Trailer art - nailed it!

In our previous post, we saw a lovely little trailer made from old license plates - so cute and clever!

But what happens when one tries to apply license plates to the outside of a trailer?

Oh dear.  I sense that this was a grand plan that looked much better in the mind than in reality.

NAILED IT!

See more while you can...

Twins!

After quite a bit of searching of the interwebs, Michael and I had pretty much decided there were no other trailers just like ours.  Every other Aloha we came across was different - the door in a different place, no bunk hump - just different.  Our somewhat joking theory was that the workers at the Aloha factory came to work every day and said, "where should we put the door today?!"

It was 1967, after all.

The summer of love and all that went with it.

Sex, drugs, and random trailer design, baby!

If you're a trailer geek, you may know that it's difficult for vintage trailer owners to stay away from Craigslist.

"Let's just see what's out there..."

"We have our trailer, but let's take a look at what other [fill in the blank trailer make] are for sale now..."

"Wow, I'm so glad we found our trailer!  We got a great deal!"

"OUR TRAILER IS THE BEST TRAILER EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!"

You know how it goes.

You don't?

I suppose I'll take the hits for you, spend the time trolling Craigslist.  But if you've got something other than an Aloha, well - tough luck.  You'll have to do your own trolling.

Tonight started out like any other night.  It had been a while since I checked the listings, and I ventured a little further afield than usual.  I started poking around on the Portland Craigslist site, saw a few Aloha trailers, and then BAM!

What's this then?  A 1967 Aloha that has the same shape as ours!  Okay, that's nice - but where is the door?

Now we're talking.

Why on earth did somebody paint over that fiberglass panel in the front?  You can see the paint wearing off in that picture above.  Nobody painted OUR TRAILER.  We have a front window cover too.

How about the inside - let's make a comparison of that.

Not quite the same angle, but check this out...

Trust me, it's exactly the same.  Though we have the original stove, and I'm pretty sure that aqua beast is new.  Or powder coated.  But the metal back splash and effort to block bacon grease is identical.

So yeah.  It's essentially the same trailer, though we do seem to have more vents than the one that is for sale.

That means WE HAVE THE BEST TRAILER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!

EVER!

Trailer flipping...

Wow.  Just wow.  We've just noticed something on Craigslist that's a bit disgusting.  We've been looking at trailers long enough to start seeing the same trailers pop up again very quickly on CL - and the new owners are asking just a bit more than the first sellers.

The first we notices was this lovely little gem up in Canada - a little beyond our budget, slightly small, but GORGEOUS!  Asking price was $2950 - not bad for the condition.

The listing is gone now, but last night we saw the exact same trailer for quite a bit more - no doubt it was the same trailer!  We were shocked to see it listed again so soon.

And today, it happened again.

Remember the silver spray-painted nightmare we were almost sucked into?

IT'S BAAAAAAACK!

Rare 1968 Little Dipper Vintage Travel Trailer Camper - $2900 (Edmonds)

A little more info (including a brand name and year), a few more photos, a different location and $400 more dollars tacked onto the price.

Same crappy trailer!  Same spray painted tires!  Same painted stove and floor linoleum counters!  Totally different location...

"We just purchased this trailer and have had something come up so we cannot fix her up like we wanted!!"

What - in the ten minutes between when you bought the trailer and listed it, "something came up?"

Whatever.

Next up on the shopping block!

This lovely little 1967 Aloha travel trailer.  Looks well kept, clean, and in good overall shape.  Message sent and now we wait for an answer - IS IT STILL AVAILABLE?!!  I can't get too worked up waiting at the moment, since I sent the message well after 10:00 pm.  I can't help that we're night owls!

I don't know the location of this trailer, but based on how it was listed I think it's not too far away.  Perhaps this trailer owner will actually get in touch with us to let us know!  That last guy with the Shasta never got in touch, even after well-spaced email and voice messages.  Argh.  Bad Craigslist manners I guess.  You'd think they'd have the common decency to either pull the listing or put something on the voice mail greeting indicating that the trailer is sold.

