camp-a-float: a concept from 1973

[Denis4x4]

I recently received a 1000+ car magazines dating back to 1951. There was 1/78 copy of Woodall's Trailer & RV Travel/West with an interesting ad for "camp-a-float". The photo shows a 23-25 foot class B on a pontoon that is at least 40' long X 16' wide. The MH is positioned to the aft and port side of the pontoon and there's a canopy across the bow with chairs BBQ, etc. They say that units are available in Lake Powell, Lake Ouachita and Lake Hartwell and Lake Havasu.

What a great concept, wonder what happened.

[Minnie's Mate]

Maybe the idea didn't hold water!

Got any scans of the article's photos?

[Ganglin]

My guess is a couple of them caught fire from the grills/partying and they killed the concept....

['55 Airlight]

(At the moment, I do not own any Airstreams. I have trimmed down to only two aluminum airframe trailers, a '55 Airlight 15' and a 1956 Spartan 8' x 50' two bedroom model. My early 60s Bambi I gave to a friend back in the 'nineties; I heard he sold it. Sure would like to find a Bubble or a Wee Wind, or even a Cruisette, though pipe frames give me pause.)


Sitting on my desk next to me now is a Camp-A-Float brochure postmarked 1978. I believe they went out of business shortly after that date. Quoting from the brochure: "The CAMP-A-FLOAT Cruiser is a 5-ton boat specifically designed to accommodate recreation vehicles on board, up to 31 feet in length and weighing no more than 9,000 lbs, for conversion to houseboat status. The CAMP-A-FLOAT Crusier is built on twin steel pontoons providing a total displacement of 30,000 lbs. Each 40 foot long pontoon is made from 8 individual sections welded together with addtional bow reinforcement using steel plates and rods. The twin pontoons are connected by 30 steel beams which also support the 38 by 12 foot, 1' thick vinyl clad deck. This are is totally enclosed by 100 feet of safety rails and gates, 28" high. The CAMP-A-FLOAT Cruiser has a 100 gallon sewer tank under the deck and 100 gallon fresh water with a pump to supply water on demand. With your RV connect to the Cruisers services you can CAMP-A-FLOAT without interruption or frequent service stops. The CAMP-A-FLOAT Cruiser is powered by an outboard marine engine which is controlled from a helm stand in the forward corner through rack and pinion steering and a combination throttle and shift lever. With 40 gallons of onboard gasoline you can cruise for up to 20 hours at speeds to 12 miles per hour. (Our average renters use less than 15 gallons of gasoline on their cruise.)"

The brochure illustrates how the rental manager secures the RV to the deck with a "hitch tree" and then "secures the RV attachment devices that bolt through access holes in the deck to the steel sub-structure." Then he connects the sewer and fresh water.

But the way you get onto the , well... barge is very interesting. It is winched out of the water level on an incline railroad set up. A motorized dolly places the trailer onto the, uh... barge.

LOcations for this enterprise were: ON THE EAST COAST -- Lake Hartwell-Georgia / S.Carolina. IN THE MIDWEST -- Lake Ouachita, Arkansas. And announcing a WESTERN expansion opening July 2, 1976 on Lake Havasu, Havasu Springs Resort in Parker Arizona.

Here's something interesting (if you've read this far) The rate was $40/day or $250/week (rates do not include gasoline).

When I started researching this back in the 1970s -- this brochure was sent to me and I actually saved it all these years -- I thought that I could tow my trailer out to lakeside (Lake Powell, AZ was what I had in mind) with a truck loaded with sufficient supplies. I would build ferro cement pontoons -- I had seen houseboats in Sausalito, CA on such pontoons which worked great. Construction of ferro cement is low tech. And I owned a small trailer. It was a project I though I could handle.

But then I started a family and had to build a house -- no time for horsing around with pontoons on a desert lake. Now the kids are fully launched, maybe it's time to revisit some of my interrupted schemes...

Spartanaciously,
Michael

[ArtStream]

Great post. Very interesting, thanks.

Michael

[Cracker]

This concept somehow made it down to South Florida to a site just off the Kissimee River - about the same year or so. I stopped by one evening on my way home from a job down that-a-way and had a cup of coffee with the Owner of the operation and his wife. I believe that they were "independent" - and aiming at a smaller tent trailer or travel trailer clientele. I had a Starcraft pop-up at that time and was interested - but, as time went by, I never got the chance to try it out. We were living in Clearwater, Florida, raising a family, and watching our pennies.

[Sixty3TW4US]

55 Airlight, Wow a newbe and post #1 is great ! lookin for more keep em comin

[TBRich]

Welcome aboard Airlight...glad you join in the fun...great info post #1 from you...thanks! The "Camp-Afloat" concept is intriguing... Someone ought to make a go of it again...I bet it would be fun to do! The best of two worlds...Camping and boating! What's not to like?

