Met a guy today (long story) who is redoing a late 70s travel trailer that he will use as a showcase for his paint and body shop. He had someone come in and remake all the benches and cabinets, took out the shower and replaced the subfloor that was rotten, nice Linoleum flooring and a buddy of mine is doing all the upholstery for it.

He got the trailer, which is about 20' Long for $500. He has a few grand into it in parts and labour and has bartered and traded a fair amount of stuff to get this done. He is willing to sell after a few local shows or do some more if there is interest in this. The price point he is estimating is between 5-10K depending on model, finish/trim, etc. Its nothing fancy and does not attempt to compete with new travel trailers or motorhomes. It is for ppl who are simple minded and/or on a budget. He said he could do a really cheap one for 3-4 grand if he had too.

I have seen some projects like this on here and other places and I told the guy that I liked the idea. The work that he has done so far seems to be good quality and overall the trailer is in good condition. Light and easy to tow, registration, tags, etc should be cheap and there are plenty of old travel trailers around that can be picked up cheap.

What do you guys think??

I've always wondered how someone goes about rebuilding one of thoes things. I've torn quite a few apart ('70s - '80s vintage) and they seem to be glued / stapled together and just fall apart once you start digging into them. Is he by any chance doing a writeup or have a website? I'd be really interested to see how it's done especially by someone who sounds like they're doing it properly!

As for rebuilding them for a profit, unless it's an airstream, no way in hell. At least out here on the west coast, you can get perfectly liveable '80s to '90s trailers anywhere from $1500 to $4k depending on size, age and condition all day long. If people are on a budget and looking for a budget trailer to live in or camp in occasionally, they'd be more likely to just pick up something used and ok, rather than paying for something that even after being rebuilt is still just "ok" and is still just an older travel trailer.

I think he is going to do another one. I just found out about it today and this one is complete except for interior/upholstery. If he does another one I might talk to him about doing a build up thread on it, posting pics, etc..