Unusual Alaskan photo on eBay

[Denver Alaskan]

Today an eBay seller, kruhe, posted for sale 7 Kodachrome color slides of Alaskan campers taken in the early 1960s. Search "Alaskan camper" on eBay to see them. The most interesting one is shown here:



The side windows on this Alaskan are so long that there is no space forward of them to attach the Alaskan moose horn logos, so those have been placed at the top left and right hand corners on the front of the camper top. More interesting, however, is the lower half of the Alaskan which has a curved bottom that mimics the curved top of the Alaskan.

I imagine this bottom half was built at the Alaskan factory and mounted on the GMC cab/chassis. The deep offset visible on the right front wheel suggests this GMC is a 1 ton truck with similar dual wheels and tires on the rear axle. That might explain why the custom built bottom half is as wide as the Alaskan top, to completely cover the duallies on each side of the rear axle. Has anyone ever seen a bottom half such as this one?

The lady on the passenger side of the cab roof is carrying an Alaskan Camper Club International, Inc. flag, which I've never seen before. How cool it would be to find one of those. Enjoy the photos!

 

[Denver Alaskan]

Here are a few more photos from eBay:




Honda mopeds were a favorite of Alaskan owners in the 1960s, as seen above. Here is how a few of the campers carried and unloaded their Honda Mopeds from the back of their rig:



Happy wife, happy life in the Alaskan Camper Club Int'l, Inc.:



The black data plate underneath the grab handle is a certification plate from the California Division of Housing that this camper meets all applicable California mobile home codes, and tells us this particular Alaskan was built in a California plant.

 

[Alley-Kat]

I'm glad to correct you in that those are NOT Honda Mopeds.

They are Honda Trail bikes, also known as Honda Trail 90's or Honda CT90's, also Honda Trail 110's or Honda CT110's.

Specifically the ones in those photos are from the early half of the 1960's and could include, Honda Trail 50's, Honda Trail 55's, and the 87cc, Honda CT200. Some of them show the large rear overlay sprocket that allowed a lower and slower speed while maintaining higher RPM's in the power band of the engine (an ability to climb a tree or a cliff). In mid-year 1967 Honda introduced the dual range sub transmission (change from high range to low range with the flip of a lever) that did away the large rear overlay sprocket.

To Honda motorcycle guys, like myself, calling a Honda Trail bike a "moped" is fighting words.

Now go wash your mouth out.

Honda Trail - CT90's & CT110's

P.S. Pretty neat photos, BTW.

 

[Denver Alaskan]

Here are the last 3 slides from eBay. Notice how most of these Alaskans have a ACCI medallion mounted on their left front upper corner so, when the campers are lowered, the medallions are still visible to other Alaskan campers passing in the opposite direction on the road.



A nice mix of 8 foot and 10 foot NCO's gather in the desert during March,1965 for a rally. Nearly all of them are mounted in factory pickup beds, although one International truck carries its Alaskan in a utility box.



The green Dodge in the foreground with the 10 foot NCO also has a matching cargo carrier attached to its cab roof. The other Dodge in the background is bringing back raw material for making Alaskan moose horn logo name plates. Enjoy!

 

[Denver Alaskan]

Hi Alley-Kat:

Thank you for correcting my misdescription of the Honda Trail bikes. I used the Honda description provided by the eBay seller without researching the Hondas' identities myself. With a modicum of thought, I should have realized trail bikes were far better suited to the desert than Roman Holiday mopeds. Thanks for the detailed descriptions and informative link!

 

[Alley-Kat]

OK, you're forgiven.
Now go out and buy a vintage Honda Trail bike and just try to wipe the smile off your face after a ride.

 

[PackRat]

Ah yes.....before the Golden Age of Alaskans I guess....no CO models to be seen! Isn't that a get together in Nevada? That would be the reason the tags are from CA and they were built at the Sun Valley, CA plat that R.D Hall ran himself.

 

[PackRat]

Hmmm....upon further review, I don't believe that the Sun Valley factory built the rear panels with that scalloped cut to them. AFAIK, that would be a design feature used perhaps by the Red Deer factory or another up North.

For instance....here is a CA Compliance tag:



...and here is a Washington State Compliance tag:

 

[Rdy2Roam]

Pretty cool pics! Would love to have one of them old Hondas.

 

[Denver Alaskan]

Hmmm....upon further review, I don't believe that the Sun Valley factory built the rear panels with that scalloped cut to them. AFAIK, that would be a design feature used perhaps by the Red Deer factory or another up North.

For instance....here is a CA Compliance tag:

1976 CA RV Compliance and VIN 2903.jpg


...and here is a Washington State Compliance tag:

1978 WA RV Compliance maybe 2-76.jpg

Hi PackRat:

Thank you for your comment. The scalloped rear panels are unusual on Alaskans, and (by foggy memory) they were found on an Alaskan built in Canada. But I don't believe we have enough vintage Alaskan photos posted on this site to conclude scalloped rear panels were never installed on Alaskans built in the California factory.

I base this observation on the the 1968 photo posted above that shows scalloped rear panels on an Alaskan that also has a period correct 1960s California Division of Housing compliance plate underneath the exterior grab handle.The dark plate in the 1968 photo has on its face four bright blank areas for stampings, three horizontal in one line across the middle of the plate and one at its bottom. Identical California Division of Housing compliance plates appeared on Airstream (and other built-in-California) travel trailers throughout the 1960s.

Beginning in the late 1950s, these California compliance plates appeared on RVs that were built in California. But I don't know whether they were required to be installed on RVs that were built elsewhere and simply sold in California. I tend to doubt this later possibility.

The California and Washington state compliance plates you posted are a later design from the next decade and have only two bright blank areas for stampings. Although they are representative of revised compliance plates in the decade after the 1968 photo was taken, they do not negate the appearance of the earlier California DoH compliance plate on a scalloped rear end Alaskan camper, which to me suggests that particular Alaskan was built in California at some unknown time before the photo was taken. The "1963" underneath the ACCI medallion suggests to me the owners of this Alaskan camper have been ACCI members number 039 since 1963, so their camper might be that old or even older.

 

[PackRat]

I found another that appears to be like the one above:



Here is another that has been deciphered to mean 1967:

 

[Denver Alaskan]

Chuck:

Here is an early 1960s California Division of Housing compliance plate that is riveted to a 1961 Airstream 16' Bambi travel trailer built in California, so you know it is original to the trailer. With its four blanks spots for stampings, it looks identical to the Calif. DoH compliance plate on the Alaskan in the "Happy wife . . . " photo above.