(first posted 4/10/2013. I have home-built campers on the brain) Ah, the good old days, when Dad spent his weekends for five months building a camper on the back of a 1929 Chevy truck. $85 ($1,500 adjusted) dollars worth of materials and parts, and when it was done, he piled Mom and the seven kids into it and hit the road. The first trip was cross-country: 3200 miles in seven days, and the kids never fought once. And they went on to rack up over 30,000 miles in the “Silver Bullet”. Now that was a Dad.
If I had seven kids, I would only have $85 left in the budget for an RV too.
Is this the start of Cheaply Constructed Camper Classics?
I hope so.
Thats cool I like home grown house trucks and there are hundreds around to choose from and at least this one was a success. Material prices have climbed over the years as has the cost of 29 Chevs so it wouldnt be doable again.
Although $85 was big money in the mid-30s when new cars started around $350, and you’d be using something late ’90s/early ’00s as a donor chassis so maybe it could be duplicated in spirit if not as an exact replica.
Nice! But I guess you didn’t need rear view mirrors in 1935.
You could have a kid watching out every window!
That guy was certainly ahead of his time with the aerodynamics. Very cool. But 9 people sleeping in that thing? Yikes.
I think you hit my wave length today. I would be happy to do this but either my wife doesn’t share my sense of adventure or she is lots smarter than me. Probably the latter. I built a trailer that carried all we needed for over 30 days back in 2002. Went from Texas to Michigan and used camp sites (tent) all the way. Carried the canoe, bikes, tent, cooking stuff etc. Think I would prefer a truck like this with a small tagalong vehicle behind the truck.
Obviously, like everyone else I was 11 years younger then. Probably can’t do it again anyway with the livestock and the need to babysit them.
Inflation calculator says $85 in 1935 is about $1400 today. Local CL has a 19 foot camper trailer apparently in pretty good shape for $1200. It looks like it’s about as big. If you replaced the trailer’s kitchen with bunks for kids it’s probably about the same.
No one’s supposed to ride in a detached trailer nowadays of course. But you could probably graft it onto the back of a flatbed truck open to the cab with a few jacks, a sawzall, a couple of friends and a case of beer.
A family of nine in either camper is unthinkable today. But then a family of nine is unthinkable today (just ask my wife, she grew up in one).
Of course this camper he built is really an early RV. For $85 1935 dollars you can buy a complete 30-year-old “running, needs TLC” RV.
The “Silver Bullet” has far more character. Park a 1985 RV next to it and ask the kids to choose.
Looks like its ready for “cooking”……
Ugh, it very well could be. Great deal, just needs a little cleaning…
I guess I he didn’t check craigslist 🙂
I don’t there were any used motor homes for sale in 1935. Building one was pretty much the only option.
A real pioneer, that’s for sure.
Even after it is built, 3200 miles in seven days at the speed they would have been doing (45mph?) is a lot of time on the road. Then again you probably need to stop less to see things when you pass by more slowly.
The amazing thing for me is not that he built his own (how many pre-built commercial RVs were there in 1935?) but how aerodynamic (I assume) and curvy it is. It would have been so much easier to build using the usual RV square-cut corners. I’m also curious about the interior, particularly those small stacked windows. I’m imagining 3-high bunk beds.
Modern interpretation?
i think we forget what passed for personal sleeping needs in large families decades ago. i’ll bet mom and dad had a bed then there were 3 others to accomodate the 7 kids. one held 3 little ones and the other 2 beds had 2 kids each. and to top it off these are not queen sized beds they are singles or doubles at best.
or a common thing to do when i went camping with my folks and relatives was to have a tent for the kids. we just slept on a blanket with a sleeping bag.
didn’t get a good night’s sleep? not an issue — sleep during the drive!