roof top tent history

gpwpat

Adventurer
do you have any vintage pictures to share of roof top tents being used in the past. Vintage erra. Just curious as I love my RTT and read some debate on where the idea originated and I remembered seeing soem pictures. do you have any to share?

first is a 1949 Nash with a factory option RTT
scan.jpg


next is a product called an aero cabana. mounted on early 50's cars.
scan0002.jpg

scan0001.jpg


so if you have pictures of RTT from the past please post. I am interested in when such a shelter was first developed and mounted on a 4X4 chassis.


another post states thet the rtt was invented in itally in 1958. I don't know about that. But according to what I have found. Nash is the earliest i have found with a picture that puts it invented in USA as early as 1949. surly a tent was mounted on a model A or T even. I do have a interesting overland conversion on a model T in a camping documentary. I will see if I can get a screen capture of it.
 
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Desertoutpost

Adventurer
Wow those are some great pics, my Father-In-Law has that same 49 Nash, they are strange looking but, hey still cool. I have built hotrods for years and have been to thousands of shows and NEVER seen anything like this. I love the fact they make areo dynamic tent boxes for a car with a grille as flat as the drive in theater screen! I notice the pictures look as though they have been scanned from a book, if you know could you tell me the title of the book? Thanks, neat info!
 

gpwpat

Adventurer
here is a picture I found of a restored model t truck. It has a camping module. Not really a RTT but a cool expedition conversion from the past. This tent folds up 90 degrees. but a similar concept.
model_t_tent.JPG


http://www.amazon.com/Trailer-Travel-Phil-Noyes/dp/1586851578/ref=sr_1_1/102-6110720-6666514?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190306588&sr=8-1
the book is called trailer travel , by Phill Noyes. it is mostly on the history of travel trailers but did have the 2 sections of RTT in it. There is a video that goes along with it that has some cool early overland conversions from the 20's - 30's I think it is called the history of camping or somthing to that affect.
 
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gpwpat

Adventurer
beachbuggy1.jpg

1940 ford woodie. with RTT on top. don't know what year the picture was taken.
37ford_housecar_rr1.jpg

here is a 1937 Ford house car built by ford. Not really a RTT but a pop up camper.
pre30ford_expandible.jpg


1920's ford house car. Witha Huge 2 story RTT on top. I am sure this one took longer than 5 min to set up.

15conklin_gypsy-van.jpg

1915 ford housecar. with a similar tent on the top.
 

gpwpat

Adventurer
p60rt3.jpg

p60rt2.jpg

This may be a european verson. It is mounted on a Trabant from the 1960's

alptbunk.jpg


top Bunk brand from 1984. an Idea copied from a product seen in Portugal
 

gpwpat

Adventurer
antico_volantino.jpg

here is the image from the autohome website. They claim to be the originator of the RTT in 1958.

except from what I have found. the first comercially available RTT that you could order from a dealer was the Nash version in 1949. The concept of a RTT in the USA did not catch on. and those companies died out. But the Idea was still there.

To me the Nash version really looks like a older version of some of our favorite brands of RTT's even with the chainging room. But these early versions from the late 1940's and early 50's looks as if they did not fold in half like the modern styles.

I am really attracted to the aerodynamic version from the 1950's. What a great restoration that would be to take a car from that erra and either reproduce the RTT or find an origional. Yea right. Do a web search of Aero Cabana and not much is found.
 

archtimb

Adventurer
This is so cool!

Back in the 70's we had a rooftop unit called a "Jutter" on our travel van. Anybody ever seen one of those? I will try to dig up a photo to scan this weekend.

That picture from Autohome looks just like today's Mag units! I guess they were perfect to start with? :)

Mitch
 

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