RVs have long been recorded in the American myth of freedom and mobility and independence, as shared by
Gold Coast Motorhome Rental . The allusion to the covered wagon was the symbol of the Western frontier.
Recreational vehicles, including motor homes, fifth-wheel trailers, folding camping trailers, travel trailers, truck campers and sports utility all date back to the Model T. The New York Times estimated that of 10.8 million cars on the road, 5 million would be used for motor camping. This was in 1922. At first, these auto campers just attached tents and other supplies to the outside of their vehicles.
Later on, a few craftier individuals were affixing platforms to support canvas tents.
Solid-sided tents have evolved and have come with cabinetry, wardrobes, and kitchens. During the later years of the 1920s, commercial manufacturers started mounting camp bodies over auto chassis. The size of the vehicles increased as the towing capacity of automobiles increased. By the late 1930s, the vehicles now contain built-in iceboxes, kitchen ranges, and flushing toilets. Some were even designed with front-mounted airplane-style propellers to drive a wind-powered generator.
Easier and cheaper vacations were the promise of recreational vehicles. A Kozy Coach trailer brochure on 1936 states this, “ Home Sweet Home’ Wherever You Roam,” and additionally, “Is there anything finer than ‘to get away from it all’ now and then? Out on the water. Hunting through the woods. Tramping over the hills, or just lolling under the open sky. That’s the life!”
The early campers were called “Gypsies,” “trailer trash” or “tin-can tourists.” Also recorded was a group of 22 families, in the winter of 1919, parked their jerry-built mobile shelters at Desoto Auto Park, near Tampa, the first public campground in Florida, and founded the Tin Can Tourists of America, a fraternity of RVers that by 1935 had swelled to some 300,000 members.