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Camp'otel stove table combo roof top Camper Vintage - ULTRA RARE - Little use

Estimated price for orientation: 800 $

Category: Other Camping and Hiking
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Description
Condition: Used  


 Up for sale today is a vintage Camp'Otel roof top car camper accessory stove table combo. This would have attached to the side of a Camp'Otel car top camper. These are ultra rare and I have not seen one come across Ebay in years. I have a couple of pictures added at the end that show a complete one with the benches and other accessories. These are super neat and as I said, super hard to come by. These were made in Fort Worth, Texas in the 1960's and 1970's. There is one of these in the Smithsonian, so it is an important piece of automotive history - probably should be in a museum but here you can own it right on Ebay. This is in nearly new condition. I lit both burners today but it appears the 2nd burner had only been lit once or twice.

I tried to add a link to a web page of american history showing history of the Camp'Otel company but I could not get it to work.DescriptionAutocamping -- traveling with car, tent, and portable, home-like furnishings for cooking and sleeping -- was a very popular family activity in the 1920s. When autocamping became popular again after two decades of depression and war, many vacationing families slept inside their station wagons because of the convenience, economy, and comfort that this ubiquitous postwar vehicle provided. Some families made tents that rested on top of their station wagons. This type of unit provided more space and head room than the car's interior and retained the advantage of distance from insects, snakes, animals, and the cool, damp earth. In 1961, Edmonds Guerrant, an autocamper and mechanical engineer in Fort Worth, Texas, began manufacturing a car-top tent unit that rested on the rain gutter, a metal drip rail around the roof of a sedan or station wagon. The Camp'otel became popular in Texas and was marketed nationally through Sears, J. C. Penney, Western Auto, and other retail stores. Loyal Camp'otel owners travelled in groups, formed an organization called the Penthouse Campers Association, and published a newsletter. The donors of the Smithsonian's Camp'otel, Robert and Delora French, took their two sons on numerous vacation trips in the United States and Mexico between 1963 and 1976. They installed the tent outfit on top of their 1957 Oldsmobile sedan and later on their 1965 Ford station wagon. Mr. and Mrs. French invested in Camp'otel Corporation and knew Edmonds Guerrant and others involved with the firm. Camp'otel Corporation went out of business during the gasoline shortage of 1973-1974. A contributing factor to its demise was the gradual disappearance of rain gutters on new cars.