More TC's in the past?

[delosholly]

I ran across these two pictures on the Yellowstone NP website, and it made me wonder: Did more people own truck campers "back in the day" than they do now. Any thoughts on this?

http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/slidefile/visitoractivities/motorizedvehicles/Images/07334.jpg

http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/slidefile/visitoractivities/motorizedvehicles/Images/07335.jpg

Also fromm there:
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/slidefile/visitoractivities/motorizedvehicles/Images/01776.jpg

Del

[tonyj54]

67avion wrote:
Avion TC spotted! In the upper left corner of the first photo. Probably still on the road.

67,

Yep, as soon as I scrolled down to the photos, I yelled "look, it's an AVION!". Checked close to see if it might be ours. Nope. But, you're probably correct. It's probably still providing some TC'ers with good times.

Okay, got tie-downs to finish. Back under the truck I go, before rain comes back through. I need a place to work on ours out of the rain.

[Boatycall]

dbbls wrote:

MKish wrote:
And back then the kids could ride in the cabover bed so you didn't need a crew cab.

How did we ever survive? We also drank out of the green garden hose, played outdoors in the sun all day, and did all this without cell phones and game boys.

And play a game of "Lawn Jarts". Try finding those today. I found a set at Goodwill and promptly snarfed them up.

And kids had BB guns.

We swam without life vests. You were a wimp if you had a life vest on.

[Buzzcut1]

as a life long tent camper / backpacker / mt climber I never wanted a camper. One we hit our mid 50s the wife's knees were giving out so backpacking was out. We really bought the TC for making her horse show competitions more comfortable. Staying on the show grounds and having a comfortable place with AC vs sitting in a sweltering tack room fighting off the horse flies. We opted for the Lance 1055, large but not too large, non slide to fit my KISS mentality. Going on 4 years of traveling with it and I really don't want anything else.

Winter time I see mostly TC's out there, not many folks want to be out in the weather towing or driving the big class A's in ice and snow.

I also don't see to many of the big A's or 5ers out at the end of a dirt FS road at some remote fishing spot.

[garryk6]

69 Avion wrote:

67avion wrote:
Check out our Avion TC rebuilds. Perhaps we share a similar sensibility about truck campers.

I have nothing against the folks who want a large TC, but for me the Avion is as large as I want to put into a pickup truck bed. At around 2800 pounds wet it is perfect for a one ton truck. I have a 34' Avion triple axle trailer if I want something larger.

Besides, the whole idea of camping is to get outside.

I agree! We still have a 30 ft TT, but it is at my dads farm in WA state. Necessity And frugality pushed us to a TC, and now that we have done it, we will sell the TT before we get rid of the TC. People think we are crazy camping in a 1966 TC with a family of 6... But we make it work here in Alaska, and the kids still laugh at the escapades that we have endured in our home re-built Avion.

We are getting ready to jump on the ferry this weekend and get off the island for the first time this year, and it will be in the truck and Avion!

Garry in Kodiak, AK

[Bigfoot_and_Cra]

We used to be those back packer/tent campers who swore we'd never succumb to the need to have an RV? We loved hiking miles into the backwoods to find the perfect spot to eat our dehydrated food. Well life does change. I love the freedom to throw some food in the rig and get the heck out of the city anytime without much work. I love taking my bed , toilet and fridge with me when we visit family, go to the boat ramp or off to the coast. It's getting harder for us to go tent camping up here in the Pacific Northwest. Poor weather, you need reservations everywhere, so many people everywhere ( I'm to old to sleep on the ground):D. With our TC at least if we are right next to someone I feel I have a little privacy. I seem to remember camping spots were further away from each other, or were people more polite?

[69_Avion]

67avion wrote:
Check out our Avion TC rebuilds. Perhaps we share a similar sensibility about truck campers.

I have nothing against the folks who want a large TC, but for me the Avion is as large as I want to put into a pickup truck bed. At around 2800 pounds wet it is perfect for a one ton truck. I have a 34' Avion triple axle trailer if I want something larger.

Besides, the whole idea of camping is to get outside.

[wintersun]

There is the old saying that today's luxuries are tomorrow's necessities and it certainly applies to RV's. I talk to people at campgrounds and many are wanting to go to a larger MH from their current 28-35 foot one or put in a 42" TV in their MH or 5th-wheel, and have to have a dry bath with a bath tub. Got to have AC all the time and cannot cope without a microwave and a king size bed.

