Most people think of toy haulers as garages on wheels for dirt bikes or ATVs (all-terrain vehicles). They don’t see any connection between toy haulers and normal camping. The truth is quite different. The first ones were little more than garages with basic amenities for camping. The emphasis was on enjoying the toys. Except for transporting the toys, the trailer was secondary.

For many years, they were in the same category as pop-up tent trailers - warm weather only. It was nearly impossible to find one suitable for four-season use. So, what happened to change all that?

Guys would get together, load up their dirt bikes and/or ATV’s, and then disappear for the weekend. They’d come back grungy and exhausted. They had had a great time out there. Their wives got jealous! The guys were having all the fun! The gals wanted to get away, too. One by one, they insisted on coming along.

It wasn’t so much that they wanted to go out and ride dirt bikes; they wanted to relax and enjoy the weather and the scenery. The fact that they could spend that time with their guys was also very important.

Once the women started coming along, the old-style toy haulers were no longer good enough. Women like the kind of comfort offered by regular travel trailers. They wanted heating or cooling, bedrooms and bathrooms.

Toy haulers started getting more luxurious some of them are Dutchmen toyhauler, Fleetwood toy hauler, Attitude toy hauler. The really big step came when they become available with separate garages. Today, you can walk in the front door and not know you’re standing in a toy hauler! Another wonderful feature of the new generation of them is four-season capabilities. Today, you can even take your new four-season rig into snow country and go skiing! More and more campgrounds are open year-around.

But, that’s not the only way people are using these. Couple who are into antiques. They load antiques into the garage of their toy hauler and travel to an antiques show for the weekend. They sell what they can and bring back antiques they have bought. For the record, they don’t own any dirt bikes or ATV’s.

Others use that garage area as a second bedroom for friends or relatives who travel with them. Again, they’re not using it to haul any toys.

Toy haulers of today are a far cry from the originals. Today, they’re among the most versatile RV’s on the market. You can even buy motor homes with a separate garage for toys! Recently, even saw a commercial for a pickup slide-in camper that can open up and haul an ATV or a couple of dirt bikes. They are the newest, latest and hottest thing on the RV scene today. More and more people are buying these versatile RV’s for a variety of reasons and really enjoying them.