Who has ever wanted to stay in classic RVs of their choice? Apparently, there is still a trailer park full of classics that are available to rent for the night as rooms. It’s the Shady Dell in Bisbee, Arizona.
“Built in the 1950s by the pride of Wichita Kansas, The Valentine Manufacturing Company, this authentic diner was originally purchased by John Hart in 1957 and delivered to the corner of Ventura and Topanga Canyon Blvd in Los Angeles. The diner was transported by flatbed truck to the Shady Dell in November, 1996.”
These photos were originally shared by the blogger of Wheels and Waves a few years back. He usually blogs on motorbikes, especially choppers it seems, as well as some travel stuff, and is definitely worth a look if you’re into that stuff.
It looks like this park has a boat as well as a bus as options!
You can make truck covers with just PVC pipe and tarp. Perfect for camping.
Here’s a DIY project for anyone with a truck (or you can use these as tents, shelters, greenhouses, and other non-truck things as well). It’s a truck bed cover made with PVC pipe. To cover it, you just add a tarp or piece of poly.
From the pictures you can see how the PVC frame is created. You use a lot of angle pieces to extend the line along the bottom while adding ribs. You can actually even bend the PVC itself (so it becomes the curved shape rather than just being under pressure from being plugged into the angle pieces) by boiling it. The way that is done is the PVC is put in the desired shape, either by hand or using some other way, and boiling water is poured into it. This “reforms” the PVC plastic.
One way this can be done is the bow-method. A PVC pipe is bend and the ends tied together with a string (which is also run through the length of the PVC pipe). Unless you want the rope to make bends in the ends of the pipe, you need to also add PVC joints (angled, preferably) to protect from this before pouring water in. There’s a picture of this in the gallery we’ve included here.
DIY Teardrop Camping Trailer - Next Woodworking Project
How about making your own teardrop trailer over the weekend (or a few weekends) and RVing anytime you feel like driving out of the city? All that’s needed is a trailer for a base and some plywood, framing wood, and screws. Of course, some people like to put in a bit more effort to make it more stylish and streamlined, like this one here by Truck with a Heart (who seem not to be accessible anymore).
RVs in America. Always popular, but changing in size, as have all vehicles I guess. These teardrop RV trailers first gained popularity among consumers in the Great Depression, a time of non-extravagance. They were small, light, economical RVs for the age, towed behind 1920s and 30s cars (and, one could imaging, some horses, too).
Teardrop trailers then and now are small camping spaces, with a bed, as well as storage space and often a cooking and food preparation area.
After the Depression, American prosperity happened, and everyone around the world is probably familiar with the (now considered) relatively big vehicles Ford, GM and others produced.
But now the economy is such that people don’t have money again in a lot of cases, and they’re looking for inexpensive, often smaller alternatives to things like houses and RVs. Yes, that includes travel trailers and campers. So the teardrop trailer is coming back into vogue, sometimes people are buying them, sometimes making them DIY style. With modern materials, the RV trailer can be made even lighter than before, and can now be towed behind a little smart car, motorbike, and sometimes even pedal bike.