See you down the road...

['55 Airlight]

From the recently released-to-the-web Life Magazine archive
http://images.google.com/images?q=ho...=source%3Alife

[53flyingcloud]

Originally Posted by Minnie's Mate

Maybe the idea didn't hold water!

Got any scans of the article's photos?

LIFE Magazine just released a huge Historical Archival of photos via Google Image.
I came across a picture in LIFE archival showing one being launched.
Sry, I didn't copy the link at the time but, you can find it under trailers.
I'll post the link later for you, if I can find it..
Okay..I believe this is what you were talking abt..
LIFE: 23' long combo-cruiser amphibian home sl... - Hosted by Google
ciao
53FC

[HP9K]

I remember seeing one of these in use on Lake Hartwell many years ago. We were out in the boat fishing early one morning and heard another boat coming around the bend - we look up and here comes a class C motorhome on a barge chugging across the lake. It wasn't moving particularly fast, but it was moving. Never saw their facility for launching the barges, but I did actually see on in use.

[ROBERT CROSS]

I believe you can rent this one....

https://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/f...atch=motorhome


or buy this....


Cool Amphibious Manufacturers Ie

['55 Airlight]

Here's Houseboat/Trailer from LIFE archives
AT
LIFE: A view of a trailer houseboat. - Hosted by Google
OR
LIFE: A view of a trailer houseboat. - Hosted by Google

[Jim Foster]

We moved to Walnut Grove, CA in 1972. I was working for a houseboat rental company there that had 104 rental boats. Although your paper work does not show it, in the late '70s, there was a Camp-Afloat rental near Stockton, CA. We used to see them all over the Delta. They would drive the RV onto the pontoon "barge" via a loading dock, then add sand to the pontoons where needed for balance and leveling. That only lasted for a couple of years. I have no idea why the concept went away.

[Minnie's Mate]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

I believe you can rent this one....

https://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/f...atch=motorhome

Looks top heavy to me.

[ednixon]

I had the good fortune to be treated to a Camp-A-Float trip back in 1978 or so. We went out for nearly a week on Lake Ouachita, Arkansas. Wonderful experience. I too have often wondered what happened to them. I'm sure I have some pics that we took of our trip as well as some pics of another group preparing to go out. They would be 35mm slides. If I can locate these, I'd be glad to share after I get them scanned into digital format. Interested viewers may contact me about this.
<ED>

[biggoofball]

Originally Posted by '55 Airlight

...maybe it's time to revisit some of my interrupted schemes...

If all your schemes are like this one, can I come out and play with you? We'll have loads of fun!!

[Mexray]

Jim Foster...we moved our boat out to the Calif Delta in about 1970, and I also remember those Camp-A-Float units cruising around the rivers and sloughs, from time to time...

I guess boating types liked the features of the actual houseboat rentals better than taking the chance of messing up their own RV, tied down to a 'barge'...and the Camp-A-Float outfits couldn't turn a continuing profit to make them worth it...compared with the competitive rental costs of houseboats...

I think the effort involved to get an RV on and off the 'barge' was another short coming of that configuration...

I think an Airstream strapped into the hanger deck of an aircraft carrier makes a much better 'Camp-A-Float'...as the astronaut moon visitors can probably vouch for...

[Jim Foster]

Mexray... You are probably right about people to rent houseboats rather than use their RV on a barge. The boats we rented had 120 gallons of fresh water and four Trojan golf cart batteries plus an engine battery. They were 42 feet long with a large front deck, and slept ten. They rented for less than $500 per week at that time. Pretty cheap for what you got.

The Camp a Floats were outboard powered, and were hard on gas. Our boats were diesel powered. They ran 1 1/2 hours on a gallon of $0.35 fuel at full speed. That's 9 miles per gallon with a 16,000 pound boat.

Pretty hard to compete with that. It was fun to see the Camp a Floats around the Delta though.

[Nuvite-F]

On a somewhat related topic, does anybody know anything about the RV barge cruises that were formerly offered?

A few years ago one or more companies conducted RV cruises on full-sized river barges propelled by a full-sized river towboat. My brother-in-law's family took their motor home on a Mississippi River cruise and had a blast. The tow was put together of RV barges for however many RVs were signed up, plus a "clubhouse" barge that gave everybody a place to hang out. Each RV had full hookups; there were large fresh water and waste water tanks and an AC generator on each barge.

We looked into it after we got our Airstream in 2003, but weren't able to find anything on the web. My brother-in-law called the company that they had cruised with and learned they were still in the river transportation business, but no longer offering barge RV trips. Supposedly they were prohibited by Department of Homeland Security after 9/11, although I can't imagine why.

Anybody know anything about it?