Miguel Sánchez
PHOTOS WINNEBAGO F17: BRING A TRAILER
There are inventions so successful that their trade name is used as a generic to identify similar products. The best example is what happened with Kleenex tissues. Launched in 1924, this invention of "Use and throw" was tested during World War I as gas masks. A perhaps somewhat risky use, for which the product from which they are made was developed: the "Cellucotton". Something that, as it is guessed from the name itself, is a hybrid between cellulose and cotton.
Unsuspected hybrids aside, the truth is that these scarves were such a success that, even almost a century later, their name is still a generic synonym for any similar product. Something that also happens with the American motorhome company Winnebago. Founded in 1958, this manufacturer of houses on wheels has also written a success story. In fact, last week its shares grew by up to 5% in the New York Stock Exchange despite the fact that, in the middle of the Covid-8 pandemic, Americans are not exactly thinking about pleasure nomadisms.
Leaving aside the financial analysis, the truth is that saying Winnebago in the United States is as much as saying motorhome. A very worthy commercial achievement, which has been reaped thanks to good quality, practical design and the use of mechanical elements from well-known brands such as Mercedes, Volkswagen or Ford. In fact, using the chassis and engine of the latter is how the design of one of its most interesting motorhomes was raised: the Winnebago F17 from 1968.
WINNEBAGO: MASS PRODUCED MOTORHOMES
As we have already commented on other occasions, this of motorhomes is a fundamental part of the American engine. And it is that, at the end of the day, they are in their own national definition. Beyond the images of the Tuareg or Mongol nomads, What other country has so much of its identity inextricably linked to life on the road? From former settlers to emigrants from the Dust Bowl to the exodus to California's fruit trees during the Great Depression, Americans know better than anyone what it is like to live with the house in tow.
Of course, from the prosperous 50s they turned this tradition into a leisure tool, flourishing all over the country body builders willing to specialize in the sale of motorhomes. One of them was Winnebago, which projected from Iowa a commercial empire with sales delegations throughout the country. A mass marketing based on offer similar products to the competition for just half. At this point the question is obvious, how did they do it? Well, beyond speculative theories, the truth is that it was all thanks to his inventions.
The first of them was baptized Thermo Panel. And yes, it is just what its name promises to be. A type of panel that is light, resistant and above all with thermal properties. Something that is appreciated when you camp your Winnebago under the burning California sun. The second was rather a new way of doing things, since They decided to manufacture the furniture themselves with which they equipped the motorhomes. Thus, and contrary to the competition, they managed to reduce costs by not outsourcing this work. Outcome? Well, 62 years later its listing on the stock market shows that it has been positive.
17 WINNEBAGO F1968: RECTILINEAR DESIGN IN FULL SPACE EUPHORIA
The truth is that the lines of the Winnebago F17 attract us a lot of attention. And no, we are not referring to its refined style since, although it is charming in the light of the years, it is not that it is a design exercise capable of marking an era. However, the truth is that By the 60s, the fever for special aesthetics that characterized American industrial design in the 50s was still alive.. Chrome, muscular volumes, fanciful finishes ... A futuristic panoply that, in the case of our protagonist, shines, but by its absence.
It is as if the Winnebago F17 had caught the rectilinear designs that marked a transition towards the 70s commanded by the Alfa Romeo Carabo, Lancia Stratos Zero or Ferrari Module. Fantasy aside, we really believe that its austerity is due, rather, to the needs of a design limited by low costs. Something that in the mechanical section did not undermine the quality of this motorhome, which is based on the recognized chassis of a Ford P-350. All to the thread of the motor, which is a 300-liter six-cylinder Ford 4ci launched in 9.
Just three years before the assembly of this Winnebago F17, which has remained for posterity as one of the best examples of the brand during the 60s. A completely American unit, since in later years the company began to alternate the use of mechanics Ford and Dodge with those from European brands such as Volkswagen or Mercedes; that has been sold at auction recently on the prestigious American page Bring a Trailer.
