This is a camper trailer, or caravan, that was designed by General Motors Chief Engineer Elias J. Premo in 1938 so he could use it on road trips with his family. It’s the only one ever made, and it remains in time-capsule condition inside and out.
Premo is a largely unknown figure today, outside of the world of historic American automobiles that is, but he deserves to be remembered far more broadly as he pioneered a complete restructuring of the General Motors engineering division, and he’s the man who had the first generation Corvette built with a lightweight fiberglass body instead of stamped steel panels.
Fast Facts – The E.J. Premo Travel Trailer
- In 1938, General Motors Chief Engineer Elias J. Premo designed a unique camper trailer for family road trips. This one-of-a-kind creation remains in pristine condition. Premo, though not widely known today, made significant contributions to GM’s engineering division and was instrumental in the first Corvette’s fiberglass body design. Despite building the trailer for personal use, Premo only used it five to six times before storing it in an aircraft hangar for decades.
- The 1930s marked a crucial period in camper trailer history, with popularity surging despite the Great Depression. Aerospace engineer Hawley Bowlus introduced the polished aluminum Bowlus Road Chief in 1934, inspiring Wally Byam to create the iconic Airstream in 1936. Premo’s 1938 design featured flat panels with a sharp V-section front for improved aerodynamics, a flat bottom, and a curved roofline, potentially easier to produce than contemporary models.
- Premo’s trailer has a luxurious 1930s interior with wood paneling, upward-opening windows, curtains, cupboards, drawers, twin plush couches, electric lights, and a toilet. The kitchenette includes a sink with running water, dish rack, two-burner gas stove, and an ice box-style refrigerator. Foldable couches at both ends convert into double beds, maximizing space efficiency.
- The Volo Museum, which displayed the trailer for over 11 years, is now offering it for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $29,998 USD. This presents a rare opportunity to own a piece of automotive history with remarkable preservation and historical significance. The museum hopes a new owner will finally take this unique trailer on the adventures for which it was originally designed in the pre-WWII era.
E.J. Premo’s Grand Design
As the story goes, E.J. Premo set about designing his own camper trailer as he planned to use it with his family, parking it at a favorite lake near Detroit on weekends and holidays. After the trailer had been completed he had it stored in an aircraft hangar, due to the pressures of his job he only ever used the trailer five to six times, and it remained stored in the hangar – unused for 74 years.
The interior fit out of this travel trailer is beautiful, and it’s all original as it was in the 1930s when it was made.Despite the fact he didn’t get much use out of it, it’s clear that it remained important to him. It seems he never tried to sell it, and many years later when he was on his deathbed he told his son in law about the camper to ensure it would be collected and cared for. It’s a good thing he did, as no one else knew about it and it may have been lost to history.
E.J. Premo’s son in law went and collected the travel trailer, and some time later it made its way into the collection at the Volo Museum where it remained on display for over 11 years.
Bowlus, Byam, And The Importance Of The 1930s
The 1930s were a critically important time in the history of camper trailers, in fact a good argument could be made that it was the most important decade in the development of the home-on-wheels concept. It would be during the 1930s that camper trailer popularity exploded in the United States, despite the on-going Great Depression.
Aerospace engineer Hawley Bowlus, the builder of the Spirit of St. Louis aircraft, would develop an all-new polished aluminum travel trailer in 1934 called the Bowlus Road Chief.
This would inspire Wally Byam, who up until this time had been making travel trailers from steel, wood, and Masonite. Byam would design a sleek, aerodynamic aluminum travel trailer in 1936 and name it the “Airstream,” and as they say, the rest is history.
Inside you’ll find two sofas that convert into beds, a kitchenette with a sink, running water, a refrigerator, and a two burner gas stove, and ample cupboard and drawer space.The E.J. Premo Travel Trailer – Specifications
It was just two years after this that General Motors Chief Engineer E.J. Premo would set pen to paper to design his own aerodynamic travel trailer. Rather than using curved aluminum he used flat panels with a sharp V-section at the front for good aerodynamics without the complexity of compound curves.
The Premo trailer would have a flat bottom, no open wheel arches, and a curved roofline to further improve the drag coefficient.
There’s no record of whether Premo intended for his trailer design to be produced in volume or if it was only ever meant to be a one off, though given the high-level of fit and finished inside and out, it’s easy to believe that it was essentially production ready – and it would likely have been quicker and easier to produce than the Airstreams and Road Chiefs of the era.
Inside the Premo trailer you’ll find a beautifully appointed interior, with wood paneling across the walls and up across the ceiling. There are upward-opening windows on all sides for airflow, curtains, cupboards, drawers, countertop space, a plush sofa, electric lights, and even a toilet.
The trailer is also equipped with a kitchenette featuring a sink with running water, a dish rack area, a two burner gas stove, and a classic ice box-style refrigerator. There are couches at either end of the trailer that can be folded down into simple double beds when needed, a feature we see on many modern trailers to maximize usable space.
E.J. Premo’s design for the trailer was brilliant, with a V-section front for aerodynamics along with a flat bottom, and the extensive use of flat panels to simplify construction.The good news is that thew Volo Museum is now offering the E.J. Premo travel trailer for sale out of their collection, in the hopes that a new owner will take it on the adventures it was originally built for back in the pre-WWII years.
They have it listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $29,998 USD – not bad given the remarkable preservation and historical significance of the design. If you’d like to read more about it or enquire about buying it you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of the Volo Museum
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.
