Some of the coolest campers in the world aren’t ones built in a factory, but put together by the inspiring minds of singular inventors, engineers, and dreamers. These one-off builds are full of imagination, and often are built to a level of durability not found in a typical camper. I found what is perhaps one of the coolest vintage campers in America, and it’s a weird camper-boat combination that was designed and built by a Douglas Aircraft engineer. But I will need your help.
The camper-boat is one of the more fascinating niches in the RV world. These travel trailers and motorhomes are nominally regular road-going campers, but they also have a hull for camping out on a lake. In theory, it’s supposed to be the best of both worlds. It’s a camper that can camp anywhere.
RV history is absolutely full of these things. Like the idea of the flying car, the camper-boat never seems to die or really be particularly successful, either. Back in the 1950s, a camper buyer could hitch their car up to a Kom-Pak Sportsman, a streamlined fiberglass camper that had a boat for its roof. This camper had some spectacular innovations for its day. It was a fiberglass design before fiberglass went mainstream, and the roof boat was an interesting touch, too. Yet, they were produced only for a few years.
In the 1960s, the Trailorboat Engineering Company gave the Kom-Pak Sportsman formula another go, and like the Sportsman, the Trailorboat didn’t last very long on the market, either.
Other attempts to sell a floating camper include the CAMI Terra Wind, a motorhome that was marketed as being an amphibious yacht, the Delta Van Cruiser, which was a floating conversion van, and the Ship-A-Shore Combo Cruiser, the camper-boat built by women. None of these ideas sold in anything resembling high numbers.
What’s amazing is that you can buy an amphibious camper today. In 2023, I wrote about the CaraBoat, above, a camper-boat that’s built in Michigan. The company is apparently still operating today. Yet, I haven’t seen a single one at any RV show or on the road.
In the past, some of our watercraft-loving readers have reached out to me with their own theories as to why these ideas haven’t taken off, and the prevailing theory is that a camper that is a boat is going to be lackluster at both jobs. I can see it. Some of these camper-boat designs require people to climb ladders or walk up high steps to get over the hull when camping on dry land, and, on paper, they have spec sheets that are less impressive than the average pontoon boat. Of course, then you have the fact that you’re combining RV maintenance and boat maintenance into the same vehicle.
A Plane Engineer Makes A Boat-Camper
Still, this has never stopped countless dreamers from trying to make travel trailers be more than just a travel trailer.
The potential downsides of a camper-boat also aren’t stopping me from being thoroughly impressed with what I’ve found on Facebook Marketplace. This camper, which can be found in Morro Bay, California, is something I have never seen before.
The seller gives this for a description:
1955 Vintage amphibious camper trailer. Camper turns into a boat that floats on the water and is driven by an outboard motor that is attached where the rear bumper goes. Upper rear section is removable and awning can attach in its place.
According to a data plate found in the vehicle, the camper was most likely built by one J.J. Pal. Under Pal’s name is an engraving saying “8-20-55.” The best guess anyone has is that the set of numbers indicates when the camper was finished, dating the rig to 1955. The seller says that J.J. Pal worked for the Douglas Aircraft Company and built the camper like an airplane.
This part is more than believable, given that the camper features what appears to be a riveted aluminum construction. The level of detail is incredible, with beautiful riveted metal inside and outside. Like an airplane, the trailer seems to use structural skin with some interior reinforcement. This is different from most campers, which use an internal framing that forms a skeleton.
The camper is not complete, but you can sort of see what it must have been like in its prime. The covered section of the camper-boat has a pair of benches that would have likely functioned as bedding at nighttime.
The rear of the camper appears to have held what cooking facilities might have existed in the rear, as well as what could have been an area to lounge under the sun while on the lake. Presumably, since this area is under a giant removable roof panel, J.J. Pal probably removed the roof panel and maybe left it at home before launching this thing at the lake.
Photos in the listing show a Sea King 5 outboard motor. So far as I can tell, these outboards were sold by Montgomery Ward between the early 1930s and the early 1960s and were built by Gale Products, a division of the Outboard Marine Corporation. This outboard would have made 5 HP when it was new. If J.J. Pal used this on the water, it would have had to have been a perfectly calm lake. If this outboard is original to the camper-boat, it supports the claim that it was built in 1955.
Sadly, the trail goes cold from here. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks digging deep for any sort of aircraft engineer named “J.J. Pal” and have found exactly nothing. I suspect that whoever J.J. Pal is, they abbreviated their name for the data plate on the camper. Without knowing the rest of their name, finding them would likely be extraordinarily difficult.
I have been in contact with the seller of the camper, and he was unable to tell me anything more about the camper or its history. If you search the Internet for this camper, you’ll see that it last appeared on Instagram in 2023, and it was in the same condition back then as it is now. So, the current owner doesn’t appear to have done a lot with it.
If you like what you see here, the seller wants $18,000 for the camper. However, it’s been for sale for nearly a month now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you could negotiate that down.
Good Bones For Your Own Build
I think what is here is a great base to make your own camper out of. Even if you never take this thing out on water, it looks artsy and like no other camper on this planet. A fresh coat of paint alone would make this look properly snazzy, and it wouldn’t be hard at all to turn it into a cute weekend camper.
At the very least, I love that someone built this thing. It looks like someone had some big ideas and then went through what was probably some painstaking work to turn it into a reality. I bet this camper looked awesome when it was new and shiny. Sadly, I suppose we can only imagine it because we don’t know anything more.
