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Hippie vehicles were usually hand crafted and furnished (and decorated) (and everything else) mobile houses built on a truck or bus chassis. Why did the typical hippie vehicle become a big vehicle like that? Because hippies did it together.
Whether what they were doing was some happening scene in downtown San Francisco or a demonstration against a controversial war or going to a love in or other get together on Mount Tamalpais or driving across the country — see “Further” the bus driven by those people who came before the hippies and who, when the hippies came, they all knew: the Merry Pranksters, some of whom had come from the even-previouser literature and lifestyle scene, the Beats.
Hippy houses would welcome in a stranger for the night, and hippy vehicles would pick them up and take them along. It was a reciprocal nature of lifestyle. And people were mobile. They packed light and travelled somewhat freely.
This vehicle here. It was built in 1968, the year when the hair started to get long and the clothes started to get loose, and it was active through 1969 when the fantastic outfits outdid each other and then onwards till 1971, the year Charles Manson’s conviction was delivered, adding quite a harsh downer to the hippie idea, and another trial, the “Yippie” trial, took place with John and Yoko joined.
I keep digressing. This vehicle. It’s a 1937 GMC chassis. Those trucks look quite different from this vehicle. They look like most cabover trucks of the 30’s era. It was named “Leviathan” by its builders. A group who used this RV was the Floating Lotus Magic Opera Company, who lived and travelled communally. They rehearsed in the forests of San Francisco. The gypsy truck also made a lot of in-town appearances at happenings, fairs, and toured around between California and Washington.
To do what they did to this hippie mobile, they:
added an oak framework
handcrafted an interior with fine woods
used leather from antique furniture
added a double bed in a loft (under that windowed dome you can see in the picture above)
This hippie RV also has:
full-sized stove
sink
hot and cold running water
living/dining area,
coal burning stove
back porch (pictured below)
shower
The truck is currently a guest house, I’ve read. There’s only two photos unless someone has some to give us.
