This is a 1966 Avion T-21 that remains in remarkably original vintage condition throughout. It’s a fully featured camper with a kitchenette, dinette, a bathroom with toilet and shower, and sleeping accommodation for two adults and two kids.
The Avion Coach Corporation was founded in 1955 by brothers Loren and Robert Cayo. Both avid outdoorsmen, the Cayo brothers wanted to develop their own series of travel trailers that could operate when hooked up at camp grounds, and also when out in the wilderness completely off the grid.
This period advertisement for a Mercury extolls the towing capabilities of the car, using an Avion travel trailer. Image courtesy of the Ford Motor Company.
The Cayo brothers had previously owned their own travel trailers, including an Airstream, and they quickly realized they could design something far better using the same sized footprint. They chose to use the same aircraft-like aluminum body construction as the Airstream, a design that had been originally pioneered by the Bowlus series of camping trailers in the 1930s.
The interior of each Avion trailer was carefully designed to maximize the use of the somewhat limited space on offer. Even the smaller models measuring just 21 feet long (or slightly shorter still) had a fully featured interior with a kitchen, a bathroom with a shower, sink, and toilet, a dining area, and sleeping accommodation for two adults, as well as two children.
The company quickly prospered, and were selling just as many trailers as they could construct at their factory in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Soon, Avion trailers would become a common sight at camp grounds across the United States and into Canada, with many preferring them to the more common Airstreams.
The 1966 Avion T-21 trailer you see in this article is an original example that remains in patinated but original condition throughout. It could be used as is, or given a restoration back to new condition depending on what its new owner prefers.
This vintage Avion ad notes that the aluminum bodies of the trailers are guaranteed for life, and they are fitted out with all the amenities you need whether you’re staying in a campground or staying off-grid. Image courtesy of the Avion Coach Corporation.
One of the great benefits of these aluminum bodied trailers is that they seemingly last forever, so long as the steel chassis that underpins them is protected from structural rust of course. Measuring in at 21ft long, this Avion is well-suited to being used as an off-grid home-on-wheels, or for cross-country travel that involves stopping in at camping grounds along the way.
It’s now being offered for sale on Bring a Trailer out of Nashotah, Wisconsin with no reserve, an owner’s manual, and a Wisconsin title in the seller’s name. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
