Recycle your Popup

[austinado16]

About a year and a half ago I saw a Craigslist ad for a free '83 Starcraft Starflyer 19 in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I only wanted the kitchen table and the cook stove because my '87 was missing both.  Fortunately, those were the only 2 things the guy had stored in his garage, because most everything else in/on the camper was rotted from the roof leaks.

I wound up keeping the fridge, put the brand new tires on my own pup, and found homes for the door, tail lights, cushions, water tank and a few other parts.

Then I decided to make the camper into a flat bed trailer.   I cut around it with a sawzall, towed it to the dump, and flipped the entire camper off into the landfill.  Got rid of the rotted floor at the same time.  I wound up with a 375lb, 10x6.5' trailer on a 2,000lb axle.  

In went tail lights, and on went a plywood deck and metal fenders, and I've been using it like crazy ever since.



from early on, I wanted to put sides on it, and soon found a guy on the local CL selling metal stake sides from a flatbed truck.  $50 later, I had a complete set set.  

Fast forward to this past week. I bought 7' of rectangular steel tubing to make the stake pockets.  I took the trailer over to a welding/fabrication shop where they let me use their equipment to cut the steel. I had to mod the front and rear panels because they were too wide, but a quick zip with the sawzall, and they were perfect.  I clamped it all in place and paid them $65 to weld it up.  

Here it is with a fresh rattle-can paint job.  I'll install amber and red reflectorized side marker lights, replace the rusty safety chains, repaint the deck, and it's done.

[waygard33]

Wow! Great job!
You should be proud...not only of the trailer but that you're able to work and make/reconfigure things for new purposes or to just keep them going for another service life. Just like what most folks did 50+ years ago and hardly anyone does today.

Thanks for posting.

Wayne in Oregon

[ScouterMom]

Wow! Great job!
You should be proud...not only of the trailer but that you're able to work and make/reconfigure things for new purposes or to just keep them going for another service life. Just like what most folks did 50+ years ago and hardly anyone does today.

Thanks for posting.

Wayne in Oregon

I couldn't agree more!

I HATE waste! so many things nowadays are thrown away when they have lots of useful life left in them!

and the 'new' stuff being made is intentionally made so that it can't last or be refurbished easily, so that manufacturers can force us to keep buying new rather than 'maintaining' older, formerly servicable items.

Am I the only one who wishes car manufacturers would stop putting in all those electronic gizmos that cost so much to maintain or replace and can't be serviced by a handy guy with a set of tools?  

I wish for a plain vehicle with no electric windows and locks, a manually adjusted seat, no turn signals on my mirrors, (and no motorized mirrors, either - that cost $300 each or more to replace!) and a straight 6 engine that a mechanic can understand without an expensive computer!

don't get me wrong, I love gadgets - but they have their place!

[AustinBoston]

The goal is: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Recycle is the third choice.

I would have put this under Reuse, which is better than recycle.  Recycle would have been to send the whole frame off to a steel recovery facility.

BTW, looks like you did a great job.

Austin

[austinado16]

Rebuild and reuse is the story of my life.

Our Victorian home was going to get bulldozed.  We moved it to our current location and rebuilt it from the ground up.  Since finishing it almost 15yrs ago we've hundreds of thousands of dollars head of the real estate curve.   It's full of vintage furniture and 50's appliances that we've collected and restored and use daily, including the washer/dryer, fridge, stove, dishwasher, etc.

I paid $250 for our pup, and other than my time, probably haven't put more than $500 in it, including mods like the $125 I spent on LED's and the $100 or so I have in adding the furnace.  Meanwhile, some friends of ours went out and bought a brand new pup for about 7 large 2 years ago.  It's currently for sale because they can't afford to keep it and need the money.  They'll take a big loss on it.

Same deal with our vehicles and the lawn tractor.  All on the cheap, needed work, and now look and run great.

Over the weekend I scored an $300 bi-folding, 7' long x 28" wide diamond plate aluminum motorcycle loading ramp for $70.  I modded the legs on it today to work with the lower deck height of the trailer, as well as the height of a pickup, and I now have a nice loading ramp that my hand truck fits on!

[waygard33]

Rebuild and reuse is the story of my life.

Our Victorian home was going to get bulldozed.  We moved it to our current location and rebuilt it from the ground up.  Since finishing it almost 15yrs ago we've hundreds of thousands of dollars head of the real estate curve.   It's full of vintage furniture and 50's appliances that we've collected and restored and use daily, including the washer/dryer, fridge, stove, dishwasher, etc.

I paid $250 for our pup, and other than my time, probably haven't put more than $500 in it, including mods like the $125 I spent on LED's and the $100 or so I have in adding the furnace.  Meanwhile, some friends of ours went out and bought a brand new pup for about 7 large 2 years ago.  It's currently for sale because they can't afford to keep it and need the money.  They'll take a big loss on it.

Same deal with our vehicles and the lawn tractor.  All on the cheap, needed work, and now look and run great.

Over the weekend I scored an $300 bi-folding, 7' long x 28" wide diamond plate aluminum motorcycle loading ramp for $70.  I modded the legs on it today to work with the lower deck height of the trailer, as well as the height of a pickup, and I now have a nice loading ramp that my hand truck fits on!

Austinado - I love those reuse stories. You should consider getting a Smugmug site and posting all your mod and reuse pics. I would love to look at them. HeRuide does a great job posting his photos and 'how-to's on SM and I really enjoy looking and learning. You and others like you make me want to get my hands dirty more often and I've been working to get my boys involved as well.

Thanks again.

[austinado16]

Austinado - I love those reuse stories...
Thanks again.

Thanks man.  I have to admit, it is alot of fun.  It's certainly not for everyone though.

I love the challenge of the hunt, the challenge of the purchase, the challenge of the rescue, and then the reward of using using the item as if nothing had ever happened.  People are usually pretty shocked when they see our kitchen and that we are using real appliances from the 50's.  One of their first comments is that our utility bills must be really high.  Nope.  Our electric bill was $43 last month.  What most people don't understand is that these older appliance are so well made they're very energy efficient.  Our 1953 set of front loading washer and dryer by Westinghouse only use a few gallons of water.  Manufactures today rave about their energy saving machines....but it's 60 year old technology.  I paid $50 for our machines and less than $100 in parts to get them running again.

I've got a couple websites where you can see some of the stuff I play around with:
//www.austinamericausa.com
//www.dynafoil.com
//www.vintageseadoo.com

[waygard33]

I've got a couple websites where you can see some of the stuff I play around with:
//www.austinamericausa.com
//www.dynafoil.com
//www.vintageseadoo.com

Wow... you are one busy guy! I looked at your sites a bit. I see where the Austinado comes from. I will go back for more later.

Thanks again for posting and keep up the great work!

Wayne in Oregon

[austinado16]

First use with the new sides.  Worked out great.

Hauled home a 10'x20'x9.5' metal car port that probably weighed close to 1,000lbs.


And moving office furniture for my DW