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Car camping 1920s

Started by groomporter, March 27, 2021, 03:49:47 PM

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groomporter

More dieselpunk, but a couple Youtube videos interesting look at an early tent trailer and some of the accoutrements of early 20th century camping.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DASDASVlAVw&t=45s&ab_channel=TerryBone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BpLtr41EBY&ab_channel=TerryBone
If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.
-Spider Robinson

Deimos

"Unless you're prepared to surrender everything, don't surrender anything."

Society: Be yourself.
Me: OK
Society: No. Not like that.

groomporter

Even "pop-out" on campers go back before 1900. Here's an 1894 patent on a "hunting wagon" with canvas covered pop-up sections.
If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.
-Spider Robinson

Miranda.T

That's very similar to modern designs, although I don't think I've seen one with a pop-out at the front as well as the sides. Maybe the modern ones should take a lead from the past.

Yours,
Miranda.

Miranda.T

Quote from: groomporter on March 27, 2021, 03:49:47 PM
More dieselpunk, but a couple Youtube videos interesting look at an early tent trailer and some of the accoutrements of early 20th century camping.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DASDASVlAVw&t=45s&ab_channel=TerryBone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BpLtr41EBY&ab_channel=TerryBone

I've just had time to watch the videos. Nice kit! It would put a lot of modern set-ups to shame.

Yours,
Miranda.

groomporter

I'm working on updating a pop-up camper my grandfather made https://historicgames.com/trailer/video-tour-of-the-trailer/ so I've been more curious about the history lately.

Here's a site with lots of info on early pop-up campers and "tent trailers" https://www.popupcamperhistory.com/

Might be a tidbit that someone writing a dieselpunk story could use.
"From the 1920s to the 1940s, trailers were used not only by the affluent as comfortable camping accommodations, but also by the mobile poor as makeshift squatter housing. This became especially evident during the Great Depression...

http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/65/v65i08p314-324.pdf

If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.
-Spider Robinson

Miranda.T

Quote from: groomporter on March 31, 2021, 01:23:56 PM
I'm working on updating a pop-up camper my grandfather made https://historicgames.com/trailer/video-tour-of-the-trailer/ so I've been more curious about the history lately.

Here's a site with lots of info on early pop-up campers and "tent trailers" https://www.popupcamperhistory.com/

Might be a tidbit that someone writing a dieselpunk story could use.
"From the 1920s to the 1940s, trailers were used not only by the affluent as comfortable camping accommodations, but also by the mobile poor as makeshift squatter housing. This became especially evident during the Great Depression...

http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/65/v65i08p314-324.pdf



What an impressive trailer - you grandfather's design was so clever and well executed, well worth the undoubted hard work the restoration is taking, which looks like it's going really well.

Yours,
Miranda.

P.S. We ended up extending our trailer tent when our girls wanted a sleeping 'pod' each rather than sharing one, and I nearly destroyed my sewing machine making up the new tenting (if that's even a word)...

Sorontar

Quote from: Miranda.T on March 31, 2021, 07:23:34 PM
P.S. We ended up extending our trailer tent when our girls wanted a sleeping 'pod' each rather than sharing one, and I nearly destroyed my sewing machine making up the new tenting (if that's even a word)...
I imagine you really need an industrial sewing machine for canvas etc.  My father-in-law was a leatherworker, so we have used it to stitch leather for gaiters, etc.

Sorontar
Sorontar, Captain of 'The Aethereal Dancer'
Advisor to HM Engineers on matters aethereal, aeronautic and cosmographic
http://eyrie.sorontar.com

Miranda.T

Quote from: Sorontar on March 31, 2021, 11:02:20 PM
Quote from: Miranda.T on March 31, 2021, 07:23:34 PM
P.S. We ended up extending our trailer tent when our girls wanted a sleeping 'pod' each rather than sharing one, and I nearly destroyed my sewing machine making up the new tenting (if that's even a word)...
I imagine you really need an industrial sewing machine for canvas etc.  My father-in-law was a leatherworker, so we have used it to stitch leather for gaiters, etc.

Sorontar

Definitely that would have been preferable, and one with a much longer gap for the meterial between the base and needle arm; trying to manipulate multiple metre runs of hevy fabric and push it through a relatively tiny gap was rather trying, to say the least.

Yours,
Miranda.

Hurricane Annie



We forget that in past centuries folk were far more itinerant and mobile. Traveling from the cities for seasonal work, relocating for slum clearance and employment. Luxury  holidays for the affluent. Military deployment  andnbattle fronts. Religious pilgrimage. Slower transport methods. Immigration.

They learned how to travel light weight in cramped circumstances. They lived in smaller homes with less household and personal goods. We could learn from this