How to Buy a Vintage Travel Trailer

Let me back up for a moment, I realize that probably the first thing I should have done is given some advice on where/how to buy a vintage travel trailer. The adventure is a loopy one and if you are trailer shopping you might be thinking that you are going a little crazy so I'm here to tell you that you are not alone and to pass on some of my experience.

I'm a huge Craigslist fan and I use it to find everything from my kitchen stove to my furniture so of course I would also use this tool to find a vintage trailer (there is an RV section under the FOR SALE tab) One of the first things you will realize is that there is a huge variety of trailers depending on where you live and these will often have a huge variety of prices. I often remember seeing the same make and model of trailer being listed for vastly different prices. This becomes even more complicated since some people's definition of 'trailer is great shape' seems to be so vastly different from mine.

My advice is to watch the Craigslist ads closely for a few weeks to see what comes up in your area and a basic range of prices. It's helpful to be able to do word searches for things like 'vintage' or specific brands you might be looking for like 'Scotty' or 'Shasta' but the truth is that I found it best to just search through all of the ads to find out what is hidden. It's not unusual to see something like 'old trailer $200' with no other photo or description. Only after contacting the person will you find that it is a 1955 Shasta that has had one owner and has been stored in a garage for the last 50 years and is in mint condition. It is of course better to find the person who is just trying to dump an old trailer rather than the person that thinks of it as a valuable collectors item. RSS feeds are also very nice at this stage and a huge help if you know how to use them. Craigslist can be kind of hardcore and there are a lot of people out there who are probably much better at searching for treasures than you are so you have to learn pretty fast.

When you finally get around to going to see some of these trailers you will also be shocked to find out what bad shape many of them are in. People seem to forget to mention this often times in their ads and you will probably walk away from several trailers knowing you just wasted a chunk of time before you find the trailer you really love. Take this experience to get used to how trailers feel, the different lay outs and features that the different brands offer. Think of this stage as your education and don't be too eager to jump on anything, there are a lot of trailers out there and new ones are constantly popping up.

I quickly realized that the 1960's was the best era of vintage trailers for me. Old enough to look and feel cool, but young enough that I was seeing a lot less issues than I saw in some of the older trailers. This was about as much project as i wanted to take on.

Probably the most common problem you will run into is water leakage, this is a big problem and can cause a lot of structural problems so don't take it lightly. The most obvious places are the ceiling and the interior walls but search everywhere. The weak spots are anywhere that two panels meet so walk around the entire perimeter and push in the side looking for weak spots. Jump up and down on the floor and make sure you take some time to probe around underneath with a flashlight and a screwdriver looking for bad areas. Most travel trailers will have some problems so just know what your limits are.

The next most common issue might be rodents. Look for obvious signs such as rat poop, but I would suggest pulling out all of the drawers in the kitchen and looking in the cavities underneath. Someone might have cleaned up the trailer when the listed it for sale, but rarely to people think to look under drawers.

Use your imagination to look past things like bad curtains, ripped upholstery and torn flooring. These things might be a little expensive, but they are easy to replace and/fix.

Take time to learn about the different systems but in most old trailers these will need some work. Even if the propane all works I would probably want to replace all of the lines anyway. Know your limits and needs and take this time to figure out how much trailer you want. Start learning about different weights and how much you can tow behind your vehicle.

EBay is also another good tool to learn about different vintage travel trailers, but I would NEVER buy a trailer that I had not had a chance to comb over myself. There are just too many things that can go wrong.

Know your limits and think of every experience as a chance to learn. be prepared for some frustrations but know that your perfect trailer is out there waiting for you somewhere, you just need to find it.

new paint

As I mentioned before, I'm only doing a partial restoration. I'm not doing this to sell it, but to have fun with it. In this spirit I decided to go with a funky vintage looking color scheme of a pale flat yellow with a high gloss pea green stripe. I think it turned out pretty good.

Aluminum Polishing

I've also learned a thing or two about polishing aluminum. I had some on both the interior and exterior of the trailer and I've found that it takes a lot of elbow grease to really make it shine. I found some aluminum polish at the auto supply store and had to burnish it onto the aluminum several times to get a really good shine.

The Exterior

the exterior has needed a lot more work. Just about every bolt on the outside has needed to be removed and replaced. I've learned a lot about how to remove rusted/stripped screws and taken the opportunity to replace all of the drip edge and all of the packing material that squishes between the windows and the frame of the trailer. This is actually pretty cool stuff and seems to stay flexible and gummy for years. I'm trying to think of this as a mini house restoration, but it is a house that shakes a lot and it's good to learn how these systems work. Everything needs to be bolted down well. I'm happy to report that I didn't find any additional water damage while I had the various parts removed from the trailer.

Vintage Trailer Awning Poles

One of the first lessons that I've learned is that people charge premium dollars for Vintage Trailer Parts. I've learned to side step this by tracking down alternatives.

For example I needed trailer awning poles and I found them to be much cheaper at Cabella's rather than at trailer supply stores.

I had them shipped and I'm happy to say that they are perfect. Very good heavy quality and easy to use. Good job Cabella's!!

The Interior

the interior is mostly in good shape, my girlfriend is going to help me redo the curtains in something a little more Hawaiian and other than that it is mostly just cleaning, restaining the wood, a few loose parts that need replacing and my one big upgrade is adding a brand new fridge.

the beginning

I'm starting this blog just to help me keep track of what I'm doing. I've purchased a vintage 1967 Aloha Travel Trailer off of Craigslist and I am giving it a partial restoration at my house in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle before taking it out to my families farm just outside of Yellowstone Park.

I was searching for something retro and cool but in good shape. I quickly learned that one of the main problems to look for in trailers is leaks. This one is in great shape and even the original uphostry does not have any tears but it still needs some work.

This is my first trailer and although I'm pretty handy it has already been a learning experience.