 4 liter OHV sixes and under 5 liter OHV V8s absurdly over rated at 100-180 HP. Usually with 3 speed manual because the miserable 2-speed automatics wouldn't find the right gear for hills. Eventually had a Hydramatic Olds that might have been great but never towed with it, and my uncle towed with a big old 53 Lincoln.

Nothing had a tow rating. Usually, the TT or camper was lighter than what was towing it, a standard that still works pretty well in Europe.

Trailers were under 4000 pounds, even at 20-22 feet, lighter built and less well equipped. Also, very few high speed highways, 45-50 mph rural speed limits typical, sharing highways with equally underpowered trucks that could seldom reach 50 mph on level ground.

First got started in tents, scouts and family camping, no RV. First step up from carrying everything in the cars and station wagons was a trailer to haul lents and field kitchens, a platoon's worth of field gear. Replaced that with a box truck, late 40s meatpacker's reefer. Let our campsite grow to company size (about 80 scouts in the troop) and added an old schoolbus, ~50 Ford, to the camping fleet. Rattled, leaked cold air, wouldn't go over 50 mpf, but it always got us there.

We live in a different world. It started changing in the mid 1960s, but the idea that you needed a big heavy truck to tow a RV didn't become popular for another 40 years.

[Farmerjon]

rbtglove wrote:
Grew up on a ranch in the west - had an old ford half ton pickup. How many 70 Lb hay bails will a pickup carry? - those days as many as you could put on, must of been an easy 2000-3000 pounds. Also could get three steers in with a little doing. There was a load limit on the side of the truck think it was 1500 lbs. Never broke a spring or got stopped by the state troopers.

Exactly.
If it fit or you could pull it, it was good to go.

[rbtglove]

Grew up on a ranch in the west - had an old ford half ton pickup. How many 70 Lb hay bails will a pickup carry? - those days as many as you could put on, must of been an easy 2000-3000 pounds. Also could get three steers in with a little doing. There was a load limit on the side of the truck think it was 1500 lbs. Never broke a spring or got stopped by the state troopers.

[beemerphile1]

First TT was a 1969 Aristocrat. Tent camped before that. Have also owned many TT, tents, and popups since.

[snowdance]

CavemanCharlie wrote:


When people ask me how old I am I lie and tell them that I'm 36. Truth is I'll be 50 in February.

I never lie about my age. I am 50... with 25 years experiance..:D

[Tvov]

This is a good thread, "old time" is relative!

[CavemanCharlie]

I think the title of this thread is kinda misleading because "Old Time" is all by your definition. I started tent camping with friends in the late 70's and as for campers I have had 4 TT. A 1969 Home made 14 foot. A 1980 Shasta 16 foot. A 1985 Coachman 18 foot. And presently I own 1993 Sunrise by Cobra 20 foot.

When people ask me how old I am I lie and tell them that I'm 36. Truth is I'll be 50 in February. Does that make me "Old Time" ?? It does to the teenagers but, not to there parents.