VCT Magazine Issue #50
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In this Issue:
- 1951 Spartanette
- Build It Yourself from kits and plans
- 1954 Chris-Craft Kit Trailers
- 1957 Sportcraft - Full Timers
- ‘60, ‘61, ‘62, Shasta and a ‘59 Airstream
- 1968 Fireball
- 1957 Holly - Camp Kettlewood
- How Long Does it Take to Install a Refer?
- Route 66 - Texas | New Mexico
- Gold Window Screens - How To
- Word Search by Tim Heintz
- 1948 Tear Drops
- 1968 Serro Scotty
- History of Lawn Chairs
- USA Rally Calendar
This is our 50th issue of the VCT Magazine! We can’t thank you enough for supporting us in doing what we love. We are grateful for the friends we have made and the experiences we have had being a small part of such an inviting community.
It wasn’t long after we realized we had a passion for vintage trailers that I discovered vintage literature. Early on, we began collecting and saving original brochures and ads that told the story of America’s love affair with trailer travel. We have accumulated old literature in many different forms. We have a fair amount of original pieces, but we also make copies or have purchased images on CDs. We are fortunate to be in a position to be entrusted with other people’s memorabilia collections when they are ready to pass them on.
In each issue of the magazine, we try to share a few nostalgic glimpses of the past from “before they were vintage.” Sometimes we receive actual photos from readers, and other times we dig into our archives to find interesting prints that remind us of mid-century camping and travel. In the last issue of the VCT Magazine, we featured a “boat/camp trailer” that led us to the Chris-Craft Boat Company’s trailer kit that they sold in 1954. That trail stirred my curiosity about trailers that were offered in kit form or as plans that you could build yourself.
I had several pieces of literature in my collection that documented a number of parts, plans, and blueprints that were available from the 1930s through the 1960s. From the 1970s through today, plans are still available, especially if you are interested in building a teardrop style trailer. To get the community’s perspective on these types of trailers, I turned to Bob and Carl (authors of The Illustrated Field Guide to Vintage Trailers) and Tim Heintz. Tim is my (and many others) go-to for accurate historical information about travel trailers. I was amazed at how much additional information each of them was able to provide.
There was much more information than we could include in a few pages in this issue of the magazine. Looking through the plans, I am impressed with the ingenuity and ideas they were coming up with 80 or so years ago. As the demand of vintage trailer enthusiasts exceeds the supply of available vintage trailers, will building your own from scratch become popular again? I’m not talking about crawl-in teardrops, but actually constructing a stand-up trailer from plans that were probably drawn before you were born. Using new materials to create a coach that is more redolent of the past than a mass-produced retro or reissue.
You can tell where my head is at. Handcrafting something from the past that would honor American ingenuity and be inimitable. I have a full plate of projects that need to be finished, so I’m not sure if, or when, I will be adding another one to my plate. Anybody else game or maybe you have already started one?
We want to see all of your projects. Send us high resolution photos and a bit about your vintage journey for consideration for the magazine.
By Paul Lacitinola