Yes, I’m a bit obsessed with all of these many 1970s Dodge-based Class C motorhomes. Why? Unlike the more modern era, there were dozens of smaller manufacturers back then, resulting in a wide variety of styles and and…ah…styling. And not surprisingly, they’re disappearing, one by one, living out their final days on the streets as quasi-homes for the unhoused. So I feel compelled to document them.
Here’s a somewhat unusual looking one, a Sport King from the late 70s, although I’m just guessing the year. It’s a bit unusual with its hybrid construction: stick frame covered with the usual corrugated aluminum siding with a fiberglass cab-over section. A bit odd, eh? It’s safe to assume that Sport King didn’t exactly hire a professional to consult on its design.
After the terrible collapse of RV sales during the first energy crisis (1973-1974), sales came roaring back, to unprecedented records each year until it of course all crashed again in late 1979, with the second energy crisis, which created a much deeper crisis in the industry, resulting in vast numbers of bankruptcies and consolidation of the survivors.
Dodge had an enormous share of the motor home market, cranking out these B-Series chassis-cabs at lower prices than GM or Ford were willing to match. But with Chrysler’s crisis/near bankruptcy in 1979, they drastically cut back production and killed the big block engines (400 and 440), the latter of which was such a common and beloved RV motor.
This one sports a rather large and deep rooftop carrier, and fortunately a ladder to access it. The color scheme is very Eugene-friendly, as they are the colors of the Oregon Ducks.
The cab-over sleeper bunk’s badge has lost its first letter.
And the rear badge has lost at least half of it. That “S” must be fragile. These were made in Nampa, Idaho, although Sport King started out in Southern California.
This was quite common, as many RV firms started out in the LA area and eventually moved to cheaper locales. And of course many started out building pickup campers, which were the hot thing in the ’50s and ’60s. But as relative costs of self-propelled motorhomes kept dropping and incomes kept rising, these Class C rigs became the way to go in the ’70s. I distinctly remember seeing a new one being offered for $9,995 in about 1977 or so. That’s $51k adjusted; you can just maybe buy a bare empty new van for that.
These were the suburban tract houses of motorhomes. And this one is a split level with some slightly odd architectural details.
Is this the REAL ‘Family Truckster’??
The rear roof overhang is unusual and interesting, I suppose due to the curving sides advertised as a feature in the pickup camper advertisement. Watch your step when getting off the ladder up top… That same ad also point out a problem with front overhangs, the exact situation that this one then goes on to feature as well. That fiberglass protuberance almost has the look of having been mounted the other direction on a more conventional and smaller camper topper set up but without an opening in the now front clearly wasn’t.
It’s certainly one of the more unusual looking (and unfortunately not the better for it) rigs out there. Apparently it’s keeping someone warm(ish) and dry so that’s a good thing, looks be damned.
That fiberglass front section was inspired by a cabover truck camper – in reverse. Maybe it even shared some of the same molds, if they made ‘glass campers as well as the aluminum model shown in the ad. My stepsister lived in Nampa, ID for many years and worked at Fleetwood there, though I’m not sure if it was mobile homes (aka manufactured housing) or RV’s. I wonder if SportKing was affiliated with Fleetwood or just located there to leverage local suppliers or employees with RV experience.
Other companies didn’t “affiliate” with Fleetwood; Fleetwood either bought them or not, to let them die. I suspect they considered carefully which companies still had a bit of life in them and which ones were obviously moribund. That’s how it was with the couple of top names in the RV business, and how it came to be so consolidated.
But in recent years, the van boom has opened up new opportunities for new small players, although the big guys are still dominating. Their power from their large volumes is hard to compete with unless you’re building for niches.
“Slightly odd” ? only slightly ? .
-Nate
Taking a close look at the construction of the roof and the way that the fiberglass and aluminum lap in addition to the rain gutter and overhang, maybe they were really concerned with waterproofing. If the roof was too long to be one piece of aluminum, the way it laps with the fiberglass cap with the slanted flashing seems like a fairly robust way to keep water out without any non sloped seams.
Paul, I went looking for some advertisements/brochures, without much luck. eBay has a few 1970-ish (and earlier) Sport King camper brochures, but nothing for the late-1970s motorhomes.
The newspaper classifieds have a good number of listings (almost always western states), but no prices to be found for the motorhomes.
I did learn that “Sport King” is a trade-name-label that’s been used for countless items: clothing, tools, fishing lures, you name it…
In any case, it’s nice to see that today’s vehicle is still serving its owner, 45-ish years later…
Thanks for reminding me how much today-money the $10K was in the late 1970s….keeps things in perspective!
Great find! Sport King was an interesting company because its owner, Walter King, claimed to have invented the modern pickup camper. King owned a trailer manufacturing business in Southern California, and built a pickup-mounted camper for his own use in 1946. He was a Montana native, and frequently drove there for hunting trips – when he took the pickup camper, it attracted enough attention, he figured it was marketable, and he began producing them commercially shortly afterwards.
Apparently his initial motivation was to put more weight over the pickup’s drive wheels, since it was tough to drive a pickup with a trailer through poor traction conditions. But he eventually realized there were other benefits as well.
I’m not positive that his claim to have been the first to come up with this idea is accurate, but he certainly was early with the pickup camper trend. Below is an image of one of his campers from the late 1940s:
Of course he invented the pickup camper! 🙂 Seriously, he may well have advanced the state of the art of it and commercialized it, but I’ve seen pictures of crude campers on pickups from before the war.
I’m kind of an odd ball, but if the inside worked well I would enjoy a few trips in this unique camper.