“Camping” in my family meant one of two things: either we rolled out the old Coleman pop-up trailer out into the middle of the field and me and my brother lived semi-independently for the summer, or at least one of us disappeared into the woods of western Washington with a small tent and enough stuff to subsist for a weekend or so. Then there was one notable trip that involved a 1970s Dodge motorhome and a trip to Mt. Rainer and Mt. St. Helens that proved two things: vehicle camping wasn’t quite what it was cracked up to be for two teenagers and that nothing squeaks or rattles harder than a 1970s Dodge motorhome that hadn’t been cared for in at least fifteen years.
Looking in magazines, however, and they painted an idyllic image: a full-size SUV towing a RV trailer of some kind, parked next to the lake, with a campfire nearby. It was a dream vacation if there ever was one. Of course, there’s no mention of mosquitoes, the rainstorm that comes through at two in the morning, or the bitter chill of sunrise. And no, that’s not “brisk air”, that’s frigid! But the scene was always a neat one to envision, and the rig was always cool. Something like this 1979 Plymouth TrailDuster was always parked, ready to go haul the whole family into The Great Outdoors.
A Dodge Ramcharger with different badges and a slightly different grille, the TrailDuster existed between 1974 and 1981 and was in every way a clone. Same engines, same trims, same everything, just a different nameplate. Chalk it up to another fantastic mid-1970s Chrysler Corporation decisions. But this minty green example we found would be just the ticket: full removable roof, the corporate take on five-slot mags, a 360 and an interior that has pretty much survived are just what the doctor ordered. There’s some rust to deal with and the seat could stand to be recovered, bur overall we wouldn’t change squat. We’d hook up a trailer and disappear into the wilderness, only coming out when the craving for a pizza overrides the desire to rig up a fishing pole!
I cannot see the dash control fully, but the compressor on the engine says it even gots AC! And a Blue Ridge Parkway sticker on the back window. The seats are not bad, probably the rip could be fixed without re doing the whole thing. Yep, my dad would like this, our camping rig was whatever family car we had with tents and sleeping bags in the trunk…