So after months of delay, here is a collection of photos from the rebuilding of our travel trailer. It's not quite done yet, and it probably won't be until the day we sell it.
This was how we found the trailer at Fletcher's Trailer Sales in Trumansburg, NY (http://vintagetrailerkingpins.com). Fletch was awesome and a constant source of help throughout the project. I should point out that this probably wasn't the normal type of trailer sale at Fletch's. We first saw this trailer while looking through his parts trailers, most trailers go to parts row to get slowly dismantled and scrapped... We just happened to be foolish enough to think we could rescue this one.
Here's the trailer coming home, I hopped out to take this photo, Evie is probably staring through the missing rear window at the atrocity we dragged home.
Three shots of the trailer at home before the demo. The inside was completely trashed and most of the structure was rotted way beyond salvage. When I started to remove the outer skin the structure began falling apart... Probably a good thing we only towed it 30 minutes home.
These two pictures show almost all of what was salvaged from the trailer we brought home. The outer aluminum skin, and the frame. The idea was if we used the same backbone and skin, the trailer would maintain it's cool vintage look, while being completely new. The skin wound up dictating the entire build. All measurements were done by determining the outside shape, and then calculating inwards from there. In theory this shouldn't be too hard, but there are a lot of complex lines to this thing, the two sides weren't identical and I had to be within a 1/4 inch when done to make everything fall into place. In retrospect it would have been easier to start from scratch. The only things re-used and not in the photos were the wheel wells and the door (though that was taken apart and rebuilt too). Everything else is new.
This is a picture of the frame getting prepped for rust treatment and paint. Most of the new drop floor has been welded in at this point and the old axle/spring assembly was removed to make way for the new one. The original trailer only had standing headroom of 5'10", I managed to eek out another 3" so I can stand in it without slouching, and it only lost about 1/2" of ground clearance... magic. We also moved the drop floor section forward a bit and enlarged it to work better with our re-imagined floor plan.
The two side walls on our porch awaiting install. It's impossible to tell from this photo how nightmarish they were to build. There's around 30 hours of work in those, mostly in failed attempts to edge join 2-1/2 sheets of plywood for each side to be cut out of. Also, these had to be pretty dialed as all other measurements would be made from these going forward.
The beginning of the floor assembly, including the drop floor and wheels wells in position. This was really exciting as it felt like a real turning point, the trailer was starting to show it's new form.
This is what lightweight trailer framing looks like. 1/2" plywood walls and 1x4 bracing. Not all the 1x4's are in yet, I think i added another 2 in the back, 2 in the front and 2 on the top. The inside front, back & top got 1/4" plywood, then rigid foam insulation was added between the 1x4s, then the skin was attached. The side walls got 1/4" thick aluminized bubble wrap before the skin went on.
Cleaning the skins before reinstallation.
Two shots of the interior starting to form. The back is two bench seats with a table that drops to transform the dinette into a full size bed. The blue cushion was to help me determine height, width, etc of the benches and table layout. Those curvy walls by the seats are pretty important to the structure, they keep the walls from bowing out in the middle and add a bit of rigidity to the structure. The shot of the front shows our dresser and counter space. We took out the kitchen, figuring we'd do as much outdoor cooking as possible so as not to stink up the small space. The counter gives us an option for terrible weather though.
This was my work space, pretty cramped, and not weather tight. We picked up the trailer in winter, and worked on it in the spring/early summer. How I yearned for a garage.
Two shots from the deck. One with only the top skin on showing the side insulation and foam board under the front window. The next with most of the skin on and getting ready to tow to our friends Adam and Bettina's house. We were rebuilding this trailer while planning our wedding, packing up our house, and getting ready to travel cross country and live out of the trailer for a few months. Glad that stress is behind us.
The trailer at Adam and Bettina's. Doors, roof vent, side windows and lights all installed. The side windows were from another Scotty. We'd been looking for a couple months at this point for front/rear windows to no avail. It was awesome for Adam and Bettina to let us camp in their yard for a week while we worked on the trailer. So much thanks. While there we got it registered, which was huge... no more towing without a license plate.
Really frustrating that I didn't get any good photos of it, but our friend Brian helped us out with plexiglass for the front window and door. He has a custom lighting business and was awesome enough to take some time off work mid day to cut up the plexi and aluminum we used to fabricate the windows. He also needs to be credited with countless hours of consultation and advice as we spent many evenings sitting at Evie's bar theorizing and drawing on napkins.
When we got to Syracuse we had two new helpers for the build. My nephews Jack and Max were so excited to help. They brought their tool boxes and got to work sawing and nailing.... lots and lots of nailing. (There are actually 3 or 4 nails in the trailer that they hammered in.) Jack also helped Evie with some of the painting projects. Sometimes it's hard to get work done with so many helping hands, but it sure was fun.
While in Syracuse we got a lot of little things done, installing cabinet doors, painting the interior, installing the table, re-spraying the front, sewing and installing curtains, etc. I also put a chisel into my finger and had to visit emergency care... fun fun.
All hitched up and ready to hit the road. This was when the trip really started.
The trailer at Evie's grandfather's farm in Michigan. We spent three days hanging out with family and having a blast. I thought we'd get some work done on the trailer but it was 100+ degrees and humid all three days and that's just miserable working weather.
This is where we're at now (or were when I wrote this post, we've moved on again). Tom and Debbie's land near Nevada City, CA. This is hopefully where the trailer will get finished (it didn't). Not a ton more to do, but it's home now so it's a bit harder to work on.
All in all it was a really fun (and frustrating) project. I learned a lot and expanded my carpentry skills. I also realized 3/4 of the way through that it would have been significantly easier to start from scratch. The empty weight came in just under 1000 lbs which was the goal, partly for registration reasons and partly because we have a little 4 cylinder Subaru to tow with. The car did great towing, better than I expected. Turns out the Rockies weren't the part to be feared, it was the headwinds on the plains that we struggled with. We wound up driving by engine oil temp as much as speed for that part of the trip.