I hate leaving a story unfinished, yet here we are. If you happen to know anything about this camper or J.J. Pal, please drop me a line at mercedes@theautopian.com
Top graphic image: Carl H
Combining two money pit purchases into one.
Whatever floats your boat… or in this case, your camper.
I enjoy this very much. It looks great with the top on, less so with it removed. But I’d totally float this over the lake to the island where I keep my Futuro house. You know, once I have an island and a Futuro house.
Sure 5 hp isn’t a big motor but it’ll move – I’ve pushed a heavily loaded aluminum boat around our lake with that. It’s not like you’re going to try to get it on a plane.
This is cool. I hope someone restores it to full seaworthy condition. I’d rock it if I 1) needed a camper and 2) didn’t live in the desert.
Catamaran Cruisers, based in Columbia, TN has been manufacturing a much-in-demand small houseboat with flat-bottomed pontoons that allow it to be towed on a flatbed trailer and used as a land camper for many decades. Their primary product is marketed as th “Lil’ Hobo” There’s quite a following on an owner’s FB site: facebook.com/groups/516166462426148
I am extremely disappointed that an AIRCRAFT engineer did not attempt a FLYING, floating, and land RV. C’mon, build what you know!!
youtube.com/watch?v=9TaBTjHVx6A
The design of this boat camper really reminds me of the Saab 92H and 95HK motorhome prototypes.
https://preview.redd.it/1963-saab-92h-motorhome-v0-gqp830dkns8e1.jpeg?auto=webp&s=b29e8df93b66b5be68b9f6ac1d98ddca46c18ed6
Like amphibious cars, the compromises make the result suboptimal at both. The designs that integrate a a,detachable rowboat make more sense because it’s more of a roof rack situation. Personally I just put a couple of kayaks on the tow vehicle.
Thanks for sharing this Mercedes, it is really neat. From the front it kind of reminds me of one of those vintage metal diving helmets.
I’m kind of surprised this idea hasn’t taken off more. I suppose the compromises to make a trailer seaworthy might make it an expensive trailer and a mediocre boat, but as long as you aren’t thinking high speed ski boats here, I could see some good use cases.
A travel trailer making a great fishing or hunting boat, especially if there was a deck platform off the back like some trailers I’ve seen.
I love this rig. I might go with a decent BBQ Grill setup under an overhang just to provide more interior room but I would be happy just tiring up to a dock and camping on the water. Since the engine wouldn’t provide anything but noise.
A floating camper is called a house boat. We already have these.
True, but house boats aren’t all that trailerable.
My first thought – did Gerry Anderson design this? Does it also fly, or at least have elements that deploy dramatically?
It’s two money pits in one! Three if you include that it’s a classic vehicle.
that is pretty nifty. I always kind of thought a house boat and trailer would be a decent camper that you could tool around on a lake with. Basically a pontoon with a sleeper body on top….but you could really use any body on the deck of a cleared off pontoon I suppose. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQbtnCGSuiPA9AIHPRmqy70y7XzsKmkWgOA_5CbljuLg1MqoFCTfgkZuRNsC-nDhX2r8HY&usqp=CAU
I’m seeing a lot of Flex Seal in any buyer’s future.
With enough Flex-Seal, any camper can be a boat.
What I’m still waiting for is for someone to make a boat entirely out of nothing but flex-seal. It’s been done (sort of, there was a frame) with duct tape, so time to step up.
I love the construction detail on this. Looks like a nice combination of aviation and marine construction with the rounded door/hatch opening, rounded windows and rows of rivets- gives nice lightweight construction for towing, but should be very robust against road loads as well. (in comparison to the pasteboard square monstrosities that Mercedes complains about)
From a marine engineering perspective I’d like to see more internal sub-division to provide emergency floatation, like canoes have with their front and rear bulkheads. There’s some chance that the bench seats are fixed, and that volume acts as emergency flotation instead of storage? Also given how thin the aluminum looks to be it’ll need a full strip and repaint, as well as plenty of sacrificial anodes since the road axles are probably steel.
This one isn’t in the same league as the camper-boat but, as so often seems to be the case, an aerospace engineer was involved:
https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/rvs/d/pacific-1974-cadillac-el-dorado/7877786663.html
I love this one because it looks like a normal camper when it’s not in the water. Talk about the best prank EVER. Lend it to a friend, wait until their snoozing away peacefully inside, then set them afloat on the lake, grab your popcorn and enjoy.
Like how LBJ used to pretend he lost control and drive his Amphibicar into a lake?
I guess so, except in my scenario everyone has their pants on.
genuine lol!!
Imagine if that stunt would have included this creation hitched to the back as he went into the water.
With all this, why not just take an enclosed pontoon boat with beds and such and drive around with it on a trailer?
As mentioned boarding and unboarding
I saw that and it made no sense to me as none of the vehicles in question are at ground level—this would just need a taller fold-out stair than the ones that regular RVs or these weird contraptions already have. It could possibly even be designed into the trailer so it wouldn’t encumber the boat’s use on the water.
I’m sorry but I’m just not too fond of aerospace engineers dabbing into naval architecture. They sometimes come up with silly ideas such as using CFRP for submerged pressure hulls.
But they make for my favorite kind of billionaire, the one that self-exits in a cavitation cloud of hubris.
But naval engineers created the liberty ship made out of cement and tried to make an aircraft carrier out of ICE. Not exactly premium boat building.
As a kid, seeing a barge made of concrete really brought home to me how displacement works. So they get a pass from me for being educational.