The Journey of the Redneck Express: March 2012

Monday, March 12, 2012

Classic Campers: Del-Rey Tri-Level Sky Lounge and Kamp King demonstrating the strength of their camper’s construction

Once again, we’re taking a turn off the interstate of multi-tasking, no time to smell the roses madness, to the old two lane highway of yesteryear Smile .

This time visit is fairly short and sweet, namely another of the amazing pieces of Truck Camper engineering that came out during the 60s and 70s when Americans had gotten the RVing bug bad, the Del-Rey Tri-Level Sky Longue Truck Camper.

Very little information exists on these mammoth and amazing forgotten truck campers, at current, I only have this one brochure page and this photo below.

I did have a link to an ad for one, but I failed to store any of the pictures of the inside of this old girl before the Craigslist ad expired.

So, I’m going to try and summarize this unit as best as I can. The Sky Lounge was another of the truck camper models that had a set of seats in the front of the cab over for passengers to ride and view the road going by, this was counted as Level 2, the first level being the main kitchen and living area in the bed of the truck.

The third level comes in as you can see in the brochure where there’s a raised platform behind the seats for the extra bed, which is actually located at level with the roof over the main living area, so you’re actually sleeping above the kitchen, giving you the extra space for a third bed in a time before slide outs.

So, if you ever see one of these rigs up for grabs, get it and preserve it, there’s just so few of these amazing marvels left anymore.

Now, before we close this topic, I promised to add a little more in on my ever growing collection of memorabilia pertaining to the Kamp King truck camper line from McNamee Coach Corp.

Like a lot of truck camper manufacturers over the years, many of the greats (a lot of whom are only memories, now) have demonstrated the true ruggedness of their units using some amazing feat of excessive load or strain.

Six-Pac did it by placing a dually one ton pickup truck with an 8’ six-pac camper in it’s bed on the roof of one of their big truck campers (which they don’t make anymore).

McNamee did something similar with their Kamp King, they placed everyone from the shop on the roof of one of their campers Smile .

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Classic Campers: The CJ5 Jeep Truck Camper

Well, time for another stroll down memory lane, this time we’re visiting a rather rarely seen, but always interesting find, the Tag Axle Jeep Truck Camper.

The Jeep CJ5 Camper came as a factory option for CJ5's built by the then Kaiser-Jeep. The camper itself was produced by the Eldorado Coach Company, another of the many long gone Truck Camper Manufacturers of yesteryear.

These campers are so rare that there’s a website dedicated to their continued existence as one of the many innovations in RVing that came in the 60s and 70s.

From CJ5Camper.com

In 1969 Kaiser-Jeep made the bold move to branch out into recreational vehicles. The popularity of RVs was growing throughout the 60's and Jeeps were already popular among outdoorsman.

That year Kaiser-Jeep introduced three new RVs as part of their "Great Jeep Escape" campaign.

First were Jeep Gladiators equipped with slide-in units. Numerous slide-ins could fit the the Jeep Gladiator from bed caps to luxury stand up units. The slide-ins were not factory options but Kaiser-Jeep promoted the Gladiator as the perfect vehicle to accommodate a slide-in.

Second was simply a Wagoneer capable of towing luxury campers. Obviously the towed campers were not a factory option either but the Wagoneer was certainly capable of towing almost anything thrown at them.

The third was the CJ5 Camper that came as a factory option. The camper was an El Dorado unit that was manufactured by the Honorbuilt Division of Ward Manufacturing. This camper was mounted in the "bed" of the CJ5, extended beyond the back of the CJ5 and had its own axle, with brakes, that carried most of the weight. It also extended above the front seats of a CJ5 which is where the main bed was located.

It could easily detach from the Jeep through a small opening on the floor of the camper. A large pin would be inserted into that opening and connect the Jeep drawbar to the camper frame. The camper was an option that could be added to any factory CJ5 but it was recommended for Jeeps with the Buick V6 Dauntless engine and 4.88 gearing.

Kaiser-Jeep also sold the campers separately as they would fit any CJ5 made since 1955.

The camper had room to sleep 4, 2 in the "loft" above the CJ5 cab (about 4'x6'8") and 2 others by converting the dining table into a second bed (about 3' x 5').

It also came standard with a propane stove/oven and hood package, 100 pound capacity icebox, stainless steel sink, 20 gallon water tank and pressure system, marine type toilet and holding tank, dining area, wardrobe area, a vent over the main bed and a dual lighting system (110v and 12v).

Options included a propane light above the dining area, gas/electric refrigerator, second vent, and a 9,000 BTU heater. There were 336 units built in 1969 before AMC bought out Kaiser-Jeep in February of 1970 and stopped production of the camper option. The camper was designed and patented by Chuck Prater and could be purchased for $5,000.