Alright - We have our camper, now we just have to make it ready to use. Should we have gone new, or newer used? Perhaps. But what we found was too cool to pass on. Here was our opportunity to join ranks with other vintage camper owners. Here's what we did.
Knowing that truck campers typically receive excessive stress at the jack corners and tie-down areas, we really preferred to look for a new camper and be extra careful with both issues during our use and ownership. We also wanted lightweight: as narrow and short (height and length) as possible to keep maneuverability good both on highway and off-road, plus we didn't want to make big changes to the hitch for towing our Willys Jeep and/or boat.
After having settled on either a Wolf Creek 840 or Northstar 8.5 Arrow, we kept looking on Craigslist for "what-evers".
The night I came across a 1966 Travel Queen 10.5' in a Craigslist ad, with one lousy exterior shot and one lousy interior shot, at a location within 300 miles from us, I showed my wife the picture, including the vintage interior wood paneling, and was surprised to see her interest peek. She's very frugal and hasn't been all that excited about spending big bucks on a new unit. And, we both have such fond memories of our past two 1950's canned ham camp trailers. I continued to search Craigslist nationally for this interestingly designed "Travel Queen" style, and found two more campers: a 1966 10.5' located relatively close to the first one, and a 1968 8' model over 1000 miles from us! A plan was starting to develop.
Push came to shove and we bought unit #1 for $700 including "lots of needed restoration work" and an original sales brochure in pristine condition; we hauled it home. Then we contacted the owners of the third one (8 footer, 1000 miles away) and after receiving a couple more pictures of it, including the right exterior side and an interior shot (the original ad was only a left front and a left rear) we made a purchase decision (also $700) sight un-seen and drove two days to get it. Excellent condition! No mice! Minimal water stains on the interior panels. Minor mods, mostly original and intact!
Two more days to get it home. Removed almost everything that wasn't OEM and/or nailed down and weighed it. Unloaded it and removed the jacks (will replace with new remote electric jacks). The current weight is 1507 lbs (without jacks and tie-downs). I will keep track of the weight as we remove and add stuff.
Can't remember the name for a combination restoration/customization, but that's what we'll do. Out comes the ice-box, catalytic heater, old range, water-tank and lines, etc. In goes a new fridge, range, water heater, vented furnace, water-tank and lines, new grey-water tank and heated dump valve, large portable toilet by Thetford (similar in size tanks to a Cassette Toilet), sit-down wet bath, refinished woodwork, new mattress and cushions and upholstery, etc.
Here's the closest floor-plan from the 1966 Brochure. The differences in ours (1968 model) are: street side - once inside back door there is a furnace under the galley counter, then a double sink (replacing the counter to the right of the single sink in the picture), and on the right side the dinette is forward, leaving room at rear for a combo toilet/wardrobe/open storage shelves closet. That closet will be converted to the wet bath.
More pictures, including the entire scanned sales brochure with really cool details about the "Safe-T Jacks", the aerodynamic styling, floor-plans, testimonials, etc. is available here...
Dave's and Ruth's Travel Queen Album
Knowing that truck campers typically receive excessive stress at the jack corners and tie-down areas, we really preferred to look for a new camper and be extra careful with both issues during our use and ownership. We also wanted lightweight: as narrow and short (height and length) as possible to keep maneuverability good both on highway and off-road, plus we didn't want to make big changes to the hitch for towing our Willys Jeep and/or boat.
After having settled on either a Wolf Creek 840 or Northstar 8.5 Arrow, we kept looking on Craigslist for "what-evers".
The night I came across a 1966 Travel Queen 10.5' in a Craigslist ad, with one lousy exterior shot and one lousy interior shot, at a location within 300 miles from us, I showed my wife the picture, including the vintage interior wood paneling, and was surprised to see her interest peek. She's very frugal and hasn't been all that excited about spending big bucks on a new unit. And, we both have such fond memories of our past two 1950's canned ham camp trailers. I continued to search Craigslist nationally for this interestingly designed "Travel Queen" style, and found two more campers: a 1966 10.5' located relatively close to the first one, and a 1968 8' model over 1000 miles from us! A plan was starting to develop.