Having never experienced the outdoors they want to go "camping" but have no concept of even how to sit an listen to the the sounds. They have to have their MP3 players and boomboxes and motorized ATV's and trail bikes so as not to have to walk anywhere. They take their home with them and never really travel.

Slide-in campers are much closer to the MH end of the camping spectrum. I have a lot of respect for the very few families I know that actual take their kids camping with backpacks and sleeping bags and small alcohol fueled camp stoves.
But people doing this in the 1960's and 1970's in California where I grew up were treated with derision as being hippies and kooks and somehow anti-American for not having a big Winnie or Airstream trailer. It has not really changed at all, only gotten worse.

[67avion]

Check out our Avion TC rebuilds. Perhaps we share a similar sensibility about truck campers.

[steve68steve]

Testudo wrote:
...Bigger and bigger TC's will be the death-knell of the TC, Joe. The camper part will finally be too big to ever remove from the chassis and we'll just start calling them "Class C's".

Get outta my head!!

When my wife first talked about getting an RV, it took about 5 seconds to decide we both wanted a TC. She had happy childhood memories in one, I liked the fact that I got a pickup truck out of the deal and didn't have to double up on tires, oil, registration, insurance, etc. I also liked the ability to park in a regular space and not have tow/ back up a big trailer. Also, a TC still felt like a "camper." We'd been in big 5'ers and TT's at RV shows and it just didn't feel like "roughing it."

To my dismay, the small, light, minimalist simplicity of TCs evolved since we were kids ... away from (in conflict with) the TC's raison d'etre. Trying to stuff more and more amenities into a 4x8 pickup bed has led to TCs getting bigger and heavier to the point that a "regular" truck can't even haul them anymore. When I have to buy a 450 or 550 dually just to haul my TC, it's no longer a cheap, practical, minimalist RV which leverages a truck I can use for other stuff. I'd be better off with a Ford Ranger/ Chevy Colorado and a class C RV.

They say NASA spent millions of dollars developing a pen for the astronauts that would work in space; Russian Cosmonauts just used a pencil. I want my TC to be a pencil on an F150, not a space pen on a F550 commercial dually.

[Testudo]

Thanks for sharing the photos, Joe.

I wonder who was sleeping in the U-HAUL trailer???

I don't have any hard statistics but I reckon that TC's _appeared_ to be more prevalent in a by-gone time because there weren't so many big RVs - - Class A's, C's and five-wheelers. There are probably just as many TCs as there ever have been but most people getting turned on to RVing, these days, are being seduced by "homes-away-from-home".

I was a tent guy most of my life. I started out in a mountain tent and went to a light-weight cabin tent to entice women to come along ....{shrug}. My wife (ensnared in my mountain tent in Sweden back in 1976) and I were pretty much the last tenters on earth back in 2005 when we decided to have a 6.5 OUTFITTER Caribou built for us. I pretty much suspected that any sense of camping would end in 2006 when we took delivery. That is pretty much how it turned out, too. My wife practically has to pry me out of that Caribou. I just don't want to go outside anymore. Not a feeling I ever experienced in a tent.

Most RVers are impulse buyers that _think_ they are camping. They really have no clue as to what camping is. Even the average TC has become so big and unwieldy as people have demanded more square footage and luxuries in their TC. You practically need a GPS on your belt to find you way around some of those behemoths. It's just a matter of time before we read a news report about some poor TC owner phoning the authorities to send a search party because he is hopelessly lost in his camper.

Clue to RVers: When you are cooking on a full-sized VIKING stove; wiping down your marble countertops; and all the while watching your 60 inch satellite television, it is isn't _camping_, anymore.

Bigger and bigger TC's will be the death-knell of the TC, Joe. The camper part will finally be too big to ever remove from the chassis and we'll just start calling them "Class C's".

[hedgehopper]

Some of the "truck campers" in the photo are actually Class Cs.

[bikerdib]

Seems like the attitude has changed. Even bumper pulls have started to be more rare around my area (lots still out there but I don't think there are as many 5th wheels).

Most modern campers think they need a house with them not just taking lots of stuff.

[Bubtoofat]

I watch "The Rockford Files" on Netflix and nearly every episode so far has truck campers in the background. Makes me wonder if TC manufacturers paid for product placement back then.
Mike

[Scott16]

67avion wrote:

Mkish wrote:
And back then the kids could ride in the cabover bed so you didn't need a crew cab.

Here you go. One of the photos from the same website about Yellowstone:

Yes, That brings back a lot of memories. Heading to the mountains for camping.
Scott