This year the RV turns 100, and Excel Distributors is celebrating with a look back through history.
The online purveyor of luxury RV mattresses has published an illustrated timeline of the RV’s evolution spanning 100 years of road trips, rambles and rustic adventure.
From wooden houses on wheels to the modern-day Winnebago, Excel Distributors salutes the RV’s centennial birthday with a retrospective: The Evolution of the RV.
“Even though RVs are still as popular today as they ever were during the past century, not many people know how the RV got its start, or even that it has been around for a hundred years,” explains Scott Oster, General Manager of Excel Distributors. “This is our birthday gift to the RV: educating the camping collective with a road trip through history.”
Excel’s RV evolution timeline starts in the early 20th century when Americans first felt the urge to start exploring the great outdoors for fun. Most built their own recreational vehicles out of wood and on top of existing car chassis.
“Early-RVers were ingenious,” says Oster. “They knew what they wanted and made it happen. The automotive industry had to catch up.”
Catching up didn’t take long: The Evolution of the RV shows the skyrocketing popularity of RVs and travel trailers in the 1930s, the lull in the ’40s, and revitalization during the ’50s and ’60s.
The timeline incorporates vintage photos of different vehicle designs to help illustrate how the RV developed into the road warriors cruising today’s highways.
“It was an exciting project. We’ve been in the RV industry for years, and we are still learning,” says Oster. “We hope this timeline sheds some light on the rich history of the RV.”
Visit The Evolution of the RV.
