This was our '78 Apache hardside, stolen last fall. The thief cut through a locked cyclone gate and two hitch locks to get to it.
I'd finished the restoration some years ago (not that it needed much), even added zippers to the cushions so we could keep the original upholstery while replacing the foam. Even had original curtains and wheelcovers.
That definitely made things tough this camping season, so I started looking for a replacement. The Apache was a great trailer and a fabulous piece of engineering, but setting up/tearing down in the wind and weather could get old. I also needed something lightweight enough to tow behind a minivan or wagon, and I'm a sucker for old and funky stuff. While I love the old veneer-interior canned hams, in the interest of daughter-off-to-college budget friendliness I started out looking at '60s vintage Aristocrats, Aladdins, and the like. For some reason, most of the likely candidates seemed to be clustered in central Washington, which meant about a zillion miles worth of weekend road trips from our home in the Willamette Valley.
I mentioned something to a friend/barista about the search, and he told me about an old neighbor who bought/sold/restored vintage trailers and said I should go talk to him. Brad at Shiny Shacks seems like a good guy, and while he didn't have anything on hand mentioned a vintage trailer rally that he suggested we stop by. Coincidentally, the rally was that very day about ten miles away in Brooks.
After walking around the rally for a few minutes, my wife mentioned that she much preferred the '50s vintage veneer-interior trailers, which was what I'd really wanted for years, having good memories of my grandparents old Aljoa. It didn't take much arm-twisting to bump the budget a bit, and we shifted focus on those. We'd been fairly adamant that we didn't want a project (I finished the ten-year restoration of my '65 Mustang just a few years ago), but every trailer we saw either needed significant work or (worse yet) rework. There was either rot or badly matched veneers and repair work of dubious quality which I'd need to open up anyway. To be fair, we were trying to keep the budget down a bit, but even at $6-7k there weren't any good candidates that I could find.
I'd finished the restoration some years ago (not that it needed much), even added zippers to the cushions so we could keep the original upholstery while replacing the foam. Even had original curtains and wheelcovers.
That definitely made things tough this camping season, so I started looking for a replacement. The Apache was a great trailer and a fabulous piece of engineering, but setting up/tearing down in the wind and weather could get old. I also needed something lightweight enough to tow behind a minivan or wagon, and I'm a sucker for old and funky stuff. While I love the old veneer-interior canned hams, in the interest of daughter-off-to-college budget friendliness I started out looking at '60s vintage Aristocrats, Aladdins, and the like. For some reason, most of the likely candidates seemed to be clustered in central Washington, which meant about a zillion miles worth of weekend road trips from our home in the Willamette Valley.
I mentioned something to a friend/barista about the search, and he told me about an old neighbor who bought/sold/restored vintage trailers and said I should go talk to him. Brad at Shiny Shacks seems like a good guy, and while he didn't have anything on hand mentioned a vintage trailer rally that he suggested we stop by. Coincidentally, the rally was that very day about ten miles away in Brooks.
After walking around the rally for a few minutes, my wife mentioned that she much preferred the '50s vintage veneer-interior trailers, which was what I'd really wanted for years, having good memories of my grandparents old Aljoa. It didn't take much arm-twisting to bump the budget a bit, and we shifted focus on those. We'd been fairly adamant that we didn't want a project (I finished the ten-year restoration of my '65 Mustang just a few years ago), but every trailer we saw either needed significant work or (worse yet) rework. There was either rot or badly matched veneers and repair work of dubious quality which I'd need to open up anyway. To be fair, we were trying to keep the budget down a bit, but even at $6-7k there weren't any good candidates that I could find.
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