Starling Travel

March 7, 2013

Collapsible Room for Portable Campers

Filed under: Motorhomes and Campers,Teardrops & Tiny Trailers — Laura Moncur @ 10:00 am

I found a really interesting invention floating around the patent filings and it makes me wonder why I haven’t seen it on any campers:

It is a collapsible room for portable campers. It looks pretty non-descript on the back of this truck camper when it’s folded up:

Collapsible Room for Portable Campers from Starling Travel

When it’s deployed, however, it opens up a huge tent room.

Collapsible Room for Portable Campers from Starling Travel

The mechanisms for folding it up look simple enough.

Collapsible Room for Portable Campers from Starling Travel

This patent was filed in 1968 and finally issued in 1970. It appears that the inventor was concerned with size and economy for campers.

The primary consideration in trailer and camper construction is to provide additional usable space without increasing proportionately the outside dimensions.

E-Z Up Sierra II Canopy at Amazon.comSo many campers use tent canopies next to their campers for some shade. Why don’t campers come equipped with this sort of thing built right in?

I can see one problem if the seals on this mechanism weren’t perfect, it would allow for water and snow to get into the camper, causing rot, mold or other problems. Other than that, I wonder why this idea hasn’t been used on campers. I have never seen this on a camper, but I think it’s an ingenious way to add space without adding extra bulk.

You can download the entire patent here:

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

-

Powered by WordPress
(c) 2005-2017 Michael Moncur, Laura Moncur, and Starling Studios