Riveted aluminium aero camper Road Chief relaunched

William Hawley Bowlus who was born in America in 1898 invented recreational gliding, played a significant role in developing Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, and designed the Senior Albatross, the iconic sailplane in America. He is the man behind creating the world’s first all-aluminium structured travel trailer, known as Road Chief. Wally Byam who used to work for Bowlus, borrowed the trailer, and founded a new company called Airstream in 1931.

The original Road Chief was a vehicle that was much ahead of its time and this aero-dynamic, mirror-finish camper beauty predated Avion and Spartan with much élan.  Vintage car collector John Long wrote a book on Bowlus’s design after tracking down an original model, dismantling it, and carrying out a complete restoration work on it. Recently, three years after acquiring the trademark, he is relaunching the company keeping up with the original theme.

The all-new Bowlus Road Chief Limited Edition Lithium trailing is worth a test drive. This is the first-ever monocoque camper to use lithium-ion battery technology, that enables the 2,000-watt capability to run or receive charge from an electric vehicle. It also uses solar panels to capture and store energy, which is enough to operate the camper off-the-grid for a whole week.

The plush cabin consists of a full galley including freezer, fridge, and cooktop, ¾ feet bathroom, Wi-Fi routers, massive skylights, theater-style table, and a bedroom, which uses twin mattresses that can be transformed into a king-sized bed. It stays cool with the help of a 8,000 BTU air conditioner. The 24 feet long Road Chief is exceptionally lightweight, weighing in less than 2,400 pounds due to the use of aluminium in its body. It’s priced at a whopping $219,000. However, it’s worth the money when we consider the kind of effort going behind rediscovering and restoring an amazing but deserted piece of automobile engineering.

Road Chief will be on display at Laguna Seca at Monterey Car Week  and also at Quail at Pebble Beach.