Help me indentify the trailer I just bought. Pictures

[HJGyswyt]

I just bought this well preserved trailer as a home for my son who is moving back home to go finish his college education. I bought it without a title, just a bill of sale. There is a vin number stamped into the frame, but no labels anywhere on the trailer. The license plate is stamped 1963, but it almost looks older because it has the original tail lamp and there is only one in the center, no holes where dual tail lights might have been.























Thanks if anyone can help me ID the make of this trailer. It's well preserved because it was under cover most it life, as evidence of the paint job that shows how the owner painted around the support poles of the roof. Hans

[tbred]

Neat thread to follow, kind of a "history" lesson. I hope Op will follow up with progress and updates

[Francesca_Knowl]

DUNEBUGGYDOUG wrote:
I think it was a mobil home and not a travel trailer

You're right- especially at this time there was really little distinction between the two, at least in the bigger sizes. They were designed as little "homes on wheels", and not necessarily just as "RV's". Might call mine at least one of the earliest "Park Models", lacking as it does any holding tanks at all.

A huge motivator for the tremendous boom in postwar production of "homes on wheels" was the lack of housing for returning veterans. That combined with the peacetime idling of so many aircraft production lines, especially in the West, made for a perfect marriage: need plus the materials/facilities/labor to fulfill the need.

As pointed out in JBrish's post, there were many, many such trailermakers. I read somewhere that some parts of airplane production lines were re directed to building trailers, and others just surplused out their equipment to folks that wanted to set up to do so elsewhere.

I really WISH I could find the old brochure that came with my '52...it actually bragged about the "airplane design" heritage of the trailer.

[DUNEBUGGYDOUG]

I think it was a mobil home and not a travel trailer

[JJBIRISH]

1956 angelus


http://www.midvalleynews.com/columns/2012/07/04/america-hits-the-road-part-one-an-industry-takes-off/

“Timing being everything, Southern California was primed with skilled workers and plentiful supplies of the woods, steel and aluminum needed for trailer manufacturing. In those two decades, there were some one thousand makers of travel trailers across the USA and Canada, with Southern California, the upper mid-west and Florida being hubs of activity. In El Monte, there were no less than twenty manufacturers, none of which survive today, though some examples of the trailers made there are still seen and in use. Made in El Monte were; Airlight, Aljoa/Aljo, Angelus, Benroy, CalCraft, Cardinal, Corvette, Crown, Curtis Wright, CustomCraft, Dalton, DeVille, El Rey, Empire, Happy Home, Ideal, Mercury, Radco, Robin Hood, Sierra Madre, Silver Streak, Streamline, and Terry. All had originally manufactured travel trailers with some expanding their lines to “Park Models” or what we would now call “Mobile Homes”. Most of the makers were centered along Garvey Boulevard and Chico Avenue, now in the City of South El Monte. - See more at: http://www.midvalleynews.com/columns/2012/07/04/america-hits-the-road-part-one-an-industry-takes-off/#sthash.51BuBAmZ.dpuf”

[HJGyswyt]

Cuffs054 wrote:
Posting that stove on "Discuss O Mat" might bring you enough to redo the whole thing!

Well I looked up Discuss O Mat on line but I'm not going to sign up just to see what they are about, but I am amazed at this old trailer so far. The thing that amazes me is I bought it from a guy in Ephrata WA who owns "Urban Archeologist", which is an antique and second hand store, and with the exception of my wife and my 80 year old mother who think I'm nuts, I think I got a real bargain for $750. I'll bet the original fridge was a real beauty. I try to match the color of the stove and at least get a white fridge. Hans

[Cuffs054]

Posting that stove on "Discuss O Mat" might bring you enough to redo the whole thing!

[Cuffs054]

How Cool is that!

[HJGyswyt]

robsouth wrote:
Well, shucks. The trailer I was gonna check out today is GONE! Nobody around to ask about it or where it went. Keep looking. You'll figure it out or some of the others will. The Angelus angle seems a good start.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do that. I would love it if Fransesca could send me a picture of hers, that might be confirmation enough for me, and then trying to pin down the year.



Today I cleaned up the regulator, it's working again and I put propane in the old tanks (thanks to a friend who still fills UN-certified tanks without OPD) and connected the gas line to the stove and it works perfect. I also reconnected the 110V to the hot water tank and the heating element comes on, so really all I have left to do is purchase a fridge as far as mechanical things.

I really wanted to get my 1951 3/4 ton International out of the barn and hook it up to the trailer for a photo opportunity, I just think this trailer would look good behind a similar vintage truck. Hans

[robsouth]

Well, shucks. The trailer I was gonna check out today is GONE! Nobody around to ask about it or where it went. Keep looking. You'll figure it out or some of the others will. The Angelus angle seems a good start.

[ls1mike]

Love the blog. I recognize Fort Flaggler when I see.

Clean 3rd Gen. Hard to find a nice one these days...off track a little. I have a 5.3/4L60E in the garage screaming to go into a 3rd gen. Just have not found the right one yet.

