Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 23:56:03 -0500
Reply-To: jpalmer@MYMTS.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jeff Palmer <jpalmer@MYMTS.NET>
Subject: Re: Westrailia update
In-Reply-To: <53A25FEE.9070009@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Sounds like you're getting ready to sell the trailer??
Jeff
> Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 20:58:38 -0700
> From: camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Westrailia update
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>
> My little camping trailer, a repainted model consisting of a fiberglass
> body atop a steel frame model which was made in 1972 by the Ladybug
> Trailer Co. in San Juan Capistrano (and about which I can find nothing
> other than a few corporate filings on the California Secretary of
> State's website), this little trailer suffered a fairly major breakdown
> on my last camping trip. Busted the tongue right off the frame.
>
> My occasional blog mentions the breakdown:
>
> <http://thatjacksblog.blogspot.com/>
>
> My son kindly drove his 4WD Jeep up to the site to help paste the
> trailer back together so I could tow it back home when I left. He took
> most everything I didn't need back with him so I could and drive back
> with an empty trailer.
>
> The splint he & I applied to the busted tongue worked, the trailer made
> its way back home, and he made me an offer: for his 26th birthday, I buy
> him a $100 Harbor Freight wire welder, and he'd put the trailer's frame
> back together.
>
> Deal.
>
> Bought him the welder and some steel bits from Bend Steel Co.; he
> provided the welding mask and better-quality wire (the stuff that ships
> with the welder is rubbish); and he used the trailer frame to learn how
> to use the welder.
>
> He modified the frame to make it miles stronger than it was (once the
> body was off the flimsiness of the original frame was evident). Adding a
> 2'' x 3'' steel 11-gauge box channel spine from the hitch to the rear
> crossmember strengthens a frame remarkably. Several other bonds were
> broken, he strenthened them with 11 gauge bar stock. Had fun. The thing
> will outlast me.
>
> I brought it back home last night, and today I put on a new wiring
> harness for the lights: I replaced the crappy Harbor Freight stud-mount
> lights fitted with incandescent bulbs in amazingly crappy sockets that I
> got ten years ago with far better Harbor Freight stud-mount lights with
> LED lamps that should last far longer.
>
> This evening, he and I set the body atop the rebuilt frame, drilled new
> mounting holes, bolted the body down, and Hey Presto! the Westrailia is
> ready to rock.
>
> Nice to have son who is handy, and will help the old man. A confluence
> of his birthday and Fathers Day.
>
> So, Cosette, the cat, and I are going camping starting Friday and won't
> be back until Thursday. It's special spot I know at the base of Pine
> Mountain, Deschutes County, Oregon, with nary a soul within miles. No
> water, no accomodations. But beauty, quiet, and long, long days.
>
> --
> Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
> 1984 Westfalia, auto trans,
> Bend, Ore.
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