# Is the United States the only country with mobile homes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2002, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496 "2002-04-25T04:04:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Longmos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/278dde/32.png) [@Longmos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Longmos)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/1 "2002-04-25T04:04:27Z")
I’ve never traveled outside the U.S., and I was just wondering. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/2 "2002-04-25T04:15:56Z")
The movie _Snatch_ features British mobile-home denizens known as “parkies” (sp?), so my guess is no. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/3 "2002-04-25T04:38:17Z")
Canada’s got oodles of them. ---
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/4 "2002-04-25T04:43:09Z")
I went around Europe in a motorhome that we bought in London (and sold for a profit after 4 months 🙂 ) There are two major companies in Australia : [Britz Australia](http://www.bluedtravel.com/bdte/prodAU01.htm) (scroll down for a picture) and [Maui Motorhomes](http://www.maui-rentals.com/australia/index.cfm) (A New Zealand company) ---
**Author:** ![Mersavets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@Mersavets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mersavets)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/5 "2002-04-25T04:44:06Z")
So does Australia and I saw a few of them in France. ---
**Author:** ![ski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@ski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ski)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/6 "2002-04-25T04:48:40Z")
I think the OP is asking not about motorhomes (the kind with an engine and wheels) but about mobile homes (the kind that can be loaded onto a large flatbed truck and relocated, though not without significant cost and effort involved). At least that is my usual use of the terms. ---
**Author:** ![Mersavets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@Mersavets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mersavets)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/7 "2002-04-25T05:56:55Z")
I imagine every country in the world, with the likely exception of micro-states like the Vatican or Liechtenstein, would have _those_. I took the OP to be referring to what are known as _caravans_ in Australia or _trailers_ in America. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/8 "2002-04-25T06:37:28Z")
We had this question once before, and there was a confusion of terms that time as well. [Are Mobile Homes a Uniquely American Phenomenon?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31472) ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/9 "2002-04-25T12:17:29Z")
Australian Terminology: **Caravan** : The wheeled, unpowered thing you tow behind your car. [US=trailer] **Motor Home** : A “home” built on a light truck body. It’s one unarticulated unit, and does not detatch (usually) from the truck. They remind me of snails. There are some smaller versons which slide onto the back of an existing ute (pick-up) or SUV. **Camper Van** : These are small vans converted to be lived in (short term). Very 60s. **Mobile Home** : This is the type that has neither wheels nor engine, and needs to be transported by a fairly large truck. Despite the name, it’s the least mobile of the lot. All of the above units are reasonably common in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/10 "2002-04-25T12:21:54Z")
Just to head off any confusion, here is a link to “Great Mobile Homes of Mississippi” to give good examples of show quality mobile homes. [http://www.drbukk.com/gmhom/park.html](http://www.drbukk.com/gmhom/park.html) ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/11 "2002-04-25T14:43:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shagnasty \* > \*\*[http://www.drbukk.com/gmhom/park.html](http://www.drbukk.com/gmhom/park.html) \*\* Yes, because anyone who lives in a mobile home is obviously a dumb, poor redneck from the Deep South. Yeee Haw! :rolleyes: They couldn’t POSSIBLY be affordable housing for the elderly, young families of modest means, or cheap tourist lodging. On the OP, every now and then I’ll hear about someone who stayed in a mobile home in or near a resort community in Europe as an alternative to high-priced and culture insulated hotels. ---
**Author:** ![douglips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@douglips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/douglips)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/12 "2002-04-25T15:09:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by evilhanz \* > \*\* > > Yes, because anyone who lives in a mobile home is obviously a dumb, poor redneck from the Deep South. Yeee Haw! :rolleyes: They couldn’t POSSIBLY be affordable housing for the elderly, young families of modest means, or cheap tourist lodging. \*\* Come on. My grandmother lived in a mobile home for many years, and I thought it was funny. :rolleyes: right back at you. