50 Fun Facts About RV

The first known purpose-built RV, the horse-drawn Wanderer, was commissioned in 1884 in which country?

Britain: the Wanderer was built in Bristol by the Bristol Wagon and Carriage Works for the Scottish author Dr William Gordon Stables, who toured in it and wrote The Cruise of the Land Yacht Wanderer.

The world's first RV club, formed in 1907, was "The ___ Club". Which word fills the blank?

It grew out of Britain's Gentlemen Gypsy movement, which promoted the restorative benefits of horse-drawn caravanning.

The first steam-driven motorhome, the Quo Vadis of 1900, was built in which country?

France built both pioneers: the steam-powered Quo Vadis in 1900 and, in 1902, the Passe-Partout, the first petrol-driven motorhome.

Which affordable car helped make lightweight tent trailers popular in the US from 1911?

The Ford Model T, cheap enough for ordinary families after 1908, put auto-camping within reach; lightweight folding camp trailers appeared around 1911, helped by better roads and new national parks.

Which small, lightweight 1950 vehicle is credited as the first "one box" RV seen in large numbers?

The Volkswagen Kombi, the Type 2 launched in 1950, was a light one-box van whose camper conversions sold in huge numbers through the 1950s and 60s, becoming the archetypal camper van.

Which brand, founded in 1931, alone outlasted the 400-plus US trailer makers of the 1930s?

Airstream, founded by Wally Byam in 1931, was the only one of the roughly 400 US trailer makers of the 1930s to stay continuously in business into the 21st century.

The rounded aluminium body of Wally Byam's trailers is based on which earlier design?

Byam's 1936 Clipper copied the riveted aluminium shell of the Bowlus Road Chief, designed by aircraft builder William Hawley Bowlus in 1934, moving its front door to the side.

Wally Byam's company builds its aluminium trailers in which Ohio town?

The plant opened there in July 1952; the brand is now part of Elkhart-based Thor Industries.

A modified airtight Airstream trailer served NASA as what after the Apollo 11, 12 and 14 missions?

The Mobile Quarantine Facility, a converted trailer, held the crew from the recovery carrier until they reached the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston; Apollo 13 never landed, so needed none.

Winnebago Industries was founded in 1958 in which Iowa town?

Forest City, in Winnebago County, is where John K. Hanson set up the company in 1958; the motorhome plant stayed there after the headquarters moved to Eden Prairie, Minnesota, in 2021.

In 2018 Winnebago expanded into boat building by acquiring which company?

Chris-Craft, the powerboat maker founded in 1874 and based in Sarasota, Florida, was bought by Winnebago in June 2018, the motorhome builder's first move into marine products.

Roughly what share of US-built RVs came out of Indiana in the late 2010s?

About 85 percent of US-built RVs came from northern Indiana in the late 2010s, where the largest makers and hundreds of suppliers cluster around one county.

The RV/MH Hall of Fame museum is located in which city?

Elkhart, Indiana, the hub of the US RV industry, has housed the RV/MH Hall of Fame's 100,000-square-foot museum since it opened in 2007, with a gallery of historic trailers and motorhomes.

Which Elkhart-based company owns Jayco, Heartland RV and Wally Byam's aluminium-trailer brand?

Thor Industries, formed in 1980 when Wade Thompson and Peter Orthwein bought the aluminium-trailer brand, added Heartland in 2010 and Jayco in 2016, and bought Europe's Erwin Hymer Group in 2019.

The GMC Motorhome of 1973 to 1978 was assembled in which Michigan city?

Pontiac, Michigan, home of GM's Truck and Coach division, built about 12,900 GMC Motorhomes between 1973 and 1978 in 23- and 26-foot lengths.

What was unusual about the GMC Motorhome's drivetrain?

It was front-wheel drive, borrowing the Oldsmobile Toronado's 455 V8 and transaxle, which left no driveshaft and allowed a low floor and profile other coach motorhomes could not match.

A motorhome with its engine mounted at the rear is known as what?

A pusher has its engine at the back, pushing the coach along, and is usually a diesel; front-engined 'pullers' have traditionally run on petrol.