Push came to shove and we bought unit #1 for $700 including "lots of needed restoration work" and an original sales brochure in pristine condition; we hauled it home. Then we contacted the owners of the third one (8 footer, 1000 miles away) and after receiving a couple more pictures of it, including the right exterior side and an interior shot (the original ad was only a left front and a left rear) we made a purchase decision (also $700) sight un-seen and drove two days to get it. Excellent condition! No mice! Minimal water stains on the interior panels. Minor mods, mostly original and intact!
Two more days to get it home. Removed almost everything that wasn't OEM and/or nailed down and weighed it. Unloaded it and removed the jacks (will replace with new remote electric jacks). The current weight is 1507 lbs (without jacks and tie-downs). I will keep track of the weight as we remove and add stuff.
Can't remember the name for a combination restoration/customization, but that's what we'll do. Out comes the ice-box, catalytic heater, old range, water-tank and lines, etc. In goes a new fridge, range, water heater, vented furnace, water-tank and lines, new grey-water tank and heated dump valve, large portable toilet by Thetford (similar in size tanks to a Cassette Toilet), sit-down wet bath, refinished woodwork, new mattress and cushions and upholstery, etc.
Here's the closest floor-plan from the 1966 Brochure. The differences in ours (1968 model) are: street side - once inside back door there is a furnace under the galley counter, then a double sink (replacing the counter to the right of the single sink in the picture), and on the right side the dinette is forward, leaving room at rear for a combo toilet/wardrobe/open storage shelves closet. That closet will be converted to the wet bath.
More pictures, including the entire scanned sales brochure with really cool details about the "Safe-T Jacks", the aerodynamic styling, floor-plans, testimonials, etc. is available here...
Dave's and Ruth's Travel Queen Album
Bearsfanatic: Here are pictures of the jacks. The brand isn't visible but that looks like a Reico-Titan diamond symbol to me.
Here are pics front to back of the 10.5' camper. The visible pipe is part of the Saf-T Jacks if you aren't familiar with how they look. The bent hook is used for storing the brace piece of the jack system.
These next pics are the tie-down system built onto the 8' camper. As you'll see, they use the holes originally for the Saf-T Jack mounts. Those holes are balanced for the camper's center of gravity and so the rear jack mount is too far forward for an optimal tie-down location. The center hole is for the hand crank mechanism for the original jacks. Also, the under-mount framework seems to place the tie-downs inboard a bit too much in my opinion, and the rear one way too far forward as the turnbuckle wants to ride against the truck metal. I suspect forcing the mount locations further outward with a longer pipe might cause too much leverage on the framework.
Future posts are going to go into category specific posts. Look for these under Subject lines like...
Travel Queen Resto Mod - XXXXXXXXX where XXXXXXXXX will be something like: "Jacks and Tie-Downs" or "Interior Woodwork" or "Freshwater System" etc.
This won't occur until I get some fairly big Yard projects done, the Willys checked over and maintenance for the upcoming season, the boat out and used a bit (at least finished broke in ๐ , and Lil Willy's home on the highway (hauling trailer) finished set up, each thing for a June deadline!
Here are pics front to back of the 10.5' camper. The visible pipe is part of the Saf-T Jacks if you aren't familiar with how they look. The bent hook is used for storing the brace piece of the jack system.
These next pics are the tie-down system built onto the 8' camper. As you'll see, they use the holes originally for the Saf-T Jack mounts. Those holes are balanced for the camper's center of gravity and so the rear jack mount is too far forward for an optimal tie-down location. The center hole is for the hand crank mechanism for the original jacks. Also, the under-mount framework seems to place the tie-downs inboard a bit too much in my opinion, and the rear one way too far forward as the turnbuckle wants to ride against the truck metal. I suspect forcing the mount locations further outward with a longer pipe might cause too much leverage on the framework.
Future posts are going to go into category specific posts. Look for these under Subject lines like...
Travel Queen Resto Mod - XXXXXXXXX where XXXXXXXXX will be something like: "Jacks and Tie-Downs" or "Interior Woodwork" or "Freshwater System" etc.
This won't occur until I get some fairly big Yard projects done, the Willys checked over and maintenance for the upcoming season, the boat out and used a bit (at least finished broke in ๐ , and Lil Willy's home on the highway (hauling trailer) finished set up, each thing for a June deadline!
