History - Anyone remember the Quick Camp?

[Bill]

Not even sure I am spelling it right ...  Could have been Kwik Camp, Kwik Kamp, etc.

When I was a kid (maybe mid 1950's), my Dad bought perhaps the very first canvas "pop-up".  It didn't actually pop "up", since that concept hadn't been invented yet.  It opened more like a cigar box - we unlatched a lid which flipped over, pulling a more-or-less conventional canvas tent, on an aluminum-tube frame, behind it.  It was built of 3/4" or 1" marine plywood, and was incredibly heavy.  It had no appliances - we carried a Coleman cooler on the tongue, and a Coleman gasoline stove and lantern in a storage area inside.  From our home in Maine, we travelled all over the west in that thing - Yellowstone, Glacier/Banff/Yoho/Kootenay, most of Colorado, and everywhere in between.

I was pretty young, but I seem to recall that it was built in either New Mexico, or in Coffeeville, Kansas.  We lost it in a fire in the storage shed years later, and my folks moved up to a conventional hard-side Comet TT which didn't impress me.  But I have always remembered that original Quick Camp.

I have done a web search, and found a company with a similar name - but it seems to have nothing to do with the original Quick Camp.

Just for the sake of nostalgia, I would like to talk to anyone who remembers this oldie-but-goodie.

Bill

 

[John From Detroit]

I'm not siure if I"ve seen one of those or not, but I have seen something very simular on a recent trip to Elkhart IN (Home of a good number of RV manafacturers here in the "Mid west")

I do recall seeing ads for it though, And that would have been within the last quarter century (I got my first camper when my daughter was about 3, started getting camping magazines shortly there after,  Daughter is now 1/4 century so it's within that time)

Cute little things and much more of a "pop up" than what we call "pop ups" today (Which are crank ups)

"Flip Top Camping" at it's best

My first trailer (An Apache Crank UP, has been converted to utility use as restoring it for camping would have cost just too much (It did not owe me anything, gave many years of good service)  Pulled it today for what must be the first time in a decade.  Emptied it of the accumulated junk and parked it at "the other house" where they promptly started filling it up again, A cuple of weeks and we do this all over again, and again, and again, till we run out of junk.  Then I am not sure what I"m going to do with it

It's now a "Flip top" (Clamshell) trailer too, good for storage

 

[Bill]

John -

You might have seen one in as museum somewhere, but as for new units or ads for them, a quarter century is much too young.  This thing hasn't been made in HALF a century.  My guess is that they didn't make or sell more than as few hundred units, and given that they were made of mostly wood on a steel frame, and given that they had NO amenities, I would bet that none survive.

It was just a journey into nostalgia-land.  Thanks for replying.

Bill

 

[GAKI]

Not even sure I am spelling it right ... Could have been Kwik Camp, Kwik Kamp, etc.

When I was a kid (maybe mid 1950's), my Dad bought perhaps the very first canvas "pop-up". It didn't actually pop "up", since that concept hadn't been invented yet. It opened more like a cigar box - we unlatched a lid which flipped over, pulling a more-or-less conventional canvas tent, on an aluminum-tube frame, behind it. It was built of 3/4" or 1" marine plywood, and was incredibly heavy. It had no appliances - we carried a Coleman cooler on the tongue, and a Coleman gasoline stove and lantern in a storage area inside. From our home in Maine, we travelled all over the west in that thing - Yellowstone, Glacier/Banff/Yoho/Kootenay, most of Colorado, and everywhere in between.

I was pretty young, but I seem to recall that it was built in either New Mexico, or in Coffeeville, Kansas. We lost it in a fire in the storage shed years later, and my folks moved up to a conventional hard-side Comet TT which didn't impress me. But I have always remembered that original Quick Camp.

I have done a web search, and found a company with a similar name - but it seems to have nothing to do with the original Quick Camp.

Just for the sake of nostalgia, I would like to talk to anyone who remembers this oldie-but-goodie.

Bill,
Kwik Kamp was a company located in New Mexico and was in production from approximatly 1956 to 1960. My dad purchased the Kwik Kamp in 1959(?) at a fire sale in Albuquerque NM. The camper was built in either Clovis or Grants NM. At some point it looks like the production was restarted in 1961(?) in Texas. We did not start using the camper regularly until the early 60's but it was used annually well into the 70's when it was wrecked due to a broken axle. I have attached a Kwik Kamp ad from 1957.