What do larger RVs use to gain living space once parked?

Slide-outs are wall sections that roll outward on rails once the RV is parked, adding up to a few feet of floor width, then retract flush for travel.

A fifth-wheel trailer connects to the tow vehicle by way of what?

A kingpin on the trailer locks into a horseshoe-shaped fifth-wheel plate mounted in the pickup bed, the same coupling that links semi-trailers to tractor units.

In North America, an RV carried in the bed of a pickup is called a truck camper or what?

A slide-in is lifted into the pickup bed and secured with tie-downs, leaving the truck free to be used alone once the camper is dropped on its jacks at camp.

A pop-up camper is also known by what other name?

A tent trailer, or fold-down camper, has canvas or vinyl sides that crank up at camp and collapse for towing, making it one of the lightest towables.

A teardrop trailer typically sleeps how many adults?

Two: a teardrop's compact shell holds little more than a double bed, with a galley kitchen under the rear hatch; the classic designs date from 1930s magazine plans.

KOA, the franchised campground chain founded in 1962, is based in which city?

Billings, Montana, is where Dave Drum opened the first Kampgrounds of America site on the Yellowstone River in 1962 for travellers heading to the Seattle World's Fair; the company stayed headquartered there.

What does the 'MH' stand for in the name of the RV/MH Hall of Fame?

MH is manufactured housing: the hall honours pioneers of both recreation vehicles and factory-built homes, industries that grew up side by side in northern Indiana.

Roughly how many Americans lived full-time in RVs in the early 2020s, by industry estimate?

One million is the industry association's round estimate of Americans living full-time in RVs, a mix of retirees, remote workers and people priced out of housing.

In Australia, what is the slang term for a retiree who travels the country in an RV?

Grey nomads are Australian retirees who spend months touring the outback towing a van or driving a motorhome, often heading north for winter along the coasts and the Stuart Highway.

Which desert festival is noted for strict rules on RV water leaks and generator use?

Burning Man, held on Nevada's Black Rock Desert playa, enforces a Leave No Trace rule: RVs must not drip grey water or waste onto the alkali flat, and generators are subject to noise rules.

Slab City, the off-grid RV community in California's Sonoran Desert, takes its name from what?

Camp Dunlap was torn down after World War II, leaving the foundations that snowbirds now park on.

Which Arizona town of about 2,400 residents (2020 census) swells with RV campers every winter?

Quartzsite, on Interstate 10 near the California line, hosts big winter RV and gem shows, and the surrounding BLM long-term visitor areas draw hundreds of thousands of campers between January and March.

Which Lincolnshire, Illinois RV retailer went public in 2016 with a quarter-billion-dollar IPO?

Camping World, led by Marcus Lemonis of TV's The Profit, raised about $251 million in its October 2016 New York Stock Exchange debut; it also runs the Good Sam club.

Which German contractor built the classic Volkswagen camper vans that bear its name?

Westfalia-Werke, a coachbuilder in Rheda-Wiedenbrück named for its Westphalian home, began converting the Type 2 in 1951 and built the official VW Camper for decades.

Which comedian stars in RV (2006) as an executive on a motorhome trip to Colorado?

Robin Williams plays Bob Munro, a soda executive who drags his family from Los Angeles to Colorado in a rented motorhome so he can secretly attend a merger meeting; Barry Sonnenfeld directed.

Which real-life married couple star as newlyweds towing a new trailer in The Long, Long Trailer (1954)?

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, then at the height of I Love Lucy, play Tacy and Nicky Collini, whose honeymoon towing a 36-foot trailer through the mountains becomes a comedy of disasters; Vincente Minnelli directed.

In Albert Brooks's Lost in America (1985), the couple decide to drop out of society "like in" which film?

Easy Rider is David's touchstone: he and Linda quit their jobs, sell the house and set off in a Winnebago to 'touch Indians', losing their nest egg in Las Vegas almost at once.

In Spaceballs, Lone Starr and Barf fly a Winnebago spaceship with what name?

