Camper Full Of Men?

Sportsmen, Coachmen, Dutchmen

I have often wondered  at the peculiar names of these campers, or as they are now called, RV's, emblazoning the front top of the vehicle for all to scratch their heads at.  Is the Dutchmen model supposed to be full of guys from the Netherlands?  Is Holland the birthplace of such a vehicle?  How many coaches of various sports can fit inside a Coachmen?  Or is this an homage to the days when coach drivers would all live together in the chuck wagon?

My point is, these names are plural for objects that are singular.  To illustrate my point, lets look at automobile model names.  "Jim drives a Ford Mustangs." doesn't sound right, does it?  How about "Hello, I'd like to buy a Cadillacs."  "What kind of mileage will I get in this Priuses?"  (Prii?) Yikes!

The notion that this could go on at a company that manufactures these vehicles for so long without the mistake being pointed out and corrected is baffling.  I imagine the aging president of the company asserting at the board meeting, "Damn it!  I founded this company, and you will NOT change the name of this camper!  How dare you upstarts correct my grammar?"

What is more baffling is what I found out when I researched this phenomenon on the Internets.  I figured that Dutchmen, Sportsmen, and Coachmen were all different models manufactured by the same RV company.  It would stand to reason, but it is not so.  Coachmen Recreational Vehicles was founded in Middlebury, Indiana in 1964, and they produced camping trailers called Coachmen.  It would appear that in 1972 KZ Recreational Vehicles was founded, also in Middlebury, Indiana.  Possibly this was split off from the Coachmen company.  They produced campers named Sportsmen.  Dutchmen Manufacturing Inc. was founded in 1988.  Their site does not mention a city.   They produce sport vehicles called Dutchmen, Aspen Trail, Coleman, Kodiak and others.  So this grammar anomaly exists at two, possibly three different companies!  Weird!

Lots of people in Pediddleville say they're going to "Walmart's", which is wrong, but understandable since it harkens back to the days when there used to be a store or two in every town in this country that was named after the family that ran it.  Elkin's.  Thatcher's.  Harry's.  Mom and Pop's.  But the Camper Full of Men remains a mystery...