Build Your Dream Boat #8… or RV?

Posted by Gayle Brantuk on Jul 15th 2010

Recently a subscriber emailed and asked about the history behind the Glen-L Recreational Vehicles line of plans… you probably didn’t even know we have plans and patterns to build your own camper, trailer or fifth wheel, did you? Well, we do and they are available online. I’ll let you in on the story of our RV designs. Back in the 1970′s we decided to expand our offerings to include RV’s. This part of the business was pretty hot for quite a few years and we did really well. In addition to the plans, we sold aluminum siding kits, window kits, door kits and other accessories and appliances, etc. In fact, we built a couple of the RV’s here in our shop and I still remember all the fun we had in one of the campers. My mom used to drive it for our Girl Scout outings and other places. She was quite the traveler, so she loved that camper… Then, the gas crunch of the late 1970′s hit and that about did our RV business in… who wanted to build an RV when gas lines were halfway down the street? Eventually, we discontinued all of the kits and accessories as we just didn’t sell enough to garner decent prices for our clients. We advertised our RV plans in Popular Science magazine for quite a few years and then we discontinued the ad and offer them exclusively online. I don’t know of any other RV plans available, so we do get quite a few inquiries. “Your RV designs look outdated”. Yes, they are! Notice I said we designed them in the 1970′s…I think I was watching the Brady Bunch then and they would’ve thought they were “groovy”! At any rate, the plans, patterns and instructions are pretty much timeless and updating the finished look is fairly automatic when using current materials. Take a look at our Acapulco as built by Jason Moore. Or the Cascade by Dave Shimek… So, now you know the story about Glen-L Recreational Vehicles. Probably our most popular are the Van conversion plans.