'69 Shasta Compact

[2bits]

After teardropping for a couple years, I decided I wanted a standup trailer but still wanted to follow my original thought of camping without a huge gasoline bill or pain in the butt factor. I ran across two 10 footers that I really loved but they had too much water damage and need framing repair so I still have those for later fun projects, but I can't camp in them now. I bought a '58 Kenskill which is 16' long without the tongue and fixed everything on it, so it has a shower and toilet and really vintage and beautiful but it is just simply too big, so although I love it very much, it goes again my whole mindset. I also have a 14" Shasta Astrodome but it just doesn't seem to fit me. I really just decided that I like that little 10 foot campers. So I kept looking...

I picked up this '69 Shasta "Compact" tiny trailer for $180. It looked terrible on the inside but when I checked the upper seams from the wall to roof there was no rot or water intrusion at all, plus it has the wings on it, I figured I couldn't lose money on it, that was about the extent of my inspection

There is a lot of work to be done, but once I got it home and cleaned out of all the junk and funk, I realized that there was zero water intrusion around any of the windows and walls except for the tail lights and roof vent. The rest of the roof and walls are in really super condition. The vast majority of the walls are in mint condition. Also apparently someone went through a steep angled road and REALLY bent the entire left rear section. The frame is bent and the floor separated from the walls. This is actually good because the walls and the rest of the camper did not feel the effects of this at all. I mean zero twisting of the body.

Plans are to clean every square inch of it, replace the one roof panel around the rood vent and install a fantastic fan, then either really clean the original flooring and try to use it only because it is perfect just really dirty or install new flooring. Next. rebuild the kitchen drawer faces and replace one rear interior panel in the back over the tail lights. The only real big job is the front corner where there is a missing piece of aluminum and the front corner is separated. So that whole corner of the trailer will need to be rebuilt, and oh yeah the left rear frame needs to be bent back down and the sides reattached, that sounds major but the steps to complete are pretty simple, I just need to figure out how to do it haha... After that and a good buffing on the outside I'll be camping!

[2bits]

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[coyote]

Outstanding, it looks nice, and sounds like you lucked out! Looking forward to seeing progress! Coyote

[aggie79]

Thomas,

That looks really cool. Could you tell us more about the compartment on the street side of the kitchen? It looks like it may be a closet. I guess that is a wall-mounted icebox next to it. If so, maybe the ice-mounted icebox could be removed and the space repurposed to enlarge the closet for a small bathroom.

Take care,
Tom

[2bits]

Hey Tom, there is the original ice box installed there which looks great so I don't want to remove it since it is original, the closet next to it actually had an original port a potty in it! Basically your legs would stick out of the little room while you took care of business. It was nasty so it is now in the trash, I prefer a shower more than a toilet so I am crunching my brain trying to think of a way this could be a shower. The Kenskill shower is 2' x 2' and this room is 2' x 1' 8" so it's a little skinny but almost there. I found a post online where someone remodeled it in the the same kind of bathroom but it looked so clean it looked like a shower. There is a place under the fridge for a water heater and a bit of a gap for plumbing around the ice box so we will see. Even if it is a tight squeeze it would be nice to have!

[aggie79]

I prefer a shower more than a toilet so I am crunching my brain trying to think of a way this could be a shower. The Kenskill shower is 2' x 2' and this room is 2' x 1' 8" so it's a little skinny but almost there. I found a post online where someone remodeled it in the the same kind of bathroom but it looked so clean it looked like a shower. There is a place under the fridge for a water heater and a bit of a gap for plumbing around the ice box so we will see. Even if it is a tight squeeze it would be nice to have!

Thomas,

As you know, I've been kicking around ideas for a second project. A toilet would be nice but it has to have a shower. The dilemma is I want to keep it in the TTT realm, but a shower takes up so much space. I've come up with two possible solutions. Both would use the "aisle space" around the kitchen. One idea would be to use some type of a shower pan, place it on the floor, and connect it to a drain, something like these:

http://popuptimes.com/?p=787
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LKbNlj8W-8

The other idea is similar to the above but would involve less setup time. There are two options for the shower pan and the shower curtain. The shower curtain could use rails that either fold out or extend out from a closet, or the rail could be arched and connected to the door so that when the door is opened 90 degrees it forms a larger shower area. As far as the shower pan, one option is to have a shower pan that folds out for use and folds up for storage but is permanenlty connected to the grey water line. The other option is to have the pan countersunk in the floor, assuming the trailer frame would allow this, with a teak or redwood grid even with floor level that would allow water to flow past the grid to the pan and into the grey water tank. When not being used as a shower the grid would be part of the floor.

I hope my random thoughts doesn't move your post off topic.

Take care,
Tom

[2bits]

Tom, Thank you so much for reminding me about this!! I remember someone her or in one of the tiny trailer forums has posted the same thing and it makes total sense! Man this would be great for one of those Scotty's that already has a dropped floor, just put a drain in the middle! I am going to take this idea and run with it! I like the idea of using the closet to store the stuff and open the door and slide out the top rail and bottom pan and there you go!

Right now I need to focus on the couple things left to get my other two camper ready to sell, then I will focus on this Shasta to make it campable, and then shower here we come! Thanks again!

[tonyj]

Thomas, you really should consider contacting Camping Trailers Anonymous at this point. Your addiction is getting out of hand and we really should do an intervention.

Have you considered alcohol addiction as an alternative? It requires much less physical effort. Okay, there is the liver damage tradeoff, but . . .

Nice score on the trailer and a fun project. What are you planning on towing to the LCG?

[2bits]

Tony haha, well, I think I'm already down that road with the alcohol! but I'll stack these campers up all day long for this price! It's like money in the bank! I am just about ready to thin the heard though, Just one thing left to do on the Kenskill and two more things for the Astrodome and they will be sold which will give me the cash to fix up the other two ten footers that I have. The '78 Playmor actually looks the most vintage with it's rounded sides, and I am going to do that one up Glamper style and make it as feminine as possible since there is a big market out there for that, and it will be fun to do something with a different theme than just making it my own style. At some point I will end back up with just one camper and I think this Compact will be the one I am going to settle on, but I am sure there will be others coming and going too! Living the dream!

[tonyj]

It really is a blast when you have the time and space to pursue your hobbies. I'm excited for you and can't wait to see the progress on all these campers.

But which one can we expect to see at the LCG? Or is that a secret?

[2bits]

hah! not so much of a secret as it is an unknown. I am hoping to be in the Compact at LCG and have the Kabnskill and the Astrodome both sold by then! We will see how it works out. I just finished the Kenskill today so it will go up for sale tomorrow, and I'll keep the Astrodome around until the compact is done, just to be sure I have something to camp in. Of course I might buy another camp-ready camper in the meantime too! So it's as much of a mystery to me!