Finding the Trailer

I finally found my Silver Streak. I had been looking for over a year. I was interested in finding a travel trailer for our family to enjoy and on a limited budget I knew I needed a fixer upper. As I started investigating the options I fell in love with the vintage aluminum styles and really liked the Spartan and Silver Streak models.

I like the older trailers made to last from solid materials. It seems like the newer trailers just aren’t made as well and aren’t conducive to retrofitting. Some of my research included online pictures of older aluminum trailers with the interior gutted to view the metal framing. These older classics just seem like solid quality with a perfect foundation for a little customization.

I’m a family man with a wife and five kids. Yep, seven of us to cram into the trailer. When you go on family vacations with seven people you have a few challenges. If you camp you have to put up a huge tent or a few small ones. Either way, it takes a bit to set it all up and you have to stay for at least four or five days to make it worthwhile.

If we stay in a hotel with five kids and two adults we have to get an extra large room or two rooms together. Or, when we want to save a few bucks and we’re feeling sneaky we’ll take the kids in a few at a time and crowd them in. It helps that we have identical twins, it confuses the front desk.

I started my search in earnest on Craigslist.org. There’s this site called Crazedlist.com that helps you search lots of different craigslist locations at one time. I live in Sacramento, CA so I started searching the west coast.

A few months ago I started following a trailer for sale in the Los Angeles area. It was originally listed for $3900. I had been saving up some money and had about $2600 to spend. After following the listing for awhile I was ready to settle for another trailer that was a little cheaper but not as complete. The price dropped to $2900 in one weekend on mine and I called them up. I made the offer of $2600 and they accepted.

We spoke on the phone at about 2:00 and I hit the road with my two boys for a six hour drive. Well, with a ten year old and a six year old the drive turned into about ten hours. Bathrooms and fast food stops all the way down.

We spent the night in the trailer once we got there and enjoyed the dusty and musty interior of a real fixer upper. In the morning we hooked up and pulled out. The light plug for the trailer was not a modern option and I couldn’t find one in any stores. I’ll post more on that later. The result was a trip back home with no trailer lights. Scary and illegal. I should have taken a light bar but I just wasn’t prepared.

We were also surprised when we got there by a door with broken hinges. The sellers told me they had new hinges for it and they just needed to be mounted. Unfortunately the hinges they had were just some stock hinges from the hardware store. If you know these trailers you know the hinges are unique and can be a real week spot. I’ll post more on the hinge issue later. We tried to use some cardboard and duct tape to cover the open doorway but it just didn’t hold on the trip back.

I had hoped to have the wheel bearings checked by a shop but they couldn’t squeeze me in that day so we hit the road with a prayer and lots of little stops on the way home. By the time we got home the boys were sick of fast food and I was ready to be done driving.

The trailer made it just fine and had no problems being pulled the 400 plus miles to Sacramento. This blog will document my efforts to repair and retrofit the trailer to my use. I hope you enjoy and respond when you have questions, comments, or suggestions.