[CavemanCharlie]

I just checked out and enjoy your blog. I had a friend back in the day that had several IH trucks. I remember around 1986 he had a 1964 IH 3/4 ton and the doors didn't stay shut on it very well. We went around a corner at a stop light and I leaned on the door. Bad idea, it wasn't fully shut. I almost fell out in the middle of the road but, he reached over and grabbed my shirt and kept me in. After that I always make sure the door was shut tightly by throwing my shoulder against it after climbing in. Whenever I ride with him to this day I still do that even though the old IH is long gone. We always get a laugh out of it.

[Francesca_Knowl]

HJGyswyt wrote:

Francesca Knowles wrote:
I'll be darned...

I'd bet dollars to donuts that trailer was made by whoever made the 32 footer that's here on our property. Except that this one looks smaller than that, they're alike in most of the details, from the siding to the windows to the coupler latch to the taillights to the interior. Mine has a pocket door in the wall behind the stove- does yours?

It also had an original brochure in it when I got it, but I seem to have misplaced it. That was a real hoot- had a picture of a Nice Young Couple goin' down the road in their sedan with this big ol' monster behind...straight out of "The Long Long Trailer"! :B

I do still have the legal Title, though- had the good sense to stow that with the rest of our Titles. The trailer's identified thereon as an "Angeles"- year of manufacture was 1952 as I recall.

I've never been able to find out anything at all about the brand.

Let me know if you can locate the lost documents. I'll send you a private message the next time I'm in Port Townsend, would love to meet you and see the old trailer. Yes the old trailer has a pocket door that separates the bed room in the back from the living area up front. A previous owner removed a section of wall next to the toilet so the pocket door doesn't have a wall to meet any more and the bathroom is now open to the bedroom. Not a big deal for my bachelor son, who also is a large person, he can use the extra maneuvering room. Can you post a picture of your trailer? Thanks, Hans.

:B

I can tell you why the P.O. removed the wall next to the toilet! Mine has the original fixtures, and they're MINI versions of the real thing. Both toilet and sink are about 3/4 size... the fact that the ones in your trailer are clearly standard size threw me off the "same as mine" track at first. But other details being so right on, I decided yours must be replacements, and removing that wall's the only way they could have been squeezed in there. I can see why someone would do that- we used ours for awhile as a rental, and always cautioned prospective tenants that they'd better "try on" the toilet before making a bid to live there. 😉

That said:

I see talk here about y'all removing some pink decor bits...if you're thinking at all about a "faithful restoration", here's some news: The original fixtures are not just tiny, they're a beautiful rosy pink. We had a young fella about your son's age living there for awhile, and he always said that the bathroom looked like Barbie'd gone ape in there.

You've done me a real service by starting this thread- I had NO IDEA that the correct spelling of the mfr. name is "Angelus". Googling it just now, I did come up with a few things, which you've probably already seen.

How's this for purty?Pic source

Puzzled as to where I got my misunderstood spelling, I got the Title out this morning and see now that mfr name STOPS with ""Angel". Somewhere along the line I must've stumbled over some corruption of the full "Angelus" and just presumed it to be correct.

P.S. on edit;

Just found a data page that gives letter codes for trailer manufacturers- this link indicates letters "ANGE" is correct for "Angelus Trailer MFG. Company". Dunno where the State of Washington got the "L" on my Title- but the I.D. is close enough for me.

[HJGyswyt]

ls1mike wrote:
Nice to see a 20 year old who loves 3rd gens. I have a nicely modified 2000 Trans Am WS6. I have been to Pacific Raceways with it a bunch. Both of you are close to me. I am sort of in the middle living out in Poulsbo.

Not to go off track from the original post, my kids grew up Camping/RV'ing. My son was 7 days old when we took him hiking in the Cascades (day hike) and my daughter was only 2 weeks old when we had a big family reunion at Fort Flaggler State Park on Marrowstone Island near Port Townsend. When the kids were young we home schooled them while we pretended to be snow birds, going as far as Mexico with our trailer in the winter and summers were spent way up north in the interior of British Columbia, so they are no strangers to RV's.
This is his first time being allowed to drive he and his sister in his Camaro to Fort Flaggler when he was 16. I did not buy the car for him like I did the old trailer, he bought the car with money he earned. Nice find, one owner out of Poulsbo for $1700.

I'm still trying to find anything I can on the old trailer, Franseca's tip is the most intriguing so far, I couldn't find any old pictures of Holiday Rambler that matched, and I have found "Angelus Trailer MFG" in California, but no pictures. I'll look closely at the stove for a date of manufacturing. We're going looking today for Apartment Size fridges that might fit the 27" wide 57" tall opening. Hans

[tbred]

Great old tt. Your son is going to love his new space and judging by the pics of your farmette on your blog, your tt is going to love it's new home!

[HJGyswyt]

CavemanCharlie wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gLIE5Xi9rA

except substitute the word trailers for houses.

Good song, I listened all the way through, I'm guessing that seeing the pictures of the old trailer, or maybe the pink hearts triggered something in your mind to link that song to this thread? Hans