As you all may know not too long ago I picked up a $300 trailer. The plan initially was to restore it and use it. However, I realized once I got a better look at it that it would still be pretty cramped for 5 people. Our family consists of 3 adults (one is our 18 y/o son) and an adult sized 12 year old daughter and almost 5 year old. So with our two oldest being teens it’s almost like having 4 adults and 1 child as far as when it comes to giving thought to having enough room for everyone to sleep comfortably. Ultimately I ended up selling the $300 trailer to a friend of mine who plans on restoring it. It was hard to part with that cute little thing!
Anyway, so you may be asking why would I need a second trailer since I already have a 1955 Bellwood? I have a perfectly justifiable reason {as if having more the one trailer needs to be justified HA HA!} and that is since we spend a good deal of time at our Tiny Lake House, we wanted something we could take and leave there for the summer so we could go camping farther North. I can’t wait to explore more of Northern Michigan and the U.P. We just need something that will sleep everyone. The Bellwood we can’t all quite squeeze into so the decision was made to try and find something that would work as a second trailer.
With that said, I started to keep my eyes open for a reasonably small trailer that would sleep 5 people. Not an easy task! I came upon a few but wasn’t interested in driving 10 hours one-way or having one shipped as it just wouldn’t of proven cost effective. The SUV I drive has a Hemi, so you can imagine the gas hog it is and that being another reason for wanting something relatively small and not too heavy. Then there were ones that were simply too big. Granted, some of the bigger trailers are beautiful but with gas being what it is, I didn’t want the cost of towing to become a hinderance to our adventures.
So I came across an ad for a 1965 Frolic that said it was in excellent condition. Often times the seller’s interpretation of what excellent condition is and my interpretation differ greatly. I will say however, that this trailer was in what I would label as good solid condition and the interior is very visually appealing. It is very clean and has no odors of any kind. That’s not to say it’s not without flaws…I mean it is a 1965. There are some birch panels that will eventually need to be replaced, ie; under the front and rear windows and an area in the rear upper corner that will need attention. Also the wood surrounding the roof vent where the seller repaired and/or covered the damaged wood will have to replaced. None of the previous mentioned repairs are dire that haveto be done tomorrow of course, but something that I will tackle as time allows. The one thing I do want to do as soon as the weather allows is reseal all of the exterior seams and replace the screws with stainless steel.
When I called the seller he said that he was holding it for someone that said they were coming on Tuesday. I gave him my number and ask if he could call me should they not come or if they didn’t buy the trailer. He agreed. I spoke to the seller late Tuesday afternoon and he said the person never called so I could buy it if I wanted. I told him I was on my way and lit out of here like a bat out of ____ to get to the bank in time. It was dark by the time we arrived and after going over the trailer, loading the fridge and hooking up the lights we were ready to take off. That is until we realized the lights weren’t working. Hmmm. The seller then unhooked my SUV and hooked up his van and voila…lights worked so it was something with my SUV. I just knew it was going to end up being something really DUMB! OK, so we fiddled with this and that, read the SUV manual, checked the fuses, etc., and finally I inadvertantly put my foot on the brake peddle and voila…LIGHTS! Everything appeared to work as far as brake lights and turn signals. But I still didn’t have full-time running lights. I’m still bewildered by that and if anyone has a Jeep Grand Cherokee and has any advice on what I need to do for the running lights let me know. Trust me I fiddled with every switch, button, twist knob in that darn car and got nothing.
Whoa, this post is ending up much longer than I intended. Are you still with me? Let’s get to some photos!
This picture was taken when we stopped for dinner on the trip home. It pulled great. The title says it weighs 1600 lbs. Seems lighter than my shorter Bellwood that is the same weight but maybe that’s just because it wasn’t packed with all of our gear.
The seller’s ad photos. It’s eventually going to get a brand new paint job! What colors do you think? Aqua for the stripe and lower front and white for everything else? It’s going to be beautiful. It will also get painted wheels and babymoon hubcaps.
We got it home safe and sound. Oops, I guess I’ll have to remove that top panel on the carport to accomodate the heater stack.
Com on inside and take a look around. This trailer measures 13′ 8″ front to back and 16′ including the tongue. That heater you see works according to the seller. 
Here is looking towards the rear of the trailer. Notice the wood around the roof vent? Vintage trailers are notorious for springing leaks around roof vents. It’s just the way it is but if you repair them and seal them correctly you shouldn’t have a problem going forward. You can see the rear gaucho and the bunk that is in the up position.
This is the floor. The seller put tile squares over the original. Apparently the original wasn’t in bad shape just “dirty” and old looking as he described it. I had to suppress groaning audibly. These tile squares are the peel and stick kind. However they are much thicker than the cheapo flimsy kind. I’m very curious to try and peel one off to get a peek at the floor. I can see what it would look like in the bathroom as he left that floor untouched. But I’m not sure if I’d end up with a bunch of adhesive to try and remove also. Maybe someday I’ll try and see if I can save the original floor. For now this stuff isn’t bad. At least it’s a neutral color and he did do a nice job installing it 
The bathroom. I can’t speak for my husband but I for one do NOT like trying to dump waste tanks at dump stations. So unless we find that it’s really not that bad, then I’ll just stick the luggable loo in there (leaving the toilet in place of course).
A view showing the rear beds in place. There is room for 2 on the bottom and 2 on the top.
Also the dinette made down into a bed. One person could sleep here. Two people if they didn’t mind snuggling. Notice all of the roller pull down shades? Eventually, I’ll replace all of them with curtains. The cushions are in really good shape. I want to say the fabric is some sort of tweed-ish type material and the color (a lilac-ish) makes me think they aren’t the original fabric. I may have to do the cushion recover cheat on them. They are nice and firm though and should hold up for years to come.
The stove burners fired right up. Talk about it being in prestine condition. Wow!
The dorm fridge. I know not a big deal but this is bigger than what I’m used to! I had one in my 61 Shasta Compact that was super dinky and the Bellwood only has an icebox so this is livin’ large for me! It’s not original though.
We are going to try and solve that by putting back the original gas/electric fridge! Isn’t this thing SCRUMPTOUS? It’s even bigger than the dorm fridge you see in there now. The seller told me the following regarding the original fridge; It was removed because it needed a small repair on the control button (it’s a little button that you push in when you are trying to lite the pilot lite). He said when he opened the door a little spring fell out and it looked like it was missing a few ball barrings on the button. So armed with that info I’ll try and see what I can do. If unsuccessful I’ll have to see if I can find someone willing to take a look at it. The seller said his son wanted to go camping and he didn’t have the original fridge repaired so he bought the dorm fridge as a temporary solution. Unfortunately, he didn’t get around the fixing the original.
I can’t wait to start decorating it. However, I have to decide first what colors I want to go with to accentuate the aqua. Fun stuff!
