b'W ed be willing to bet that most of our readershadnoideathatElkhart, Indiana is considered the RV capital of the United States.So much so in fact, that Elkhart is home to the RV Museum and Hall of Fame (bet you didnt know there was an RV Hall of Fame either).The whole thing started back in the 1930s, oddly enough, in the middle of the depression when a guy from Elkhart named Wilbur Schult went to the Worlds Fair, saw a camper trailer on display there, and he was unimpressed and con-vincedhecouldbuildsomethingbetter thanthathimself.Doingjustthat,he startedtheballrollingtomakethis Midwestern town the epicenter of camp-ingvehiclemanufacturing.Ifyouve ever been to a campground or been on the interstate, which I think its safe to say most of us have, youve seen the nameCoachmenmanytimeson passingRVsandcampersfor decades.In1964,threebrothers, Claude, Thomas, and Keith Corson, decided to start the Coachmen com-pany in downtown Elkhart in a 5,000-square-foot warehouse, doing all the workthemselves.Thatfirstyear, theymadeadozentraveltrailers, eighty pickup truck camper tops, and onesingleRVpickupconversion truck.Theirbusinessmodelmade them an overnight success, as unlike everyothercampercompanyout there,theirwarrantycoveredevery component they used in their campers.Previously, if you bought a camper and the stove or fridge, or whatever, stopped working, youhadtocomplaintothecompanythat made that part, and you usually werent going togetanythingresolved.Theirbusiness model was what they called, The buck stops here, and since they chose the components, the brothers considered it their responsibility towww.moparcollectorsguide.com69'