Or maybe the guy is dead.  Who knows?  With no communication, all bets are off.  Maybe he decided not to sell the trailer and skipped town instead.

So on we go to the next possibilities.  It seems that there are new listings on Craigslist every couple of days or so, but I also feel like I'm looking at the same listings over and over again!  I'll click on something and see one of the pictures and think, "oh, I've seen that rotten wood before!"

It's pretty amusing fishing through Craigslist - there's some pretty crazy things!  Here's a little gallery of fun for your entertainment...

"Unfortunately somebody got a little "artistic" with the paint LOL"

(Everyone dreams of a stone faced exterior - but only the bold act on that dream)

That's a fabulous light fixture - I'll take it!

"The Ex left this vintage travel trailer behind."

(I'm pretty sure it was a gift of love)

This thing is so ugly they can't give it away!  It's been re-listed several times since I've started looking!

"Its in great body shape lots of room runs on battery's and propain."

(Staging lesson #1 - move your shit)

For every one listing that looks good, there are at least ten that make me run screaming!  It's pretty dam amusing though.  I'll be glad when we find our trailer, and I can stop looking at Craigslist.  Of course, I'll probably still look and post the nightmares that I find... it's my nature.

Let's try this again...

I swear, shopping for trailers quickly becomes an obsession, a sickness really.  I find myself on Craigslist several times a day, hoping for a new listing that might show promise.

Well - here comes another one!

1970 Shasta - with wings even!  Very clean, and obviously used well and loved.  The inside looks good, and the neutral coloring gives us a palette to play with as we see fit.  Porta potty included, and road ready!  Just the thing we're looking for.

Now, we just wait for the owner to get back to us.  I've sent a message, and if I don't hear back by 10 am tomorrow morning I'm going to give him a call.  They're looking for a good home for it, and I dare say we can provide it!

First viewing

We're going to go take a look a trailer tomorrow!  Excited!

Very promising.

I'll report back tomorrow night.


UPDATE:  We changed our minds, after much great advice from experienced trailer owners in the Tin Can Tourists group on Facebook.  Their highly trained eyes noticed things we did not, the ultimate killer (among many smaller tiny deaths) that they had painted the stove.  What the hell?  Who paints a stove?

Tank of gas saved.

Oh boy!

Not far from us there's an old drive-in theater, which in the past few years has become something of a trailer storage location.  I've always been fascinated by the supposed trailer graveyard, but haven't had a clue about what goes on there.  I alway figured they were just hoarding trailers for the apocalypse.  Turns out they're actually selling some, as I discovered on Craigslist. They had a listing for a tiny Fireball, too small and too rough for us.  But it gave me the open to get in touch.  We should be able to go poke around there soon to see what they have!

I'm excited.  Who knows what treasure lies sleeping in there?

Who knows what we'll find... who knows?  Will there be clowns there, living in the trailers?  It's the Circus Storage, after all...

I hope there are some clowns.

Whoa there, Nelly!

Lesson number one in the search for the perfect trailer - these things take time!  Just because you decide you want a trailer and you go on Craigslist and you find the CUTEST little trailer doesn't mean you should run out and buy it.

It's well taken care of, and the interior is nice.  Read more about it here while the listing is still up.  He's renewed the listing twice now, so it seems nobody is jumping on it.

Hold your horses - we haven't even looked at any trailers yet, so it's probably not a good idea to dash out and buy the very first thing that catches our eye.  In fact, she's got one major flaw - NO BATHROOM.

Oh well.

But she's done something very important for us.  She's helped us to start thinking about what we do want in a trailer, and what is unacceptable.  We need to stop, take a breath, and look around at the different things out there before we dive in.  That's going to be part of the fun - the learning and shopping around.  There are a lot of different trailer makes out there, and some of them are much more appealing than others.

I ordered four back copies of Vintage Camper Trailers magazine.  That should help us wrap our heads around the possibilities!