Trailers
The Lustron

Tenwide
Elmer Frey/Marshfield Homes


By 1957 most states
allowed 10 wides on their highways
Within the year 12 companies offered comparable units
The Ten Wide, was as the name suggests ten feet wide, and fifty feet long. The 500 square foot trailer was built on a wood frame rather than a conventional chassis.

The additional width of the unit allowed more selective privacy as the individual bedrooms could be closed off from the corridor. This extra space was developed at the expense of mobility. When Frey introduced the tenwide, it could not be legally transported by highway (in many states). Frey engaged in a tireless lobbying campaign to permit the ten wide to travel as "an oversize vehicle."

Wheel Estate, Allan Wallis, Oxford University Press, 1991
Image Credit: Elmer Frey, Marshfield Homes, Marshfield WI


The Tenwide's focus on space at the expense of mobility marked a shift in the concerns of the manufactured home industry, and helped predicate the split of the industry into the travel trailer industry and the mobile home industry.

Because the Tenwide was too large to be allowed on the highway as a "trailer," its designer, Elmer Frey lobbied heavily for the right to transport it on highways.