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/13 "2002-04-25T15:40:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by evilhanz \* > \*\* > > Yes, because anyone who lives in a mobile home is obviously a dumb, poor redneck from the Deep South. Yeee Haw! :rolleyes: They couldn’t POSSIBLY be affordable housing for the elderly, young families of modest means, or cheap tourist lodging. > > On the OP, every now and then I’ll hear about someone who stayed in a mobile home in or near a resort community in Europe as an alternative to high-priced and culture insulated hotels. \*\* Well Mr. Evil, those are real life examples and certainly not any tourist lodging (did you just make that one up because it sounds really dumb when you type it). The site is meant to be humorous although the examples are real and are fairly typical of what can be found throughout the South and the Mid-West. How would I know? I am from the Deep South, grew up in a mobile home, and my parents live in Mississippi. Not ALL Southerners live in a mobile home of couse, and not ALL mobile homes are found in the South but there are plenty of examples that fit the stereotype quite well. Many people that own mobile homes let them go to hell and that has nothing to do with money. Just who were you trying to defend anyway :wally ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/14 "2002-04-25T15:47:56Z")
“I imagine every country in the world, with the likely exception of micro-states like the Vatican” All I can think of now is the Pope sitting outside his trailer in a stained wifebeater, his pope headgear converted into a beer hat, shooting at cans. ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/15 "2002-04-25T16:22:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shagnasty \* > \*\* (did you just make that one up because it sounds really dumb when you type it). \*\* Nope. I had a relative stay in St. Alban, France last year through an outfit called KeyCamp. They operate [facilities throughout western Europe](http://www.keycamp.co.uk/listing_2002.htm). It sounds like a great idea. She heard about it from my aunt who lives near Dijon. > [@](#): > > **The site is meant to be humorous although the examples are real and are fairly typical of what can be found throughout the South and the Mid-West.** By typical, don’t you really mean stereotypical? The first picture on that link is a pregnant woman in a robe drinking Colt-45 and a gap-toothed tank-top wearing man with a beer, a shotgun, and a dog with a Confederate-themed bandana. So, that’s a “typical” example of a mobile home owner in Mississippi? I had no idea. Thanks for enlightening me. > [@](#): > > **Just who were you trying to defend anyway?** How about the people who live in mobile homes who cringe when bigots associate residence in a mobile home with all of the negative atributes demonstrated in your link? Here’s a real life example. My wife works in a rural, one-industry school district in the Northeast. Most of the children live in decent homes or apartments near the center of town. Other children live out in the mountains in mobile homes on dirt roads. There are many reasons for this, not all of them related to money. Sometimes engineers come to the factory for a short time and don’t need a big house, or the parents have low-paying factory jobs, or the costs of bringing equipment up into the hills to prepare a site and build a home are prohibitive. Some live far enough away that they’re off the utility grid. No matter how smart a kid is, or how much money his/her parent earns, what do you think the other kids do when they find out he/she lives in a mobile home? The label “redneck” gets attached. It’s really not funny. So, maybe you ought to think twice before spreading that kind of ignorance around, ok? ---
**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/16 "2002-04-25T17:57:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mersavets \* > \*\*I imagine every country in the world, with the likely exception of micro-states like the Vatican or Liechtenstein, would have _those_. I took the OP to be referring to what are known as _caravans_ in Australia or _trailers_ in America. \*\* Having travelled extensively throughout Liechtenstein (hey, we had an hour to kill), I can tell you that there didn’t appear to be any mobile homes. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/17 "2002-04-25T18:44:21Z")
Up here on Long Island, NY (admittedly not a foreign country), there are several ‘trailer parks’, where many working class families get their first real home (and some retirees too). There really is no stigma (well, maybe a little ribbing) to living there, and most units (I know of 3 parks first hand) are in good condition. Besides, if it was good enough for Jim Rockford… ---
**Author:** ![Tansu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@Tansu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tansu)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/18 "2002-04-25T20:46:45Z")
There are quite a few holiday mobile home (or **static caravan** , as they’re called here) parks in my part of the world - South Cumbria, on the edge of the English Lake District. ---
**Author:** ![Hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazel)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-united-states-the-only-country-with-mobile-homes/105496/19 "2002-04-25T20:55:11Z")
Static Caravan – that’s a good term, Tansu!