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AMERICA
OUT-OF-DOORS
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New Ways to Enjoy Car Trips
Don't look upon that auto as just something to get
you someplace it's your traveling bedroom, closet, kitchen, and marina
By STANLEY H. BRAMS
No matter what vintage or model, your auto
mobile can be much more than a way to get
you from here to there on your next vacation trip.
Each year finds more ingenious ways created to
make the car a genuine utility meaning that it
helps you live better and easier as it takes you
over the highway.
It transports your vacation clothes and sports
equipment, of course. Beyond that it can function
as your bedroom at night or as the basic component
of your shelter tent. It can function, too, as a sur
prisingly versatile power outlet for shaving,
warming beverages, playing your favorite records
and for other uses as well.
Take packing, for example. One auto manufac
turer has a rubber-mounted roof-top luggage rack
with base and side rails of stainless steel. Practi
cally all other makes can be similarly equipped to
handle odd-size cargo or overflow.
If you need still more space, think about a little
trailer to pull along. There are any number on the
market, light and roomy enough to handle all the
gear you could reasonably want.
One such trailer has a dual advantage: it is a
200-pound cargo carrier (with 25 cubic feet of
capacity) and also the base for a large canvas shel
ter, sleeping four persons inside its 11 feet of length
and 6 feet, 4 inches of width (price, around $345).
In the past, it's been popular to tow your boat
behind you, but now there are lightweight water
craft which go right into a station wagon or onto
the Toof of other models. One craft packs into two
canvas bags weighing about 40 pounds each and
can be blown up into a raft-rowboat. Another ex
ample is an inflatable rubber canoe (about $160),
and a third is a sailboat of polystyrene, haulable
on a car-top. carrier (about $120). There are even
plans for a homemade 12-foot plywood boat made
in two sections that nest together for movement in
a station wagon.
All kinds of practical devices are on the market
to make your trip more convenient. Most electric
shaver manufacturers have devised conversion
plugs which fit cigarette-lighter recesses, so Dad
can get an earlier start by shaving as he travels.
-There are similarly powered water heaters
sticklike heating elements that can be dipped into
a small container of water so Baby's bottle can be
brought slowly to the desired temperature or hot
water provided for instant coffee. The lighter re
cess also serves to power spotlights that find wel
come use when trouble arises at night or when a
camp site is reached after dark.
You also can buy refrigerating units that fit the
car some of them powered by bottled gas found
in sporting-goods and hardware stores.
Want to sleep in the car? Rambler pioneered
the idea of drop-back front seats which form
a flat base long enough for any adult. Studebaker's
Lark and some foreign cars offer the same facility.
If you want fresh air and insect protection, too,
while you sleep, you may find that your car can
be equipped with screens, some of fabric mesh,
some of metal. These are available in various mod
els by Chevrolet, Chrysler, Ford, Rambler, and
other manufacturers.
Nervous about sleeping in your car? One woman
pulls into open-all-night gas stations and obtains
permission to sleep in the back parking area where
she locks herself in her car, partially opens the
windows, attaches net window screens, and closes
her eyes knowing there's a measure of protec
tion during the night plus a handy washroom.
She stops around noon when motels are being
cleaned up, asks permission to pay for a shower
and a clean towel, and says she has never been
turned away. Generally, this costs her 25 cents
a small outlay indeed for lodging along the road!
Or you can sleep on the roof. There are some
package units that mount on top of your car and
extend out to one side, creating enough room to
sleep four quite comfortably, five feet off the ground
(about $280). If you wish, you can curtain the
support poles at the side and afford yourself dressing-room
space.
Today's popular half-wagon, half-bus vehicles
are the basis of increasing numbers of camping
and travel outfits specifically designed for them
tables which snap into place against one wall inside
and can be taken out and fitted with legs for use
anywhere; couches with bases that are storage
drawers; complete kitchens; and so on. In a word,
these vehicles can be used for vacation jaunts al
most as if they were full-fledged trailers.
Tents which are, in effect, "hinged" to the auto
mobile are quite commonplace, too. Sizes and
shapes are in variety to suit any taste; their one
point of similarity is that they derive support from
the car in which they are transported and some
times use the car as one of their walls.
Thus you can create about as much comfort and
convenience in your car as your wallet can afford.
Simply decide what you'd like to have on your next
trip, and chances are it's ready and waiting for you
at your car dealer, the store down the road, or the
handyman's do-it-yourself supply place.
By hitching a lent to Iheir Corvoir sports wagon, these outdoorsmen have set up an ideal
camp site. Easily attached, tents such as the one shown come in a host of shapes and sizes.
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For less rugged individuals, this "motor home" by Dodge
combines an auto and trailer in a single luxurious unit.
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