The A-Z Travel Trailer Units

On October 23, 1995 three teams drove three A-Z Travel Trailer Units on three trips from San Diego to San Francisco.

Figure 1.

Charlie White and I inadvertently took one of my trailer designs on a total endurance test. . . .We chose a course that looked nice on the map . . . never realizing that it would take us from below sea level to 13,950 feet in one day . . . and that we would be driving on roads “not advisable for trailers” in order to maintain our predetermined schedule. We had our trailer scrutinized in every campground by the “full timers” . . . we learned that economy is not always the final word; you want never to be underpowered on a hill. . . . By the end of our journey I had come to respect mobile living as a form of empowerment not of limitation and as a special manifestation of American pioneering independence.

Andrea Zittel

Figure 2.

The trailers nearing completion at Callen Camper Company. Jim Callen confessed he had been a little skeptical about my design and was surprised that it actually looked good . . . “like a sheep herders’s hut” he said. (He had just been hunting in Colorado.)

The trailers nearing completion at Callen Camper Company. Jim Callen confessed he had been a little skeptical about my design and was surprised that it actually looked good . . . “like a sheep herders’s hut” he said. (He had just been hunting in Colorado.)

Figure 3.

First campground: “Prince of Tucson” . . . still too shy to make contact with the guys in the big motorhomes. We were also quite pleased to find that our site was a “pull through” so we didn’t have to learn to back the trailer in front of them (yet).

First campground: “Prince of Tucson” . . . still too shy to make contact with the guys in the big motorhomes. We were also quite pleased to find that our site was a “pull through” so we didn’t have to learn to back the trailer in front of them (yet).

Figure 4.

research and discovery

Figure 5.

research and discovery

Figure 6.

Tioga Pass: 13,950 feet above sea level . . . the bolts on the trailer froze, we ate six-day-old pizza, and Andrea got sick in the middle of the night.

Figure 7.

Tioga Pass: 13,950 feet above sea level . . . the bolts on the trailer froze, we ate six-day-old pizza, and Andrea got sick in the middle of the night.

Figure 8.

Biosphere, the experiment in contained living, that didn’t quite work out right but still looked good from afar . . . its two gift shops were a real treat.

Biosphere, the experiment in contained living, that didn’t quite work out right but still looked good from afar . . . its two gift shops were a real treat.

Figure 9.

Yosemite: hairpin grades, missing guard rails, the truck maxed at 10 miles per hour going up mountains. Beautiful national park . . . horribly boring gift shop.

Yosemite: hairpin grades, missing guard rails, the truck maxed at 10 miles per hour going up mountains. Beautiful national park . . . horribly boring gift shop.