Camper Vans
Camper Vans
A camper van is a self-propelled vehicle that provides both transport and sleeping accommodation. The term mainly describes vans that have been fitted out, often with a coach built body for use as accommodation.
Camper Vans
A campervan (or camper van), sometimes referred to simply as a camper, and also known as a caravanette, motorhome or motorcaravan, is a self-propelled vehicle that provides both transport and sleeping accommodation. The term mainly describes vans that have been fitted out, often with a coachbuilt body for use as accommodation. In the United States the term "recreational vehicle" (RV) is more common for these vehicles, and in that country they tend to be larger than in Europe and the rest of the world.
Campervans may be equipped either with a "pop-up" roof which is raised during camping or a fixed roof, either shared with the commercial van that forms the basis of the vehicle (commonly a "high-top" model), or as part of a custom coachbuilt body.
Campervans usually have a small kitchen with a refrigerator (which is often powerable by a choice of gas, battery, or mains electricity) and a two-burner gas hob and grill. They generally have dual-voltage lighting which can work from either a dedicated battery (other than the van battery) known as a deep-cycle or leisure battery, or from AC power, supplied at a campsite via a hook-up cable. Larger models may include a water heater, space heating and air conditioning, a portable toilet and even an internal shower. Smaller models often carry a "porta-potty" portable toilet, and sometimes an external shower which operates within the privacy of an awning.
The term "Dormobile" is sometimes used generically in the United Kingdom thanks to a once highly popular conversion brand, and "Kombi" is used in Australia and other countries. The popularity of this type expanded in the 1950s after Volkswagen commissioned the Westfalia company to use the Kombi version of their Type 2 transporter as the basis for a campervan.
VW Campers
The Volkswagen Type 2 (also officially known as Transporter or informally as Bus) was the second automotive line introduced by German automaker Volkswagen. It was a panel van introduced in 1950, initially based on Volkswagen's first model, the Type 1, the economy car also known as the "Beetle".
The Type 2 is the forerunner of modern cargo and passenger vans. The Type 2 spawned a number of imitators, both in the United States and Europe, including the Ford Econoline, Dodge A100, and the Corvair 95 Corvan, the last even adopting the Type 2's rear-engine configuration. As of January 2010, updated versions of this line are produced for international markets, both as a passenger and cargo van, and as a pickup truck. It is also unofficially known as a "microbus", a "minibus" or "hippie van," the latter due to its popularity with the 1960s/70s counterculture movement.
The idea for the Type 2 is credited to Dutch Volkswagen importer Ben Pon. (It has similarities in concept to the 1920s Rumpler Tropfenwagen and 1930s Dymaxion car by Buckminster Fuller, neither of which reached production.) Pon visited Wolfsburg in 1946, intending to purchase Type 1s for import to Holland, where he saw an improvised parts-mover and realized something better was possible, using the stock Type 1 pan. He returned to the factory close the deal, and in a doodle dated 23 April 1947 drew the first sketches of the van. He posited a payload of 690 kg (1,500 lb), with the driver at the very front. Production would have to wait, however, as the factory was having difficulties even maintaining Type 1 output.