This could be the first Type B motorhome ever – Henry Ford's 1937 House Car.
They supposedly only build a handful of these each year. This one is on a 1937 Ford Pickup frame and was found in a private garage in Minnesota in the summer of 2001 with only 19,000 miles on it.
A collector named Graham Thickins restored it to original and drivable condition.
Check out this story by Thickins to see lots of photos and get the details but it had an all wood lined interior with a metal skin wrapped around it. The roof is wood framed with heavy, waterproofed canvas, Door frames are solid oak, as are the window frames.
Here's a pdf of an 1993 story on it.
Thickins took the photos and has since sold it to another collector.
It looks really nice, doesn't it?
3 Responses to “Henry Ford’s 1937 House Car”
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April 02, 2013at9:47 am, Dan Johnson said:
This is a camper built on a frame, seems like it would be a class A. It’s not a B because isn’t a B a camper built into an existing van. Was this an existing truck they made into a camper?
Dan
February 05, 2013at7:53 am, campskunk said:
so ford beat GM by 25 years in the factory-built RV game – go, ford! that’s about all you’d expect in a bedroom of the houses of the period – all the plumbing would be downstairs, if there were any indoor plumbing at all. the sheet metal over wood construction was the same as in the cars – the regular cars had wood frames for the doors. it’s a nice homey little unit – love the curtains!
February 04, 2013at7:57 pm, Alex said:
Design is the same since 1937 till present time : square box and four wheels