Antique, Vintage and Old Camping and Recreation Vehicles For Sale

As the automobile industry progressed and the horsepower to weight ratio decreased more and more recreation vehicles evolved.

House Trailers originated in England when the Bristol Carriage Company built the first leisure travel trailer in 1880, duly named the "Wanderer". Camping trailers became popular in the US and Canada in the 1920s and were known as "house trailers" in the 1930s. In the 1950s the house trailer became known as a Recreation Vehicle (RV) and then expanded into sub-groups of motor homes, fifth-wheel trailers, pop-up trailer's, and truck campers. The motor home dates back to the 1920s and over the years three classes have evolved.

Class "A" motor homes are built specifically for that purpose from the ground up and usually have a diesel engine in the rear.

Class "B" motor homes are typically factory van conversions and may have extra high roofs to allow standing.

Class "C" motor homes are generally built on standard truck chassis with a typical truck cab and a gasoline or diesel engine up front.

Fifth wheel trailers adopted the common method of attaching a semi truck and trailer and have been around since the 1930s in the current form; but they were also used with horse drawn wagons. It is much easier to back up a trailer and you get better load distribution if the contact point is over the rear axle rather than on the rear bumper.

Pop-up Trailers, also known as tent or folding trailers, became popular during the gasoline crisis in the 1970s when compact cars were favored over more powerful vehicles. They are lighter and more affordable than any of the other RVs.

Truck Campers evolved with pick up trucks. You will see small campers on the backs of Nissan and Toyota compact trucks but their larger brothers are far more popular on full size Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge trucks.

Motorcycles have been around since the mid 1800s. The first steam powered motorcycle was built in France by Michaux-Perreaux in 1868 and the following year Howard Roper introduced the Steam Velocipede in the US. The first gasoline motorcycle was the Petroleum Reitwagen, built by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in 1885, as a simple means to test their new engines. The first bicycle to actually be called a motorcycle came about in 1894 when Hildebrand & Wolfmüller mass produced them in Germany. The Indian motorcycle was the most popular motorcycle until WWI, followed by Harley-Davidson in the 1920s. After WWII the BSA Group became the largest producer of motorcycles and from 1955 through 1970 NSU held that distinction. In the 1960s two-stroke motorcycles became the trend and now that segment of the industry is dominated by Japanese companies such as Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha; while Harley-Davidson, BMW and Honda dominate the four-stroke market.