User:Detailqueen/sandbox/Bowlus Road Chief

= Bowlus Road Chief = The Bowlus Road Chief is a brand of luxury travel trailers, which are instantly recognized by its distinctive front door, teardrop shape and polished aluminum body. Hawley Bowlus designed and created the Bowlus Road Chief in 1934. It was the original aluminum riveted travel trailer.

Today, the Bowlus Road Chief is manufactured in Oxnard, California, USA The business is a family owned company.

History
The Bowlus Road Chief was designed and built by Hawley Bowlus in 1934. Hawley Bowlus was an innovative designer, aerospace engineer and builder of the Spirit of St Louis. From 1934 to 1936, over eighty Bowlus Road Chief we built at Bowlus family ranch in San Fernando, California. Notably, a Bowlus Road Chief appeared in the 1935 Hollywood movie Red Dawn that stared Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Young and was purchased by as a support vehicle by California Highway Patrol (CHP). In 1936,Wally Byam who founded Airstream adopted the Bowlus Road Chief design for the Airstream Clipper after working for Hawley as a salesperson. In November of 1936, Bowlus stopped building trailers and did not transfer the assets. In the 1937, Byam (Airstream) had a bankruptcy sale. It is estimated that Bowlus built 5 to 10 times the number of aluminum riveted trailers than Airstream during this period.

Approximately half of the original Bowlus Road Chief survived today. In 2011, at the Scottsdale Gooding & Company Auction, a Bowlus Road Chief sold for $187,000.

The new Bowlus Road Chief is often described as the ultimate camper. They are very aerodynamic, weigh 2300 pounds and 24 feet long, with an interior height of 6’4”. The company has pioneered many first including the first heated floors in a travel trailer as well as created the first lithium powered travel trailer.