Finding Otis
Bringing Otis to his new home.
Anytime I am on the road, I am constantly looking on peoples property for forgotten vintage trailers. For years I was hoping that little gem would be found. Other than a few for sale here and there that really didn’t fit what I was looking for on the typical online websites, locating a small vintage trailer is really hard, especially locally. So, for years, I just kept my eyes peeled, although I wasn’t putting serious effort into the search. I truly believed that if the right little trailer came to be, it would present itself with little effort.
Kitchen
One day during the summer of 2017, my wife went to visit a sick friend of ours that lives a couple blocks down the road. After the visit, when she got home, she informed me that there was a small little trailer across the street from our friend’s house for sale. I think I remember her mentioning how run down it looked. When she told me about the trailer, I couldn’t get there fast enough to check it out! When I turned the corner onto the street that the trailer was located on and saw the trailer, I knew in my being, that it was going to be mine!
There Otis was, a 1964 Aristocrat Lil Loafer. The most important thing to me was that the exterior aluminum sheet metal was in good shape as well as all of the windows, since I wanted to naturally reuse them. As far as the interior, that didn’t matter much to me since I knew I would likely be gutting it in order to update it. Being a 54 year old trailer, the interior in fact was in disarray. I knew that almost any vintage trailer I would purchase, would more than likely need to be torn down to the frame as a result of dry rot. In my opinion, it’s much easier to accept this fact first and hope for the best than to think an old trailer was just going to need a little uplift. Luckily for me, I was looking forward to a complete restoration if it came to that.
Once I knew Otis would work for me, I arranged to purchase and pick him up the next business day. I couldn’t believe it! Finally, I found our little vintage trailer!
Closet
There Otis was, a 1964 Aristocrat Lil Loafer. The most important thing to me was that the exterior aluminum sheet metal was in good shape as well as all of the windows, since I wanted to naturally reuse them. As far as the interior, that didn’t matter much to me since I knew I would likely be gutting it in order to update it. Being a 54 year old trailer, the interior in fact was in disarray. I knew that almost any vintage trailer I would purchase, would more than likely need to be torn down to the frame as a result of dry rot. In my opinion, it’s much easier to accept this fact first and hope for the best than to think an old trailer was just going to need a little uplift. Luckily for me, I was looking forward to a complete restoration if it came to that.
Dinette/Sleeping area and upper bunk
The front of Otis
Once I knew Otis would work for me, I arranged to purchase and pick him up the next business day. I couldn’t believe it! Finally, I found our little vintage trailer!
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