By the mid-20th century, trailer manufacturing had been slowly morphing into two respective "travel trailer" and "mobile home" divisions. The split was made official in 1963.
At the same time, the futuristic, space-age-style rigs of the late 1950s and early '60s were being superseded by ones built with a more boxy, house-shaped design. The "14-wide," an innovation that made the mobile home more spacious than ever, debuted in 1967.
The Long & Short Of It: A Mobile Home Cavalcade, Part Two
Here we have a definitive example of a "space-age" mobile home. The exterior of the 1959 Atlas FORTY-TWO--TEN WIDE includes all the hallmarks of futuristic '50s design.
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The magnificent 1962 Kropf ELDORADO was one of the most futuristic house trailers ever built. This 10 foot wide -60 foot long- rig was also among the last of the great space age-style mobile homes.
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As previously mentioned, the futuristic mobile home design of the late '50s was -by the early '60s- morphing into one with a boxy, house-type look. Among the first of this new generation of house-type rigs was the 1961 Marshfield TWELVEWIDE depicted here. It extended 50 feet from tail-end-to-tongue.
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By the late '60s, the house-type model was firmly established as the mobile home exterior design standard. Above, we see the 1968 Trotwood 60' DELUXE SUBURBAN, which was a 12-wide. It defined a new genre with its squared exterior, "house-type" wooden door and simulated window shutters.
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The "double-wide" mobile home, first introduced in the early '60s, was also making inroads by late in the decade. A double-wide unit consisted of two 10 or 12-wide sections that were manufactured and transported individually.
As the diagram demonstrates, the "Double-Wide" mobile home consists of "A" and "B" units that are joined into a 20 or 24-wide dwelling at the home site.
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