Flora the Explorer Comes Home

Gail and I have been considering purchasing a camper for a while now.  We both have done the backpacking thing and decided it would be much better on our backs and bones to have a bed to sleep in off the ground.  

We considered new campers but had become smitten with the older "canned hams" of the 50's and 60's.  There are some pretty sweet refurbished trailers out there and I think looking at some pictures sparked our sense of adventure.  Besides, we needed a new project.

Last weekend (June 19, 2011), Gail found  an ad for a 1962 Serro Scotty Sportsman for sale in Gladwin, about two and a half hours from Ann Arbor.  She called and to make a long story short, we went and took a look. 

 It was love at first sight. (That's Rachel's dad checking Flora out.) 

 Front view

We wrote a check and went home to get ready for our new arrival.

We had a hitch put on the Subaru. Somehow thinking about towing a trailer with my 90 HP VW made my toes curl. We did some research on Scotty trailers, found that the dry weight of the Sportsman is 975 pounds and checked to see that this is well within the towing limits for the Subie.

We drove to Gladwin Saturday morning and got all hooked up.  The lights worked!  Woo hoo! 

For vintage campers (probably cars, too), if there is no title, you have to provide a bill of sale and trailer weight in order to get it registered with the state.  So, we went off down the road to Krompetz Feed Store.  I pulled the Subie and the trailer around the building and pulled onto the scale.  Once the car’s rear wheels were off the edge of the scale, I stopped.  Remember how the dry weight is (supposed to be) 975 pounds?  The trailer weighed in at 1,240 pounds!  What the hell?  Fortunately, the Subie can still pull that much and off we went.  We mulled over why this trailer was so much heavier than it was supposed to be and thought it could be the table support plus wood that was used for repairs. 

On her way home!

My parents are generously allowing us to park the trailer in their yard while we work on it.  We arrived at their house at about 2:00, barely scraping the towing tongue on the driveway.  I wasn’t in the mood to try to turn around and back the trailer across the lawn, so I drove all the way around the house to the side yard and parked the trailer. 

We didn’t have any major plans to do much work after we got the trailer set up (except we had brought tools, an extension cord, work gloves, work clothes, dust and mold masks…).  But then we opened up the door, stepped inside, and decided that we needed to get part of the interior ripped out to help with the mold smell.  We knew the trailer was damp and figured we’d help the drying process along. Gail started in the back, I started in the front.  

 Front interior

 The "kitchen"

The back couch/bed area (won't be sleeping here)

Gail pulled off the wood interior, and then pulled off some Styrofoam insulation.  The pieces were waterlogged.  I took out the dinette table and the left side bench seat.  I accidentally poked my screwdriver into the wood at the base of the front where it meets the floor and water spurted out!  Gail pulled out the linoleum which was on top of the original floor and there was a huge puddle underneath. 

So, we have figured out that the dry weight is, indeed, 975 pounds.  We not only hauled the trailer but also an additional 265 pounds in water from Gladwin to Grand Blanc.  When you convert the water from weight to volume, 265 pounds = 33 1/8 gallons.  

We have named her Flora the Explorer.  Gail and I will be blogging about our adventures in restoring her to her rightful glory.

Until our next posting - Rachel & Gail