Born Free’s Roll Bar Safety:  How it began

Every Born Free that’s built starts with safety in mind. John N. Dodgen, our founder, built the first prototype Born Free, and on his way to British Columbia to put it through field tests with his wife and two of his children. He smoked in those days, and just 20 miles north of Humboldt on Highway 169, he stopped to buy a pack of cigarettes. The clerk had a sad tale to share, “You know, we had one of those in our town and a school teacher owned it. She had a blowout and it flipped over and her six year old son, who was riding in the cabover was crushed.” Stricken by this story, John N. immediately turned around and returned to Humboldt where he and his team tore down the prototype and rebuilt it with roll bars. He vowed that every RV he ever built would be built with roll bars.

  (Note:  The RV referred to by the store clerk was not a Born Free RV.)