My COVID Camper
I have always wanted a vintage trailer and now that COVID has me at home all the time, I thought I’d finally have the time to work on one. I was periodically cruising Craig’s List and looking for other trailer sites and I stumbled up on a ’65 Comanche near me. It was in rough shape but I got it for $100. I picked up the wheels and had new tires put on them so I could pull it home.
I’m the second owner, and I purchased it from the original owner’s son. His father, a depression era child who saved everything, passed away last year and the son was cleaning out his home. The camper had become a “hunter’s trailer” and the owner had… embellished? several… upgrades? shall we say?
He had blacked out all the windows by painting over them and filled them with insulation. He boarded over them on the inside as well. The roof had been replaced with galvanized steel and probably leaked worse than before the “repair.”
To hide the water damage, the owner had carpeted the walls, which basically turned it into a mold farm. He had added a built in upper bunk in the rear and put in a largely home made furnace.
There were two layers of carpet on the floor and the roof vent leaked pretty badly. The roof paneling was rotten and beginning to fall in. I figured that I’d just gut the trailer and throw up some paneling and cupboards and make a rolling bunkhouse and maybe camp with the kids quickly.
I got to work cleaning it out, and then I started watching trailer restoration videos… and THEN i realized what I had gotten myself into :0
And so begins my journey to turn this shell into something I can safely tow and camp in… here we go!