Eagle 5 is Lone Starr's flying Winnebago, complete with wings; it runs out of fuel and crash-lands on the desert moon of Vega, where Yogurt lives.

Which TV series began as a joke between two out-of-work writers about a meth lab in an RV?

Breaking Bad grew from a joke Vince Gilligan and Thomas Schnauz shared while unemployed; the 1986 Fleetwood Bounder became Walter White's rolling lab, and a replica joined the character's 2013 Albuquerque mock funeral.

In Meet the Fockers, what happens to the Fockers' dog Moses aboard Jack Byrnes's RV?

Robert De Niro's Jack drives the family to Miami in the motorhome to meet Greg's parents.

Winnebago Man (2009) covers outtakes of which salesman, dubbed "The Angriest Man in the World"?

Jack Rebney's profane outtakes from a 1989 Winnebago sales video circulated on VHS and then YouTube; director Ben Steinbauer tracked the reclusive Rebney down in northern California.

Which 2020 film about a widow living in her van won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress?

Nomadland, adapted by Chloé Zhao from Jessica Bruder's book, follows its widowed heroine Fern through the West in her van; real nomads, including Bob Wells, play themselves, and Zhao won Best Director.

Someone who lives full- or part-time in a van by choice is commonly called what?

A vanlifer follows 'van life', a movement popularised on Instagram in the 2010s, trading rent for a converted van and citing freedom, mobility and lower cost.

Fleetwood RV, Holiday Rambler and Monaco are all part of which parent company?

REV Group, the Wisconsin-based maker of fire trucks and ambulances formerly called Allied Specialty Vehicles, gathered the Fleetwood, Monaco and Holiday Rambler motorhome brands under one roof and added Lance Campers in 2018.

In the 2010s, the RV industry was the biggest US buyer of which tropical building material?

Lauan plywood, a thin tropical hardwood sheet from Southeast Asian meranti trees, lines RV walls, ceilings and cabinetry; Rainforest Action Network traced its supply to clear-felled Indonesian and Malaysian forests.

Which type of motorhome, also called integrated, has the driving area built into the living space?

Class A motorhomes, called integrated or A-class in Europe, are built on a bare bus or truck chassis with the driving seats inside the living space behind a huge one-piece windscreen.

What title does Elkhart County, Indiana, give itself thanks to its dominant industry?

The RV Capital of the World is the county's self-styled title: its plants around Goshen, Middlebury and Nappanee turn out most of the nation's RVs, and the 2020 census counted about 207,000 residents.

What feature usually sits above the driving cab on a Class C, or coach-built, motorhome?

A double berth, the 'Luton' or cab-over bunk, sits in the overhang above the driving cab; the coach-built body behind it is mounted on a cutaway van chassis such as the Ford Transit or Fiat Ducato.

What do Germans call a motorhome?

Wohnmobil, literally 'living-mobile', is the German for motorhome (Reisemobil is a common alternative); a Wohnwagen is a towed trailer, a Reisebus a coach and a Kastenwagen a panel van.

What is the name of the traditional horse-drawn caravan that became a symbol of the Romani people?

The vardo, built from the mid-19th century by English wagon-makers such as Dunton of Reading, carried a family's living quarters on a horse-drawn chassis; elaborately carved and gilded types include the Reading, Ledge and Bow-top.

Which car maker unveiled the Touring Landau, a 1910 camper with an on-board toilet?

Pierce-Arrow of Buffalo, New York, showed the Touring Landau at the 1910 Madison Square Garden auto show, with a fold-down rear seat bed, a sink and a chamber-pot toilet; 'housecars' followed in the 1920s.

Which British organisation did Thomas Hiram Holding found in 1901 as the Association of Cycle Campers?

The Camping and Caravanning Club grew from Holding's Association of Cycle Campers of 1901; Holding, a tailor who had crossed the American prairie by wagon as a boy, wrote The Camper's Handbook in 1908.

The Playpac hard-shelled camper was designed to be towed by which small car?

Invented by Steven Whysel, it packed a water closet and shower, slept six and had a domed skylight styled by designer Toshihiko Sakow.