Time to start the refurb!

It is difficult to describe the odor inside of this camper. I am hoping the removal of the carpet and cleaning it out will remove most of the smell.

I pulled the carpet and found the floor is a little worse then I suspected. There are a few spots that you could literally fall through. The floor pan underneath is all there so this should help with the condition of the frame.

Since it was raining when she arrived it gave me a chance to discover any visible leaks. The roof vent was leaking fairly good. as well as one of the windows toward the front door. There is another hole in the wood behind the vent where it appears a branch fell on her and caused a crack in the roof. This one is leaking a little.

I forgot my extension cord to hook her up to the electric so I decided to go to town and buy a new one. Dino decided to stay back and work on the Spartan interior a bit.

I arrived back with a big yellow extension cord and Dino had tore out all the press board paneling that someone had paneled the living room with. I guess painting it was not enough so they decided to add another layer of beauty!

Dino was now busy cleaning the original Frigidaire and doing a hell of a job! It gives me hope that the rest of her will clean up just as well.

Well the worse leak appears to be one by the window near the front door. The old birch is rotted away and someone used a large cutting wheel as a makeshift floor patch. I can see between the inner window and outer windows water collecting and leaking down the wall. Where o where is it coming from? Well that will be for a later date, I'm exhausted, dirty and I smell like this 54 year old girl.

Taking delivery!

I was lucky enough to find a guy who was reasonably priced to deliver my Spartan to it's new home in Adams-Friendship Wisconsin. He arrived late picking it up and me and my friend Dino had a nice long wait with Kirk waiting for him to arrive. I guess the two hour wait was worth it with the amount of money I saved!

When the driver arrived he decided to test the 60 year old lights to see if they worked. He cut the old connector and added new wire. All the lights worked!! We were amazed!

Now for the 190 mile trip on original tires to it's new home. With rain in the forecast I decided we would not follow him we would meet him there. I didn't need the stress of driving behind her all the way. So I set the GPS for the "shortest" route (big mistake) and we went on our merry way.

The very long winding road trip was not too bad since I had a chance to talk with Dino and he seemed to enjoy the ride or at least not complain about the 4 hours it took to get to the land.

The camper arrived a hour or so after we arrived and it was raining pretty good. We had to cut a few branches to get her in place but overall it went quick. She is now in her new and "permanent" place.

Finding my Spartan

I always wanted a birchwood camper trailer and mostly put it out of my mind. Then one day I stumbled upon a Spartan website and fell in love. The Spartan is the finest travel trailer ever built and was the top of the line back in it's day.

I put out ads on craigslist for a Spartan wanted and had no luck. I searched high and low on craigslist and ebay and found a few but most were located on the west coast, and since I am in Chicagoland and the camper would reside in Central Wisconsin the cost of transportation would be cost prohibitive. I found a yahoo group for Spartan Travel Trailers and joined. I figured I had nothing to loose if I posted a message seeking a Spartan in a close proximity to Wisconsin. Almost immediately I received a message from Kirk. He acquired a 1956 Spartan Royal Mansion with a length of 40 ft including the tongue. He posted some pictures of the exterior on the Yahoo site and it looked like it was in good condition. I asked for the interior photos and he said he could not send them until he cleaned it out.

After a few weeks I decided to go take a look at Kirk's Spartan which was located about 2 hours west of Chicago. When I found the "farm" the Spartan was a hulking thing of beauty sitting out behind Kirks ramshackle mix of connected mobile homes. The dull finish and exterior was nearly flawless with the exception of the large dent in the front round corner where Kirks makeshift hauling truck put a large dent in it from a too sharp turn on it's way to his farm. I asked Kirk if I could look inside. He said " Sure but there is allot of junk in there" I had my camera ready to snap as many pictures as I could so I could go home and study them. I opened the door and the interior looked like some of the foreclosed homes I see in my real estate business, full of junk furniture, bottles, a couch, extra fridge, old curtains, and lots and lots of mice poop. I made my way over and around the junk surveying ever inch. Snapping pictures of everything I could see. I spoke to Kirk for a few hours about Spartans and he told me he bought it to scrap for the aluminum, but discovered it was worth more then scrap. I left thinking about the Spartan all the way home.

This Spartan was originally all birch on the interior with a 8x8 floor tile throughout. The previous owner painted the entire trailer a mix of colors that I could only guess was from the "oops" shelf at Home Depot. This particular trailer had the blond wood upgrade. Not that this would be a "upgrade" today. The original price of my Spartan in 1956 was $5775.00 base price. In today's dollars this would be approximately $60,000.00