Bowlus Road Chief returns

haven

Expedition Leader
The Bowlus company built a small number of aluminum bodied travel trailers in the 1930s. The trailers were inspired by the fuselage of the aircraft of the day. (William Bowlus was shop foreman at Ryan Airline company, and supervised construction of Lindburgh's "Spirit of St Louis" aircraft.)

Here's an original 1935 Bowlus Road Chief.

1935bowlusroadchief.jpg


This photo comes from the Gooding and Company catalog for the auction of this trailer. Fewer than 20 Road Chiefs are known to still exist.
http://www.goodingco.com/vehicle/1935-bowlus-road-chief/

Bowlus couldn't make a go of selling expensive trailers during the Depression. He sold the company to one of his salesmen, Wally Byam. Byam went on to start the Airstream company using the Bowlus designs. The rest, as they say, is history.

Fast forward to the 1990s. Auto collector John Long purchases a Bowlus Road Chief and restores it to better than new condition. Seeing people's reactions to the trailer, Long decides to build replica trailers. Bowlus Road Chief, LLC, is formed.

2013Bowlusroadchief.jpg


The new Bowlus Road Chief is larger than the original, and outfitted with modern conveniences. The trailer's features are described here
http://www.bowlusroadchief.com/specs/

Here's a video that shows the inspiration for the Road Chief, and describes some of its features.
http://www.bowlusroadchief.com/
 

haven

Expedition Leader
OK, I'll be the first to acknowledge that the Road Chief is a full bore glamper express. I mean, how many trailer company ads use a Saab convertible as a tow vehicle? At $100K, the Road Chief will be used as a movie star dressing room more often than for off-road adventures. But I just love the design of the trailers from the '30s and '40s.
 

haven

Expedition Leader
The original Road Chief weighs only 1100 lb, and is 18 ft in length. The new model weighs about 2000 lb, and is 23.5 ft long. Looking at the photos, it appears the extra length is used to expand the galley and bathroom areas.
 

Haf-E

Expedition Leader
Looks very nice - but a bit too big/heavy now perhaps... but I guess for the people who can afford it they wouldn't care about the longer length and weight.

The wheels on the new one also look totally wrong - need some "vintage" type instead - weird they used some generic trailer wheels on a $100K trailer...
 

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