Travco
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The Travco motorhome was an aerodynamic Class A recreational vehicle built on a Dodge chassis from 1964 until the late 1980s. The Travco design originally emerged as a 1961 model called the "Dodge Frank Motor Home" and marketed with the assistance of the Chrysler Corporation, with many Travcos being sold with Dodge branding. 131 were produced the first year, with an average price tag of $9000. The Travco/Dodge Motor Home design and fiberglass body were refinements by Ray Frank to the original Frank Motor Home, a conventional box-type design based on the Dodge chassis and built in Brown City, Michigan from 1958 to 1962. Ray Frank, founder of Frank Industries, also coined the term "motorhome" and went on to develop Xplorer Motorhomes. Frank has been inducted into the RV/MH Hall of Fame & Museum (RV/MH Heritage Foundation, Elkhart Indiana) as the father of the motorhome.[citation needed]
Travco enjoyed a large market share of the budding motorhome market. Its success played a part in the demise of more established makes such as the Corvair-powered UltraVan, and opened the market to lower-cost makes such as Winnebago. Travco's use of the Dodge M-series chassis established Dodge as the most popular make of motorhome chassis for twenty years.
Travco offered a variety of lengths and floorplans; its 27-foot model was the most popular.
The Travco Corporation challenged the tax law on RV chassis, which were considered "trucks" and taxed at a higher rate than private motor vehicles. Travco won its case in 1971, and the IRS-accepted motorhomes would be taxed at the lower rate. This was a significant victory that served all manufacturers in the industry.