Load Leveler Hitch

As luck would have it, my niece Kristen and her husband Blake, just happen to have a vintage Load Leveler Hitch hanging on the wall in the garage at their new home. I think a little powder coat and it will be ready to go. The trailer hitch looks like it got tangled up with someone that doesn't know how to back up. Not a problem, as these old trailers don't have a way to lock the hitch, I was planning to replace it with a modern one. The modern ones look the same, but they have a place to insert a bolt or a lock so the hitch doesn't open while we are putting down the road.

Bad Wood

Unfortunately, unless these old vintage trailers are kept under a cover, they all have water damage. This Shasta was built in Goshen Indiana in 1962 and spent many years in the Great Lakes area. I can just imagine three feet of snow on top of a trailer made out of aluminum and pine 1"x2"s. The first picture is inside of the left side, front window. The water damage is pretty much normal for both these front side windows. The dark spots are where someone glued Birch siding over the damaged wood. In the picture you can see the water tank and the 110 power supply. The second picture is removing the water damaged wood below the rear window, taken from outside through the rear storage door. This is the same door where you could see the dog in the last post.

Time To Start Working

The first picture is of the inside rear. The couch/bed foundation and most of the structural wood has been removed. The couch that pulls out into a bed will be replaced with a "real" full size mattress, and the platform will be raised two inches. This should make for some good sleeping, and more permanent storage under the mattress as the inside storage door and wall will be moved forward about a foot. The second picture is an inside view of the rear wood removal.

Quick trip to the California DMV

It's been a month since we bought the trailer so I thought it was about time to go duke it out with the DMV. I went on Monday and took the bill of sale and the other paper work I had picked up from the DMV a couple of weeks ago. Not having a moving permit I didn't take the trailer and they couldn't figure out what type of it was, after two of them looked through their books they finely called it a park trailer. I then paid $80 and got a moving permit for the next day so they could check the vin. number. The next day they figured out it was a coach trailer, checked the vin. and handed me the new licence plate and stickers. There was no red tape to be seen, and I didn't have to jump through one hoop. These are a couple of pictures on the road home from the DMV. This trailer won't be seen on the road for a long time, and the next time it is out it will be White over Red.

Tow Rig

One of the first things after arriving home was to see how the trailer looked behind it's purposed Tow Rig. This Bronco is the reason why we own the Shasta trailer. My father-in-law gave us this '73 Bronco two and a half years ago. He bought it new and drove as a rural route delivery truck for the U.S. Post Office for 13 years. I have replaced, repaired or rebuilt about 75 % of it and was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Working on this Bronco introduced me to E-Bay. There were Christmas cards for sale during the holidays that showed a Early Bronco pulling a Shasta trailer "with wings" in the snow. The trailer looked just like the Shasta 1400 my grandfather lived in for a short time, almost 50 years ago. I thought, hey that would be cool, so not knowing any better, I started looking for a small trailer to pull behind the Bronco. If I had only known! Who would have thought that Vintage Trailers have taken on a life of their own, were kind of hard to come by, and cost way to much. I had no idea that these little trailers have become so popular. I expected to find one in somebodies yard, that they had forgotten about. I hate to tell ya but those days are gone.

Trip home with new trailer

Picture taken on Highway 97 in the high Desert near Shaniko Oregon. The old grain silo is made out of nothing but wood. I was lucky enough to watch one being dismantled about 50 miles down the road. The walls were at least two feet thick where they were working, about half way up. The lumber was stacked in different piles according to size, most looked like 2x8's. They were removing thousands of feet of wood that looked brand new, only the outside was weathered. There is a Diesel Truck with a tanker trailer parked on the left side of silo, shows how big it really is.