RV doubles as sailboat

RV enthusiasts who lament they can't bring their boat along on trips can rejoice in a new motorhome that serves as both a recreational vehicle and a boat.

The eco-friendly Harmony by industrial designer Weili Feng is a concept RV powered by a hydrogen battery with four in-wheel motors plus a solar paddle that can be used as a sail and solar energy harvesting system. On water, a jet drive moves the vehicle along. And don't think this compact RV lacks amenities: it's said to sleep four with leisure areas, a toilet, kitchen and entertainment system.

So where can you buy one? Nowhere! Not yet, anyway.

Well used RV roof top

Let's see, we've got the air conditioner, roof vent, awning, satellite dome, some other obscure part, and two hefty solar panels. What we haven't got is barely enough room for a team of square dancing mice. Wow! It must have taken a shoe horn to fit all this stuff on the roof of this little Oliver travel trailer.

Photo courtesy AFresh1 on flickr.com by creative commons license.

Travel trailer is shaped like an opera house

Here is a pop trailer like none you have ever seen. Forget buying a fancy $100,000 fifth wheel when you get this sort of luxury for less. Really, a tent trailer shaped like the Sydney Opera House? Yup, no kidding! Here's the only description we could find of the RV, which is not yet available to buy. And when it does (in 2010), look for it in Europe, not the good ol' USA or Canada:

"Made in hardwood, stainless steel and leather, this contemporary living tent features magical dimensions and it sets up inside five minutes almost like at the press of a button without tent pegs, stabilizer jacks and loose tent poles. The interiors feature a residence measuring 7 meters long, more than 3 meters wide and 3.5 meters high with two first class and electrically adjustable beds that become one with a single simple movement, hot and cold water, ceramic toilet, LED lighting and a mobile hob and barbecue. The other luxuries include a wine cabinet, warm-air heating, espresso bar and an enclosed teak veranda.

Watch a slide show with mystical music of this new and. . . okay, we'll say it -- weird-looking travel trailer.

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Dual purpose pop-up trailer?

At first glance, we really wondered what sort of strange artist had been at work. A cruise around the parking lot still didn't reveal the full scope of this oddity, marked with a "For Sale" sign. Up close, though, the jig was up. They'd simply laid the car chassis on top of the pop-up, hoping they could sell one or both rigs. Where else but in Quartzsite, Arizona.

photo: R&T DeMaris

Gypsy wagon? Conestoga?

Is it a revived Conestoga wagon? Something that once served Gyspies? How about a modern-day shepherd's wagon. Your guess (or knowledge, if you know) is probably better than ours. Seen at a rally of Tin Can Tourists, and photo courtesy of dwstucke on flickr.com.

"Green" RV pulled with bicycle

Paul Elkins is a designer, a dreamer, and inventor. He's been sketching up new ideas of unusual inventions ever since he was a kid. As an adult, he still hasn't lost his imagination, and now has the ability to actually take some of his dreams and turn them into reality.

One of his ideas was a bicycle pulled "travel trailer," if you will, he designed for use at the Burning Man event in Nevada. While not actually designed for "road use" it's obviously "pullable." That's not Paul on the bike, incidentally.

Paul's little trailer is set up with electricity, a small fresh water supply, even a built-in food dehydrator. The whole rig scales in at about 100 pounds, dry. The bed converts to a lounge for daytime use.

Paul has some other interesting designs and innovations on his blog.

1946 Federal semi conversion

And in this corner, a 1946 Federal semi-truck conversion. Scaling in at 11 tons, it carries a 200 gallon fuel tank.

photo: DangerRanger on flickr.com

We've seen some VW campers, but this?

The VW Syncro Camper has--and continues to be--a pretty popular way to "RV on the light side." But this little modification to a VW Syncro must really test the endurance of German engineering.



Thanks go to Phil_Parker on flickr.com for the phine photo

Long wait at the dump station!

The other week we pulled up to a municipal RV dump station in Olympia, Washington. Ahead of us in the line was one guy with a pretty big black water load to drop off:

Using a dump hose of about 6" in diameter, it took roughly 20 minutes for the driver of this big rig to rid himself of a heavy load. How much black water? Almost 13,000 gallons! Yes, he wore gloves--but no Mama, he didn't rinse his hose! Yeuch!

Big line at Burning Man

If it's late August to Labor Day, this must be the Burning Man Festival on the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. Want to idle your RV in a big line? It's your chance!

photo courtesy miriku? on flickr.com