This Rare Streamlined Fiberglass Camper Is Better Than Most RVs Built Today

It’s no secret to anyone with a pulse that the present RV industry has lots of room for improvement. Some common construction methods have long gone stale and innovation is slow. A lot of the new trailers I’ve been seeing lately also give a giant middle finger to aerodynamics, too. A solution for many of these problems has been around since the late 2000s. This is the 2009 ASV Aereon 2154, an all-fiberglass and aluminum travel trailer that’s light, aerodynamic, and ahead of its time.

One of the most exciting developments that I’ve noticed in recent years is a rise in campers built out of fiberglass. American RV buyers can now choose from a wide variety of fiberglass brands including Happier Camper, nuCamp, Oliver, and Cortes. Then there are famed classic brands still in operation like Scamp, Casita, and Escape. Even famed Airstream flirted with fiberglass in the not-too-distant past. Of course, I can’t forget the fresh take on composite campers that is the plastic LIV trailer.

Fiberglass is an excellent material to construct a camper out of. Fiberglass often lasts longer than wood framing, is known to be impressively durable, and fiberglass designs tend to have fewer points where water can get inside. Trailers built out of fiberglass tend to be lightweight units, too. There are no plywood sandwiches to worry about coming apart, no wood to rot, and no rubberized roofs to fail. Many fiberglass trailers are also more aerodynamic than the typical travel trailer.

Active Sport Vehicles, or ASV, wanted to take this concept to the extreme. What if you took the basic fiberglass “egg” camper design, but stretched it out over 21 feet and then slapped on some heavy streamlining? The result is the oddball you see here, but it seems that ASV never really got its chance to shine.

Here And Gone In A Blink

There isn’t much information out there about Active Sport Vehicles. That appears to be because the company arrived and disappeared over the span of just a couple of years.

From what I’ve been able to gather from what scraps I found online, Active Sport Vehicles was a subsidiary of Rdvehicles, Inc., a Michigan company founded by Allen DeKock sometime in the 2000s. The company’s website came online in 2008 and in 2009, it launched a small lineup of travel trailers. On February 4, 2009, RV Business reported this:

Active Sport Vehicles Inc. (ASV), a new northern Indiana towable manufacturer, has introduced two travel trailers for 2009 – the ASV Aereon and ASV Sport SURV. The fiberglass-and-aluminum Aereon, with an egg-shaped molded fiberglass front end, is available in three 21- and 24-foot floorplans without slideouts. “It’s got a very aerodynamic front end, and is easy for small vehicles to tow,” said Al DeKock, president of the Bristol, Ind., RV builder.

ASV Trailers did produce and sell some units in 2009, one of which you’re seeing right here. But this wouldn’t even last a whole year before the design was passed on to JAG Mobile Solutions, a company normally known as the manufacturer of toilet trailers for events.

JAG Mobile Solutions rebranded the Aereon to Galileo, raised the price a little, and then hit the RV show circuit in late 2009, promising new layouts and designs later on. RV enthusiasts have found out that the Galileo remained in production for two more years with production ending in 2011. No reasons have been given for why the Aereon/Galileo was only on the market for just a couple of years, but remember that the nation was going through the Great Recession back then and the RV industry was in a recovery from a slump.

The Campers

It’s a shame because it seems like the guys at ASV Trailers had some good ideas. Aereon’s launch in 2009 included a 21-foot travel trailer and a longer 24-foot model. Both versions were built the same way. According to ASV, every Aereon trailer featured a fully fiberglass body. Unlike something like a Scamp, where two halves are bonded together, the ASV’s all-fiberglass construction does have numerous pieces all bonded together to create one whole shell.

While some prefer Scamp’s double-hull approach as it eliminates even more places water could get in, the ASV design is still leagues ahead of the typical travel trailer. ASV says the walls have a very slight curve to them and that the front cap was designed to give the Aereon the slickest shape of any travel trailer in 2009. It’s also noted that while the whole body is made out of fiberglass, the trailer’s body kit and trim are made out of TPO and the long body is supported with an inner aluminum superstructure.

The builders at ASV wanted to continue their theme of so-called “Quality Attitude” by going with upscale interior materials. This meant using a porcelain toilet rather than a plastic one and handcrafted solid cherry or ash wood cabinets. ASV also points out the use of solid surface countertops and automotive lighting. Specifically, this camper has taillights from a Jeep Liberty, complete with reverse lights!

According to the marketing copy, the Aereon 21-foot model was called the 2152 and 2154 (with the final number denoting what kind of bed you got) while the larger 24-footer was the ASV 2454 Aereon. The ASV Aereon 21 weighs 3,950 pounds empty and can be loaded up to 6,000 pounds, and interior headroom is listed at 6.6 feet.

In terms of equipment, an Aereon was just your standard travel trailer inside. You got a full kitchen, a bathroom with running water, and an entertainment system featuring a flatscreen LCD TV and a radio. Remember when having a flatscreen LCD TV was a big deal?

In terms of holding capacities, you’re looking at 35 gallons for fresh water, 27 gallons for gray water, and 27 gallons for waste. Put in other words, this is more or less your standard travel trailer layout, but with a focus on quality.

The price for all of this? ASV Trailer said that you’d have to pony up $29,981 before options, tax, or freight charges. That is the equivalent of $44,813 today, so the Aereon would have been on the premium end of fiberglass trailers. The 24-foot model, which weighed 4,600 pounds and added a primary bedroom, was priced at $33,947 or $50,742 in today’s money. Options included 65-watt solar panels and a 0-degree weather package.

When the Aereon became the Galileo, JAG Mobile Solutions priced the smaller trailer at “under $32,000” but the website had no further specifics. It appears any presence of both trailers has been removed from the Internet, including their respective social media pages. Sadly, the Internet Archive has saved only so much about this effort.

That leaves us with the 2009 ASV 2154 Aereon for sale today in Michigan. As we’ve established, this trailer is a pretty rare unit. It’s a 21-foot model and the trailer appears to be in good shape. Look at the exterior photos and you can see what I mean with how it is built. It’s not a pair of tubs bonded together but large fiberglass sheets.

Moving inside, I love the use of wood inside of the unit. If you’ve ever used a travel trailer before, you might be able to tell the difference between the cheap crappy particle board playing itself off as hardwood and real hardwood. As advertised, this stuff looks like the real deal.

The layout here is really simple. There are no slides and what you see is what you get. The sofa across from the kitchen turns into a bed and the sectional in the nose cone turns into a queen bed. Supposedly there is enough room in this thing for four people to sleep, but I see it as a really nice couple’s camper. That said, this trailer does appear to be missing a part, or at least it’s not currently pictured. A hardwood collapsing and expanding table is supposed to be attached to the blank space on the wall between the two sofas.

The seller, located in White Cloud, Michigan, is looking to get $14,000 for this rare little unit. They also say this exact example weighs 4,520 pounds, so it’s still within the limits of some of the bigger crossovers out there and well within the limits of a truck or SUV.

While it seems as though the Aereon and the Galileo trailers were a failure, I still think they were a good idea. They took a typical travel trailer and put it into a package that should last a long time. I’d love to see something like this make a comeback today, because I’ll never say no to more fiberglass options on the market.

(Images: Facebook Seller, unless otherwise noted.)