Recreational vehicle

A recreational vehicle, often abbreviated as RV, is a motor vehicle or trailer that includes living quarters designed for accommodation. Types of RVs include motorhomes, campervans, coaches, caravans (also known as travel trailers and campers), fifth-wheel trailers, popup campers, and truck campers.

Typical amenities of an RV include a kitchen, a bathroom, and one or more beds. RVs can range from utilitarian – containing only sleeping quarters and basic cooking facilities – to luxurious, with features like air conditioning (AC), water heaters, televisions and satellite receivers, and quartz countertops.

RVs can be either trailers that are towed by vehicles or vehicles that can be driven themselves. Most RVs have one level, but there are also some with two levels. To save space while traveling, larger RVs often have slide-outs or canopies that open up when parked. RVs that can be driven can be categorized "motorhomes", which will have the engine in front, whereas some have engines in the rear. Those with rear engines are called pushers. Generally, pushers use diesel fuel, while pullers use gasoline, thought this trend has change in modern times to include more diesel options for front engine RVs.

The first recreational vehicles were horse-drawn. They evolved during the second half of the nineteenth century as adaptations of vehicles used for other purposes, including public transport caravans (UK, also known as stage wagons), gypsy vardos (Europe), living vans (UK), ambulance wagons (US) and sheep herders wagons (US).

The first, currently-known, purpose-built RV was the horse-drawn Wanderer (UK), commissioned from the Bristol Wagon Works Company by Dr. Gordon Stables in 1884. Stables was a pioneer of the UK's Gentlemen Gypsy movement (1885–1914) which promoted the restorative benefits of horse-drawn leisure caravanning and inspired the formation of the world's first RV club, The Caravan Club (UK), in 1907. The Wanderer was closely followed by the McMaster Camping Car (US,1889).Camping-vehicle In the 1890s, US RV pioneers self-built timber 'houses on wheels' for health, leisure and hunting purposes. The most widely reported of these were those of Morgan Lasley and his family. Horse-drawn RV use declined after the First World War as many horses were killed during the war and automobiles became cheaper, more powerful and more widely available.

The first powered RVs were steam-drawn trailers from France including the Grande Diligence of Prince Oldenburg (1896) and the De Dion Bouton trailer of Monsieur Rénodier (1898). The first steam-driven motorhome was the Quo Vadis (France,1900) and the first gasoline-driven motorhome was the Passe Partout (France, 1902). The first recorded powered motorhomes in America were the 'camp cars' of Roy Faye and Freeman Young of 1904–06 (a 1904 Rambler, 1905 Thomas Flyer and 1906 Matheson). Lightweight tent trailers were especially popular in the US from 1911, thanks to improved roads, new national parks and the affordability of tow vehicles such as the Ford Model T. At the other end of the price scale, luxury touring limousines, developed in France by De Dietrich in 1904, were built in small numbers in the US by Welch (1909) and Pierce Arrow (1910). The first US RV club, the Tin Can Tourists, was formed in 1919. The first known recreational fifth wheeler was the Auto Salon Deluxe built in Belgium for Baron Crawhez by Auto-Mixte Pescatore in 1913.

In the early twentieth century RV builders in the UK (Navarac, Piggott Bros, Eccles, Bertram Hutchings), the US (Detroit Trailer Company, Welch, Graham Brothers, Pierce-Arrow) and France (De Dietrich, Cadel) experimented with a wide range of RV types including caravans and trailers, motorhomes, touring limousines, tent trailers and fifth wheelers. Early motorhomes ('house cars' in the US) were usually converted goods trucks and were heavy, noisy, inflexible and expensive, restricting their use to the wealthy or self-builders. The 'one box' RV was not seen in large numbers until the small, lightweight Volkswagen Kombi of 1950. During the 1920s and 1930s, caravans (travel trailers) became the dominant form of RV in the UK due to their low cost, weather-resistance and flexibility. There was likewise a travel trailer boom in the US in the 1930s as automobile production-line manufacturing techniques were used in travel trailer manufacturing to meet growing demand from recreational users and those seeking low-cost housing during The Great Depression. Self-built trailers were highly popular in the US during the 1930s and travel trailers featured in a number of Hollywood movies including Mickey's Trailer (1938).

The 1920s and 1930s, saw some influential, maverick builders construct innovative RVs in small numbers. These included Bertram Hutchings (UK, 1930–39, streamlined caravans), Charles Louvet (France, 1924–34, aircraft-inspired, coach-built motorhomes and trailers), Noel Pemberton Billing (UK, 1927, Road Yacht motorhome), Glenn Curtiss (US, 1918–30, Adams Motorbungalo, Curtiss Aerocar, Aero Coupler hitch) and William Hawley Bowlus (US, 1934, aluminum monocoque trailers). Wally Byam's Airstream (US, 1931 onwards) was a successful trailer builder of the period and is the only survivor of over 400 pre-WW2 US RV manufacturers. These early advancements in RV and trailer design established the foundation for a burgeoning industry that would continue to develop over the subsequent decades.