The RV and Motor Home Hall of Fame

I used to work in the recreational vehicle industry.  I ran a plant for Johnnie Crean at Alfa Leisure a couple of decades ago making See Ya motor homes (I’ve written about that before), and I consulted with Thor Industries on their travel trailers and Zieman on their trailers.  It’s a fun business, although it was quite a bit different than the mostly aerospace work I had done up to that time.  In the aerospace business, tolerances are thousandths of an inch, and if something is nonconforming (even if off by only a thousandth), it is rejected.  In the RV business, tolerances are huge (usually denoted in fractions like ±1/8 or ±1/4 inch), and if the tolerances aren’t met, corrective action involves finding a bigger hammer.

You see a lot of elk statues in Elkhart. The RV and Motor Home Museum and Hall of Fame has one.

I loved making RVs and I loved working for Johnnie Crean.  The guy is the most creative person I’ve ever known, and his ability to find simple solutions to complicated problems always impressed me.  Johnnie came from RV royalty:  His father was John Crean, the self-made billionaire who founded Fleetwood.  I met Johnnie’s father a couple of times.  He was a cool and unassuming guy.  When Johnnie finished college, he went to work for his dad at Fleetwood and realized after a couple of weeks he could start his own RV company, and that’s what he did.  I worked for Johnnie at Alfa Leisure and I ran the motor home plant.

Anyway, I’m getting off topic, which is the RV and Motor Home Museum and Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana.  It was a fun visit and not surprisingly, John Crean’s name appeared more than a few times.  Check out the little travel trailer in the photo below.

A 1950 Fleetwood travel trailer. This one has quite a pedigree.
The very first. This is pretty cool.

The RV/MH Hall of Fame also included the very first Bounder, another John Crean design that set a new standard in the RV business.

The first Fleetwood Bounder.
John Crean drew the Bounder logo on a napkin in a Denny’s restaurant. It’s a cool story. It’s one of the concepts that made him a billionaire.
The Bounder interior.
The very first one.

The main exhibit hall in the RV/MH Hall of Fame displays iconic recreational vehicles and early campers along a walkway painted to look like a two-lane road.

Some early RVs and campers.

Mae West, the famous actress, was an RVer.  Her RV was interesting.

Mae West’s housecar.
A bit of info about the MaeWestMobile.
The interior of the Mae West housecar.

This concept of movie stars having an RV is interesting.  When I ran the Alfa Leisure plant, we also manufactured 5th-wheel trailers (they connect to a pintle inside a pickup bed instead of a trailer hitch).  Alfa Leisure was the preferred 5th wheel in Hollywood, and big name movie stars’ contracts stipulated Alfa Leisure RVs.

The Museum also displayed several examples of early travel trailers and motorhomes.

An early travel trailer.
An early motor home.
General Motors dabbled in the motor home business briefly. It looks interesting, but GM’s interest in RV’s was fleeting.

In the early days, motor homes did not include bathrooms, showers, or other amenities.   Today, high end motor homes include all of those things and more.  Some sell for more than a million dollars.

Walmart used to allow RVs to park in their lots for free (maybe they still do).  We joked about folks who would spend a million bucks on an RV and then spend a half day looking for a Walmart where they could park  overnight for free.


Hit those popup ads!


Never miss an ExNotes blog:

11 thoughts on “The RV and Motor Home Hall of Fame”

  1. Very Nice Story, I live just two hours away, and go to Shipshewana Flea Market about every summer,
    I never knew about the museum, OR you association with the RV Industry, Thanks!

    1. When we visit a region, my wife does a good job finding interesting spots to visit. If you are ever in the Dahlonega, Georgia, area, check out Trahlyta’s grave. Fascinating story.

  2. I’d love to see that museum having traveled extensively around the entire country in a motor home my father converted from an old school bus. That man loved to drive. The cross country trip took place in the late sixties and we still talk about it to this day.

    Have you visited the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn? It was one of the funnest museums I’ve ever been to and I’ve been to a lot. If you haven’t, do a Google search. It’ll be your next trip.

  3. A mechanic friend of my dad’s had a sign on the wall of his shop that read “don’t force it, get a bigger hammer”.

  4. A buddy has a XR-750 motor being refreshed at Greciner’s in Elkhart. If I ride up with him to get it I’ll steer him toward to RV museum.
    I bought a ’65 Airstream Safari about 10 years ago on e-bay. It needs a do-over one of these days. I just always wanted one and got this one fairly priced , it’s just waiting to have $$$ dumped into it.

Comments are closed.

Discover more from The ExhaustNotes Blog

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading