I thought this would be a good weekend to follow up on the gallery of trailers from some months ago. Admittedly, some of these images have a summer feel and one doesn’t even have a trailer, but let’s not get worked up over that. After all, I believe there are still a few days of good weather ahead, and it’s just fun to see how drivers hauled stuff in the past.
Stay tuned for the winter version of this series. It will be coming in the near future.
What sort of magical vehicles did these residents of the past have such that they could use their cars for the kinds of tasks that clearly only trucks can handle? 😉
(great pics!)
RWD + ladder frame + 12mpg for all of these, yes? They are trucks!
Love the photo of the brown Buick Electra 225 with the double axle Prowler trailer…reminds me of my grandparents…
What a change in mentality and the technology of our culture. Now these same folks in todays world need a 4 WD dual cab dualie, jacked up to the sky, to pull their small buildings on wheels! And at almost 5 bucks a gallon in Calunicornia.
Give me the fastback Olds with the canoe!
That’s a great photo and a beautiful car. Love the green!
I like the pic a bunch too but the car is a Pontiac is it not?
Great photos of Americana. My mother towed a trailer in 1951 behind our 1951 Dodge Wayfarer. Regarding Jeff’s question, what can I say? We did it with cars back then. Mom had 101 horsepower in the Dodge, if I am correct.
And they do it just fine across the pond as well.
I am consistently amused by the folks with my daily driver (230 HP) who are horrified by tales of Europeans with the same vehicle who affix trailer hitches and routinely tow trailers, caravans, etc.
I’m not a trailering kind of guy at all…but if I were, I’d have no qualms hooking up a trailer to my E91 and carrying forth.
Apparently, if folks find new ways to move pretty much anything, vehicle manufacturers will eventually invent a new type of vehicle to move that thing. From sedans hauling anything and everything to vehicles used to pull boats that “double” as family cars.
Did we sort of come full circle?
In the White River, Canada, photo of the Country Squire, note the ‘63 Chevy in the background with a canoe on its roof. On our two month road trip through western Canada and Alaska this summer, I didn’t see a lot of sedans pulling trailers. Most tow vehicles were large pickups, occasionally a full-size van or Suburban, as one would expect. Still, I saw a lot more of the modern family sedan equivalent, the CUV, towing camping trailers or boats, and/or with huge rooftop loads, than I notice in the lower 48, at least in California or Oregon. Outbacks, Highlanders, also CRV’s and RAV4’s and Escapes. And even a few Cayennes, X5’s and at least one Volvo XC90. Here in my town, I did see a BMW Z3 towing a motorcycle recently.
Canadians have always been a little more modest generally speaking with their vehicle choices, and I think today a lot of that must just come down to the price of fuel. The last time I did a roadtrip in the U.S. (late 2022), I did the math and factoring in the exchange, the cost of gasoline was pretty much exactly half of what we pay up here.
A side note: that White River sign is just plain lying. The coldest ever temperature in Canada was recorded in the Yukon in 1947: -81F.
Looks like the White River town leaders decided sometime over the past few decades to change the sign. Instead of say “the coldest spot in Canada” the sign now beckons more generically advertising a gift shop.
But I’m glad the sign and thermometer are still there.
Fuel prices vary massively. We were in Alberta in late summer 2022 and fuel there was cheaper than California. But BC was higher still. When we went back this past summer (BC and Yukon plus Alaska, no Alberta) the prices had gone up a lot but Ketchikan Alaska, an island with no road access to the mainland, was the cheapest gas on the whole trip including the west coast of the lower 48.
Loving these .
-Nate
The Ford wagon at the gas pumps sure shines!!
Love the Pontiac pic, at “Mt Ranier Park” too..
Hi! Welcome to White River!
I hope your ready to freeze your arse off! 😀😀
I am loving the 55 Plymouth – though I am wondering why they didn’t choose an orange/white car or a blue/white trailer. Dad was probably either color blind or a price-shopper. 🙂
Imagine driving the Ford in the second photo.
Three on the tree, manual steering, manual drum brakes, straight six engine, no A/C, screaming kids in the back seat.
Dad was sooooo happy to get home!!
In the early 70s my husband and I pulled a small 800 pound Jayco Jay Flipper popup trailer with our ” Rare Audi super 90 ” 4cyl. Stick 4spd. He bolted a steel plate onto the trunk floor to mount the hitch and also to the bumper.
The car had maybe 75 HP ? ….We were young and foolish back then but had fun going to the land between the lakes in KY from CHI. and a few closer to home camp grounds.
I wish had taken pictures of some of my more recent car loading adventures. Our 96 Saturn could have passed for a team car some days since I managed to get 6 bicycles loaded by combining a roof rack and trunk rack and also managed to haul a tandem short distances on the trunk rack.
Later on the Mazda CX-5 did a trip with kayaks on the roof and bikes on a hitch rack. A later trip was done with kayaks and bikes in the back of the pickup hauling a camper.