I’ve been very negligent about keeping up with posting all of motorhomes and RVs I shoot. I’ve seen this Class C on the left parked here at Lowes for months now, and almost stopped the other day. Then I realized that I’d shot it a couple of years ago; it’s a fixture around town. But when another old Dodge buddy stopped by to visit with it, I had to pull over and shoot. They make such a study in contrasts, despite their similar front cabs. And a chance to talk about their representative eras.
Not even ten years separate these two rigs, but they look worlds apart in terms of their design. The older one is a Sport King, and has a very old school look, like something concocted in the late fifties or so. I strongly suspect that it originally used a conventional truck chassis-cab, as was common before the Big Three came out with their bigger vans around 1971 or so. But the other one, which didn’t have a name, is soooo late seventies, with its sleek fiberglass body and paint job.
The Chinook revolutionized the small motorhome industry, with its 1971 Chinook 18+ (that’s my 1977 version). It had a rugged and well insulated fiberglass body that was decidedly smaller than the lumbering Class Cs with their attic sleeping loft over the cab. Chinook reasoned that there was a market for a smaller rig that was suited for two, and would be much more pleasant to drive with its lower center of gravity and size, suitable as a second car, even.
The Chinook inspired a huge raft of competitors, all variations of the same theme (Class Bs), and a category that has become very popular in recent years again. I couldn’t see a name on this one, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before. The RV industry had a mammoth boom in the years 1977-1980, before the second energy crisis practically wiped it out. There’s no doubt this one is from that era, and that its builder went belly up like almost everyone else in those dark years of the early eighties. It has a hell of a rear overhang, much worse than my Chinook, which drags its easily enough in some of the rough terrain I take it on.
It also doesn’t have as much headroom as the Chinook (6’2″), which allows me to stand with just a bit of a nod of the head.
The Sport King sits on the same short wheelbase (129″, same as the longer Dodge van), and has a pretty impressive overhang too. And a rather unique butt. It’s representative of the previous RV boom, which really picked up momentum in the late sixties and had its spectacular blow-out during the first energy crisis. Motorhomes tend to really boom and crash, as they’re totally dependent on disposable income and cheap fuel prices. There have been several crashes since, the most recent one in 2008-2009 was truly epic. A slow but incremental recover seem to be underway, but I wonder if it will ever regain the boom it had before this last crash. All those HELOCs that were so easy to come by financed so many of them.
That brings us back to where we started. What a couple of well-kept time capsules.
I can’t imagine it not smelling incredibly bad inside that class C.
Yeah….rancid (spilled beer) on the carpets and everywhere else with a more
then fruity smelling hippie who reeks of both Milf – Gilf and candy cane honey’s
along with the 3 day weekend panties and a half swallowed stoagie.
Isn’t life beyond wonderfully campy and cozy as the sins of all tomorrow?
A cool pairing. That older one looks like it could have been an adaptation of an older tow-behind design, updated to plop onto a van chassis. A shame you couldn’t have driven the Chinook over to park next to them both. 🙂
Is someone Breaking Bad? Though I would imagine you would pick a more secluded area?
I like RV’s, but they are like boats, you would probably be better offer renting one when you really want one, and not dealing with actually owning one.
Though I would like a GMC Motorhome.
I’d love to find a small Chinook like that. Just perfect to take Maggie and me to track weekends for the races (car or motorcycle). Add a carrier on the rear and a Honda PCX150 scooter, and we’d be good to go.
Nice pairing, though to be honest, the newer one may be later than you think. I think it’s an early 80’s vintage as the stacked headlights didn’t come along until at least 1982 or so.
That said, much of the styling cliches of the early 80’s looked suspiciously like the last couple of years of the 70’s.
and it looks like it might be a heavy duty one if the wheels are anything to go on.
That older one is built on an older chassis. and could be between 1971-1974 as it has the older metal grill, which got replaced for I think 1975.
The Episcopal church camp I once attended once had one of the first versions of these. It was a Maxi van if memory serves, and it was a two tone green model and had the painted metal grill, seemed I recall being told it was a ’72. I think I heard they had been renting it, and later decided to buy it outright and kept it for several years, through 1983 at the very least. I first saw it in 1978 when I attended the camp for the first time and in the spring of ’83, I last rode in it with a bunch of other kids to a church conference where we had to drive north to Anacortes Washington via I5 and take the ferry up to Friday Harbor, which is on the big San Juan Island in the north Sound. That’s pretty much the ONLY way to get there is by boat. I DO recall the alternator had problems as the lights flickered, and the needle on the ampmeter wiggled back and forth on the way back from Anacortes however. 🙂 The van was driven by the head of the campground BTW, who also did other stuff in the diocese from time to time.
They did rent a second van on occasion in the late 70’s and once they had a blue/white Maxi Van, possibly a 78 as it had I think the later side marker lamps, but definitely had the later chromed plastic grill.
Anyway, I got to drive I think an ’81 version of these vans, with the later grill from 1981-84 or so, though it had the single round headlight before getting the rectangular stacked units. They weren’t bad to drive, as full sized American vans of the day went, and they were reliable and durable though.
The stacked headlights came in with the ’79 facelift; they were optional and included with the upscale trim levels, while the single round headlights were for basic work vans and government-spec passenger vans. Sometime in the mid ’80s they went to single square headlights with an extra section of grille below them for all trim levels.
Would love to see the insides of them! That later model one really does say 1979-1983 with that color and style.
If you are looking for contrast, I offer you my latest iteration (built on an 86 Nissan regular cab chassis).
And. . . . .
The newer one brought to mind the TransVan of the late 70’s, so a quick trip down Google Lane produced these images.
The TransVan is not quite right, but this, a Tioga, looks pretty close.
The older model is probably the ugliest and most uninspired motor home I’ve ever seen. I would rather drive a converted school bus ( with Lorie Partrige).
Stumbled across this ’66 Dodge Travco just yesterday. Now THIS is what a motorhome is supposed to look like.
We paid homage to the Travco here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-travco-motorhome-the-granddaddy-of-the-motorhome-name-and-genre/
We were often a bit behind the times in motor homes and caravans here. Through the 70s/early 80s we didn’t really get large factory built motor homes like the two pictured. We did, though, get a few local custom-built ones, like this 1975 Dodge D5N (an example of the Aussie-built International/Dodge hybrid mentioned on CC recently). Details here: http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/caravans-motorhomes/motorhomes/5-59-metres/auction-645106231.htm