When my family took off on our 9,000 mile road trip last summer, the camper of our choice was a Forrest River Toy Hauler. It was more of a “Toy-less Hauler” as we weren’t hauling any dirt bikes or other play toys. Instead we chose the Toy hauler for two reasons: (1) the back ramp door makes and awesome deck and allows nature to come inside and (2) toy haulers are made for boon-docking so they have bigger holding tanks and on-board generators.
Now, unless you are buying a very high-end rig, anyone that has owned a travel trailer know that they are made in mass production and things break. Just part of the game, right? After repairing a ton of items on the road, I made the decision that I would never own “junk” again. I have always been a guy into classic hot rod cars and the thought of owning and investing money in something made of 2×2″ studs and corrugated siding with lag screws did not excite me.
I made a plan in my head (you do this when you drive a lot) of what I would like to build as my next rig – a vintage Airstream travel trailer. I liked this idea because Airstreams are made to aircraft specifications with aluminum and rivets, are timeless and cool, and I could build the interior out to my modern specs.
This was going to be the end-all, right? Nope.
I took the family down to the local Airstream dealer to see what the new one’s looked like. I figured that would be a great “build goal” to see what a $100k trailer looks like inside. Plus, it would be an easy way to get the family onboard with my upcoming project. As we walked up to the 30′ Classic model Airstream, I could see my wife was into it. Score!
That is, until she walked inside. She walked in, did a 180 and walked out. I asked her what she thought and she replied “Way too claustrophobic, I like toy haulers.” Doh! I had to say that I agreed. Airstreams, while beautiful with amazing attention to detail are pretty tight inside. I am 6’2″ tall and with the trailers rounded sides it felt tiny inside.
So, my dream project was crushed and I felt dejected. 🙁
That is, until I stumbled across this 1951 Royal Spartanette Converted Toy Hauler.
H-O-L-Y-S-#-!-T is this thing thing awesome!
The builder went to amazing detail combining a vintage Spartan travel trailer (also of aircraft quality but without the extremely rounded sidewalls) and a car hauler. Granted this was built as a car hauler with a separate, simple living quarters… it has sparked a new idea in me. The owner is asking $125k for it, which is only about $120k over my budget so I guess I’ll have to build my own.
I highly recommend reading the trailer writeup details here, and also the detailed build thread here.
