The Hippie Wagon

[Correus]

Hello Everyone!

Well, as of this morning a long time dream has come true. I finally got a trailer to go with Grover!! :wings:

It isn't the prettiest trailer but the bones are good. With research and planning it should make an excellent expedition trailer.

I bought it yesterday from a friend of the family who is moving and can't take it with him. He sold it to me dirt! He bought it last spring at an auction with the though of making it a transport trailer for his woodworking shop and never did anything with it.

Since our car doesn't have a hitch I went and picked it up with Grover this morning. This was a bugger in itself. We have had tons of rain this year and Bill has a very low spot at the back of his property - the trailer was on the other side. I am having trouble with one of my locking-hubs going in and out of 'lock' so I couldn't put Grover in 4wheel drive. The ground was real wet, with spots of standing water, but we didn't think it would be too bad - WRONG!! That spot of ground had become a bog. Grover started sinking right away. Luckily it wasn't too bad and I got Grover out of there, but we had to manhandle the trailer over the bog to a spot I could get to.

Anyway, like I said, the trailer isn't the prettiest, but the bones are good. There is a lot of surface rust, but no rot. The guy who owned it before Bill did put linoleum in the bed of it. Even with a topper (which I will be getting rid of) rain still got in and got trapped between the bed and the linoleum. So, there is a chance the bed good be bad but if it is I have yet to find it. I will probably put a new bed in it anyway - just to play it safe.

I am also looking at switching the current axle with a heavier one for larger tires - I don't like those little ones.

Also, I have no idea who made it, what type of trailer it is, or when it was made (I'm thinking the 60s or 70s). If anyone has any info on this I'd appreciate hearing about it.

Anyway, here are some pics. You should be able to figure out why we call it the 'Hippie Wagon'.

Now that I have a trailer I'm sure I'll be picking some of your brains. I won't be doing too much work on it yet though because I have a lot that still needs to be done on Grover.

So, if any of you have thoughts or ideas let me know.

 

[Cruiser]

Those fenders give up a lot of room for some big tires.... Cant wait to see it without the topper and the kitchen floor... Good find there!

 

[Correus]

Thanks.

I think the fenders also have potential for jerry cans as well.

 

[adrenaline503]

That might be the ugliest trailer I have ever seen! I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

 

[Correus]

That might be the ugliest trailer I have ever seen! I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

:littlefriend:



Well...in the spirit of the Hippies...it probably would look better after a brew, a smoke, and wearing rose-colored glasses.

:friday:

 

[adrenaline503]

Haha, everything looks better after a brew. I am sure it will polish up nicley, do you plan to keep the cap on it?

:littlefriend:



Well...in the spirit of the Hippies...it probably would look better after a brew, a smoke, and wearing rose-colored glasses.

:friday:

 

[Correus]

Nope - the topper is going bye-bye.

I'm not taking it off just yet though, I'm going to leave it to help keep snow out of it since I don't have some sort of roof to park it under yet.

Do you want it?

 

[adrenaline503]

Oh no, no more toppers for me. I have a flatbed now It will look a lot better with the topper off. Do you plan to add more height to the sides?

 

[Correus]

I'm planning on it.

I have a few ideas and if I did them all it would about double the height. So, it would be shorter than the way it sits now.

 

[jatibb]

cut the roof off of the topper and make a hard tonneau cover out of it. ive been looking for a free or cheapie for that reason to add to mine. just a thought

 

[Correus]

That's a thought....

For grins-n-giggles I was looking something up dealing with the trailer and ran across the patents for such things as camping trailers & RTTs from the late 1890s through the 1940s. There are some really cool ideas there for a small trailer AND home made RTT.

 

[miller_au]

This will be interesting mate! as others have said it sure does have potential! Ill be interested to see the progress!

 

[Correus]

Okay - with all this potential...

I'm not sure exactly what I want to put on this, or how to outfit it. I've been looking at so many other trailers - there's just so much out there! :drool:

What would you suggest I put on this thing?

Right now, off the top of my head I'm thinking jerry can storage on the front fender well area and a storage container on the tongue area.

I've seen some awesome sketch ups on here so I'll be hitting those people up to see how they did their drawings.

 

[jagular7]

This is a really rough Roughneck-type of thing. I am looking for something along those lines myself. I would keep the topper or get another that would better fit the rail system of the trailer.

Design a single large rear opening door, add some slider drawers coming out of the side up front of the trailer to act as a kitchen (be under a bed frame), attach an awing to the topper for weather protection, add some side poles to entomb the kitchen, etc. Front part of the bed can be clothing storage and food. All kinds of options. It would sort of be a large rigid RTT on wheels with built-in slide-out kitchen.

 

[Correus]

Interesting idea.

Go to this site: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/

In the search field put this: 2329419

it the patent for an equipped vehicle. It has a pull out system.

You might have to register; it's free and only takes about 2 minutes.